PXG 0311 GEN6 Irons (P and XP)

If you’re interested in where PXG is as a business today, I touched on that a bit in my story on the 0311 GEN6 driver family. (No need to copy and paste. You guys know how links work.)

For the 0311 GEN6 iron family, I’m going to go light on the introduction (for once) and jump right into the products.

PXG 0311 GEN6 Irons – The Basics

With the 0311 GEN6 iron family, PXG is streamlining things a touch. While the familiar P and XP models carry on, the 0311 T model is gone from the lineup.

Boo! Boo!

I’m not thrilled about that and we’ll dig into it later.

As far as the irons that do exist are concerned, with the 0311 GEN6 P and XP irons, you’re getting a good bit of what PXG already gave you with GEN5.

You’ve still got Power Channel. That’s “PXG speak” for a U-shaped milling pattern on the back side of the face that works to increase launch angles.

XCOR2 filling carries on as well. That’s the latest iteration of PXG’s proprietary polymer that supports its thin faces, provides resiliency and improves feel.

The bodies are still 5x forged from 8620. And while I accept that you probably don’t care about that, the point is that 8620 strikes a sensible balance between soft feel and durability.

Faces (welds) are robotically polished as well and the back side of the club is still milled. All that works to keep tolerances tight. Consistently on-spec head weights go a long way towards building on-spec sets.

You also get big chunks of tungsten in the heel and toe along with a precision swing weight. The latter comes in the form of a big screw in the middle of the club. It’s not meant to be end-user (or, I suppose, end-golfer) swappable but it’s one of the levers PXG fitters can pull to optimize performance for any given golfer.

You also get a bit of clever toprail shaping that allows PXG to give you the benefit of a thicker topline without any unnecessary and often off-putting visual bulk. For my money, PXG designers are the best in the industry at this particular aspect of iron design.

Unfortunately, it’s a bit harder to hide blade length and offset and, while the P isn’t egregious for the category, it’s got a bit more of both than I like to see.

Did I mention the lack of a GEN6 T option?

PXG 0311 GEN6 Irons – Thinner Faces

With all of that said, the story of the PXG 0311 GEN6 irons is the face.

The 0311 GEN6 irons feature a variable-thickness HT1770 face. The ripple here is that the base thickness is 15 percent thinner than the previous iterations.

Face thickness is a reasonably common talking point in iron stories, especially those in speed-favoring categories, but I’m also aware they’re perhaps not the most exciting to read.

That said, and at the risk of boring you, there are a few things I’d like to point out.

When PXG launched the original 0311 irons nearly eight years ago, its iron faces were half as thick as anything else on the market. For a first crack at the iron business, it was an impressive feat.

Eight years in, while its competitors have thinned some faces a little, nobody has come close to achieving an iron face as thin as PXG’s.

Granted, not every category requires a thin face but, given the industry’s general obsession with such things, it’s surprising PXG hasn’t been challenged.

Lastly, before GEN6, PXG hadn’t been able to make its faces any thinner so the fact that we’re talking about a thinner PXG face is something.

Getting More out of XCOR2

The 0311 GEN6 iron’s thinner face wouldn’t have been possible with the original XCOR material. According to PXG Chief Product Officer Brad Schweigert, faces would have dented after a single hit.

XCOR2, plus a year or so of time spent getting more familiar with the material, allowed PXG to go a bit thinner. The primary benefit of that is more flex which ultimately means more speed. In the case of the PXG GEN6 irons, thinner also means lighter (five grams lighter) which allowed PXG to push a bit of additional mass to the perimeter for increased MOI.

We’re not talking about a massive boost but, relative to GEN5, the GEN6 P has 2.2-percent higher MOI while MOI in the XP is 3.7-percent higher.

When everything comes together, the result is a faster, more forgiving (better mis-hit performance) iron that flies farther without any jacking of lofts or additional shaft length. That is to say, no more than already existed in the PXG lineup (the specs are the same as the previous generation).

PXG 0311 GEN6 Irons – Softer Feel

It’s also worth mentioning that PXG says the 0311 GEN6 is its softest-feeling iron ever. To be sure, not only is that subjective but PXG has basically said the same with every generation of irons it has released.

For what it’s worth, while that type of claim is invariably subjective, in this case PXG says the thinner face is allowing more of the feel from the XCOR2 polymer to come through at impact, creating the softer feel.

Where the PXG 0311 GEN6 irons fit

Despite the “P” designation, it’s hard for me to classify the 0311 GEN6 P as a player’s iron. My opinion, it’s a textbook player’s distance iron.

The XP is trickier still. It’s forgiving enough to fit into the super game-improvement category and fast enough to fit in either the game improvement or player’s distance categories.

It’s a textbook fit for what we affectionately call the emerging “hacker’s distance” category. It brings a healthy dose of distance and forgiveness to the table but it’s a bit bigger than anything in the player’s distance category.

Big picture thinking: The 0311 P is a mid-sized iron that’s good fit for low- to mid-handicap golfers looking for distance with plenty of forgiveness. The 0311 XP, with its thicker topline, generous offset and longer blade length, is ideal for mid- to high-handicap golfers looking for an “xtreme” dose of both.

 

PXG 0311 GEN6 irons by the numbers

As it typically does, PXG has provided a fair amount of data to put some numbers to the performance benefits.

On center strikes, PXG’s data shows that the XP is about .5 mph faster. It carries about two yards farther than the GEN5 with similar launch and a bit lower spin.

And, yeah, while a competent fitter should be able to offset the spin loss with higher trajectory and steepening descent angles, lower spin off an already low-spinning iron can be a problem if it’s not accounted for.

As with the 0311 GEN6 Drivers, the more compelling details can be found in the off-center performance numbers.

The XP is 3.4 mph faster on heel strikes, 2.8 mph faster off the toe, 2.3 mph faster high on the face and 1.3 mph faster on low strikes. That translates to  8.6, 6.9, 6.3 and 3.2 more yards respectively. The additional distance is the result of more speed paired with lower spin.

We should also mention that PXG’s robot data suggests the XP will produce tighter dispersion. That’s largely a product of the MOI bump and more consistent speed across the face.

As far as the 0311 GEN6 P is concerned, the story is similar. It’s one mph faster on center which results in about 3.4 yards more carry. In this case, launch is a bit higher, albeit with lower spin.

The off-center stuff is again compelling. The new 0311 GEN6 P is one mph faster off the heel, 1.6 mph faster off the toe, 2.8 mph faster high on the face and .1 mph faster low on the face.

Your distance impact is 5.1, 4.5, 6.9 and two yards respectively. Again, PXG’s data suggests tighter dispersion, most notably from left to right.

OK Cool, But What About the 0311 GEN6 T?

The original (GEN1) 0311 T iron launched about six months after PXG’s first-ever iron hit the market. Since then, the T has carried on through every iteration of 0311: GEN2 through GEN5.

With the launch of the 0311 GEN6 iron franchise, the T as we know it is gone.

Speaking as a guy who has had somewhere between two and five 0311 T clubs in the bag for the last several years, I’m not good with this.

For what it’s worth, the suggestion is that something like a T is coming but it will likely fall under PXG’s 0317 (player’s) umbrella.

As you may recall, when GEN5 launched, PXG moved all of its “GEN” franchise clubs into a larger 0311 family (previously irons only) and then reassigned 0317 (previously hybrids) as the franchise name for its “better player” irons when it launched the 0211 ST (Super Tour) irons.

Currently, the ST is the only thing in the 0317 lineup so it stands to reason that will change.

Reading between the lines, it’s likely that PXG’s fresh take on T may not be as speed-favoring as the GEN5 offering. That could come by way of something more like a true player’s iron (a compact cavity-back maybe) as opposed to what I’d classify as a compact player’s distance offering along the lines of a P770.

PXG’s thinking is the target player for a T iron isn’t looking for the same things as a P or XP player.

Maybe that’s true, maybe it isn’t (I’m personally a fan of really fast player’s irons), but either way something different is in the works.

Fingers crossed for something like a hollow-body T, CB combo set rather than straight CBs but, again, what I want from a PXG Tour iron probably doesn’t matter too much.

And, of course, it’s possible multiple 0317 offerings could be in the pipeline.

PXG 0311 Black Label Elite Xtreme Dark Irons

While there aren’t any T irons in the 0311 GEN6 lineup, the Black Label Elite offering is again part of the offering. GEN 6 Black Label Elite irons feature PXG’s Xtreme Dark finish (black and chrome instead of chrome and black) paired with black Steel Fiber Private Reserve shafts.

Available in both 0311 GEN6 P and GEN6 XP irons, the available Private Reserve shaft specs include i60 (A-flex), i70 (regular), i95(stiff), and i110 (stiff).

If the Steel Fiber shaft isn’t right for you, you’re free to choose from any other shaft in the PXG iron catalog.

PXG 0311 GEN6 Black Label Elite irons carry an $80 per iron upcharge ($289.99 each).

Availability and Pricing

Retail price for PXG 0311 GEN6 irons is $299 per stick. Available now.

For more information, visit PXG.com.

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