Wilson Launch Pad 2 Irons – Key Takeaways

Second-generation hybrid-like super game-improvement irons Updated look, more refined wide sole to prevent chunking $749.99 steel, $849.99 graphite Available March 14

The new Wilson Launch Pad 2 irons are strictly a niche product. Granted, since they’re a super-forgiving hybrid-style iron, that niche is pretty substantial. But still, despite the fact it’s silly easy to hit, it’s not an iron that will appeal to everyone.

There are a few players in the super-game-improvement hybrid iron category. The Wilson Launch Pad 2 joins Cleveland’s Launcher XL Halo, COBRA’s T-Rail, the Hot Launch E522 and a handful of others. It’s not a new or even revolutionary idea. But, for the right golfer, the hybrid-style iron could be the perfect elixir for round-killing, joy-sucking and turf-tearing chunks.

How does the Wilson Launch Pad 2 fit into the hybrid iron-style hierarchy? Let’s take a peek.

Wilson Launch Pad 2 Irons: The New Turf Rider

For as long as man has been hitting little balls with ill-shaped sticks, other men have been trying to make sticks that will do the job easier. Hybrid-irons are no different. You can go back in Wilson’s catalog to the mid-1980s and check out its hollow-body TurfRider irons.

“TurfRider’s broad, sweeping sole puts weight down low and that helps get the ball airborne … TurfRiders are offset to get your hands ahead of the ball and help in setting up for square contact. For ease of play and consistency of feel, TurfRiders use frequency-matched Ultralite shafts.” 1986 Wilson catalog

You can pretty much cut and paste that paragraph for the new Launch Pad 2 irons.

The original Launch Pad irons made their debut in January 2020 and were touted as an anti-chunk machine. They were a super-forgiving, super-wide-soled, super game-improvement hybrid irons for the aspiring high-handicapper and the self-aware mid-handicapper. Their job is simple: help the target golfer get the ball airborne and in the general direction of the green and sharply reduce fat or chunked shots.

They did just that but, aesthetically, the entire category is an, umm, acquired taste.

Don’t get me wrong. They weren’t put-you-off-your-feed ugly but, compared to, say, the COBRA T-Rail, the target golfer did have options more pleasing to the eye.

Wilson has, to the extent possible, fixed that.

Launch Pad 2: Eye Candy?

It’s hard to make a hybrid iron look good. The Cleveland Launcher XL Halo irons are irons that look like hybrids. The COBRA T-Rails are black irons that look like hybrids that are trying to look like irons. And the new Wilson Launch Pad 2? It’s an iron that looks like a hybrid trying to pass as an iron while still looking enough like a hybrid so the golfer who’s using it still feels like he’s hitting a hybrid that looks more like an iron than an iron that looks more like a hybrid.

Yeah, they’re a lot like that.

The Launch Pad 2 has more sole than James Brown, with plenty of junk in the trunk. And despite the rather bodacious “LP” tattooed on its lower back, Wilson has been able to make the new Launch Pad 2 look … sexy? Can I say that without it getting weird?

Or is it too late?

“Nobody is going to confuse this for a blade iron or anything like that,” says Wilson’s Golf Club Innovation Manager Jon Pergande. “It’s a challenge to get a very wide sole up to a topline without some crazy contouring.”

What Wilson had done is split Launch Pad 2’s backside into two parts to minimize (as best it can) what is essentially a hybrid-shaped head. There’s still the distinct black upper part but there’s a sort of a muscle-looking feature low. It doesn’t make the iron look compact—nothing will—but it does give the iron a bit more of a mainstream look.

OK, so maybe “sexy” isn’t the right word. But it is a damned sight better looking than the first iteration.

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Subtle Tech Improvements

While the obvious upgrade is aesthetic, there are a few technical enhancements. They’re subtle.

Very subtle.

“We really started looking at ways to improve ground-sole interaction,” says Pergande. “We worked with our computer simulation group to start simulating ground impacts and using data we had from bad swings: the outside-in, steep-angle-of-attack problematic swings that take big divots and we started reshaping the sole.”

Specifically, the bounce is more refined to keep the leading edge above the ground as much as possible to minimize fat, chunky shots that type of swing can lead to.

Wilson also thinned out the rear wall of the hollow body in the never-ending hunt for discretionary weight.

“We’ve soaked up all the internal weight we could and sunk it as low as possible,” says Pergande. “We want to gain every center-of-gravity advantage we could find to get that ball up in the air.”

It’s a bit of a paradox that SGI irons are generally weaker lofted than game-improvement irons. Players in both categories crave distance but each category delivers distance a little differently. Typical GI irons are designed for pure ball speed, and strong lofts with thin, flexible faces are a great way to do that. And perimeter weighting plus a low CG allows for playable height despite the strong lofts.

“What we’re talking about with Launch Pad 2, however, is distance through forgiveness,” says Pergande. “Your typical Launch Pad player doesn’t swing as fast as your typical Wilson D9, game-improvement player. And when swing speeds slow down, you need a little bit of a loft advantage to get the ball up in the air.”

The Anti-Chunk Machine

Even your typical mid-handicapper struggles with the occasional fat, chunky shot. According to Wilson, as many as 12 percent of their shots fall into that category. Again, according to Wilson, the original Launch Pad irons increased solid contact by 20 percent and reduced the likelihood of a chunk by 73 percent.

For what it’s worth, in the 2020 Most Wanted Super Game Improvement iron testing, the original Launch Pad irons finished sixth out of 12 models tested. The mid irons performed very well and the long irons were average. The short irons is where they lost ground. However, they were Best in Show for forgiveness.

And that’s really what Launch Pad 2 is made for: gliding over the turf and reducing the dreaded chunks. And nothing can turn a mild-mannered, fun-loving and sweet-tempered angel of mercy into a venom-spewing, club-throwing and expletive-shouting spawn of Satan in fewer than three holes than a bad case of the chunks.

For that golfer, it’s either hybrid-style irons or an exorcist on speed dial.

Wilson Launch Pad 2: Specs, Price and Availability

The Wilson Launch Pad 2 irons feature two-piece, hollow-body construction. Both the face and body are made from 17-4 stainless steel. They’ll be available for both lefties and righties in a seven-piece 5-GW set. An optional 4-iron and sand wedge are available.

The stock steel shaft will be the KBS MAX Ultralite which KBS classifies as a high-trajectory/high-spin shaft designed for the mid- to high-handicapper. Stock graphite is the Project X EvenFlow. The stock grip is the standard Wilson Staff Crossline. Custom shaft and grip options will be available.

A stock seven-piece Launch Pad 2 set will retail for $749.99 in steel and $849.99 in graphite. They’ll hit retail on March 14.

For more information, visit Wilson’s website.

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