Taylormade M4 Vs. Titleist 718 AP1 Irons Comparison Overview

TaylorMade M4 Vs. Titleist 718 AP1 Irons Comparison Overview

For players looking for more forgiveness and distance, selecting irons can be very difficult. It seems that every company claims to make the longest and most forgiving irons on the market. And while there are a lot of options for players, the sheer volume of choices can be dizzying.

To help make your choice a little clearer, we went out and tested two iron sets that claim to be made for beginners and high handicappers. Which were longer and more forgiving? Which are the best game-improvement irons? Let’s find out!

TaylorMade M4 Irons Overview

The design of the TaylorMade M4 irons is marked by a large footprint and a wide sole that peeks out behind the club head at point of address.

So far, so good. At address, these irons look really nice. The deep cavity back will help out with distance and forgiveness while the wide sole helps out with turf interaction. The only thing we didn’t like about the design of these clubs was the weight.

The M4 irons are a bit heavy and feel a bit clunky. This may be a problem if you are the kind of player with a steep angle of attack as they may cause you to get way too much turf. The M4 irons also had weaker lofts which really showed when attacking the pin.

Titleist 718 AP1 Irons Overview

The hallmark of the Titleist 718 AP1 irons on the other hand is hollow body design in the long irons.

This allows the face to float more or less freely which means more flex at impact. We really thought this feature would work against the Titleist 718 AP1 irons and create erratic flight paths but just the opposite was true.

Bad shots from the toe were made really straight with the Titleist 718 AP1 long and mid irons. We were a bit alarmed at the low spin rate in the pitching wedge but the impressive apex height put those concerns to rest. The Titleist 718 AP1’s played longer and held onto more greens than the M4’s.

To go back to the questions posed at the beginning of this overview: the Titleist 718 AP1 irons were longer and more forgiving than the Taylormade M4 irons. What’s more, they are better scoring irons as it is much easier to stop them dead on the green.

Taylormade M4 Irons

Category: Game Improvement Irons

Titleist 718 AP1 Irons

Category: Game/Improvement

Taylormade M4 Irons First Impressions

The Taylormade M4 irons have a clean, cavity back design with an extended sole in the rear which looks very comforting for beginners.

This feature also made them play very well in the rough. It is very easy to launch the ball high (and far) even from the rough. We were very pleased with the feel when we struck the ball right in the sweet spot.

However, the feel gets a little thin and the sound gets a little hollow unless you are dead-center on the sweet spot.

Titleist 718 AP1 First Impressions

We were expecting a lot from these irons before we ever hit the course with them simply because they were Titleist irons and we know Titleist to make awesome clubs no matter the category.

We can honestly say that we were impressed with these irons at the end of the day. What struck us the most was the fact that our high handicap testers were able to land more greens.

The Titleist 718 AP1 irons do an amazing job of launching high and landing soft. They produce an ideal descent angle no matter what your skill level is. In short, the Titleist 718 AP1 will help you perform above your handicap.

Our high handicap testers noted better short game control as opposed to the irons they typically use. We honestly weren’t expecting such accuracy around the pin from these game-improvement irons but of course, we were happy to have it.

Taylormade M4 Selling Points

Ribcor design
Speed Pocket
Thick sole
Plenty of offset
Premium shaft options
Strong loft

Titleist 718 AP1 Selling Points

Hollow body design in the long irons
Undercut design in the short irons
Pre-worn leading edge
Custom tungsten weighting in each iron
Fairly thin top line for irons in this category

Who are the Taylormade M4 Irons for?

There’s no question that the Taylormade M4 irons would be great for anything struggling with distance on the fairway.

At the end of the day though, these irons do much more for beginners than play long. Beginners, who will often find themselves in the rough, will benefit from the beefy sole and strong lofts of these irons.

Even intermediate players who don’t quite have their swing speeds where they would like it to be would benefit from these irons. Even if you are mixing and matching and only using the longer Taylormade M4 irons, they could be great assets as purely distance irons.

The Taylormade M Family of Irons

The Taylormade M family of irons also includes the M2 irons. The first thing we noticed about the M2 irons compared to the Taylormade M4’s is that the M2’s don’t do as good a job at dampening harsh impact vibrations.

On full swings, the M2’s feedback gets muddied by unwanted vibration. The M2’s do have the same lofts as the M4 irons though so the flight trajectory is very similar with these two iron sets.

It should also be noted that the M2 irons don’t feature the same Ribcor design as the Taylormade M4 irons. The main difference this makes is lesser distance – or at least, harder distance.

In other words, you will have to have good accuracy and a fast swing speed to get the same kind of distance with the M2’s as you would with the Taylormade M4 irons. As such, the M2 irons are better in the bags of low handicappers.

Distance: 95/100

Accuracy: 91/100

Forgiveness: 94/100

Feel & Control: 92/100

Overall Score: 93/100

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Who are the Titleist 718 AP1 Irons for?

We don’t want to say that these irons are best for high handicappers and beginners because that would be less accurate than saying they are best for high handicappers who are serious about their game.

If you are casual about the game, play a few times a year or aren’t particularly concerned about breaking 100, don’t get these clubs. There are plenty of cheaper irons that would suit you better.

If however you are committed to getting better, the Titleist 718 AP1 irons will work great for you. They provide great distance and surprising short-game control.

The AP1 Family

If you are looking for even more forgiveness then the Titleist 716 AP1 irons would be a good choice. They too feature an undercut cavity but have more perimeter weighting than the Titleist 718 AP1 irons.

This will help preserve ball speed when you hit near the perimeter of the face as opposed to the sweet spot. The 716 AP1 irons also have a more noticeable cavity in the back at point of address.

You can actually see the sole jut out a bit more with the 716 irons which may be a welcome sight to beginners and high handicappers. However, in terms of distance the 716’s come up short of the Titleist 718 AP1 irons.

The lack of a hollow body design in the long irons make the 716’s consistently shorter than the Titleist 718 AP1’s.