WHAT IT DOES: How do you make the ball fly faster off the face of an iron? One way is to make the face thinner. But to do that, you need a material strong enough to hold up at impact. For Ping’s G425 iron that meant using a new heat-treatment process to create what the company calls Hyper 17-4 stainless steel. The material is 10 percent stronger than typical 17-4 and was used to create a thin variable-thickness face with plenty of deflection at impact. The face, however, is just one part of the speed equation. An undercut along the top rail and a sole that functions like a hinge create a trampoline effect to further increase ball speed and launch.

WHY WE LIKE IT: Ping is a company that always has the needs of everyday golfers in mind. Despite this iron having a shorter blade length than the G410, it’s actually more forgiving thanks to a tungsten toe weight. Also, the G425’s stock steel shaft is the company’s AWT 2.0 (for “ascending weight technology”): The shafts for the longer irons are lighter to improve swing speed and face closure, and the shafts for the short irons are slightly heavier for more control on shots near the green. Read more >>