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In Hand Photos of the 2022 SEVEN MCB

Wednesday, 13 July 2022

As the owner of TSG, it would be an understatement to say that I’ve got a lot of golf clubs, not to mention new clubs arriving almost daily. Recently, when the weather is good, I am on the course at least 3-4 days a week not only to play but to try new golf clubs and take photos of them.

These are my thoughts and opinions, and FULL DISCLAIMER: I also own SEVEN golf & KYOEI golf. I am biased but for different reasons than you may think. I am critical of how clubs are made and marketed. As someone who has been and continues to visit the biggest, smallest, and best golf factories in the world, I have one of the most fulfilling jobs in the game. Those who know me well understand this madness. Click the Link to Read On…

Today I’m writing about the SEVEN MCB. To keep things simple let’s start with the basics. The MCB is a single-piece forged deep cavity iron. My recommended player type based on handicap is: professional to 20 hcp. It is developed and made 100% in Japan and (FULL MILLED). It features less offset than most blades. And the MCB is the most forgiving iron that SEVEN golf makes.

I am fully aware that manufacturing irons in Japan and choosing Full Milled manufacturing prices SEVEN out of the market for the vast majority of players, but I feel I’m in a unique position to design and make the most precise highest quality irons available to the player. Few others could get that done especially “made in Japan”, The golf market already has an ocean of brands producing countless iterations of the same gear manufactured the same way and even often side by side in the same factory. Not here and not with SEVEN.

All SEVEN full-milled irons are super expensive. The forging is done by the giant green Enomoto press, and these are arguably the best golf forging machines on earth. The cost for one SEVEN iron head at the factory in Japan is USD$230. Let that sink in…$230 COST at the factory. Some OEMs pay less than $20 per head for a single-piece forged head complete. The SEVEN MCB retails at $650 per head, that’s $3900 5-PW. Another reason why they are so expensive is that only six sets are produced each month. For much of the year, there is a waitlist on most models.

We use Siemens NX Cad software, the same as Tesla, Ferrari, Apple, GM, and many others. The CNC milling machines by DMG MORI.

Full Milled is overkill and reserved for only the most demanding players on the planet. The only golfers on tour currently using or have used Full Milled Irons are Tiger Woods, Rory Mcllroy, and Dustin Johnson. Please, someone, correct me if you know otherwise; I can only go by the video Taylormade posted on youtube about the CNC manufacturing of Tigers Irons. However, In my opinion, they are still not as good as SEVEN’s manufacturing and design. Another brand to dip their toes into the full milled iron segment is PXG they did release the 0311 ST Full Milled at $650 per club, although not made in Japan or the USA and not very attractive, in my opinion, that design doesn’t express the intricate effect that this manufacturing method can provide. When you look at the level of quality, material, fit and finish of the SEVEN irons, they are on another level compared to both Tiger/Rory/DJ’s Taylormade irons and PXG’s full-milled iron.

I hope I was able to convey to you how maniac SEVEN is. From Irons to wedges and putters I can clearly and proudly explain why and how the products are superior in so many ways.

The Goal: I wanted to make a beautiful and the most forgiving single-piece forged iron.

The constraint is often the head size, weight, and material. The main reason why multi-piece or multi-material clubs exist is so that the head can be made larger at the same weight; Forged carbon is dense and heavy while lighter materials allow for a more oversized head, The use of various steels or higher rebounding materials in the face and or body helps gain distance + forgiveness. There are always trade off’s. Single piece construction often looks and feels better. It sounds better and is more workable and accurate. The multi-piece is usually more forgiving and straight with more distance.

In the case of the MCBs, we got the CGs dialed in using progressive hosel lengths, shape, and internal cavity design. The back cavity is very DEEP and features a beautiful wide tapered sole with optimal rounded camber.

I kept the top line thin; it’s about 1mm thicker than most blades but hidden with some trick bead blast work. The offset is blade-like; in fact, we sought out the FP (face progression) measurement of many competitors’ irons, and strictly speaking, from a performance perspective, we should have given this iron more offset than it currently has. That said, I know what’s sexy and offset, isn’t it. Should an iron this forgiving have a blade-like offset? We say YES!

When it came to shaping, We did lots of testing in all conditions as well as shape refinement in CAD. We 3D scanned the most beautiful irons and took what worked and left what didn’t. Dozens of 3D printed samples were created to dial in the complete head shape and sole design. We zeroed in on a few key shapes to emphasize particular characteristics and re-tested them.

Shape affects performance significantly; It matters one of the most essential methods of moving weight. Some shapes and sole specs lend themselves to softer or firmer feedback during impact; players who want soft all over the face would prefer this style MCB shape, but some players (usually scratch to low cappers) want everything firm outside of the center struck for feedback on mishits, and that lends itself to a different shape. By using shape you can also design workability to some extent if all else is considered.

The MCB is the perfect soft. In general terms, I would describe it as less soft than a Mizuno, purer than an ENDO forging they both use Enomoto press), and easily better feel than any Miura. It’s all very subjective, but I would describe it as if a KYOEI Forging and Mizuno had a baby. I hope that helps.

The predecessor to this iron was also full milled and featured a similar shape and profile. The two perform nearly identical, except the new model has a slightly deeper and lower CG. If you own the original SEVEN MCB, I would say there is little reason to upgrade unless you want to retire the original to a backup position.

In this write-up, I’m sharing photos of the #5/#7/#PW. We have included the spec sheet below that lists the lofts, head weight, and face progression numbers. I did my best to include all the most important angles.

At the time of writing this post, we have 12 sets that just arrived which is two months’ worth of production. We had an unadvertised soft launch of 6 iron sets before release for our most discerning clients. The set is only sold 5-PW and can be had as head only or full-on custom built. The new MCB retails for $3900, and we expect them to go pretty quick. Thanks for reading!