0-Iron Blade Review

Golf Monthly

We think we may have found the golf club that is the most difficult to hit in the world... It's a 0-iron blade and Joe Ferguson is going to put it to the test on the launch monitor and the golf course to see how it performs!

Transcript

00:00Okay, I don't know how to feel about this video today. I've got a whole mix of emotions. I'm sort

00:05of excited but I'm sort of terrified and let me show you why. Let me introduce you to the Bose

00:11Iron Factory JCM01 Zero Iron. Now this thing has 12 degrees, yes 12 degrees of loft,

00:20precisely zero offset and a top line you could cut yourself on. This is not for the faint-hearted.

00:30This Zero Iron was actually sent to me by master craftsman, Falcon Mastabara, who founded the

00:35Bose Iron Factory in Japan and they make some unbelievable products. He sent me a couple of

00:40other bits just to tease me. Take a look at these wedges. These are some of the most beautifully

00:45crafted wedges I've ever laid my eyes on. The shaping and the finish is just extraordinary

00:51and it seems indicative of what they do at the Bose Iron Factory. I put a link in the description down

00:56below to their website. Go and check out their products. You won't be disappointed but we're

01:00not here to talk about wedges. We're going to try this Zero Iron. This isn't the first Zero Iron I've

01:05ever seen. John Daly actually had one in the bag at St. Andrews in 1995 that Wilson made specifically for

01:12him for that golf course but even that one had a slight cavity in the back to give him some help.

01:16Right, I can't put it off any longer. I'm going to charge up GC Quad, hit some away,

01:20get some numbers and see what it can do. Whoa, that's going to be interesting to see the numbers.

01:41In terms of the spec on this thing, as I said, it's got 12 degrees of loft which is essentially

01:47a driver or at a push a really really strong three-wood and it is long as well. They build

01:53this a standard 42 and three-quarters inches which is just quarter of an inch shy of a standard three-wood.

01:59So this thing is really built for speed and distance.

02:05Well, I've already had a sneaky look at the data from those two swipes so I'm going to hit a few more

02:09away and then going to take a closer look at the averages.

02:28Okay, so the numbers. Now these are really really interesting and I'm surprised in some ways

02:33and not surprised in others. The surprise was that I can actually hit this thing. I can get it off the

02:38floor and I can get it going and that resulted in some pretty good average numbers for me. So I was

02:44getting an average ball speed of 152.8 miles per hour, launching at nine and a half degrees and spinning

02:50around the 3000 mark which is aggressive but culminated in an average carry distance of 246 off the

02:57deck with a zero iron which I'm actually quite pleased with. But it's how it got there that concerned

03:03me a little bit and this is the bit that didn't surprise me. The slight lack of consistency.

03:08I wasn't getting much help if I missed the direct middle of this golf club. So my

03:13ball speed fluctuated quite a lot. My lowest ball speed here 145.3 miles an hour versus my highest

03:20ball speed of 158.5. That's quite a big gap and again you can see that in the yardage.

03:27My shortest carry was 229 and my longest carry was 261. So over 30 yards of difference there.

03:35I'm just not sure that's that playable. I was unsure as to where to place this club as well and

03:40I've never hit anything as long or anything as low lofted in an iron but it seems to me I've hit a few

03:46three irons and I've hit a few three woods here. It seems to sit somewhere between the two certainly

03:50from a yardage point of view and a ball speed point of view although because of the makeup and the loft

03:56and the MOI situation the spin is lower than both. So you can see from the numbers there this thing's

04:02pretty adept at hitting stingers low penetrating ball flights but I want to see if this is just a

04:07one-trick pony. Can I manipulate that ball flight? Can I get it high? Can I go left to right? Can I go

04:12right to left? Let's go to the practice ground and find out.

04:14Right so you join me here at a very blustery Churston practice ground and as you can see from that ball

04:23flight that I've just hit this thing as we know has no problem hitting that stinging low knuckleball

04:28but I want to see if I can get this thing flighted up a bit so I'm going to move the ball up in my

04:32stance a bit sweep it away just a little bit more and see if I can get that trajectory up.

04:36Okay well I think you can see from that I can I did clip that nicely a nice high trajectory I mean

04:46it's helped by I'm coming into the wind so the wind's buffered it up a little bit but I can

04:49certainly maneuver that more than I thought I could up so let's see if I can now do it left to right

04:53and right to left. So if you're enjoying learning about this zero iron hit that like button subscribe

05:00to the channel if you haven't already and comment down below how do you think you'd get on with this.

05:03Okay well I think you can probably see from that I'm not having too much trouble maneuvering the

05:09ball left to right right to left was a bit more of a struggle which you tend to see when there's

05:13less loft on a club it did turn over but it certainly wasn't as easy as cutting it.

05:18That's enough of the practice stuff let's get on the course and see if this thing's good on a hole.

05:23Right so I wanted to see what this thing can do out on a golf course and I've given myself a pretty

05:27tough challenge if I'm honest I'm here on the fifth hole at Churston golf club it's a 550 yard par five

05:33playing straight into a very very cold wind and I'm going to play the entire hole with my zero

05:38iron and see if I can make a par.

05:44Right well I found my ball it was a good hit I've turned it over a little bit bit disappointed to

05:49find it in some overhanging trees however this might actually be a really good chance to showcase

05:54what this zero iron can do. I've got to keep this really really low and advance it as far as possible

06:00because I've still got about 300 plus yards to go so this might be the tool for the job.

06:07I've got that absolutely perfect as I wanted it started really really low stayed under these

06:12branches and I reckon even into this cold wind I've got that about 220 up there which I'm chuffed with

06:17from here. Okay well now is where the fun and games really start because I found myself here 139

06:25yards away yes I've got a very cold wind but I've still got to take about 100 yards off this zero iron

06:30I'm coming out of some rough here although it's sitting well it can be difficult to get

06:34enough club on ball when you've got such little loft so let's see if I can manipulate something here

06:39well I'm pretty chuffed with that 139 yards dead pin high I've left myself 10 foot up the hill for a birdie

06:57let's see putt. Would have been the greatest birdie of my life pretty chuffed with a five though

07:14well it was a bit of fun I hope you enjoyed that and that would have been the best birdie of my life

07:19and it was just a bit of fun obviously I wouldn't play an entire hole with the zero iron but I hope it

07:23showed some of the versatility of this club hit a really nice tee shot turned it over a little

07:27bit into the trees but then it showed its metal with that low raking hook out of it I even managed

07:32a 139 yard bump and run to 10 feet and it very nearly hold the birdie putt but the point of this

07:38is to see whether this might be a playable club and first requirement you need if you did think it was

07:44going to be a playable club would be speed if you haven't got speed you're simply not going to get

07:48this club airborne so that would be requirement number one but my conclusion really is it probably

07:53just is too high tariff although I thoroughly enjoyed hitting it and off the center it just

07:58feels like butter the forgiveness and the lack of MOI would probably make it just too high tariff to me

08:04but I do think there's merit in an iron of this loft somewhere and this is a call out to the

08:09manufacturers out there if you can make an iron of 11 12 degrees of loft but build it a bit more

08:15MOI and a bit more friendliness I really think you might be on to something

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