The 5 most popular irons at this year's Ryder Cup

Bethpage's famed black course is a not a track that'll take any prisoners at this weekend's Ryder Cup.

Famed for its razor tight fairways, daunting length and multi-tiered greens, the New York course is about as tough a test as Ryder Cup venues come. As such, both teams will need to bring truly elite iron play to the course to have any hope of getting a significant leg up over their opponents.

With that in mind, and with more brands and models strewn throughout the bags of both Team Europe and Team USA than ever before, we thought it timely to take a look at the iron models that have proven most popular among the world's best players – and as such will take centre stage at this weekend's showdown.

TaylorMade P7

Used by: Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Collin Morikawa

TaylorMade's small yet stacked roster of star players stands unquestionably as the envy of the golfing world, featuring the current world number one and two, the arguable GOAT in Tiger Woods, and the reigning FedEx Cup champion. That's worth more than any marketing budget alone, but TaylorMade's roster has also shown impressive loyalty to its irons over the years – a testament to the brand's reputation for quality.

The backbone of TaylorMade's pro player offering is, of course, the enduringly popular P7 range, which has found favour the brand's players in a number of different variants. The P7TW model, developed for and with the help of Tiger Woods himself, also sits in the bag of both Scottie Scheffler and Tommy Fleetwood. Rory's famous RORS PROTO irons are a derivative of the old P730 model – created exclusively for him at his signing with the company almost a decade ago. Morikawa, meanwhile, plays a combo set of old and new TaylorMade irons, including the aforementioned P730 as well as the more modern and forgiving P7CB.

Callaway Apex Pro

Used by: Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Rasmus Hojgaard, Sam Burns

Callaway's player-oriented Apex iron range has been popular among the company's staff players for some time now, with the Apex Pro a particularly beloved option. Burns, Schauffele and Rahm all game the Apex Pro TCB: a compact, cavity back model that was updated in 2024 yet still hasn't found its way on to general sale. 

Denmark's Hojgaard, meanwhile, games a more conventional Apex Pro 3 iron, preferring the more traditional look and feel of the X-Forged blades throughout the rest of his bag.

Titleist T-Series

Used by: Justin Thomas, Ludvig Aberg, Cameron Young, Russell Henley

Titleist irons remain by far the most gamed at a tour level among both staff and non-staff players – meaning a truly eclectic mix of the brand's models can be found in bags across pro tours worldwide. Even models like the six-year-old 620 CB feature will appear at this year's cup in the bags of loyalists like Justin Rose and Robert MacIntyre – however plenty of players have migrated to the brand's more recent T-Series iron range, one that was launched to much acclaim in 2023 and has since been refreshed this year.

Titleist tend to prefer equipping their players with combo sets to provide the perfect balance of control and forgiveness, with the T100, T150, T200 and T250 all taking up space in the bags of elite ball strikers like Thomas, Aberg, Young and Henley. Even the game improvement T350 will make an appearance – the model serving as Cameron Young's 3-iron of choice.

Srixon Zxi

Used by: J.J. Spaun, Shane Lowry

Srixon players are set to make a significant impact at this year's Ryder Cup. US Open champ J.J. Spaun will debut for Team USA as one of the game's most in-form players, while Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka are both important fixtures in Team Europe's stable. Incidentally, USA captain Keegan Bradley, whose form this season led to plenty of speculation as to whether he'd play as well as captain, also games Srixon irons.

Spaun, Lowry and Straka have all recently migrated into the brand's new ZXi5 and ZXi7 irons, gaming slightly different combo sets respectively for a mixture of control and forgiveness. Given Bethpage's notoriously narrow fairways, Lowry's ZXi utility iron will likely get a workout off the tees this week as well.

PING Blueprint

Revered as perhaps the prettiest irons on the market, both of PING's Blueprint iron models boast a significant cohort of fans on tour as well, with the likes of Tony Finau, Joaquin Niemann and Sahith Theegala all gaming the line in some form. Naturally, both the Blueprint S and Blueprint T irons are set to make appearances at Bethpage as well, with Tyrrell Hatton playing the former and US debutant Harris English gaming its even sleeker sibling. Matt Fitzpatrick also briefly played the Blueprint S following the 2023 Ryder Cup before re-adopting the PING S55 irons he uses to this day.