Gear: TaylorMade P•7MC, P•7MB irons
Price: $1,299 with KBS Tour steel shafts and Golf Pride Z-Grip 360 grips
Specs: Forged 8620 carbon steel
Available: January 20, 2023
Who It’s For: Elite ballstrikers who want to maximize feel and control.
The Skinny: TaylorMade’s tour-inspired muscleback blade and cavity-back irons have been updated using a new forging process and feedback from golfers like Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa.
The Deep Dive: Like most golf equipment makers, TaylorMade’s game-improvement irons, like the Stealth, and better-distance irons, like the P•790, are its biggest sellers, but the irons that golfers seem to covet the most are muscleback blades and cavity-back designs made for tour pros like McIlroy and Morikawa. No brand sells many clubs like those, but they are high-profile creations and demonstrate what designers can do for the most discerning golfers, so they are essential.
For 2023 TaylorMade has updated its flagship irons for accomplished golfers, the P•7MB and the P•7MC. They have been subtly refined because the feedback from elite players who use them has been positive for two years, but thanks to a new forging process, TaylorMade claims they will provide a better feel.
Construction
The 2023 versions of both clubs are forged from 8620 carbon steel in a process TaylorMade calls Compact Grain Forging. Starting as steel rods, each iron is pressed five times using 2,000 tons of pressure, which TaylorMade claims is up to three times the industry standard for forging. The result is the steel grains are packed most tightly together, so the feel created at impact is amplified while defects are reduced.
After the forging process, the grooves are machined in the hitting area to ensure the radius and depth are precisely controlled.
P•7MB — Maximum feel and control
Competed to the previous version, the 2023 P•7MB has a slightly shorter blade length and narrower sole, but the bounce behind the leading edge has been increased to help the clubs get through the turf more efficiently. There is minimal offset and the back bar, where extra mass is concentrated, is now symmetrical.
2023 P-7MB irons - $1,299P•7MC — A touch of forgiveness
The updated P•7MC retains a small amount of perimeter weighting (MC stands for muscle cavity) to give the clubs slightly more forgiveness and stability than the P•7MB. Like its muscleback sibling, the P•7MC has a narrow topline and minimal offset, but it has a slightly longer blade length.
While the clubs are sold in sets, blended sets with P•7MC long irons and P•7MB short irons are available via custom order.
2023 P-7MC irons - $1,299