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Joe Ferguson gets his hands on a new set of irons that he thinks has done more than enough to get your attention in 2026, yet many golfers will continue to overlook this brand. This is a shame because it makes some of the best irons on the market and things have gone up a notch this year, which Joe demonstrates in the Performance Lab!
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In my hands, I have got what, in my opinion, might be the most underrated family of irons on the market in 2026
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and arguably the best looking. But history tells me that you, yes you, sat right there
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you might go and spend £300, £500 more on a set that does just the same, and I want some answers
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I am, of course, talking about the Wilson Staff Model range, new for 2026
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And in this range, we've got the Staff Model Blade, we've got the Staff Model C-Beam
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we've got a new exciting hollow body option in the staff model
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XB, I'm going to take you through each of the models. We're going to get some data and we're going to finally get some answers
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about why these aren't in more people's bags. Right, so let's start with the staff model blade
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and I really don't know what more people want. This is one of the best looking blades I've seen for a long time
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We've got a new finish here, so it's a brushed satin finish. The previous models were kind of high gloss chrome
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and they were very shiny, quite traditional in their look. But what Wilson have done here, the first time I saw this
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I was taking them back and every time I look at them since, I'm just so pleased with what I'm seeing
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We've also got a really nice blend of old and new. We've got some contemporary stuff like the fonts and the logos and the writing is quite up to date and quite modern
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They changed that shield to get rid of the WS that was in there
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And again, that's a really nice look. But we've also got some nods to Wilson's heritage
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Don't forget, this is a brand that's won more majors than any other irons. We've got a little bit of a nod to that heritage here with some touches like the knurling around the hosel there
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the little marks. It's just a beautiful looking iron from the in the bag position. I don't really
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know what anyone else, what more people can want than what we're seeing here. When we put it down
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in the playing position, the good stuff just continues. It's quite angular in its profile
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but the blade length is, it's not intimidating. It's small enough to know we can maneuver it and
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have some workability, but it's not that intimidating. Minimal offset, exactly what I'll
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be looking for in a blade and a really thin top line. Again, what more do you want? These things
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are absolutely beautiful. Let's hit a couple of shots away. Got a green set up 176 yards
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there. Let's hit a couple of shots away and see what we're feeling. A little bit right. Is it coming back? Yeah, it's coming back on target. And just as soon
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as I hit that off the face, could I have a hold the first one? That'd be a really nice start. Get in. Go on. Get in. Okay, not quite. But really nice start. The ball just seems
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to stay on the face at an absolute age. It's that buttery soft feel you would associate
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with a blade. Like I said the ball just sticks on the face for ages. I've been messing around
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with these a lot before and the workability and testing them all winter is absolutely incredible Now there not much in terms of tech to talk about here It a forged we forged out of 8620 carbon steel which is one of the softer steels available you can really feel
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it through impact the only bit of tech i want to talk about is they've brought through wilson their
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fluid feel hosel where they've saved a bit of discretionary weight in this area moved out
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towards a little bit of the to the toe to balance the cg a little bit so wilson are saying it's one
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of the more balanced sort of cg location blades on the market but let's just hit a little bit of a
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another one. I hope you can hear that on the audio, just soft, melting into the face, exactly what I want to feel from a blade
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The consistency and numbers I've been getting from testing here are comparable to anything else on the range
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Give me a couple of minutes, I'm going to hit a bit more to increase this data set and then we're going to move on to the CB
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Okay so that's the data collected with the blade we'll talk about that in a little while we're
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going to talk now about the CB so this is very much a low handicap cavity pretty conservative
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lofted 34 degrees in the seven iron so think about maybe your T100s from Titleist your P7
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CBs from TaylorMade that kind of iron and again it's just more of the same the look
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sort of in the bag profile that brushed satin finish is absolutely gorgeous that blend of old
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and new when you put it in behind the ball just much the same as the blade very little offset but
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just a touch friendlier the blade length doesn't look like it's changed hardly at all but the
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the top line is just a little bit thicker so it just gives that little bit more sense if you've
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got some actual mass behind the ball there so again I've tested these products a lot over the
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winter so I know what I'm expecting here but I just want to see if you can pick it up on the audio
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just incredibly soft again just melting into that face everything about these golf clubs that's one
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is that going in there stiff can I tap that in for birdie yeah I take that maybe not tap it in
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for birdie but you know but yeah incredibly soft exactly what I want to feel and one thing I do
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want to point out the consistency of spin numbers we'll maybe get to that when we're looking in the
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data section it's what we're looking for in blades and what we're looking for in low handicap cavity
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irons is predictability is reliability people who are buying these irons don't want surprises
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don't want flyers don't want a shot that's going to pop off and go five or six yards further than
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it should and the consistency i'm seeing throughout these sets is absolutely astonishing we'll get to
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price we'll talk a little bit about that at the end in terms of set makeup in the blade you can
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you can get three to pitching wedge In the CB you get one more so you get three down to gap wedge If you someone who wants to play a kind of set wedge in the 50 degree region to bleed into your specialty wedges you got
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that option here. I've said it a million times in this video what more are you after? Right the final
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model in the lineup is a new one this year. This is one I'm probably most excited about even though
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I really like those first two as you can probably tell. This is the hollow body kind of player's
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distance iron that they've released called the XB in the staff model. Now I'm going to pop this
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little split screen up here and pop the profile so they're in the bag profile up against the blade
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so you can see what's going on here and I don't mind telling you in testing over the winter when
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I've been sort of reaching from iron to iron to get comparisons the amount of time I accidentally
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picked up the blade compared to this XB is ridiculous this is how similar and how kind of
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playery it looks in that profile but what we've got is that hollow body the flexing face it's going
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going to give you a little bit more pop now loft wise interesting you'd think sort of this player's
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distant market the 7 iron tends to come in around 30 30 and a half degrees shout out to the title
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t250 taylor made p790 it's that style of iron but it's a little bit weaker so the 7 irons at 32
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and i think that's a really good thing because a lot of people who are heading into this player's
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distance category that want flexing faces and so on are a little bit more moderate in terms of their
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swing speeds if you start pushing the lofts there in the 7-iron to 30 29
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sometimes you can have some real problems with peak height and control so I love
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that what Wilson have done with this players distance iron options just give a couple more degrees to help get you that launch and the peak height that's
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going to make them just that little bit more playable now the feel is a little
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bit different obviously we've got very much a different construction here with
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hollow bodied but again I'm hoping you can pick this up on the audio in terms of that player's
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distance category with the hollow body and that flexing face that's as that's as muted and as
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soft as it comes that's gone very very high dropping like a stone yeah it's gone a little
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bit further because we've got a couple of degrees extra help in terms of stronger lofts but
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the feel is quite extraordinary from an iron of this silk and when you couple that with
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the aesthetic package that I'm talking about here and everything else we've got on offer
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this is a really compelling not just model of iron here which I think is exceptional I've been
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getting some really good consistent results with the whole family and the ability to
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kind of combo between this set because of how cohesive they are it's quite incredible one thing
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I do want to shout out again about this model in particular you can actually get a two and a three in this modern art business At the Wilson launch event that I went to I was trying out the two iron and that might well go in my bag as a singular option
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if I don't end up gaming one of these sets of irons, which I'm seriously considering. The two iron in terms of its profile, in terms of its ball speed and consistency
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for me it was absolutely exceptional. So that's something to bear in mind if you're someone looking for a utility iron
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or one of those sort of longer irons to play safe tee shots
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that with the staff model xp is really one to have a look at right i'm going to hit a few more
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of these we're going to get to the date and we're going to i'm going to pose you some questions right so the data is what i wanted to see and it's what i've been seeing throughout all of
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my testing this launch season with this staff model range great ball speeds across the range
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here that staff model the blade 128 ball speed 14.6 launch six and a bit of spin good peak height
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and going 178 yards but the unquantifiables of that the softness the look the aesthetic package
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it comes in is just absolutely i hope i've i hope you're getting the hint here that i really like
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that in terms of the cv really similar 0.2 0.2 of a degree more launch very similar in terms of spin
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than just a couple yards more of carry. And then the XB for me, little jumping ball speed
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higher launch, lower spin, and 188 yards in carry. Now, the point of this data is to show that these
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absolutely stack up against any of its composition amongst any of the major OEMs
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I think they're an incredible aesthetic package. I wanna know what you think about that. Am I overdoing that
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Have I just fallen in love and I'm being sort of distracted by the looks on show here
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Let me know what you think of these aesthetics as well. But more importantly, why are you not going to play them if that's going to be the case
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Is it simply a marketing thing? Do you see more of the products from TaylorMade, from Titleist, from Ping
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And because of that, subliminally, they're stuck in your head more when you go to make those purchases
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Is it to do with tour presence? Are you not seeing enough guys or girls at the top end of the game winning professional tournaments with products
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I'm dying to know what it is. I'm sure Wilson are. I hope this video goes some way to making you think about trying out this product this
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launch season. Thanks for watching and let me know what you think down in the comments below
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