In this video, Joel Tadman tests out the Edel SMS iron, which is one of very few irons in existence that feature adjustable weights. Edel claims that positioning the weights in the correct position for your swing and strike, golfers should experience improved distance and accuracy but we wanted to put this theory to the test. So Joel takes the irons onto a par three at Burghley Park Golf Club with his Full Swing Kit launch monitor and moved the weights around to see what effect it really had.
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00:00now we're all familiar with adjustable drivers and how they can optimize your launch conditions
00:04for every swing but what about transferring that to other clubs in your bag so far we haven't
00:10really seen it a great deal pxg have dabbled a little bit with their precision weighting but
00:14there's a new kid on the block in the category of adjustable irons and it's from edel golf this is
00:19their new sms iron sms stands for swing match system we've seen it with their wedges and now
00:25they've transferred it into their irons and i'm really curious to see exactly what adjustable
00:29weighting in irons can do for my dispersion because i do struggle with my accuracy on my iron shots
00:34and edel say that this concept should enhance your club face control it should they say also give you
00:40a little bit more distance if you get the weight in the right place so i'm curious to find out
00:44exactly if that works or not we're at the beautiful ninth hole here at birdie park golf club i'm going
00:49to hit some shots on the launch monitor to give me some numbers and also obviously assess the ball
00:54flight that we get in those three positions so let's get onto the tee hit some shots and see how
00:58it performs so before i hit some shots my first impressions with this edel sms iron although it's
01:04actually a really nice looking club it's a little bit bulky kind of front to back it's relatively thick
01:08obviously got to house those three different weights so that's understandable but this is a
01:12player's distance iron it's actually hollow in construction so it's filled with foam inside the
01:16head dampen the vibrations give you a softer feel but it's a forged head it looks really nice and it
01:22has a seven iron loft of 32 degrees so relatively traditional in that player's distance iron category
01:28i'm going to hit some shots here got a flag 170 yards away into the wind so it's probably
01:33going to be a little bit too tough for us to get shots all the way back to the flag of a day like
01:37today but what we're really looking at is the distance we're getting on the full swing kit launch
01:41monitor which i've got set up down here and then also obviously observing the ball flight in those
01:46three different weight positions so i've got the weight in the middle first of all let's hit some shots got
01:49tightless prover on x golf balls hit three balls with each and we'll see how the performance compares in those three different weight positions
02:05it's not a bad one to start slight draw there in that with the weight in the middle
02:09first impressions down that dress actually is quite a nice looking club it's relatively compact
02:13but that kind of still manages to frame the ball really well there's a hint of offset there the top
02:18line's quite thick compared to most players distance lines not everyone will like that but
02:22actually it kind of strikes a good balance of being quite inviting to hit without looking too chunky
02:28overall so i'd say looks wise it ticks the boxes from a field perspective that first shot doesn't feel
02:34as springy off the face as a lot of players distance irons actually felt quite hard and harsh so maybe
02:39from a field perspective the foam isn't quite doing the job it's supposed to be doing doesn't feel overly
02:44soft we're going to hit a few more balls i said three with each in those weight positions and then
02:50we'll compare the performance
02:58okay so i've finished my exhaustive testing of this edel sms iron and there's a few findings that i'd
03:15like to share with you in this verdict the first thing that actually as i went through the testing
03:19and started to hit more solid shots the feel of this club really improved so yes it does feel a little
03:24bit hard but actually it feels quite solid off the face and i actually really enjoyed the feel
03:28by the end of the testing session that said it didn't quite give me the ball speed or distance
03:33that i was maybe expecting from an iron of this size and of this loft so for comparison i did on
03:38another day test this iron up against the new mizuno pro 223 which has the same seven iron loft
03:44as this one at 32 degrees and that club was going around about five yards longer on average and it is
03:49slightly smaller so that comes just goes to show that maybe you are sacrificing a little bit of
03:54distance with this club designed with the adjustable weighting versus a more traditional
03:58club of the same loft but that said it was interesting to for me to see the different
04:03performance characteristics through the weight setting so the first observation would be that
04:07actually even though edel say you might get a bit more distance in your optimal setting for me
04:11looking at the full swing kit launch monitor numbers which i'll flash up on the screen now the
04:15distances in each of the settings were pretty much exactly the same i was bang on about 160 yards
04:21in all three settings so i didn't really see an adjustment in the distance there so one key
04:25takeaway would be that actually how much the spin changed in three of those different weight settings
04:29so starting with the heavier weight in the heel position the spin was quite high around six seven
04:35and then moving into the middle it came down to about six four i think and then it came down even
04:39further with the heavier weight in the toe and there's quite significant differences in spin there
04:43which i wasn't really expecting so that's something obviously to bear in mind if you're going through
04:47a fitting process the spin profile does change with those different weight settings
04:51and then the big difference i would say would be the ball fight that's kind of the one thing we're
04:54looking at or expecting with this change in the weight positions is it altering the ball flight and
04:59i would say absolutely yes it is i'm starting with the weight in the middle it was kind of pretty
05:03neutral for me a soft draw is what i normally expect to see with a with a seven iron and that's what i was
05:08getting with this club and then when i moved into the toe that definitely changed to a straight shot
05:13or a slight fade which is definitely something i want to see as a player that tends to miss left
05:18quite a lot if i can start the ball at the pin slightly left of the pin and know that it's going
05:23to bleed back that's an ideal ball flight for me so i was really impressed to see that in that edel
05:28seven iron we're not talking massive difference but it was probably a good two to three yards more to
05:32the right versus with the weight of the middle and then finally when i moved the weight into the heel
05:36what was interesting is that the dispersion was a lot wider so it didn't necessarily draw more than
05:44the other it probably did draw a little bit but actually i was missing more shots to the right
05:48more shots to the left dispersion was a lot more erratic and i think that just goes down to the fact
05:52that my general strike pattern with an iron is is center it's slightly towards the toe so you've got
05:58more of a difference there between where the weight is and where the strike is and therefore the gear
06:01effect is going to be greater so i think that definitely contributed to a wider dispersion pattern
06:06with the weight in the heel so for me obviously the optimum setting would probably be in the toe was
06:10expecting to get a little bit more distance out of the toe out of the toe weight setting because it
06:15felt a bit more solid out of there but obviously the launch monitor suggested that it was pretty
06:19consistent across those three different settings and what i like about that toe weight setting is that
06:24you can still draw it if you want to it's not like you're only limited to playing a fade if you do
06:28move that heavier weight into the toe so you've got the ability to draw it if you need to you can get
06:32custom weights through a fitting with edel so you can have four or ten grams depending on what you
06:37want if you go through that process you can really dial it in but i've been very surprised by the
06:42impact of this adjustable weight technology within an iron i think it's definitely going to help people
06:46control the direction their golf shots a little bit more easily this iron comes in at 250 dollars a
06:51club so it's quite a premium product but you're not going to get many irons that offer this kind of
06:57precision adjustability with your dispersion pattern so it's definitely worth trying if you struggle with
07:02your accuracy on your iron shots if you want to hit more greens if iron play is your weakness
07:06something like this concept could definitely have a positive impact on your iron play so there's
07:12undoubtedly some merit in the concept of moving a weight around in the head and obviously if you
07:15go through an iron fitting process you are able to change the dispersion and the shot pattern
07:20by adjusting lie angle and the shaft profile of the iron but i think moving the weight around
07:25inside the head like we've seen with this edel sms iron has a bit more of an impact potentially on
07:30on the dispersion of your shots and kind of reducing or increasing the gear effect that
07:34you get on the strikes and depending on where you hit the face so a lot of merit to the concept
07:38and i've really enjoyed testing it out today so that concludes our look at the edel sms iron if
07:44you like the video make sure you click the like button do subscribe to the golf monthly youtube channel
07:48so you don't miss any of our equipment review videos but from me from burley park golf club
07:52just goodbye and i'll see you next time