Building on the momentum of Kalea Premier, TaylorMade’s Kalea Gold is a range of premium clubs designed for women by women. Four distinct cohorts of female golfers provided feedback on design and aesthetics to help engineers create a complete range of clubs for women of all abilities to play better golf.
I’ve tested the Kalea Gold driver, fairway wood, rescue and putter with pleasing results, so over multiple rounds, two in the US and two at my home club in the UK, I had high expectations for the irons to stand up against the best irons for women on the market.
In keeping with Kalea Gold’s colorway, the back of the head is highlighted in blue and gold and the same colors feature on the soft flex graphite shaft. Combined with a nice tacky SuperStroke grip makes for a stylish looking iron.
I felt comfortable and confident with these irons in my hand, probably due to the Cap Back design, which provides a lot of club behind the ball. By moving mass from the toe of the clubhead to the sole means that the centre of gravity is lowered and this increases launch angle and ball height. Cap Back provides other benefits too, including a larger sweet spot for forgiveness and improved face flexibility for faster ball speeds, which can potentially mean greater distance.
At this point, it’s also worth mentioning TaylorMade’s Speed Pocket technology, which was first introduced in 2009. It has been refined since but a slot in the sole helps the clubface flex and rebound faster, so combined with Cap Back, this also helps to promote a faster ball speed and better feel.
So, feeling confident over the ball and knowing these irons are packed with technology, how did they perform? They are nicely weighted, not too head heavy and I found them effortless to swing. From that respect they are on a par with Ping G Le3 and XXIO 13 irons.
From my first swing using the 8-iron, I was impressed not only by the strong and high ball flight, but the soft landing of my approach shot. From SW through to 6-iron, while I didn’t notice any distance gains, these irons excel with consistent accuracy and I really love the soft sound off the clubface, which is thanks to an ECHO Damper. I’m not the strongest iron player, so I was pleased with the noticeable forgiveness on mis-hits - that horrible thinned shot! Also, the chunky wide sole made it easier to play through the rough in winter conditions.
Talking of chunky, my favourite club in this set is the pitching wedge as I found it easy to control on a variety of greenside shots, popping the ball up nicely and providing me with much needed short game confidence.
Overall, for women with a slow to medium swing speed who are looking for greater accuracy from fairway to green, I’d recommend these game improvement irons.
