Many iron sets like to claim themselves as the “longest and most forgiving” iron sets ever made, just like the TaylorMade SIM2 Max OS Irons.
Why? Because the majority of golfers NEED the extra forgiveness on mishits and WANT the extra distance for ego purposes.
Read that again. No one needs to hit their irons longer. Some golfers NEED to hit their driver longer to reach holes in regulation. But no one physically NEEDS to hit their irons longer. They can just club up to a longer club.
Strong Lofts
(I wanted to make this is first heading of the post to ensure that everyone reads it)
Unfortunately, people still irrationally want to hit the ball further, even with their irons. So what did companies do? They try to make the golf ball travel further off the iron’s club face. At some point, companies have hit a stand still. They have optimized club faces, reduced the weight of club heads, and added ball speed features. There is nothing (under USGA regulation) that is going to make a significant difference anymore.
So what is the new trend? Well, it’s really simple. These companies are now taking an old 7 iron and stamping an “8” or maybe even “9” on it to trick golfers into thinking they gained distance. We call that “strong lofts”, AKA “tricking naive golfers into buying overpriced clubs that boost your ego and nothing else”. You can refer to them either of the two ways.
And with that blunt introduction, I’d like to introduce the TaylorMade SIM2 Max OS irons. They have really, really strong lofts.
Appearance
The club heads of the TaylorMade SIM2 Max OS irons are, as the name suggests, oversized. Larger toplines, larger club faces, larger soles, and more offset. An oversized design essentially makes the sweet spot larger to allow for a larger margin of error on your iron shots.
Some guys like thick girls, while others like skinny ones. I think it’s safe to say that is a fact. The same is true with irons.
Some golfers like the sleek look of a compact club head, while others like the resassuring look of a larger, oversized club head like this one. You’ll have a hard time finding a more oversized club head than the TaylorMade SIM2 Max OS irons. The only larger club heads would be hybrid style irons that are targeted typically towards seniors.
Performance
There’s no need to sugarcoat here. This is an honest review, and I intend to always keep it that way.
These irons are super long and forgiving. If you are comparing your current irons to these, I’m sure that you will notice a big increase in distance, and probably a small increase in forgiveness. It depends on what irons you are currently gaming, obviously.
However, keep in mind that we need to get down to the source of these improvements. I’ll do it for you:
- The added distance is coming 99% from the super strong lofts – nothing else. The average 7 iron loft is around 32-33 degrees. The TaylorMade SIM2 Max OS 7 iron loft is 27 degrees. That’s a huge difference. If you gain 15 yards compared to your current 7 iron, that’s just because the lofts are bent stronger than other irons.
- The added forgiveness is due to a huge, clunky design with larger everything (club heads, soles, toplines, offset, etc). However, a huge increase in size leads to lots of negative effects, like poor distance control, poor feel, poor workability, and an obviously poor appearance.
Irons like this are meant for distance and forgiveness. That’s it. They are bad in practically every other category that you can think of. It’s important that you keep this in mind before you purchase. The TaylorMade SIM2 Max OS irons have poor feel, poor workability, and terrible distance control.
If you are looking for a set of irons that will help you grow into a mid to low handicap golfer, this isn’t what you want. This set, if anything, will hold you back from quickly improving your ballstriking due to the extra forgiveness. Before you make a big purchase like this, consider what kind of golfer you are going to be in 2-3 years. Will you outgrow these irons before then? If so, then you might as well go ahead and make the jump to a less forgiving iron that will help you improve quicker anyway.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Possibly the longest irons that you can get your hands on in 2021 (but keep in mind that’s due to stupidly strong lofts that are simply deceiving to golfers that don’t know any better)
- More forgiveness than any golfer will ever need
- Very high launching, which is great for those that struggle with generating enough club head speed
- Overall, a great set of irons for someone that wants as much help as they can get
Cons:
- Poor feel at impact, poor sound at impact, hard to work the ball (down, left, and right) when you need to
- Won’t help you improve quickly, as it will cover up your mistakes instead of encourage you to fix them
- Many reviews of club faces getting scratched up easily (TaylorMade is apparently hiding their bad reviews on their website at the moment, which is BS)
- Blatantly trying to deceive golfers with the stupidly strong lofts. If you don’t look at the iron specs, you’d never know the lofts are that ridiculous.
- Irons will lose significant value when the SIM3 clubs come out next week (my best guess).
Who Should Buy The TaylorMade SIM2 Max OS Irons?
You should buy these irons if ALL of the following is true:
- You want the most forgiving and longest iron on the market
- You don’t care about feel/sound/distance control/feedback/workability
- You don’t care about the strong lofts being the reason that this is the longest iron on the market
- You don’t care about getting the best VALUE clubs on the market. Money is no concern to you.
- You don’t expect to “outgrow” these clubs quickly, meaning that you don’t expect to want a more compact set of players irons anytime soon
Max vs Max OS Iron Set Differences
TaylorMade released the Max irons and the Max OS irons together. Want to know the differences? Of course you do.
In general, these are the exact same clubs, except for two minor differences:
- The Max OS irons are more oversized, just as the name suggests. This means the Max OS irons have a more offset hosel, larger toplines, wider soles, and larger club faces in general. In general, the Max OS will be more forgiving and have a slightly larger sweet spot.
- The Max OS irons are stronger lofted than the Max. This means they will go further, obviously. This provides practically no benefit besides a boost to your ego.
Better Value Option
A similar performing set of irons that will cost you far less is the Callaway XR OS irons. The XR series from Callaway is one of my favorite series of clubs to recommend. 6 years after the release, they still offer all of the performance that you’ll need but without the hefty price tag.
Like the TaylorMade SIM2 Max OS irons, the Callaway XR OS irons are oversized to add lots of forgiveness on your mishits. While they are not as strongly lofted as TaylorMade’s irons, they are still super long.
While the TaylorMade irons sell for $800, the Callaway XR OS irons can be picked up for $250 in excellent condition.
New TaylorMade irons are NEVER a good value option. The prices are high for the first 6 months and then fall off a cliff when the new clubs are released. So, if you are going to buy TaylorMade golf clubs, I’d highly recommend that you wait 2-5 years after the clubs are released to buy them. That way, you get the benefit of current technology, but the prices are often 1/4 the price of the original MSRP. Irons that sell for $1,000 today can generally be bought for $250 in great condition 5 years down the road.
