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PXG 0211 Z Metalwoods and Hybrid Irons

Friday, 12 November 2021

The PXG 0211 Z is designed for less skilled or lower swing speed golfers. The new lineup includes a driver, fairway, hybrid and hybrid irons. Available now.

The pitch for the new PXG 0211 Z was simple and straightforward. “I would love to send you a set of clubs for someone in your life who is golf-interested and has a very low skill level,” the email read.

I had but one thought …

“Honey …”

A little background here: My wife has been threatening to take up golf for a few years. A time or two, she’s asked me to get her clubs and, once or twice, I almost did. Ultimately, I didn’t and I’m none the worse for it. But when the opportunity arose to try clubs explicitly designed for the golf-interested with very low skill, something just felt right. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have said a word. I could have saved the clubs for her birthday. She’d never have known the difference. Total lack of foresight on my part.

I digress.

The Reason for 0211 Z

The background info behind the new PXG 0211 Z golf clubs should be familiar. COVID has led to an influx of new golfers and a return of lapsed golfers. We’re talking about a collection of beginners, slow swingers and others who haven’t exactly mastered the game. The general health of the golf equipment industry suggests there’s a lot of new gear being sold but it’s also true that a significant number of beginners are playing hand-me-downs. It doesn’t have to be that way and, not for nuthin’, 30-handicappers bagging Top-Flite blades is something none of us should abide. The alternatives include cheap box sets and other assorted bits of miscellany which collectively haven’t been optimized for anyone.

That’s where 0211 Z comes in.

The PXG 0211 Z family is optimized for slow swing speed golfers and, yeah, golfers with lower skill levels. It’s a product designed to be easy to hit, make the game easier and maybe even enjoyable. If those objectives meant defying some traditional design conventions, so be it. You and I may obsess over forged irons with clean lines but there’s a large segment of new golfers and even potential golfers who don’t care. My wife certainly doesn’t.

With 0211 Z, there are no lofts stamped on the clubs. The idea is to keep it simple and intuitive. As the numbers on the soles get bigger, they don’t go as far. Golf is counterintuitive that way and I suppose the sand wedge is going to require some explanation, but it’s a sensible approach that every beginner should be able to wrap their head around.

With the basics out of the way, let’s dig into the individual clubs.

PXG 0211 Z Driver

It’s worth mentioning that while the new PXG lineup addresses the needs of less-skilled golfers, it doesn’t do so at the expense of technology. A good bit of what you’ll find in the metalwoods trickles down from the company’s flagship GEN4 lineup.

Beginners need all the help they can get. They shouldn’t be seen as an opportunity to cut corners.

With that in mind, the 0211 Z driver leverages the same TI412 face material as PXG’s more mainstream stuff. The 0211 Z features a carbon-fiber crown and while the stepped design is unique, it’s purposefully designed to allow PXG to make the 0211 Z’s footprint as large as possible, keep MOI high, the center of gravity low and still stay within the USGA limits. If you swing over 100 mph, you’re probably going to spin the hell out of it but not everything is made for you.

The look is unconventional but I don’t hate it.

Building on the idea of making 0211 Z clubs easy to hit, the driver offers a generous 16 degrees of loft. The stock length for men is 44 inches while women’s builds are 43. It’s a combination that should make the 0211 Z driver easier to launch in the air and consistently so. There is a bit of draw bias and the lie angle is more upright than a standard driver but PXG certainly didn’t overcook it.

MOI is nine percent higher than the standard 0211 which should translate to forgiveness on the golf course. It’s an unexpected engineering effort for clubs designed to service beginners.

The 0211 Z driver’s stepped crown design does present some acoustic challenges. PXG was able to mitigate the problem with a pair of honeycomb TPE inserts. Is it going to sound as good as a GEN4 driver? Probably not but unless you’re out there trying to go full Bryson, it should be acceptable.

As with other PXG drivers, you get an adjustable loft sleeve. The days of PXG lining the perimeter of its drivers with tiny weights are over. The 0211 Z’s single weight is for swing weighting purposes only. The stock weight is 10 grams but additional weights are available in 2.5 gram increments from 2.5 to 20 . That creates significantly more fitting options than you’ll get from a Nitro Blaster set from Walmart.

PXG 0211 Z Fairway and Hybrid

The story of the 0211 Z fairway and hybrid (one of each comes with the set) doesn’t deviate much from the driver. The fairway wood (labeled 4) is 18 degrees. The 5-hybrid is 25 degrees. They’re both large profile designs similar to what you’d expect from others that play in the forgiving fairway and hybrid space.

Like the driver, the PXG 0211 Z fairway and hybrid feature a stepped crown. Both also have a dropped heel and toe as part of the design. The idea is to drive the center of gravity low to make the clubs as easy to launch as possible.

To that end, centers of gravity are lower than they are in the standard 0211, though I suspect the target buyer isn’t going to care about that, even if they’ll appreciate the benefits. The design is a bit like the new Adams Tight Lies (though not to the same extent) in that the faces are taller to give golfers a bit more room to miss high.

As with the driver, a honeycomb TPE insert helps keep sound and feel pleasant without the need for rib structures.

The fairway and hybrid are loft adjustable and offer a single swing weight-tunable weight port.

PXG 0211 Z Hybrid Irons

As we transition to the six hybrid irons (6-iron through sand wedge, 27 to 55 degrees) that make up the 0211 Z set, things really start to get interesting.

Before we get into that, I’d ask you to take a moment to ponder what a golf club might look like if it was purpose-built without the need to navigate the obstacles put up by golfers who have preconceived notions of what a golf club is supposed to look like.

We’re talking about a blank slate here and while that isn’t going to work for established golfers, I’d wager that a lack of experience makes new golfers more open to function over form.

With that said, allow me to state the obvious. The PXG 0211 Z hybrid irons are big and bulky but that’s the cost of a club designed to be easy AF to hit. If you’ve never hit golf balls with any regularity, that last bit should prove to be the most important.

Like most other PXG irons, the 0211 Z hybrid irons feature hollow-body construction. While there is a bit of goo for swing weighting and sound dampening, you’re not getting the full polymer-filled PXG experience. To be clear, it’s not that PXG is cutting corners or scaling back tech to save a buck. The reality is that the 0211 Z irons are so big that air is about the only filling that doesn’t make the weight untenable.

To be sure, the 0211 Z hybrid irons don’t sound like other PXG irons and this is perhaps a case where I might even advocate for a softer golf ball but, again, the target audience for this lineup isn’t the person trying to decide between Left Dash and Chrome Soft X LS.

When it comes to the look at address, what you see is, more or less, what you get. The PXG 0211 Z hybrid irons offer a deep body, wide soles, a square face, significant offset and a stepped-back design. That last bit serves the need to push centers of gravity low and back. Again, we’re talking about doing everything possible to make the clubs as easy to hit as possible.

Knocking them around a bit, I’ve come to believe it’s near impossible to hit them fat. It’s a fascinating experience that led me to ask myself, “Could I …?” Probably not. But maybe.

PXG isn’t the only brand to try a two-toned silver-and-black combination with irons in the extra-super-duper-game-improvement space. The idea is to use the black PVD back to hide some of the bulk or at least blend it in. At address, I suppose one could argue it looks a bit like a shadow but at the end of the day, it’s a big iron and no amount of visual trickery can change that.

The PXG 0211 Z hybrid irons look big at address—and probably in your nightmares, too—but dare I say the finish does perhaps make it look just a bit smaller than it is? More importantly, the bulk in the design should serve beginning and low swing speed golfers exceptionally well.

“This isn’t a club for everyone,” says Brad Schweigert, Chief Product Officer at PXG. “What makes it great for new players with not a lot of speed doesn’t make it great for a lot of players.”

If it’s not for you, it’s not for you, but if you’re anything like my very low-skilled wife, maybe.

PXG 0211 Z Fitting

Where fitting is concerned, you absolutely can go to a PXG fitting location and be fitted for the 0211 Z. It’s an option PXG fitters will be able to offer their customers but PXG is also aware that there can be an intimidation factor to club fitting and that’s especially true for new golfers. Golfers who haven’t developed a repeatable swing may not want to get fitted.

To best serve those golfers, PXG has developed some basic fitting logic. By understanding your height, age, gender and dexterity, PXG can probably do a better job of fitting you online than the kid working in the sporting goods section at Target.

Buying Options

There are several options for buying PXG 0211 Z golf clubs. For golfers who just want to dip their toes in a bit, you can buy a three-piece wood set or a six-piece hybrid-iron set. If you’re ready to go all in, the not-a-box-set option includes three metalwoods, six hybrid-irons, an 0211 putter, a bag, a hat and maybe a bowl of soup.

The 0211 Z offering speaks to the idea that just because you’re new to the game, you don’t have to play hand-me-downs or box set garbage. New golfers can want nice things, too, and, presumably, they want something that’s going to make the game more enjoyable out of the gate.

To be sure, the PXG 0211 Z is one of the more expensive offerings for new golfers and I would think that anyone jumping in either has money to burn or is fully committed to forging a lasting relationship with the game. In either case, we’re talking about a segment that expects a quality product designed with them in mind.

If nothing else, it’s always good to have options.