Why pros did not use irons that "drive far and do not slant" in the Olympic games

The summer Olympic games was held amid the pandemic. Golf also created quite an excitement in Japan as its leading players were playing well. A silver medal was won in women’s golf, which I think conveyed the fun and excitement of the game to those not usually interested in golf.

When looking at the irons the contestants were using, I noticed something interesting. Both men and women were using compact and sharp models, as well as mainly single-material forged irons with wrought iron. Musclebacks among men and cavity backs among women were popular and accounted for large percentages, but in any case, you will not see many pocket cavities or hollow body irons, which are popular among amateurs.

The irons today in the market with the highest demand are by far the models that carry distance. Large weight is mounted on the sole to ensure a high trajectory while increasing the loft angle, resulting in a low center of gravity to levels previously unthinkable. The face is made of high-strength material and is made thinner than 2mm to improve repulsive force.

Furthermore, by adopting a hollow structure and pocket cavity, more weight is distributed around the head to achieve great mis-hit forgiveness and straight-line performance. Modern irons indeed demonstrate how they "drive far and do not slant."

Today’s irons are designed to carry distance, not slant, and achieve high trajectory performance. Recently, the feel of the ball when hit has been greatly improved using resin and other materials, and the irons continue to evolve further. However, isn’t it strange the top professionals do not use these superior performance irons?

The world’s top tour pros demand their irons to be able to carry the distance they expect without fail. More importantly, they place more emphasis on carrying vertical distance they calculated and maneuverability that allows to control the ball course. For these reasons, carrying too much distance or not being able to slant when you want to can have negative effects. What they are looking for are the performances of a compact and nimble sports car, not a large and stable sedan.

For amateurs, however, there is nothing more satisfying than being able to “drive far and not slant.” It would be even better if the ball rises easily as well. To this, PROTOCONCEPT designed its irons to have the forgiveness and distance performance that benefit average amateur golfers, while pursuing the maneuverability required by professionals and advanced players.

One of the rewards to our efforts is the rapidly increasing number of professionals using PROTOCONCEPT irons on tours outside Japan. They pick up the irons from PROTOCONCEPT, which are almost unknown on tours, and feel the superior performance of our irons and decide to use them. To our delight, some players have been performing well since the moment they made the switch.

They use different models out of the four iron types that PROTO-CONCEPT offers, as they each use the one they like best. No particular model is designed for professional use, but rather, all of them have the performance to withstand the demands of top professionals.

Unfortunately, there were no professionals using PROTO-CONCEPT club at this year's Olympic games competition held at the Kasumigaseki Country Club. The current performance of the professionals using the PROTO-CONCEPT, however, gives us hope we will be seeing them used in the next summer Olympics.

PROTO-CONCEPT Brand Producer
Yasufumi Kawasaki