Far and Wide

The new TPS Wide-Soled Iron set from Powerbilt features an extra-wide sole formed by the milling of a small cavity into the back of the club heads. This design, company officials said, helps make the clubs more forgiving without compromising distance, trajectory and feel.

The sets come with #3 and #4 hybrid clubs that replace the traditional long irons and act as complements to the remainder of the traditional middle and short irons.

The hybrid clubs come with graphite shafts and a lightweight composite crown, which allowed the Powerbilt engineers to shift weight lower and toward the back of the club head. A tungsten insert lowers the center of gravity and gives clubs a draw bias for additional distance and accuracy.

In each hybrid, the sweet spot is geometrically centered, the head weight is balanced and the hosel is strengthened to help golfers better overcome bad lies. The hybrids also feature USGA-conforming U-Grooves to improve spin.

Employing new technology, PowerBilt CNC milled a small cavity into the back of the stainless steel club head on each iron. The cavity is angled into the super-wide sole (which features a four-way tour grind), then filled with a lighter, vibration-dampening composite material.

PowerBilt also replaced the saved weight with two strategically placed tungsten injections at the bottom of the club head. The result is the lowest center of gravity a golfer can find in modern, wide-soled cavity back irons.

The suggested retail price for the TPS Wide-Soled Irons set with steel shaft irons and two graphite-shafted hybrids is $499. Retail for a set with all graphite shafts is $549.

Copyright 2005 PGA.com. All rights reserved.