The 8 Best Irons for Beginners & Features to Look For

Beginning golfers often ask me what kind of equipment they should buy. I almost always recommend clubs that don’t cost too much. When it comes to finding the best irons for beginning golfers, I stand by that advice.

Value is an important part of the equation for most beginners, but we also want to select clubs that are easy to hit, which can be encouraging to players who are just starting to play. By easy to hit, we mean irons that offer plenty of forgiveness (meaning they go a similar distance whether you hit the sweet spot or miss on the toe or heel of the face), launch high, and produce plenty of distance.

What follows is a diverse selection of eight different iron sets that are good for beginners. I saved the more expensive options for the end, and I even included a couple of choices that are basically a bag full of hybrids, which are very forgiving.

Pros: 

• Terrific looking clubs
• Very forgiving
• Great value

Cons:

• Some beginners may need a little more help than these offer

First off, these Finnish-designed minimalist clubs are gorgeous irons that look great in the bag. Secondly, the Takomo 101s are a great value at under $500 for a set of seven irons, 4-Pitching Wedge. 

If you’re a beginner golfer, I always recommend spending less rather than more, especially if the quality is there. There’s a lot to love in these irons, starting with the hollow-body design that’s so popular in many of the players' distance irons. They feature perimeter weighting and a low center of gravity, so you can get the ball up in the air pretty easily. The wide design allows you to hit reasonable shots all over the clubface. They feel amazing and go plenty far. 

Another great reason beginners should consider these irons is that honestly, they’re great for intermediate players and even single-digit players just looking to make the game easier. That means even if you improve rapidly, these irons can fit your game for years to come.

Pros: 

• Very long
• Easy to launch
• Progressive design through set

Cons:

• A bit clumsy looking

The Cleveland Launcher XL Halo irons look a little more like hybrids than irons, but they are extremely easy to hit. They’re very long, too. I sampled these a few years ago, and I couldn’t believe how the ball jumped off the face.

These clubs also feature what Cleveland calls a “Rail to V-shaped sole design,” meaning that the “Gliderail” in the long irons gradually transitions to a V-shaped sole in the short irons. That prevents the shorter irons and wedge from ballooning, while the longer and mid-irons are fairly easy to launch. It’s a little harder to work the ball with these clubs, but beginners are just trying to hit fairly straight shots anyway, and these Halo irons are designed for that purpose.

Pros: 

• Hybrid design
• Very forgiving
• Good value

Cons:

• Nontraditional look won’t appeal to every beginner

Again, here’s another set of irons that are basically hybrids. They have wide soles and a lot of mass behind the clubface, so if you have a sweeping motion where you come in behind the ball a little, these clubs are very forgiving.

In the case of the Cobra T-Rails, there’s the added bonus of the Baffler Rails, a signature feature in Cobra’s history. They help the club glide through the turf instead of digging in, which again, makes these easy to hit. They come with a Cobra Ultralite shaft, too, to promote faster swing speeds. While these are a great choice for beginners, I sometimes wonder how most of us would do with these in our bag. Probably pretty well.

Pros: 

• Very forgiving
• Nice feel
• Great value

Cons:

• Not exactly sophisticated-looking

For anyone taking up the game, Tour Edge is a good brand to check out. While the company’s Exotics line played by PGA Tour Champions players can be pricey, Tour Edge has some other high-performing clubs that are really good values. The Hot Launch C524 irons, at just a little over $550 for a set of 8, is one of those great values.

They are a good choice for beginners by design. The ball jumps off the clubface of these traditional cavity backs with its VIBRCOR technology, which is a high-grade TPU strategically placed in the deep under-pocket to increase ball speed and feel, dampening shock. The perimeter weighting creates a lot of forgiveness for off-center hits, and the wide sole means slightly heavy shots will still go. 

Pros: 

• High launch
• Good distance
• Sleek look

Cons:

• Might be a little more expensive than some beginners want to pay ($1,050 for 7 clubs)

Mizuno, especially with its irons, has long been known for making clubs for serious players. That’s still true, but in more recent years, it seems, the Japanese golf club manufacturer has been putting more effort into game improvement clubs that perform, but still look pretty good.

Such is the case with the Mizuno JPX925 HL irons. If you’re a beginner who’s committed to getting better, these might be a great choice. They look pretty good, but more than that, they combine the power and speed of Nickel Chromoly with a new CORTECH Design featuring a Contour Ellipse face. Translation? You get consistency whether you hit the toe or heel of the iron, or find the sweet spot.

Plus, this HL version of the JPX925 has tungsten weighting low in the head and more loft than many other irons in the beginner and game improvement categories, to get more distance. In this case, the combination is perfect for slower swing speeds to get the ball airborne quicker and longer. 

Pros: 

• Aesthetically pleasing
• Very long
• Super solid construction

Cons:

• Stronger lofts won’t appeal to all

Like Mizuno, I’ve always viewed Ping as serious equipment for avid golfers. You don’t start playing golf, then buy Pings and decide to dabble in the game. With that said, the Ping G730s are the Phoenix-based company’s most forgiving iron, which is exactly what a beginner needs. They are also designed to go far, so for any beginner who needs a little more distance, this is a great choice. But they do have stronger lofts, so you need to have some clubhead speed to get everything out of these irons.

These irons are made of a hyper 17-4 stainless steel with an advanced heat treatment to increase flex, plus they have a low center of gravity, which helps offset the stronger lofts and get the ball up quickly. Like the Mizunos, you can expect to pay around a grand for a set, so any beginner who buys these should be committed to sticking with the game for a while.

Pros: 

• Easy to launch
• Wide sole is very forgiving
• Long

Cons:

• Expensive

The T400 is by far Titleist’s most forgiving iron with its wide profile, Split Sole design and up to 100g of tungsten in each head to create a low center of gravity. That means it’s really easy to get the ball airborne with lots of spin and height. So even if you have a slower clubhead speed, you’ll get good carry distance with these irons.

They also have a super-thin forged face in the mid-irons, which creates quite a bit of ball speed, which is again an aid to hit the ball farther. It’s also a progressive set with different blade widths, sole sizes, and hosel lengths. These are really great clubs, but you’ll pay a premium for them at $188 per iron.