Difference in expensive/cheap irons

[alomar123]

What is the difference in cheap/expensive irons?Is there really a big difference and if so what is it cause they all have the same angle degree and are made of the same material and their shapes are the same so whats the difference?

[MI Rob]

Workability, forged or not, what the stock shaft is. The company will set the price they believe you should pay for them. "You get what you pay for".

[prutkows]

loft, lie, head type (oversized heads, player cavities, blades), shaft stiffness/weight, overall build quality, grooves, feel.. lots of differences.

[ryohazuki222]

Build Quality

The difference in build quality is easily noticable to all but the least discerning of eyes between my TaylorMade Tour Preferred irons and my first set of Slazenger Wrath irons.

Just keep in mind.... price doesn't necessarily decide quality. Right now you can find Nike CCi forged irons for $300 brand new. The quality is still comparable to all the other $1000 iron sets.

All the heads seem to be pretty good quality of the 'expensive' brands of irons. but when it comes to shafts and grips.... sometimes you get gipped from one model to the next.

[Golfaway]

The very first irons I started with, the FOXBAT oval head irons were very hard to hit. It was obvious they were crap. The heads caught rust really quickly (I could see places where there was no rust before but caught rust after some time), the shafts were really very very heavy and the grooves were not that well cut.

I couldn't notice that much difference in playability when I switched to Callaway X-14s, but then one day I tried playing with the FOXBATs again, and wow, I could notice a world of difference. I guess you feel the difference more when you go down a step than when you go up a step.

Those FOXBATs where a killer. Nobody could hit them easily, even the pros at my club found them really annoying and difficult to hit. I still have them though, nobody would want to buy them.

[leo3]

Golf clubs are like cars, a Kia and a Lexus both have engines and 4 tires, but there is a large difference in the quality of materiels, and the precision with which they are built. I'm not degrading Kias, just pointing out differences caused by price points. The same holds true with a $199 box set of clubs, and a top line set, like Callaways or Mizunos, and a difference again between those and a custom set, like Honmas or Scratch. You get what you pay for, and there is a market for all levels, of clubs and cars.

[Beretta_Shooter]

One must have a clear understanding of the difference between "cheap" and inexpensive. Cheap clubs will almost always suck since they most likely are made with infererior materiels in a factory with poor QC.

Inexpensive clubs may cost less not because they are of poor quality, but for the fact that the companies that make them do not have the same cost structure that the larger golf companies have. I recently made a complete set of Maltby MTF's for less than $300. The heads are made in the same factory that makes equipment for branded golf companies. I have 5 sets of sticks in my garage from Mizuno, Wilson and Titleist. The Maltbys are my fav.

Just remember that every time you purchase a set of Nike or Titleists a large portion of the cost pays down their huge marketing expenses. Maltby and Snakeyes for example have almost zero marketing costs and sell directly to the consumer.