KZG Forged Evolution Irons

"Our forgings are done the traditional way. Premium carbon steel bars are heated to 1,200ºC. The red hot bars are placed into tooling dies and are forged by a 1.3 ton air stamp hammer. The head is trimmed under a 100 ton trimming die, then cooled and blasted to remove burrs. They are then reheated to 800ºC for a second forging under a .5 ton air stamp, cooled, and blasted again to remove the burrs.

"This forging process eliminates any voids in the steel so that you will get consistency in every shot with KZG.

"Each head is shaped and ground to specification then stamped, painted, polished, buffed, finished and plated by expert craftsmen."

The Forged Evolution irons are a terrific choice for mid-handicappers who want more control of their scoring clubs but still need the forgiveness offered by full cavity-back long irons. In the KZG catalog, the Evolution irons fall between the Forged Blades (for better players) and the Forged Cavity Backs (for players buying in the game-improvement category).

The standard set is 3-PW, with AW and SW optional, but your friendly neighborhood custom clubmaker can get the Evolution set for you in 4-AW if you prefer. (KZG is a "custom proline" manufacturer, meaning there are tons of options available within each set; use the Dealer Locator option at the top left of the KZG website to locate dealers and clubmakers in your area.)

The Evolution set feels as good as it looks, and it plays as good as it feels. Those golfers who hit these irons along with us over the two-month research period were hard-pressed to come up with any complaints.

"They're too pretty to hit," was the only "complaint" we heard with any regularity. Our set was outfitted with stiff, steel shafts, and with any group of golfers, the shaft in particular will be popular with some and not with others. But taking that into account, every one of our testers praised the appearance and feel of the KZG Forged Evolution Irons.

Some of our higher-handicap testers were a little intimidated by the blade short irons and felt a little more forgiveness in the mid-irons might be nice. The mid-handicappers were effusive in their praise of the clubs' distance and dispersion. Low-handicappers who might first look to the forged blades in KZG's lineup were just as impressed; the control and workability in the scoring clubs were very welcome, while low-handicappers felt the cavity backs were a great touch in the long irons (which are tougher for every level of golfer to hit).

We also discovered that once our golfers learned about the forging process and the exacting standard of 10-percent difference from club-to-club, they seemed to become more confident about their distance control. The clubs, they knew, would perform as expected.

Prices vary on KZG Forged Evolution sets depending on the options golfers choose, but most clubmakers' and dealers' advertisements we've seen put the price anywhere from the low $600 to low $700 range.

So the Forged Evolution irons are not a cheap set, but you get what you pay for, and that makes these KZG clubs a good value.