Equipment
Wilson Golf's D7 Forged packs horsepower in a player's shape
Drew Meredith
Wilson Golf has a long heritage of producing irons for better players, including U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland. It also has catered to the less skilled with a number of offerings, including its D7 iron. Its latest iron, the D7 Forged, is a creation geared towards both.
The D7 utilizes a soft, forged 8620 carbon-steel face in a tour-like clubhead. “We needed the visual clues of a player’s iron,” said Jon Pergande, Wilson Golf's manager of golf club innovation. “That meant minimal offset, a thinner topline and attention to blade length and blade height.”
Although player-ish in shape, the club packs the distance and forgiveness horsepower of the D7. The V-shaped cavity (originally used in the company’s C300 Forged iron) helps push inertia out to the heel and toe areas while increasing the stiffness of the frame—an important consideration. “We needed to stiffen topline without adding thickness or slowing down the face,” said Pergande. “This was one way to do that. We then were able to make a thin face with a thicker sole that allowed for deeper power holes and a lower center of gravity. The urethane in the cavity—what we call the Power Chamber—and power holes is compressible so as not to slow down ball speed.”
The Power Chamber is created by extending the urethane in the power holes (the through holes between the sole and cavity of the iron) into the cavity on the lower half of the face. This puts urethane directly in contact with the back of the face where contact occurs, reducing the sound and vibration produced by impact.
The stock shaft choices for the D7 Forged are KBS $-Taper Lite steel or True Temper Catalyst Black 80 graphite. The grip is Golf Pride’s Tour Velvet. The irons are available for pre-order starting Jan. 14 and in stores Jan. 21 at a cost of $900 with steel shafts; $1,000 with graphite.