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When it comes to selecting your next set of irons it is likely that you would be better seeing what can be learned from the iron sets of the top LPGA Tour pros rather than their male colleagues.
Swing speeds of the average male golfer match much more closely to LPGA Tour players than they do to the best players in the men’s game, and although there is little else in common between the average golfer and the top women pros from a skill perspective, there is plenty to learn from the iron choices of best women pros.
So we took a detailed look at the irons the top 50 players on the LPGA Tour are using.
14 different brands and 38 models of irons are used by the top 50 LPGA Tour golfers. PING is the dominant brand among this group with 12 players choosing them. Titleist and PXG irons are the next most played with 7 and 6 golfers each using them. The most common iron set up, chosen by over 50%, is 5-iron to pitching wedge.
The number of different brands and iron models used by some of the best players in the women’s game highlights how precise each player clearly is when it comes to choosing their equipment.
Each player is determined to find the best iron set up that matches their game, swing and desired ball flight and as such it is no surprise to find such a variety of irons among this elite LPGA group as they all strive to maximise the advantages individual irons give them.
Despite this variety however when you look at the irons used by the top 50 LPGA players, including the shafts they choose, some general trends do emerge which we believe every average player can learn from.
It is also fascinating to see the similarities between the iron choices of many of the top women pros and their male colleagues on the PGA Tour.
Breakdown of Most Popular Irons Used on the LPGA Tour
Comparing iron sets between different players is not as easy a task as it used to be.
Not all that long ago the top players in both the women’s and the men’s game would be choosing a 3-iron to pitching wedge iron set with the occasional player adding a 1-iron or 2-iron into the mix.
With the advent of driving/utility irons and especially hybrids however, there is now no such thing as a ‘standard’ set of irons as different LPGA players now choose to start their iron set with either a 4-iron, 5-iron or even 6-iron.
Many also do not bother with the pitching wedge common to the rest of their irons and prefer to play 3 or 4 specialist wedges instead.
And that is before we even consider the 8 out of the top 50 LPGA players who are using two and even three different types and models of irons in their set of clubs.
In spite of these trends though we managed to pull together a complete analysis of the irons used by the top 50 LPGA Tour players in order to discover what the most popular irons on the tour are.
PING’s i210 irons are the most popular irons among the top 50 LPGA golfers. 8 players use them for all their iron set with another 3 pros using a number of i210 irons alongside other models. Titleist’s T100 irons are the second most popular with 5 using them. PXG’s 0311 P Gen3 and 0211 ST irons are the next most used.
No data was available for 3 of the top 50 players – Pajaree Anannarukarn, Yealimi Noh and Xiyu Lin – but it is interesting to note that no other iron model from any of the other manufacturers, with the exception of Mizuno’s JPX 919 Tour irons, was used by more than one of the top 50 players.
It is also interesting to note that the two most popular iron sets among the top 50 on the LPGA Tour are exactly the same models as the two most popular iron models used by the top 100 players on the PGA Tour.
The only difference on the PGA Tour is that Titleist’s T100 irons are the most popular with PING’s i210 being second.
Turning our attention then to the iron set ups of the top 50 pros on the LPGA Tour we noted, after discounting driving/utility irons from the comparison, that the dominant iron set up choice is 5-iron to pitching wedge with close to half of this elite group choosing that set up.
15 of the top 50 then prefer to start their iron set with a 4-iron and carry irons all the way through to a pitching wedge with the other iron set ups proving to be much less popular.
The chart below shows the full range of iron set ups currently being used by the top 50 LPGA players.
The complete breakdown of which irons used are used by the top 50 players on the LPGA Tour, including golfers who only use one individual iron of a particular model, is as follows:
| IRONS USED | NO. OF TOP 50 LPGA TOUR PLAYERS | SELECTED PLAYERS | |
| Bridgestone Tour B 201CB | 1 | Jin Young Ko | Check eBay |
| Callaway Apex Pro ’19 | 1 | Georgia Hall | Check eBay |
| Callaway Apex TCB | 1 | Jeongeun Lee6 | Check eBay View at Callaway Golf |
| Callaway X-Forged ’18 | 1 | Madelene Sagstrom | Check eBay |
| Cobra S2 Forged | 1 | Lexi Thompson | Check eBay |
| Fourteen TC-788 | 1 | Amy Yang | Check eBay |
| Fourteen TC-888 | 1 | Angel Yin | Check eBay |
| Honma TW717 V | 1 | Shanshan Feng | Check eBay |
| Miura TC-101 | 1 | Yuka Saso | Check eBay |
| Mizuno JPX825 Pro | 1 | Stacy Lewis | Check eBay |
| Mizuno JPX919 Tour | 2 | Eun-Hee Ji, Sei Young Kim (4-iron) | Check eBay |
| Mizuno MP-20 MMC | 1 | Sei Young Kim (5-iron to PW) | Check eBay |
| Mizuno MP-66 | 1 | A Lim Kim (4-iron, 5-iron) | Check eBay |
| Mizuno MP-18 SC | 1 | A Lim Kim (6-iron to PW) | Check eBay |
| PING G400 Crossover | 1 | Lizette Salas (5-iron) | Check eBay |
| PING i210 | 11 | Brooke M. Henderson, Jennifer Kupcho, Leona Maguire, Patty Tavatanakit, Lizette Salas, Caroline Masson | Check eBay |
| PING G410 | 1 | Caroline Masson (4-iron) | View at PGA Superstore |
| PING i200 | 1 | Brittany Altomare | Check eBay |
| PING iBlade | 1 | Esther Henseleit (7-iron to PW) | Check eBay |
| PXG 0211 ST | 3 | Megan Khang, Ryann O’Toole, Austin Ernst (7-iron to PW) | Check eBay |
| PXG 0311 P Gen3 | 3 | Lydia Ko, Mina Harigae, Austin Ernst (5-iron) | Check eBay |
| PXG 0311 T Gen3 | 1 | Austin Ernst (6-iron), | Check eBay |
| PXG 0311 T Gen2 | 1 | Gaby Lopez | Check eBay |
| Srixon Z765 | 1 | Moriya Jutanugarn | Check eBay |
| Srixon Z785 | 2 | Hannah Green, Nasa Hataoka | Check eBay |
| Srixon ZX7 | 1 | Minjee Lee | View at PGA Superstore Check eBay View on Amazon View at Worldwide Golf Shops |
| TaylorMade P770 | 2 | Celine Boutier, Nanna Koerstz Madsen (3-iron to 5-iron) | View at The Golf Warehouse Check eBay View on Amazon |
| TaylorMade P760 | 1 | Nanna Koerstz Madsen (6-iron to PW) | Check eBay View on Amazon |
| TaylorMade R BladeZ | 1 | Jenny Shin | Check eBay |
| Titleist 716 AP2 | 1 | Ariya Jutanugarn | Check eBay |
| Titleist 716 CB | 1 | Danielle Kang | Check eBay |
| Titleist T100 | 5 | Nelly Korda, Anna Nordqvist, Jessica Korda, Matilda Castren, So Yeon Ryu | View at Titleist.com Check eBay View at PGA Superstore |
| XX10 X | 1 | Inbee Park | View at Worldwide Golf Stores |
| Yonex CB 701 | 1 | Hyo Joo Kim (5-iron, 6-iron) | Check eBay |
| Yonex CB 501 | 1 | Hyo Joo Kim (7-iron to PW) | Check eBay |
| No Data | 3 | Pajaree Anannarukarn, Yealimi Noh, Xiyu Lin |
Do LPGA Players Use Blades?
There are probably not many areas where the average golfer would assume the best LPGA players in the world have led the way but when it comes to iron type selection they have.
I remember years ago having the privilege to caddie for a Ladies European Tour player when one of their events was hosted at my home club and I always remember being struck by her bag containing not one blade iron.
Having grown up assuming all top players all used blades and cavity backs were the preserve of beginner and high handicap golfers this took me by surprise but given the quality of her shot making I should probably have paid more attention before I wasted my money buying my next set of blades which were far too hard for me to hit.
Looking at the iron set ups of the top 50 LPGA players today this trend of preferring cavity back irons over blades has clearly continued to the present.
In total only 3 of the top 50 Top LPGA players use blades. Megan Khang and Ryann O’Toole use a full set with Austin Ernst also using blades from 7-iron to pitching wedge. 44 use cavity back irons and this number increases to 45 when you take account of pros who use at least one cavity back iron as part of a mixed iron set.
When we looked previously at the iron set ups of the top players on the PGA Tour we found an increasing trend in that elite group of a preference for cavity backs over blade irons to the extent that blade iron players are now very much in the minority at the top of the mens game.
In this regard therefore it would seem that the best LPGA professionals have come more quickly to the conclusion than their male colleagues that they achieve better results by choosing the extra forgiveness and distance that is afforded to golfers using cavity back irons.
[Note – if you are interested in comparing the irons chosen by the top players on the LPGA with the PGA Tour check out our analysis of the irons used by the top 100 players on the PGA Tour here.]
What Iron Shafts Do LPGA Players Use?
While the top LPGA players set the trend when it came to using cavity back irons in preference to blades when we look at the iron shafts this elite group use they are clearly different to the ones used by the top men pros.
And the most obvious difference is evident when it comes to the shaft flex most LPGA players use.
As a general rule the top 50 LPGA players use either regular or stiff iron shafts. 11 players use stiff shafts in their irons while 7 use regular iron shafts. 2 players use a regular+ iron shaft while Ally Ewing is the only player who uses a stiff flex shaft in her 5-iron but a regular shaft from 6-iron to pitching wedge.
Unfortunately no iron shaft data is available for 27 out of the top 50 LPGA players but it is clear that when it comes to their irons the top women pros prefer a softer flex of iron shaft compared to their male colleagues as a result of their slower swing speed.
When it comes to the material of iron shafts used by the best LPGA players it is also clear that they are much more willing to use graphite iron shafts.
In total we found 11 of the top 50 players on the LPGA Tour use graphite iron shafts in their set with another 24 preferring steel shafted irons. Ally Ewing was again an outlier using a graphite iron shaft in her 5-iron before switching to a steel iron shaft for the rest of her irons.
A complete data set was again not available when it came to comparing how many LPGA players use graphite iron shafts with no data being available for 15 players on this topic and although there was no data on 26 players out of the top 50 when it came to looking at the weight of the iron shafts they choose we found the following for the rest.
As a whole a wide range of iron shaft weights is used by the top 50 LPGA players from 64g up to 131g. 5 players use iron shafts between 100 to 110g with 1 player each choosing a 115g, 125g and 131g shaft. Under the 100g mark 9 players use irons shafts between 90 and 100g with the most popular shaft weight being 106.5g.
Nippon iron shafts are the most popular brand of shafts among the top 50 players on the LPGA Tour with KBS and Aerotech iron shafts being the next most used brands. Nippon’s N.S. Pro 950GH is the most used individual shaft among this elite group with 8 players choosing it.
Here is a breakdown of the iron golf shafts used currently by the top 50 players on the LPGA Tour.
Check out the latest price on Amazon (unless otherwise stated) through the links in the table.
| BRAND | IRON SHAFT | NO. OF TOP 50 LPGA PLAYERS |
| Aerotech | SteelFiber i80cw | 2 |
| SteelFiber proto | 1 | |
| SteelFiber fc70 | 1 | |
| Graphite Design | Tour AD DI 6 SR | 1 |
| KBS | KBS Tour 90 | 2 |
| KBS C-Taper Lite | 2 | |
| KBS C-Taper | 1 | |
| KBS TGI | 1 | |
| Nippon Shaft | N.S. Pro 950GH | 8 |
| N.S. Pro Modus3 Tour 105 | 3 | |
| N.S. Pro 850GH (eBay link) | 1 | |
| PING | Z-Z65 | 2 |
| Alta CB 70 / AWT 2.0 | 1 | |
| True Temper | Dynamic Gold 105 S300 | 2 |
| ProjectX Rifle 5.0 | 1 | |
| ProjectX 5.5 | 1 | |
| UST Mamiya | Recoil 95 F4 | 1 |
| Recoil 760 ES SW F3 | 1 | |
| No Data | No Data | 15 |
[Note – if you are interested in comparing the golf shafts used by the top players on the LPGA with the PGA Tour check out our breakdown of the iron and driver shafts used by the top 100 players on the PGA Tour here.]
Other top posts related to this topic:
- What Clubs do LPGA players use? Top 50 Player Breakdown
- Most Popular Driver on LPGA Tour? Top 50 Player Guide
- What Golf Balls Do LPGA Players Use? Top 50 Player Breakdown
- Why Don’t Pros Use Coloured Golf Balls? It’s Not Black and White
- Are There Any PGA Tour Pros Without a Hole in One?
- How Do Pros Hit the Ball So Far? It’s Not About the Equipment!
- What Clubs Do Pro Golfers Use? Top 100 PGA Tour Player Guide
- Do Pros Use Regular or Stiff Shafts? They’re Stronger Than That!
- Do Pros Use Graphite or Steel Shafts? It Depends Which Club
- Should I Play Blades or Cavity Back Irons? Use Your Head
- Should Your Wedges Match Your Irons? Consistency is Key
- How Far Should I Hit My Irons? By Handicap, Age & Swingspeed