 So the word forgiveness is very much becoming commonplace when describing golf clubs right now. But the question is, what does it actually mean? For example, will golf clubs forgive me for having a terrible golf swing? Turn ball, turn. It didn't turn. Or is forgiveness I should pray for before I actually start around a golf? Well, I'm not actually sure, but what I do know is that both the irons featured in today's video, they certainly fall into that forgiveness category. Well, at least my interpretation of it at least. And let's start by me telling you at least what I think forgiveness actually means because from reading some of the comments, it could be different than what some of you think. So for me, it's all about off-center hits and minimizing the drop-offs that you see in parameters such as ball speed, spin number, launch and obviously overall carry. But that's where it ends because it's certainly not a word you should associate with dispersion. Although in saying that, maybe front to back dispersion but not left and right because that is certainly down to the Indian and not the errors. Right, so now we've cleared that up. Let's go down to today's test which is out here on the golf course at Hollywood. There's no dry ball data. This is all about reality. I've got one set of irons from Ping which are super forgiving. I've got one set of irons for Taylor Made which are also super forgiving and I'm going to decipher what separates these two irons and potentially which is the best suited to you. That is the starting iron and that is from the Ping G430 lineup. It is the iron that they claim to be the most forgiven that they've ever produced. It's Ping's, I think iron for the masses and we're going to put it up against one of these from Taylor Made. And that was from Taylor Made's HD lineup. And to be perfectly honest with you, neither of those were the best strikes from me personally and maybe already that is the perfect example of why these two irons are super forgiving and perfect for many average golfers. Today's video is brought to you in partnership with HotGolf, the online golf mega store bringing you the hottest deals in golf and of course the clubs featured in today's video. Find the link to the HotGolf website in the description below and check out some incredible giveaways and offers. Right, so it was an interesting start. They were in fact two seven irons and I've got a five, a seven and a nine from both sets of irons. Each of those balls, as like I said, probably perform a little bit better than the actual strike deserved. My guess would be they were both off-center strikes and they've both finished pretty much pin high. A good start with a seven iron onto the next tee and I'm going to tee off with a five iron and just see how forgiving both of these two actually are. I'm going to try those in different scenarios. So obviously five iron from the tee, I'll play a couple of seven irons from the fairway and that nine iron just gives us a little bit of a look at that short end of the bag. Do you lose all kinds of feel and finesse in this style of iron or is it perfectly playable? Now although these irons are very much aimed at the same category of player I would suggest, they are certainly very, very different in the way they're put together. And the interesting thing for me is this, I would fully expect that the HD line-up from TaylorMade would have been the stronger loft of these two when in fact just in the standard loft the seven iron of the Ping G430 line-up is 29 degrees and the equivalent from TaylorMade is 30, so that surprised me a little bit. One thing you'll notice from the ball flight that I play from this tee right now is we're going to play two five irons and straight away you see a noticeable difference in terms of ball flight in that the five iron from the HD line-up with the only one degree extra in terms of loft, but that CG placement a lot further back means that so far what I'm seeing is the ball flight from the HD seems to be the higher launch in ball of the two and that can be a real interesting particular characteristic really that a lot of average golfers that are looking to buy these clubs are looking for assistance with, so surprisingly I'm seeing a higher launching ball from the HD at least at this point. Now this is very much a video that's been asked for by you in the comments and in some ways at first I thought it was an odd head-to-head and like I said from a profile perspective very very different irons but like I said it's probably an iron that's the same sort of category of player the one that is looking for forgiveness one that's looking for help with launch one that wants a bit of extra yardage from their irons well probably these two would be on the list so my simple question for you is this how many of you are considering either of these two sets of irons and what if anything sues you one way or the other. Right so we've had two five irons two seven irons now arguably for me there might be more confidence gained in the bulk and mass that you see in the HD product than you would from the 430 line up that's because like I said that bulk and mass just gives you that confidence but then moving down to the other end of the bag and I'll play a couple of nine irons from this spot is then perhaps the more refined look of the G430 might be the iron that you actually prefer to go for now obviously there's there's some things you can do to change that HD line up and go into the standard stealth model but right now I think I prefer to have this at address than the HD99 but we'll see again really easy pickup pulled a little bit down the left we've just missed the green to the left hand side just a tad the one thing they've done really good this time around Ping in terms of that G430 is enhance the sound and feel massively I keep getting comments that nobody's interested in the way a club sounds well trust me lots of you do and I certainly fall into that category but let's switch up into the bigger and potentially more clumbersome looking stealth HD again just a super ball to pick up that one is right on the flag and is not too far away at all that's a really decent ball again what the suggestion is is the sound was really good with a nice clip off the top of the turf my guess is that's grabbed and spun back a little bit as well which is not something you'd expect from this iron so what I was expecting to feel was a little bit too much bulk and mass but what they do in the 99 or the shorter irons they hide a lot of that bulk so what you're looking down on effectively is a super game improvement iron in terms of that top line but you're not seeing all of that bulbous back that you perhaps see in the longer end of the bag of the 5 iron which could in effect boost in terms of confidence so each of them has their merits potentially at either end of the bag now one question I am asked a lot is how do these clubs perform from the roof and it's not one we can often show here up at Hollywood because it's not that style of course there's not a lot of roof so we've come to this little patch and plonked a ball down that's actually sitting quite nasty I'm not sure whose idea that was we're going to play the ping first it's a 7 iron and see if we can get this picked up and out of the roof that's incredible in terms of it's also going down the middle so the answer quite simply is the ping does it extremely well and the odd bit for me is that you might presume that the again that wider width sole of the stealth HD might do a better job it's going to struggle to beat that right we've just had to stick that one a little bit forward we dug a bit of turf out but that's nestling down as well now like I said for me I'm just thinking in my head that sole is going to do me a favour and almost pick this up like I might expect a hybrid to let's see oh my word go and have a look I was really pleased with what the ping did but that thing has absolutely picked the ball up and ripped it down there both of these clubs are hot off the face there's no doubt about it but I think both of them surprise me from that lie we've done a full shot with an iron iron I'm just going to drop a few balls down here and we're going to see at the short end of the bag again can they produce a kind of because when you're putting your bag together I think, well I do anyway, you're considering all elements of it like what do I want to see from me long irons then back down the other what do I want to see from the short irons now the short iron can be an iron iron full swing but it can also be this so you either have specific wedges in your bag or can you sort of go from sort of 5 iron right the way through to gap wedge I'd have a little bit of a check there but yeah, this is the HD with a 9 iron should just get up the hill, I'm quite happy with the way I've played that yeah, really pleased with that I'm just really a massive fan of the HD line up full stop in the whole TM range to be honest with you and would I be able to play that at the short end of the bag then absolutely, I mean I'd want some with a lot in terms of bunker shots and whatnot but I mean this is more traditional obviously in the way it sits what we used to see in from a golf club but the question is, is it any different from the HD in terms of performance I mean again, I'd take both of those shots let the little one, the second shot on the pin was just a little bit more of an open face and left it out a little bit to the right but from this kind of distance perfectly fine I'm going to leave it there you know I mean my summary would be this that they're both super impressive but both very different even though aimed at like I said potentially the same golfer the bit that surprises me more than anything when I do this test on course is that HD has got really good sound and feel and even just there pitching one against the other side by side I would lean towards that from a feel perspective you've then got that sort of shape thing, can you overcome the sort of our stereotypes is what we think an iron should look like that's the biggest job Taylor made have got is persuading people to try these kind of clubs that we've seen like I said from Cleveland and Cobra and everybody else they're really effective but there's still a minority in terms of the sales because of the fact they look so different the other thing I like with Stealth HD is the fact that you can line it up with Stealth Standard if you like in terms of a visual throughout the bag and then on the other end you've got the Ping which is tried and tested and trusted you know you ain't going to go far wrong with those they perform incredibly well in each of the sort of areas that we've seen them out on the course today I just think two super options in terms of that forgiving iron category and definitely two of the best we've seen potentially two maybe the best two that I've seen in 2023 so far right that's me done as ever I'm going to finish by saying that we've got a new channel sponsor which is HotGolf you can buy both of those sets of irons from them and any support you can give them I would also appreciate as ever thank you for watching give me your comments down below I asked the question earlier or any of these two on the your agenda and as anything that you've seen in today's video pushed you one way or the other right as ever thanks for watching I'll see you all tomorrow night