Review: TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC iron

TAYLORMADE TOUR PREFERRED MC combines a player’s shape with a shallow “muscle cavity” to boost MOI, creating an unparalleled blend of beauty, feel, workability and stability.

The 3- through 7-iron incorporate TaylorMade’s renowned Speed Pocket technology to promote increased ball speed in the lower portion of the clubface for more consistent ball speed and launch conditions across the entire face.

The clubhead’s length, top line and sole-width are all slightly larger compared to the Tour Preferred MB.

Looks

Oozes class. Another beautiful looking iron that will appeal to the better players. It features a nice, thin top edge but also appears to have a longer face, which will no doubt still suit the guys in the high singles. Some of the lower handicappers might not like that though. One of the better looking irons.

Feel

Very rewarding sensation off the face with a nice, soft blow. It's a fast face too, so it's ideal. Hot and soft - the perfect combination. The standard KBS Tour, as we keep saying, is one of our favourite shafts on the market. It's just so easy to control through impact, particularly against something like a True Temper S300. Tour Velvet grip is also very comfortable for a standard offering.

Performance

Very forgiving, very powerful and very workable. One of the easiest player irons to work both ways. Balls were flying on an ideal mid-high trajectory, too. Distance is so hot however that it could cause a few problems as the Speed Pocket works its magic. This iron will take a bit of practice to get used to the distance gains but you could be onto a winner after several weeks. Distance control is superb, though. It wasn't as if one ball was finishing shorter than the other, they were all flying long. 

Verdict

Looks, feels and performs superb. One of the best player irons on the market. Only drawback is distance, which while a positive in the sense it gets you out there and won't ever leave you short of the pin, the 6-iron was coming out at easily 5-iron distance. Remarkably, the 6-iron is 30-degree loft, one of the highest in the test, so it just goes to show how powerful and impressive the Speed Pocket technology is. This will certainly suit the better player concerned with distance. Expensive at £850 but these really are quite special.

Click here for TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC iron owner reviews. Click this link to see how the Tour Preferred MC performed in our 10 of the Best Player Irons Test 2014.