The latest AF-305 irons from Epon are built and designed to offer the best of both worlds: subtle forgiveness and beautiful design, due to their cavity-back shape, which is aimed at pleasing better players. It’s true that in the current “climate”, the new Epon AF-305 irons are facing tough competition in the respective niche, as basically all top-dogs in the industry are trying to lure customers using virtually the same/exact strategy, i.e. they’re pushing a players iron shape in sheep’s clothing, also known as a more forgiving design, yet they try to not push the forgiveness thing too far. This is a difficult task, as you can imagine, and the only way for Epon to make magic happen was to use the company’s decade’s long expertise and technology in crafting forged irons and add into the mix a newly designed cavity shape.
Mission accomplished said Epon’s Research and Development team, as they revealed the new AF-305 irons. If you’re a bit confused about Epon golf, you must learn that they’re owned by Endo Manufacturing of Japan, which has a long tradition in forging irons for some of the best golf companies worldwide, as they’re doing it since the sixties, i.e. these guys really know how to make high end forged irons. To make things more interesting, the new AF-305 is the latest iteration, revised and updated obviously, of the previous AF-303 cavity back forged iron. Truth be told, the difference between the two models is quite subtle, yet the devil hides in small details, as the president of Epon North America Howard Miller explains, but let’s quote the man himself:
“What makes this iron unique is that it is a very deep cavity to be forged from a single billet. Most forged cavity back irons are limited in their cavity volume. Epon's proprietary tooling and processes have been able to produce the AF-305 irons with the deepest cavity in one-piece construction.”
The thing about the Epon AF-305 irons is that they’re forged from high quality S20C carbon steel, which confers those amazing properties. However, there’s a problem for an iron designed like the AF-305, and by that we mean a deep cavity: this particular design tends to create a pretty wide sole. It’s true that an excessively wide sole comes with benefits like lowering the center of gravity, which provides a better flight trajectory, as well as amazing forgiveness through the turf. The caveat to having a wide sole is that shot making capabilities may be inhibited, and we don’t want that in our irons now, do we? Also, a wide sole kills all the passion, i.e. it totally destroys the address appearance which is favored among better players. However, Epon did a great job in this regard, as they found the golden path to address these issues by using a state of the art blend of materials and a subtle and elegant sole shaping change, which literally puts these gorgeous irons into the players-distance category. And yes, that’s nothing short of amazing, as Miller explains:
“The large cavity volume coupled with the wide sole and tungsten inlay re-categorizes the forgiveness factor of the AF-305 over its predecessors in the 300 family. The AF-305 has slightly less offset than its predecessors, about 10-15 percent less through the set, and the sole plays narrower than its width. The deeper cavity and wider sole contribute towards a more stable impact. Golfers accustomed to the more compact sole interaction with the turf of previous AF-300 series models will find that the wider sole of the AF-305 has been designed with a step along its trailing edge. The wider sole width contributes to the CG and MOI targets Epon has designed into the AF-305, but the step in the sole narrows the ground contact mass keeping it similar to the sole interaction of a players iron design.”
If that sounds convincing, the good news is that you can already order the new AF-305 forged irons (4-iron through A-wedge) via authorized Epon dealers. What about the price? Well, it’s decent: $375 per club (MSRP).
