Sub 70 699 Irons Review – What Handicap Are They for? Are They Forgiving?

“Sub 70 has been gaining a lot of attention.”

They have been hailed as one of the best direct-to-consumer golf club manufacturers in the industry. So today, we wanted to share with you our experience testing one of their most popular iron sets.

Sub 70 699 Irons Overview

“Direct-to-consumer means no retail markup. No retail markup means significant savings for the buyer.”

One of the things that may initially attract budget-conscious golfers to the Sub 70 699 irons is their price. You can get a 4-PW set straight from the company for under $600. At that price point, we were really impressed with the features these irons boast.

First of all, the faces are made of a milled 455 Carpenter Steel. The faces are just 1.7mm thick so they can flex to a very high degree. The Sub 70 699 irons also sport a hollow-body design to push ball speed as fast as possible. And while the thin face and hollow-body design sound like the makings of instability, the head has been injected with a thermoplastic elastomer to keep the face from feeling too flimsy and erratic.

Indeed, the Sub 70 699 irons feel very solid when you strike them face-center. When you miss the sweet spot, you get a springier feel that lets you know you missed. The important thing though is that even though you get a different, less pleasant feel on mis-hits, ball speed doesn’t drop dramatically – 2-4 MPH slower from our experience.

The Sub 70 699’s are muscle back irons. The topline is somewhere between a typical player’s performance and game improvement thickness. It has a high, angular toe area that is very reminiscent of 60’s and 70’s irons. Overall though they look pretty nice behind the ball and straddle the line between player’s performance and GI aesthetics.

Are the Sub 70 699 Irons Forgiving?

“When we hit the ball thin, we didn’t experience significant distance loss.”

We often hit the ball low on the face in our testing session and while we definitely drifted close to push territory when we did, there was almost no distance loss – we’re talking a loss of maybe four yards.

Even when leaving the face open, we were still getting very good distance. The only issue we had was divergence. Of course, it got wider when we missed face-center; but that’s only to be expected. We were still getting far enough to reach the green which was very impressive.

So in terms of accuracy, the Sub 70 699’s aren’t the most forgiving irons out there. But it’s still very easy to get good distance on bad shots so they are certainly forgiving in that sense.

Are the Sub 70 699 Irons Good for Beginners & High Handicappers?

“The Sub 70 699 irons may be good for high handicappers; but they’re certainly not for beginners.”

That’s because beginners will have a hard time adjusting to the relatively short blade length and narrow soles. There isn’t a very wide margin for error on the faces of these irons. While the high-toe area does improve forgiveness in that section of the face, you still have to keep your swing in check if you want sharp accuracy from these irons.

We can even see high handicappers struggling a bit with these irons but the reason we are still saying that they might be good for high handicappers is because of the launch. The Sub 70 699 irons launch high effortlessly. The ball jumps up in the air immediately and the trajectory stays strong. For example, the 7-iron produced a 21° launch angle and carried for 260-270 yards consistently. So if you are the type of high handicapper who struggles to get the ball up and out, the Sub 70 699 irons can be very helpful.

Should you Buy the Sub 70 699’s or the Sub 70 699 V2’s?

“There is a newer version of the Sub 70 699 irons called the Sub 70 699 V2’s.”

The Sub 70 699 V2 irons have a stronger loft profile which resulted in slightly better distance in our test session. The head shape of the Sub 70 699 V2’s is more modern and more rounded compared to the high, angled toe of the original Sub 70 699’s. If your ultimate goal is distance, the Sub 70 699 V2’s might be better for you. In every other arena though, these sets performed very similarly.