Yahoo Sports Cleveland/Srixon/Xxio irons 2024: Which is right for your game?
Dunlop Sports may not be a name that most golfers are familiar with, but it is the parent company of household names in the equipment world — Cleveland Golf, Srixon and Xxio. Those brands make irons for elite players like Hideki Matsuyama, Shane Lowry and U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley. They also make game-improvement irons and clubs that are designed to help new golfers and high-handicap players enjoy the game more and hit good shots more consistently.
The best way to find the irons that are ideally suited to match your swing and your needs is to work with a good custom fitter who has access to a launch monitor so you can discover the ball speed, launch angle, spin rate and other important performance traits each iron produces when you swing it. However, the list of Cleveland, Srixon and Xxio irons below can give you a headstart on your search and help you understand who each club is designed for and how it performs.
Cleveland ZipCore XL
Price: $899.88 (7 clubs) with KBS Tour Lite steel shafts and Lamkin Crossline 360 grips; $999.99 with UST Mamiya Helium Nanocore 60 graphite shafts.Specs: Cavity-back designed stainless steel heads with stainless steel faces. Available 4-iron through sand wedge.
Who It’s For: Golfers with a handicap ranging from eight to 18 who want a traditional cavity-back iron designed to deliver more distance and consistency.
What you should know: A unique face design combined with a surface-roughening treatment that changes throughout the set helps the Cleveland ZipCore XL irons produce more ball speed and more spin consistency through the bag.
Excerpt: "To help golfers generate more ball speed and distance, engineers gave the ZipCore XL irons a MainFrame face. It is a series of channels that are milled into the inner-facing side of the face of the 4-iron through 7-iron. They allow the hitting area to flex more efficiently, while weight pads help to lower the center of gravity location and encourage higher-flying shots." Read the full review.
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Cleveland Halo XL Full Face
Price: $899.88 (7 clubs) with KBS Tour Lite steel shafts and Lamkin Crossline 360 grips; $999.99 with UST Mamiya Helium Nanocore 60 graphite shafts.Specs: Hollow-bodied stainless steel heads with stainless steel faces. Available 4-iron through sand wedge.
Who It’s For: High-handicap and moderate clubhead speed players who want an easy-to-hit iron loaded with forgiveness.
What you should know: These massive hollow-bodied irons have railed soles in the long irons, a low center of gravity and were designed to help high-handicap golfers get more distance, more height and more enjoyment on the course.
Excerpt: "The Halo XL Full Face irons are enormous, which should immediately give confidence to players who routinely shoot in the 90s and 100s. They are designed like small hybrids, so each club is hollow and made to allow the faces to flex easily at the moment of impact for increased ball speed. As the name implies, the entire hitting area is also covered by the groove pattern, which also features two white grooves on the bottom." Read the full review.
Xxio 13
Price: $219.99 each or $1,099 for a five-club set with Xxio MP-1300 shaft and Xxio 13 Weight gripSpecs: Super-TIX 51AF titanium face with SUS360 stainless steel body and tungsten-nickel toe weight. Available in 5-iron through sand wedge
Who It's For: Moderate and slow-swinging golfers who need help generating clubhead speed, height and distance.
What you should know: By using materials like titanium and tungsten, Xxio made the 13 irons larger and more forgiving, and their ultra-lightweight design should help players generate more clubhead speed and carry distance.
Excerpt: "While most irons have faces made from steel, the Xxio 13 iron faces are made using the same Super-TIX 51AF titanium found in the Xxio 13 driver. It is lighter yet extremely strong, so the faces can be made thinner. By using a lighter face and designing a small hollow area in the heel, Xxio designers could add an internal tungsten-nickel weight low in the toe area of each head. It drives down the center of gravity and counteracts the weight of the hosel, so the sweet spot is pulled it into the middle of the hitting area." Read the full review.
Srixon Z-Forged II
Price: $1,199.99 with Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips.Specs: Forged 1025 carbon with progressive grooves.
Who It’s For: Elite golfers who want tour-level feel and control in a compact, muscleback blade iron.
What you should know: The Srixon Z-Forged II irons are designed to maximize feel and control for elite golfers with powerful, repeatable swings.
Excerpt: "Forged from a single billet of 1020 carbon steel for a soft feel, the Z-Forged II irons have a compact blade length, thin topline and virtually no offset. They do, however, have PureFrame, Srixon’s new shaping feature that puts more mass directly behind the center of the hitting area, where a good player makes contact. While perimeter weighting and a cavity-back design can boost forgiveness for less-accomplished players, concentrating mass heightens feel and the sensations created at impact." Read the full review.
Srixon ZX7 Mk II
Price: $1,199.99 with Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour shafts or KBS Tour Lite steel shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips. $1,299.99 with UST Mamiya Recoil Dart graphite shafts.Specs: Forged 1025 carbon with progressive grooves.Who It’s For: Golfers who want tour-level maneuverability and feel in a compact, cavity-back iron.
What you should know: The ZX7 Mk II irons enhance the feel of impact for elite players with the addition of the PureFrame weighting system while still allowing golfers to shape the ball.
Excerpt: "To help players maintain speed through the hitting area, Srixon designed the ZX7 Mk II irons with its Tour V.T. sole. It creates a ridge that runs down the center of the sole from heel to toe, with the leading-edge side having extra bounce. The back half of the sole has less bounce but plenty of trailing-edge relief. There are also notches in the heel and toe areas that reduce the amount of surface area on the bottom of the club. All those features combine to help the ZX7 Mk II irons avoid digging and press through the ground more efficiently." Read the full review.
Srixon ZX4 Mk II
Price: $1,199.99 with Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour or KBS Tour Lite steel shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips. $1,299.99 with UST Mamiya Recoil Dart graphite shaftsSpecs: 1025 carbon steel body with SUP10 stainless steel face and progressive grooves. Hollow-body construction for the ZX4 Mk II.Who They’re For: Golfers with a mid to higher handicap who want more forgiveness and distance with the feel of a forged iron.
What you should know: The hollow ZX4 Mk II was designed to maximize ball speed and height for golfers who don’t want a set of miniature hybrids, while the ZX5 Mk II is a game-improvement iron created to deliver more yards with an enhanced feel.
Excerpt: "The ZX4 Mk II irons were designed with an updated Srixon technology called Mainframe that involves a series of grooved channels and cavities on the inner-facing side of the SUP10 stainless steel faces. By strategically supporting the face but allowing large areas to flex at impact, Mainframe helps golfers generate more ball speed and distance across a more significant portion of the hitting zone." Read the full review.
Srixon ZX5 Mk II
Price: $1,199.99 with Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour or KBS Tour Lite steel shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips. $1,299.99 with UST Mamiya Recoil Dart graphite shaftsSpecs: 1025 carbon steel body with SUP10 stainless steel face and progressive grooves. Hollow-body construction for the ZX4 Mk II.Who They’re For: Golfers who want more forgiveness and distance with some game-enhancing features for mid-handicap golfers.
What you should know: The hollow ZX4 Mk II was designed to maximize ball speed and height for golfers who don’t want a set of miniature hybrids, while the ZX5 Mk II is a game-improvement iron created to deliver more yards with an enhanced feel.
Excerpt: "The ZX5 Mk II should allow golfers to work the ball from side to side, but with its classic cavity-back construction and perimeter weighting the ZX5 Mk II will have more forgiveness than Srixon’s new ZX7 Mk II." Read the full review.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Cleveland/Srixon/Xxio irons 2024: Which is right for your game?
