TaylorMade P790 (2025) Irons
The fifth generation of the iron that created the players-distance category. A new forged 4340M face delivers a 24% larger sweet spot, dramatically improved feel, and explosive ball speed — earning Golf Digest Hot List Gold and back-to-back Today's Golfer Iron of the Year awards. At $200 per club, it's premium but justified.
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The consensus
The TaylorMade P790 is the iron that created the players-distance category when it debuted in 2017, and this fifth generation cements its position as the benchmark for the segment. Earning Golf Digest Hot List Gold for 2026 and back-to-back Today's Golfer Best Iron awards, the 2025 P790 addresses the biggest criticism of previous generations: feel. A new 4340M forged carbon steel face — 20% stronger than the 2023 model — allows a thinner face construction that delivers a softer, more premium impact sensation while expanding the sweet spot by up to 24%. Across 13 sources spanning expert reviews, data-driven testing, forum discussions, and retail feedback, the consensus is near-universal praise. This is the most complete players-distance iron available.
Where sources agree most strongly: feel and consistency. Today's Golfer gave a perfect 5/5 and praised significantly improved consistency across the face, with front-to-back dispersion tightening to roughly 10 yards with a 7-iron. Golf Monthly rated it 4.8/5, leading with massively improved feel as the headline pro. The hollow-body construction with SpeedFoam Air ultralight foam and FLTD CG tungsten weighting creates a package that maintains ball speed and distance on off-center strikes. Long iron performance is particularly impressive — Today's Golfer reported carrying a 4-iron 240 yards without worrying about strike location. The redesigned sole geometry also earned praise for how cleanly the club moves through turf.
Where the consensus cracks: price and the upgrade case from 2023. At $200 per iron ($1,199.99 for a six-piece steel set), the P790 is premium but not unreasonable for its category. The harder question is for current P790 owners: Golfer Geeks confirmed the improvements are real but called them incremental. If you are gaming 2023 P790s, you are not leaving transformational performance on the table. If you are coming from anything older or from a competing brand, the 2025 P790 is the players-distance iron to beat — and it earned that position through genuine engineering gains, not just cosmetic updates. One minor note: the compact address profile, while attractive to better players, may not inspire the confidence that high handicappers need.
The fifth generation of the iron that created the players-distance category. A new forged 4340M face delivers a 24% larger sweet spot, dramatically improved feel, and explosive ball speed — earning Golf Digest Hot List Gold and back-to-back Today's Golfer Iron of the Year awards. At $200 per club, it's premium but justified.
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What the community loves
The defining upgrade of the 2025 P790. The new 4340M forged face material is 20% stronger than its predecessor, allowing a thinner face that delivers a softer, more premium impact sensation. Today's Golfer said the feel has fundamentally changed — softer and more premium with a gentle, crisp click on center strikes. Golf Monthly listed 'massively improved feel' as the headline pro. Even the Golfer Geeks review, which tempered its enthusiasm for the incremental nature of the upgrade, conceded the feel improvement is real and noticeable.
TaylorMade's new forged face construction enables a meaningfully larger effective hitting area. Today's Golfer reported significantly improved consistency in data across the face, with front-to-back dispersion tightening to roughly 10 yards with a 7-iron. The SpeedFoam Air ultralight urethane microsphere foam and FLTD CG tungsten weighting work together to maintain ball speed on off-center hits. Multiple forum users confirmed the forgiveness improvement is noticeable on-course.
The 4340M forged face generates impressive ball speeds across the set. Today's Golfer reported carrying a 4-iron 240 yards without worrying about strike location. The hollow-body construction with SpeedFoam Air maintains a high COR across the face for consistent distance even on mishits. Long irons in particular benefit from the combination of low CG, tungsten weighting, and the thinner, hotter face.
The 2025 P790 features a slimmer topline and the new Tour Satin Scratch finish, giving it a more refined look compared to the 2023 model. Golf Monthly praised the nice aesthetic refinements. The overall profile reads as a better player's iron despite hiding significant game-improvement technology inside the hollow body. Multiple reviewers noted the iron looks premium in the bag and inspires confidence at address for single-digit handicappers.
A redesigned sole geometry gives the 2025 P790 noticeably improved turf interaction. Today's Golfer specifically praised how the short irons glide through the turf efficiently. Golf Monthly called out the excellent sole design as a key pro. The progressive sole widths across the set — wider in long irons for launch assistance, narrower in short irons for versatility — make this one of the best-interacting players-distance irons available.
What to watch out for
At $1,199.99 for a six-piece steel set ($200 per iron), the P790 sits at the top of the players-distance price range. While not unprecedented — the Cobra 3DP X is even pricier — it represents a significant investment. Golfers upgrading from the 2023 P790 face a particularly tough value proposition given the improvements, while real, are evolutionary rather than revolutionary.
While the feel improvement is the headline story, one or two competitors still claim the pure-feel crown. Mizuno's Pro 245 and JPX925 Hot Metal Pro are frequently cited as having marginally better impact feedback through the hands. The P790's feel is now excellent — up there with the best — but golfers who prioritize feel above all else may still gravitate toward Mizuno's forged offerings.
Golf Monthly flagged the compact address profile as a con. The slimmer topline and reduced offset that make the P790 attractive to better players can be intimidating for golfers above 20 handicap. High handicappers looking for maximum visual confidence at address may prefer the TaylorMade Qi Max or a dedicated game-improvement iron with a wider sole and more offset.
Golfer Geeks asked the question directly: better than the 2023s? The answer was yes, but with the caveat that the improvements are incremental. The feel is better, the sweet spot is larger, and the aesthetics are refined — but a golfer gaming 2023 P790s is not leaving significant performance on the table. The upgrade case is strongest for golfers coming from older models or competing brands.
Is it right for your game?
The biggest tension in P790 data: Golfer Geeks confirmed the 2025 improvements are real but called them incremental for current P790 owners — the jump from 2023 is not transformational. Meanwhile, every major publication (Today's Golfer, Golf Monthly, Golf Digest Hot List Gold) called it the best players-distance iron available. The verdict depends on where you're coming from: if you're gaming 2023 P790s, the upgrade case is nuanced. If you're switching brands or coming from older irons, this is the clear benchmark for the segment.
What real people are saying
19 quotes from across the web, grouped by 8 themes. Click a theme to read the individual quotes.
Specifications
Available shafts (no upcharge)
Premium shafts available at additional cost: Graphite Design Tour AD VF, Tour AD UB, Tour AD DI
All sources analyzed
This review synthesizes opinions from 13 independent sources. Every claim on this page can be traced back to its original source. No manufacturer relationship or compensation.
The consensus score is built in four layers: raw source collection, normalization to a 0-10 scale, credibility-weighted combination, and quality adjustments.
Expert reviews (35% weight) are scored from language intensity and any numerical ratings provided. Data-driven testing (25%) converts product rank within the test group to a percentile score. Forum posts (30%) are AI-classified by sentiment, weighted by substantiveness. Retail reviews (10%) convert 5-star ratings with a 0.75x credibility discount to correct for systematic inflation.
Three quality adjustments are then applied: a source diversity bonus (up to +0.3 for coverage across all source types), a conflict penalty (up to -0.3 when sources strongly disagree), and recency weighting (recent reviews weighted higher than older ones).