Taylormade M4 Irons Review – Are They Forgiving & Good for High Handicappers?

The Taylormade M4 irons were designed to play longer than the M3 and M2 irons and help out high handicappers from virtually any lie.

Taylormade M4 Irons Overview

These irons produce surprisingly low spin for irons in the game-improvement category.

The stronger lofts and thinner face compared to the M3 irons gives these irons extra distance for almost every club in the face. The Taylormade M4 irons feature the Ribcor design that places 2 bars on either side of the sweet spot to increase stiffness.

The purpose for any club to increase head stiffness is to allow the face to flex to a high degree – the more the face flexes, the higher the ball speed will be. These irons also feature Tayloramde’s famous Speed Pocket.

The Speed Pocket is essentially a channel bored into the bottom of the face. Again, the point is to increase face flex but more specifically, flex near the bottom of the face where many high handicappers miss.

The Taylormade M4 irons also feature some of the thinnest faces in the M family of irons. How thin? Try 1.5 millimeters. That rivals the thickness of some titanium-faced and maraging steel clubs.

All of the features we have discussed so far do either one of 2 things: increase flex and increase forgiveness – but mostly, they increase flex. One thing that we can certainly say about these irons is that they are long.

It’s clear that much of the research and development went into making the Taylormade M4’s some of the longest irons in the Taylormade lineup.

Outside of distance, the Taylormade M4 irons don’t offer much. However, they certainly make learning notoriously difficult golf clubs much easier which leads us to our next point…

Are Taylormade M4 Irons Forgiving?

Aside from distance, it’s clear that the Taylormade M4 irons were made to be forgiving.

The first piece of evidence we have to support that assertion is the larger faces that the Taylormade M4 irons have when compared to the previous M3 model. The Taylormade M4 irons have thinner faces too.

That means that you won’t need a swing speed above 95MPH to get good distance out of them. The Taylormade M4 irons are especially forgiving on low face strikes.

From our testing, we found that unless you hit on the extreme toe or heel, your shots will fly nearly as far as if you hit the sweet spot, dead-center. The Taylormade M4 irons also have a very pronounced offset – perfect for beginners.

So yes, the Taylormade M4 irons are forgiving. They have fast, large faces that produce great ball speed even on off-center strikes.

Are Taylormade M4 Irons Good for Beginners and High Handicappers?

In short, yes. The Taylormade M4 irons were made with beginners and high handicappers in mind and after testing them, we know that they will be a great boon to players struggling to get down the fairway.

Another reason why the Taylormade M4 irons play so long and are therefore good for beginners is because they produce low spin rates.

We used a launch monitor in our testing to measure the spin rates of these irons and found that they are even lower than the M3 irons. While this will hurt workability in the short-game, spin conditions are ideal for beginners and high handicappers.

Not only are the Taylormade M4 irons long; but they play straight as well. While we are unsure what feature specifically attributes to the straight flight of these irons, it’s clear that you can hardly shank with them.

Again, this will affect workability but as a beginner or high handicapper, you probably aren’t focusing too much on that anyway.

Should you Buy the M4’s or the M3’s?

The answer to that question will depend on the needs of your game.

We have tested the M3 irons as well and it was clear that the M3’s are targeted more towards intermediate players. The spin rates in the shorter irons are significantly higher than in the Taylormade M4 irons which will allow you to hold onto more greens.

Also, due to the pronounced offset of the Taylormade M4 irons, there is a slight draw bias. The M3’s have lesser offset and produce more of a neutral ball flight. Of course, this makes it a bit harder to square up – not a plus for beginners.

The M3 irons also have a thicker face so by and large, you will need a fast swing speed if you want to get distances comparable to the M4 irons with the M3’s.

In short, you should buy the Taylormade M4 irons if you are a beginner or high handicapper while the M3’s will be better for mid to low handicappers.