Four years ago, TaylorMade’s P790 was one of golf’s biggest surprises, a distance iron that appealed to better golfers and mid-handicappers alike. The company continues to build on that success with a new version that increases the sweet spot, evolves the iron’s aesthetic, and adds some distance. The new P790’s can be pre-ordered now and will be available in store and online September 3rd.
No one saw it coming.
When TaylorMade first launched its P790 irons in 2017, it didn’t expect the reaction it would receive from golfers. The hollow body irons were long and looked great, but were largely aimed at mid-handicappers who didn’t want their game improvement clubs to look like small shovels. Instead, TaylorMade found the P790s appealed to a larger demographic than the company anticipated. Better golfers, perhaps a little older and trying to grab some extra yardage, gravitated to them, and mid-handicappers found them easy to hit. A successful iron line was launched.
In recent years, TaylorMade has added to the line. Now the company has P770 for those better players who want some of the punch in a smaller form factor, but the P790 continues to evolve one of the best-loved iron sets in recent years.
“It is such a special recipe that went into creating P790 and made it a success that we don’t want to lose the soul of what makes them great irons,” says Matt Bovee, TaylorMade’s director of product creation for irons.
The keys to the new P790 line, according to Bovee, are feel, performance and design. TaylorMade looks like it has hit a home run in each area.
Key technologies
Tungsten
Discretionary weight is a key design element for engineers trying to improve modern golf clubs. Every gram of weight that can be repositioned allows designers to make an iron that is more forgiving, or launches easier on a better trajectory. In the case of P790, TaylorMade found a way to thin out the body of the iron, especially the back, and from a change in SpeedFoam, allowing 22 grams of weight to be moved to the toe. The result is a significant chance to stability and forgiveness. “This really drives mass properties, lowers the center of gravity and increases forgiveness,” Bovee says.
New SpeedFoam Air
Some of the weight saving in the new irons comes from a change in SpeedFoam. The new SpeedFoam Air, which adds to the club’s feel and sound, is 69 percent less dense, and weighs 3.5 grams less than previous versions. This allowed TaylorMade to move weight in the irons, but it also allowed the equipment maker to design the thinnest, fastest face in its history. “Golfers will find the club softer and feel it is easier to compress the shot,” says Bovee.
Thinner, faster
P790 iron heads are crafted from an 8620 carbon steel that maintains strength and durability while allowing for a new thin-walled design. Yes, the body is still hollow. While some manufacturers, like Titleist in its latest generation of irons, have moved away from hollow body construction, TaylorMade has continued with the concept, which increases distance. In this instance, the forged hollow body irons have a 1.5 mm face using 4140 steel to increase speed. The 8620 steel body allows it to be thinner throughout, adding to discretionary weight.
Is P790 for you?
If you’ve been playing the first generation of P790, you’ll notice significant enhancements, including a slightly smaller form factor, and increased speed. Even from the 2019 version, TaylorMade says it added one mile per hour more of ball speed, the equivalent of three yards. Bovee says while staying true to the recipe that made P790 such a success in the first place, the company reworked the look significantly, with a cleaner contemporary finish. If the iron is still too big for your eye, consider P770. However, if you’re anywhere from a 5 to 15-handicap, and you want a distance iron that has the aesthetic qualities of a player’s iron, this will likely be in your wheelhouse.