PGA Tour Power Rankings: Where do Scottie and Rory rank after two months?

Hinako Shibuno opened a 3-shot lead over Linn Grant at the U.S. Women’s Open, where Nelly Korda and Lexi Thompson were among the notables to miss the cut.

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PXG (Parsons Xtreme Golf), founded by billionaire-entrepreneur Bob Parsons, made an immediate mark in the golf industry by offering golf clubs that sold for relatively enormous prices in the domestic golf market. The barrier to entry for becoming a PXG customer, however, is shifting. Parsons has described the company’s products as the “Ferrariâ€� of golf clubs, and its prices have reflected that. PXG’s original 0311 irons sold for $300 per iron, and its 0811 drivers sold for $850. The company’s newest Gen2 0311 irons, released in March 2018, upped the ante even more, selling for $400 apiece. The new Gen2 drivers, however, which released in January 2019, came with a reduced price of $575 each because Parsons said the company was able to reduce manufacturing costs through scaling. Now, PXG is bringing a drastically lower-priced set of irons to retail with its 0211 irons that are priced at $195 per club with steel shafts, and $210 with graphite shafts. PXG recently tested the theory of making more affordable irons available to the public, and it passed. “After we introduced our Gen2 irons and pretty much sold through our Gen1s, we did a test,â€� Parsons told PGATOUR.COM. “What we did was we ordered a new run of our Gen1 irons and didn’t have the R&D that we needed to recover, so we were able to sell those at a lesser price. What we learned was there’s a big demand for that, especially from our brand, and sales of that were very well received.â€� The price difference between the Gen2 0311 irons (at $400 per iron) and the 0211 irons (at $195 per iron) comes from the different constructions, and the cost of making the clubs. PXG’s recently released Gen 0311 irons are triple-forged from 8620 carbon and feature the company’s trademark weight ports around the perimeter. The 0211 irons, on the other hand, are investment cast from 431 stainless steel, and they do not feature PXG’s traditional screw weights. The investment casting process is less expensive than the forging process. The new 0211 irons do, however, feature the company’s new COR2 material – a “proprietary high-speed polymerâ€� – in the space between the HT 1770M faces and the 431 stainless steel bodies. This design allows the faces to be constructed thinner for more ball speed without sacrificing feel, sound and durability. “What we did was we took our Gen2 technology, which we already have the R&D paid for with the Gen2 irons, and we put that in [the 0211 irons] as much as we could,â€� Parsons said. “We used a less expensive manufacturing process, but still, the way we do it, these irons cost us more to make than other companies pay for their forged irons.â€� Parsons also says that because they have the same COR2 technology that was introduced in the Gen2 irons, the new 0211 irons perform better than the forged Gen1 irons that did not have this material. “Our 0211s, when it comes to our Gen1 irons, they outperform them considerably,â€� Parsons said. “They’re longer, they have faster ball speeds, launch higher, got a higher peak height, steeper landing angle and they’re more accurate. So we made these as good as we could.â€� While PXG’s flagship Gen2 0311 family of irons consists of four different head models (0311T, 0311P, 0311 XF and 0311 SGI), the 0211 line has just one head model. The 0211 irons (4-PW, SW, GW, LW) have a progressive makeup where the short irons have less offset and smaller profiles and the long irons have more offset and larger profiles. Also, the Gen2 0311 irons have a slew of shafts available at no upcharge, but the 0211 shaft options are more limited; they come stock with True Tempers Elevate steel shafts, and Mitsubishi’s MMT steel or graphite shafts, with other shafts coming with an additional upcharge. For those who may question the relatively cheaper price tag of the 0211 compared to its previous iron releases, Parsons had this to say: “While these irons are significantly less compared to our 0311s — our forged irons, our flagship products — when you compare them to other investment cast products [they’re] pretty expensive,â€� Parsons said. “$195 for a casted product, that’s pricey. That’s still in that upper price range. But for the performance that you get, the value is totally there.â€� PXG’s new 0211 irons, which come with a chrome finish, will be available everywhere that PXG’s current 0311 Gen2 irons are sold, including its website.

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Rory McIlroy, who led after one round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational after a 7-under 65 on Thursday, recently put a new 3-iron in his bag at The Genesis Invitational at Riviera, and it’s in his bag at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. McIlroy said it gives him more “flight.” “It’s the (TaylorMade P790) head; I have the blades in everything else,” he said after his round. “It just gives me a bit more flight; I hit it up in the air. I can hit it up in the air, and it’s just easier to hit. “If I flush my blade with my 3-iron, it should go about 245-247 (yards), but if I miss it, it goes the same distance as my 4-iron. Whereas, if I miss this 3-iron it doesn’t go quite as short.” Long-iron play can be especially important at Bay Hill, which has seen more approach shots from 200-plus yards than any course on TOUR since 2016, according to Justin Ray of Twenty First Group. That’s due in large part to the course’s long par-3s and reachable par-5s. Last year’s Bay Hill champion, Bryson DeChambeau, led the PGA TOUR in average proximity from 200-plus yards last season. Like DeChambeau, McIlroy is known for his ability to hit the ball sky high. Entering this week, McIlroy had an average proximity of 43 feet, 6 inches on approaches greater than 200 yards. That would rank him ninth on TOUR if he’d played enough rounds to be included in this season’s statistical rankings. His average proximity from 225-250 yards (38’, 2”) would rank sixth. According to TaylorMade, the P790 has a forged hollow-body construction that uses newly-engineered SpeedFoam Air, which is 69% lighter than its predecessor, inside the head. That helped TaylorMade to create a thinner face for increased ball speeds and move the center of gravity lower for increased forgiveness and higher ball flights. Thirty-one grams of tungsten in the toe creates more stability and forgiveness. The irons are also more forgiving on strikes low on the face because of a Thru-Slot Speed Pocket. McIlroy at first tried a steel shaft in the new 3-iron, like he had in the previous one, but transitioned into a Fujikura Ventus Black shaft, which he also has in his woods. Did he have any challenges in matching it up? “Graphite nowadays is so much stronger than steel,” he said. “I tried a steel shaft before, and the thing just kept going left. It just wasn’t strong enough at the bottom. So then we tried this Ventus, and they’re very tip-stiff anyway. Yeah, it straightened the ball flight out.” Armed with a new club that only exacerbates one of McIlroy’s advantages, he finished T10 at The Genesis Invitational and now is in the lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, which he won in 2018.

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