If you’re looking to add a new club to the bag that’s reliable off the tee and offers plenty of distance, a driving iron might be just the club you need. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite models available to help you find the best driving iron to help improve your game. We’re also going to take a look at why the driving iron has become one of the most popular irons in the golf bag of late.
The Best Driving Irons
What makes the best driving iron? Our guide further down the page reveals the answers, but in the meantime, our selection of the best driving iron should give you an idea of what’s out there. We’ve chosen some fine driving irons from some well-known brands, reassuring you that there are great-performing models to choose from. Most are available in either right- or left-handed orientations, too.
While your budget is an important factor here, weigh up the quality of each club with the price. Getting a delicate balance between the two could well be the best option for most players.
Here’s a list of the 5 best driving irons available.
Taylormade GAPR MID Golf Club
This fine-looking TaylorMade club has a stiff flex and a graphite shaft to combine those good looks with real power and precision. The 3, 18-degree option has been designed to offer a medium-high trajectory, allowing you to achieve the best possible distance with each shot.
The head provides a thinner face than you might expect. This is possible via technological advances allowing speed foam to be injected into it for a faster face. The club feels good to handle and is easy to use for great results out on the fairway. This foam can be found in all GAPR clubs from TaylorMade.
The driving iron has also been designed to sit neatly between the longest iron in your collection and the shortest wood for use on the fairway. As such, it offers supreme performance for all golfers. The low center of gravity also makes it easy and appealing to use.
Cobra King Utility Iron Black 2i3i
The sleek look of this utility iron from Cobra is just the start of what it can offer you. It benefits from Cobra’s PowerShell Face Technology, offering a thinner L-cup face and hollow body design. Combined with the sole structure, the club produces the largest ‘sweet zone’ yet for a Cobra driving iron. This means you’ll enjoy greater speed and be able to send the ball further than before.
The design also ensures each ball is launched higher than you’d think yet travels with less spin on it and flies further for the best performance on every shot. The driving iron is also comfortable to hold and offers a flatter face for easier handling.
Perhaps the finest feature of the Cobra King utility iron is its adjustability. The MyFly 8 technology provides you with eight loft settings to choose from, ranging from 18.0 up to 20.5 draw.
TaylorMade P790 UDI Iron
If you’re looking for something from the TaylorMade range of clubs, consider this UDI individual iron, engineered to ensure a fine performance every time. It uses a tungsten head with a graphite shaft, a combination carefully chosen to produce the results you desire.
It has a stiff flex and produces a loft of 17 degrees. As with our other TaylorMade driving iron in this selection, the head is filled with SpeedFoam. This produces a light and easy to handle iron with an ultra-thin face measuring just 1.75mm. The design has been put together with the assistance of feedback from Tour experts. It promises to deliver greater accuracy with every shot, not to mention the power to drive the ball over a greater distance. Stay on the fairway more often and get closer to your target with the P790 UDI, combining great looks with even better performance.
Mizuno MP-18 MMC Fli Hi Iron
This Fli-Hi iron aims to live up to its name as Mizuno pours its knowledge into this stiff-flexed driving iron. This 5-iron club has a steel shaft and features many of the fine details you’d associate with a Mizuno iron.
The club is designed to replace a regular long iron, offering a hollow body for an easy to manage performance. The weighting has been further optimized throughout the club to achieve a low center of gravity. This ensures the ball flies higher on launch for longer distances every time. While the shaft is stiff, it is light and tapers gradually along the length.
The iron is finished in satin nickel, meaning there is no glare on the club on a sunny day. This may seem a small detail, but it proves to be the icing on the cake of a great driving iron.
Srixon Z U85 Utility Club
This smart-looking utility club from Srixon is a smart and intelligently designed club to have in your bag. A forged construction design gives you a hollow club offering greater control over your shot. The 1020 carbon steel used in construction sets itself apart from the SUP10 face of the club, engineered for greater strength.
The 3-iron club offers a 20-degree loft, and there are two other sizes (4 iron and five iron, offering 23-degree and 26-degree lofts respectively) in the same range. You can also choose from a regular or stiff flex according to your preferences.
The aim of the Srixon Z U85 utility club is to provide the player with greater forgiveness over every shot, from the tee and off the ground. Hit higher and further and enjoy the confidence this club is designed to give you.
Driving Iron Guide
When it comes to choosing the best golf club for each shot, picking up your putter for the final shot (hopefully) on the green is the easiest bit. Finding the right clubs to help you get to the green to start with is, well… a little harder.
The idea is to stay on the fairway, keep out of the rough, and to get your ball to fly as long and as true as possible. Ah, it sounds so easy, doesn’t it? While skill and experience do count for a lot, the club you use is also going to help. This is also where beginners and intermediate players can get flummoxed over the number of clubs to choose from. Irons are typically numbered up to 9, but before you get to the long irons numbered from 2 to 4, you may want to consider using a driving iron.
This club is popular among golfers because those in the know understand it provides them with greater accuracy out on the course. The better the driving iron, the more chance there is you’ll land more balls on the fairway and get them closer to the hole too.
Why are driving irons so popular?
So why are driving irons so popular? We highlighted the numbering system used when identifying different irons. The rule of thumb is the higher the number on the club, the more loft that club is going to give you. This means a 9-iron will take the ball much higher and therefore won’t send it as far as a 2-iron played with the same strength (assuming all else is equal). The 2-iron keeps the ball closer to the ground and sends it further down the course.
The driving iron is also a great club to use on windy days when the weather isn’t being kind to you. The higher your ball goes, the more likely it is to be affected by the wind. Even if you hit the perfect shot off the tee, a squally and stiff breeze could come in and take it off course if the ball is too high in the air. You want to keep it lower to the ground to keep it out of the breeze, yet still cover as much distance as possible. That said, many players prefer using a driving iron once they’ve taken their first shot. It is a matter of preference though.
That’s why lots of players like using driving irons. The driving iron is the workhorse of your set of golf clubs. Once you get the hang of them, you’ll be likely to draw them out of your bag more often. If you’re struggling to get along with woods or even hybrid clubs, the driving iron could be your savior.
What should you look for when buying a driving iron?
There are various elements to note when comparing different irons. We’ve covered the main ones here. It’s the combination of them that should help you find the best driving iron to help improve your game.
How long is the shaft?
Shafts vary in length, so it is important to find one that feels comfortable for you. A longer shaft should lead to greater shot speed. However, what you make up in speed you could lose in accuracy. You need to find the right length that balances out these two elements for you. The better you are, the less important shaft length is, as you’ll be able to exert greater control over the clubhead anyway. If you have never used a driving iron before, a shorter one is likely to be preferable.
How heavy is the club?
Some golfers prefer lighter or heavier clubs. It’s probably best to stick with what you’re used to, settling somewhere in the middle of the range. The range goes from around 70g for a shaft up to 110g. Sitting neatly in the middle of those gives you more options if you decide to change in the future.
With weight comes variations in the materials used for the shaft. Irons are called that because many are made from iron. However, modern clubs are also made from steel or graphite.
How far does it send the ball?
The answer to this does depend on the person holding the club, of course. However, every driving iron should have been tested prior to sale. This is a scenario where you need to trust the information given on the packaging. They’re going to tell you the best results for that driving iron. The good news is the same applies to every driving iron you read about. So, you’re comparing the best-case scenario for each one when calculating how far the driving iron could help you send the ball.
We know that a driving iron is designed to keep the ball low and send it further than other irons in your bag. However, they do still all differ from each other. So, you might argue a greater degree of comparison is required when selecting the best driving iron than might be the case with other clubs.
It’s also worth mentioning distance isn’t only achieved in the air. You also want to know how far the driving iron is going to send the ball when it makes first contact with the ground. You don’t want it to stop dead. The further it goes, the better.
How much do you want to spend?
Ah, yes, budget. Much like anything else you might buy – golf-related or otherwise – you can expect a correlation between quality and price. It’s not necessary to buy the most expensive driving iron on the market, but you should get the best you can afford.
You should take all reviews with a pinch of salt, generous or otherwise. However, if a driving iron has lots of reviews you can usually get a feel for its quality by reading a selection of them. If there are plenty of positive reviews, you can take that as a good thing. If there are lots of negatives, you can read something into those as well.
Conclusion
Understanding the technology behind modern golf driving irons certainly helps you make the best choice of club to use. Many major brands are developing new ideas and producing clubs that replace many of the harder-to-use irons. If you want to hit further and more accurately than ever before, the humble driving iron could be the best club you could add to your bag.
This is a purchase to take your time over, once you have read and absorbed the information that we have given you above. When you’ve done that, you’ll have a good idea of which brand and model is right for you.