Cast Irons vs. Forged: Which to Choose?

Whether you’re a high or low-handicapper, choosing a golf club requires a lot of thought. After all, they’re high-priced, so you’ll want to make the right choice.

One of the main factors affecting your buying decision is choosing between cast irons vs. forged golf clubs. Both options mainly differ in terms of their production process, design, price, and feel.

That being said, stick around to learn more about which option could better suit your needs and expertise in the field.

Facts About Cast Irons Golf Clubs

Cast iron golf clubs are produced through a molding process. The initial product, which is a stainless steel alloy, is melted and poured into a mold of the club shape. The mold then solidifies to create the club head.

Now, this process tends to create air bubbles within the cast iron structure which can affect the golf club’s performance. Cast iron golf clubs feel more solid, produce more sound, and absorb vibrations.

Facts About Forged Golf Clubs

Forged golf clubs are produced using a piece of metal. There’s little smelting involved in the process. The manufacturers heat the metal and hammer away at it and use a heavy press until it forms the golf club shape.

This makes them heavier and overall denser compared to cast irons. Plus, they provide better feedback and a longer sound.

Cast Irons vs. Forged

Cast irons and forged golf clubs differ in several aspects whether it’s the look, weight, size, or feel. Let’s examine how each option performs.

Price

Cast iron golf clubs cost significantly less to produce compared to forged irons. The production process of the latter is labor intensive where they need to craft the design through a hammering and pressing technique.

For this reason, forged golf clubs are more expensive relative to cast iron clubs. That being so, the detailing of the former requires excelling craftsmanship and lots of production costs.

Design

Despite the exceptional manufacturing process offered by forged club heads, they still lack versatility in terms of club design.

It’s much harder to shape forged options since it requires a lot of hammering and detailing. Meanwhile, it’s much easier to shape cast irons. The producers only have to smelt and mold the liquid metal into the desired shape and let it solidify.

Subsequently, you can find intricate designs in cast iron productions like cavity backs that have holes in the back. This design optimizes your strike for better forgiveness since it stabilizes mis-hits.

Despite that, production advancements have provided cavity back forged golf clubs. In turn, this continues to blur the line of difference between forged and cast iron clubs.

Playability

Forged golf clubs are often synonymous with high-tier players. While this may be true, the differences between both cast iron and forged golf clubs in terms of playability are slowly reducing.

This is mainly thanks to modern technological advancements in the manufacturing process. Apart from that, it’s said that forged clubs are used by the pros because the weight distribution is congregated around the center shot area.

This will generally make mis-hits feel much worse and reduce forgiveness. Meanwhile, cast irons have optimized weight distribution due to their flexible design. Nevertheless, hitting a center shot with a cast iron doesn’t feel as true as when using a forged golf club.

Feel

When it comes to feel, forged golf clubs are usually labeled soft. Nevertheless, the feel of a golf club has more to do with its structure rather than the material. Forged clubs are primarily smaller, more compact, and carry more weight in the center, which gives them a softer feel.

Another feel factor worth considering is how long the ball stays on the club. When using forged clubs, the ball tends to feel like it’s sticking to the face for a longer time. This provides you with better control and aim adjustability.

This is mainly because the center of gravity is located near the forged club’s face. Meanwhile, cast iron choices have a lower center of gravity, giving your shots more elevation.

Target Audience

In this section, we’ll discuss who is best suited for each golf club type.

Cast Iron

Cast irons have been touted as the beginner-friendly choice. With its flexibility and larger sweet spot, you’ll be getting much better forgiveness, speed, and distance.

Even though forged irons are coming out with cavity back options that go toe-to-toe with cast iron clubs, the price still makes a difference.

Overall, if you’re willing to spend more on feedback performance and enhanced forgiveness, then a back cavity forged club might be your best bet. Other than that, we suggest sticking to the cast iron club.

Forged

A forged’s playability is usually linked to low handicappers with exceptional aim and speed. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean high handicappers should be entirely excluded from playing with a forged club.

The forged options don’t perform well in terms of forgiveness, so it’ll be difficult for beginner golfers to start with this type of club. Aside from that, beginners may improve their skills if they get used to forged clubs.

Fair warning though, it’ll take a lot of time and diligence on your end to remain motivated when using a forged club. You’ll likely get a lot of unsatisfying mis-hits.

Pros of Cast Irons

  • Cheaper than forged
  • Offers better forgiveness
  • More versatile designs provided

Cons of Cast Irons

  • Not as accurate as forged
  • Lacking feedback compared to forged

Pros of Forged

  • Better feedback
  • Improves golfer skills
  • Offered in cavity back options for more forgiveness

Cons of Forged

  • Small sweet spot
  • Tends to be pricey

Final Thoughts

Cast irons and forged golf clubs are becoming more similar through advancing manufacturing techniques. Nonetheless, they still differ in certain aspects such as feel and price.

One of the main differences between cast iron and forged clubs is their production process. Forged clubs require more labor and expertise, whereas cast irons are created through a simple smelting and molding procedure. In turn, the former is more costly than the latter.

Apart from that, forged clubs are better used by low handicappers due to the lower forgiveness and smaller center of gravity. Meanwhile, cast irons are easier to use because of their larger sweet spot.

The Golf Bandit
The Golf Bandit

Hi, I'm Jan. I love golf and I have been playing for a while now. I really enjoy trying out new golf clubs and equipment, and like to review them on my blog. I consider myself lucky as I have access to the latest clubs and gadgets, so I can get a feel for how they perform on the golf course. I also like to share my tips and tricks on how to improve your game, so if you're looking for help with that then look no further! Thanks for visiting, and I hope you find something useful here.

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