Its been about 7 weeks now since I said goodbye to the Pings(i5′s). Almost 2 years with the same set of irons, amazing! But, it was time. I swung some graphite shafted irons at a few stores, and liked them. You can really get a feel of where the club head is, instead of the solid one piece feel of a steel shafted stick. I was sold, except for what brand and model to buy.

For whatever reason, I ended up with Taylor Made Burner Plus irons, 5-PW.

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Nice! They were part of a set that came with hybrids as well, but I just took the irons. Good looking irons to say the least, with a mid sized face.

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The top line on these are typically on the heavy side, but that’s all I’ve got to complain about the design. And how do they hit? WHOA!

Just as advertised, they are long. Did I mention WHOA!? I checked out the specs and compared the lofts of these to the i5′s. Sure enough, there was a couple of degrees of difference. For example, the Burner Plus 5 iron, 25 degrees. Ping i5 5 iron, 27. Pretty much 2 degrees less loft until the wedges, where they pretty much are the same.

Shafts are TM’s REAX SuperFast 60G regular flex. I went with regular flex after much thought as I usually figured that I need the stiffest flex, but that was just the testosterone thinking . My swing speed is not the fastest as it turns out, so “R” flex it is.

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Ok, getting back to WHOA! YUP, they hit long. Nothing like I’ve hit before. Best of all, I can still get the ball to stop. At first, I had a hell of a time judging my iron choice. For example, my Pings, a 7i would go 155 max, but i easily get more than 10 yards from the Burner Plus’s. Off the tee, I go 175 with a 7i, and 165 off the fairway. Took me a while but once I figured them out, I shot a 79, on a new course for me to boot. (Ok, my second round!).

I discovered I had a problem with these new distances I was getting. I had a huge “gap” between my PW now and my Mizuno 53 degree MP-T. So I ended up ordering an AW from Taylor Made. Here:

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After owning Ping’s for a couple of years, I now see why they retain their value so well. These TM’s are my first set of chromed irons, and I can already tell they will not be so pretty looking in a year or two. I swear my Pings didn’t look any worse for wear after 100 rounds, but the Burner’s are already getting scratched and I there’s not a lot I can do about it. Except to maybe buy new irons in a couple of years of course.

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