By Ram Menon
Eldrick Tont Woods is back. He is roaring again. This morning, when the world woke up and opened its newspaper, there was one news item common in every part of the globe. Tiger Woods had won his 15th major championship.
Tiger is now only three back of Jack Nicklaus in the overall tally of majors and I feel with the PGA Championship coming up at Bethpage Black in May and then the US Open at Pebble Beach in June and later the Open there is every chance to agree with the Golden Bear when he recently said he was shaking in his boots. Some say Tiger has the best chance at Pebble Beach but we will watch and see how it unfolds.
Recently, TaylorMade released a limited edition of Tiger Woods spec irons, the P-7 TW for anyone lucky enough to buy them. This is a truly great moment for Tiger Woods fans. The opportunity to hold them, play with, if that is possible, or to look at them in your drawing room or secret safe is now entirely possible.
The real thing
Now is the chance to see and feel for real the irons which arguably the greatest golfer in our lifetime used to win at this Masters. As one can expect these irons are muscle backs in the purest sense. You have to be amongst the very best iron players to use these if you were ever inclined to.
You may be aware the 15-time major champion had started his amateur days with the Mizuno MP -29 (2-4) and MP-14 (5-PW) irons, winning his third consecutive US Amateur title in 1996. From about 2000 to 2002 Tiger used Titleist 618 T irons which look remarkably similar to the present day 718 MBs which I personally think are the most beautiful irons available today.
With these he won the US Open, the Open and the USPGA Championship in 2000. In 2002 he shifted to Nike irons and used Nike Forged blades at the 2002 USPGA championship. In 2009 Tiger changed to Nike VR Pro blades and even in 2016 when he switched to the TaylorMade M2 driver the Nike blades remained in his bag.
Similar look
One curious fact is that no matter which company’s irons Tiger uses, they more or less look the same. After signing with TaylorMade in January 2017 and while recovering from injury,, he was spotted using TGR stamped prototype irons for the first time in an exhibition in October 2017 at Monterey Peninsula Country Club for his foundation in California.
TaylorMade announced that it would be co-creating a new set of irons with Tiger to match his exact specifications and these TGR protypes appeared to be on those lines. In 2018 at the Wells Fargo championship he was seen for the first time with the TW-Phase 1 blades. These were the first result of the co-created irons by TaylorMade.
It was on debut at Torrey Pines for the Tour Championship in September 2018 that Tiger was first seen with the P-7TW irons. These are outwardly similar to the P730 irons but are uniquely made for Tiger Woods. For the first time these are available in limited numbers to the general public.
Muscle-backs
The TaylorMade P 730 along with the Titleist 718 MB, the Mizuno MP-18 and the Callaway Apex MB are the best muscle-backs available now and these are all meant for elite player who prefers a thin top line at address, minimal offset and provide for higher swing speeds with consistency. These are also for those players who like to shape their shots with ease.
Coming back to the P-7 TW irons let us try to find out about what makes them so special. First, its milled grind. It has a tungsten insert just behind the sweet spot and the retail P7s have almost the same launch angle, spin rates and CG as the ones Tiger uses.
As per Tiger with these inserts his ball flight became much more penetrating and gave him a deeper feel. For a player who relies more on his hands and feel it is extremely important. Tiger is also very particular about the soles of his irons and being milled grind means he can get the exact sole geometry in his clubs.
Since the whole process is done by a CNC machine which is completely computer controlled, Tiger, who changes his irons about two times a year can have the exact clubs he wants every time. According to TaylorMade engineers, they had a problem matching Tigers requirements because he is so precise and involved many prototypes till he was satisfied.
Precision work
Initially Tiger found that he was hitting the ball too far with his new irons. The engineers had to rework the clubs to get the exact yardages Tiger was used to. Between the TW Phase 1 and TW P-7, TaylorMade engineers took almost two years and went through nine different editions before they could satisfy Tiger with the P 7s.
The irons are forged from 1025 carbon steel. Compared to the P 730, the P 7s are slightly longer from heel to toe and as you go to the shorter irons they get longer. They also have a shorter face height in the long irons and a taller face height in the short irons. Also peculiar to him, the 4,5 and 6 irons have similar offsets and so do the 7,8 and 9 irons.
Weaker lofts
The P-7s have weak lofts compared to modern irons. For example the traditional loft for a 7 iron would be 33 degrees whereas in the TWs these are at 35 . Compare this to a Callaway Rogue 7 iron at 30 deg loft and it gives you an idea. So these irons are more like a surgeon’s scalpel where yardages are meant to be super precise and not meant for creating distance artificially.
Also when you have an average swing speed of 122 mph like Tiger, distance is never a problem. They also have more grooves which are much higher than normal and as per how Tiger wanted it. These create much more spin.
The retail P-7 irons come with standard Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S 400, however please note that Tiger uses X100 shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord grips. TaylorMade offers upgrade options if anyone wants them. Either way, one gets to play with almost the same set of irons which Tiger uses and the majority of buyers would just feel special holding a set of irons which arguably the greatest player the game has ever seen uses.
Price at Retail: $1,999 with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips
Happy Golfing
(About the author: Ram Menon is a retired Lt Colonel from the Indian Army. An avid golfer he writes on various subjects. His book of Poetry The Monks of Dagana and a Few Other Poems is available on Kindle in India and as a paperback in USA and Europe through Amazon.com. He works as the Regional Business Manager, North India for a MNC).
Also read: Seventy, and all’s well with Tiger at Augusta National
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