With the best golfers in the world squaring off on perhaps the most famous golf course imaginable via The Masters at Augusta National, it’s the time of year when players wish they played a little better — and when some other folks think about taking up the game.
The new Air Force One AFX Game Improvement Irons keep their MSRP on par so veteran players looking to upgrade their equipment on a budget can trade up more easily. That means beginners can pick up a strong set of clubs without risking too much cash on a new, but promising venture.
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Air Force One is not a new name of the golf equipment scene. A driver from club maker PowerBilt carried that name. I reviewed it positively on these very pages when I had the chance to test one custom built for me. The name PowerBilt is no more, but Air Force One survives as a manufacturer of mid-range priced clubs made of solid materials.
The intention of the Game Improvement Irons is obvious. It’s right there in the name. Anyone looking into trying them out should understand going in that the new AFO AFX irons are full of gas.
AFO fills a compartment in the back of the irons with nitrogen to increase impact and compression off the face of the clubs. That gas squeezed into that metal compartment at 50 lb. PSI allows for less buried weight in the heel also, allowing for better overall balance.
The club face is oversized to reduce mishits and provide maximum forgiveness — key attributes for any clubs intended to improve a struggling golfers’s game. Of course, those same qualities make life easier on a beginning golfer who faces taking on a wonderfully difficult game for the first time.
Like many modern club sets, the AFO AFX don’t simply reproduce the same design for everything from a 3 iron through pitching wedge. The 3 and 4 irons are hybrid styles.
The 5 through 7 irons feature that nitrogen compartment and the oversized faces. From the 8 iron to pitch wedge use a deeper cavity in the rear to put the weight on the bottom of the club.
After getting a chance to hit a set with graphite shafts and rubberized grips, it’s clear to me that these clubs feel more expensive than their reasonable $500 MSRP might demand.
The weight is comfortably underneath the club, allowing the new or struggling golfer to keep the swing path in the channel and consistently ball-forward. The material construction is strong enough to offer a solid feel on contact, and that encourages confidence in an uncertain player.
That’s all a bargain when other name brand sets run anywhere from $800 to north of $1,000.
