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What’s new? How much do they cost? And how do they perform? Jack Backhouse brings you the low down on Takomo’s new 301 MB Irons
How do Takomo’s new traditional muscle-back blade irons perform? Find out in our Takomo 301 MB irons review.
Takomo 301MB irons review: NCG Summary
NCG SUMMARY
These irons are a proper set of blades. They have a small enough profile to strike fear into your playing partners but offer enough forgiveness on slight miss hits not to be impossible to use. These irons come with serious bag appeal, and club golfers will not be able to walk past without having a look.These irons are perfect for good ball strikers looking to upgrade their irons without breaking the bank. These irons feel and look fantastic, so iron purists will not be disappointed.
Taking the wrapper off these irons was a fairly exciting experience. I love blade irons, and having a shiny new set glisten in my bag makes me want to drive to a links course and beat balls from sand-based turf for days on end.
I love the clean, simple design of these irons; they have a thin sole and minimal offset, which gives you a real player’s feel. The top line, however, isn’t super thin, so at address, you do feel like you’ve got a chance of hitting some good shots.
NCG Verdict
The blade iron should be the easiest, but I think can be the most difficult iron to design and release from manufacturers. There’s not a great deal of technology that can be included to make them loads better than another blade, but there’s also a whole cohort of golf traditionalists who are looking to discredit your irons as not ‘pure’ enough.
I can attest that these irons are, in fact, the real deal.
If we can first get the only possible downside about these irons out of the way, I will then get into the good stuff about why I love these irons. Blades are not for everyone. Most players will get better performance out of a cavity back iron and shouldn’t consider using blades. The Takomo 301 MB irons fall into this category and will not suit everyone.
Now that we have that out of the way let’s get into the good stuff. These irons are forged from 620C steel, which provides a really soft contact feel. When you use a blade, your primary concern is control, so you don’t want a strike that feels at all fiery from the face.
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The Takomo 301 MB irons have fairly traditional lofts compared to many current irons. 34 degrees on a seven iron would be considered fairly weak, but they are not short by any standard. You don’t buy blades looking for more distance, but you do want good distance control.
In the test, I found the yardage to be fairly reliable. I don’t want any surprises from a good strike and generally want a misstrike to drop short of that. The front-to-back dispersion with the 9 and 5-iron was pretty good, and with the 7-iron, I had a few miss-hits which is why the distance drops off slightly.
I found controlling the flight in terms of trajectory and shot shape really easy with the Takomo 301 MB irons. I love hitting it higher and lower and attempting to work shots into different flag positions on the green. This isn’t always the most sensible approach to golf, but it makes it loads of fun, and the Takomo’s amplify this.
I’ve had the Takomo 301 MB irons in the bag for two months now, and I absolutely love them. I used a half set for a few rounds in the depths of winter to keep the bag light and loved the shot-making capabilities of them.
These irons are excellent for any golfer in any condition, and they have travelled to some exciting venues with me. I took them to Sawgrass to play both the Stadium and Dye’s Valley course. I drove them over to Hillside for a game on the links and even had the game of my life at my home club Sand Moor and shot 62!
Something else that works well with these irons is how well you can make a combo set with them with Takomo’s 301 CB iron. Not everyone wants to look down at a blade 4 and 5-iron, so having the added help and forgiveness from the CB is a brilliant option.
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These are now my regular gamers and will likely be so for the end of the year.
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