Game Changer Or Overpriced? McLaren Series 3 Iron Review

right in case you've missed all the sneaky social media teasers like these

mclaren are now in the golf space that's right mclaren famous for things like this

this and this are now fully entering the golf club equipment manufacturing space so as an

equipment tester i have been b with excitement about this release we've got some

of the best R&D departments. We've got some of the best tech people. We've got knowledge coming out

of every orifice here. So I was really excited to see what they are going to come up with. So I've

got my grubby little mitts on their first release, the Series 3 irons. So let's take a look and see

what they're all about. But before we get into the review itself in terms of hitting these and

giving you all the feedback there, I just want to start on a slightly disappointed note. I've been

looking forward to this launch for so long, as I said, as a tester. And I was hoping for, and this

is through no fault with McLarens. They've not promised anything, but what I was expecting was a

full product range. 14 clubs, driver all the way down to putters. That's what I had in my head. And

what we've got, although that's coming, I'm sure that is coming from McLaren. What we've got for

now is just an iron release, but we haven't even got a full iron release. What we've got is the

Series 3 irons I've got here, which are a game improvement iron. And we've got a Series 1 iron

which is more of a muscle back blade. And that's been designed in collaboration with Justin Rose

Ian Poulter, Michelle Wee West, pros really know what they're doing, know what they're talking about

so it's very much a better player iron but we haven't got a series two so the iron that bridges

the gap between the game improver and the blade doesn't exist yet and furthermore the series one

I haven't been given to test that's going to be on its way McLaren are saying they're trying to

stagger the release to to kind of maintain the interest and maintain the intrigue so

for this massive launch that I've been all excited about for all intents and purposes what I've got

is one game improvement iron. Now just to address the elephant in the room here that I'm sure you're

all probably wondering, the price tag of these irons is £360 or $375 per iron. So we're looking

at around £2,600 for a seven iron set. Now to put that into context, that's more expensive than

the Cobra 3DP range than most sets of Muras. Just let all that sink in for a minute

so on to the tech story now this is the bit where McLaren for me were going to claw back all these

brownie points and create some never before seen technology that was going to absolutely blow my

mind so what is that technology well there kind of isn't any of that never before seen stuff what

we've got the main tech stories are metal injection moldings it's not forged it's not cast

but that's been done before by companies like Callaway Cobra and irons and wedges we've got

We got this structural mesh in the back here which has been designed to save weight So you can redistribute that around the club head to optimise CG and MOI and all those good things But we kind of seen that very recently in the Cobra 3DP line

We've also got a lot of tungsten behind strike here, which, for those of you who know your golf clubs will know the Callaway Apex range, for example

That's been a mainstay of the tech in the Apex range for some time. Finally, we've got tungsten in the toe section

And again, I won't bore you, but there's numerous irons that utilise that technology

within their setup to increase that MOI. So it leaves me thinking, you know, what's the point

As I said, we're coming into this space with all of the best tech people

aerodynamics, wind tunnels, whatever you can imagine, I would think at McLaren

So I was expecting to see something incredibly new, but essentially from a tech point of view, at least

what we've got is amalgamation of other technologies we've already seen. So I'll be really interested to see how they perform

Right, so performance. Now, truth be told, this isn't my first look, this isn't my first session

I didn't want to make this video without feeling like I had a good grasp of what these irons were

So I think I've already kind of formulated my opinion. So what we've got, as I said in the

intro, is essentially, it's game improvement. This iron is designed to help you. It's designed to put

maximum MOI, increase the hitting area, help you get the ball up in the air. It's everything you

expect from a game improvement iron and quite frankly it does a really good job. Now I'm going

to get on to some more positive stuff now because the feel off the club face is very very good. It's

really premium, it's very soft and you can't always say that in the game improvement market

Sometimes you get those kind of clicky irons, sort of really hollow feeling irons but

while I said the sort of metal injection molding process has been done

what it has done here is created a real refinement to strike a real depth of strike the ball feels

like it's on the club face for a long time and it's a nice muted hit it's not kind of that brash

strike you often get in the game improvement market so from a feel point of view that's really

good the other thing and you can probably see it here I'll get that zoomed in in a little while the

turf interaction is really good so the heel cut sole that they've gone with is helping the club

slip through nicely enters the turf really easily but more importantly exits the turf really easily

so from the sort of unquantifiable standpoint of feel and turf interaction and all that kind of

stuff it's really very good so in terms of specifications we've got they're not the strongest

game improvement irons you'll see quite often we see things like 28 29 degrees seven irons they've

gone a bit more modest in lofting here with a series three so this seven iron comes in at 31

degrees so it's kind of equivalent to a tailor-made p790 a srixon zx i5 and interesting that it is

very similar in loft to that srixon zx i5 because when i was comparing my average numbers with some other models to see kind of give you a decent comp of what these ions are

the best I could come up with was a Srixon ZX-i5. The numbers were almost identical in terms of

launch, carry, spin and consistency of spin which is really key which I'll pop that up on there as

well because the standard deviation is really tight so from a performance point of view these

actually stack up really nicely. They're not going to blow your mind with explosive distance

but they are going to give you a good level of forgiveness and they're going to give you a much more refined strike than you might be used to in this game improvement department

Right, sorry twins, I hope you're enjoying this video and learning all about these McLaren irons

but if you are enjoying the video, please hit the like button, subscribe to the channel for more of

these videos. It really helps us out and let's know what you think about them in the comments down below. Right, so let's get on to the looks. Now, I've deliberately left this one till last

because I think this is going to be a very Marmite sort of a topic

And I wanted to give you lots of B-roll, lots of shots throughout the video so you could begin to get your kind of impressions before I gave you mine

Now, we all know these look sections are so subjective. What one man or one woman thinks looks gorgeous, the other one will think looks terrible

Now, this has never been demonstrated better than between myself and Dan behind the camera there

Dan pulled them out straight away and said, oh, smart looking eye on these. sadly for me I'm a little bit on the other end of the bandwagon I think McLaren had an opportunity

here to create something really sleek refined and minimal what's come out in my opinion is just a

little bit busy and brash we've got an awful lot going on with the look of the heads here so we've

got the the structural mesh as I've spoken about already we've got the to me orange McLaren logo

there, the tungsten weighting, the carbon. There's quite a lot going on. Now, a lot of you will be

screaming, well, that's McLaren. McLaren is bold and brash. Look at the cars. Look at the tech

that's going on in there. They wanted to show that off, and I get that. I totally get it

It's just not my cup of tea, and that's why it's always subjective. The other thing I don't love

but again, some people probably will, is the numbering. We've got this kind of digital alarm

clock style numbering. Now, for me, that doesn't belong on a golf club. It doesn't look great. For

some of you out there, you're probably looking at that and thinking, brilliant, that gives me all of

the technical connotations and thoughts that I want to see. That might be exactly what you want

to see. It just doesn't do it for me. And then in behind the ball, well, that's again, kind of a

mixed section for me. There's some really good points and there's some stuff that I would definitely

change. The longer irons, I think, look really good. There's plenty of blade length. There's

plenty of substance behind the ball, and the shaping's okay at the top end of the bag

As you go down to the mid and short irons, again, just for me, this is all subjective

They have the appearance of being a bit more upright than they actually are, and what I mean by that

is the heel comes in quite low in terms of the shaping and the toe is very very high So when you looking down on the golf ball it feels like the club pretty much tilted back at you so it gives the appearance

of more upright than it actually is and i think that's a look that might put a few people off but

it's also a look that some people might absolutely love so again a little bit marmite for me in this

whole aesthetics of this release so i think you can probably tell from the tone of what i've gone

through there, I'm not quite all in on this first iron release from McLaren. There's plenty of good

stuff to talk about. The performance was reassuringly solid, but I would expect that. It was a really

nice depth of strike, refined, soft. The turf interaction was great, and the numbers were good

and very, very consistent. But on the negative side of things, for me, and again for me, this is

all personal, the looks just didn't quite do it for me. Just a little bit too brash and out there

for me. The lack of innovation was a little bit disappointing to me. Now, McLaren might argue with

that, but I think a lot of this technology I've seen before, and obviously the price tag is going

to be quite prohibitive for some. I was hoping for a full all-encompassing range. We haven't

quite got that yet. I just need to be patient again. That's not McLaren's fault, but what I

think we potentially have got maybe from this first iron release is a bit more of a status purchase

than I was hoping for. I was hoping that this set of irons will be backed up by some really good

high-end technology that I'd not seen before that would give me a reason to go out and spend an

awful lot of money on a set of clubs. But what I think we might have ended up with is something

we've kind of seen before where these could end up just as a bit of a status purchase for your

players that maybe own a McLaren or fans of the Formula One brand that are willing to pay

over the odds for a product just to be associated with that brand. But in my eyes, in this game

improvement department which is a very competitive iron sector there's a number of irons that I would

play that cost around half the price that would give you very similar performance but in fairness

that is literally McLaren's first ever release into the golf space and it is far from bad and I

can tell you I'm very very much looking forward to getting my hands on the series one irons I'll

pop those up on the screen for you now they look a lot better they look a lot more refined they're

a bit more in my wheelhouse as kind of a better player iron as well and the likes of Justin Rose

Ian Poulter, Michelle Wee West, they've had their hands on that product and they've had their input

so I've got really high hopes and I'm looking forward to bringing that review to you. Let me

know what you think of these in the comments down below, is this release what you were expecting or

are you looking for something a little different? Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time