Takomo 101T Irons Review: "Elevate your game with affordable luxury"

Takomo 101T Irons Key Features:

• 431 Steel body: sleek looks and a shortened blade length to appeal to better golfers
• Hollow body construction: designed to provide added forgiveness while maintaining a blade-like appearance
• Precision milled, thin face: engineered to improve ball compression and produce a spring effect at impact
• Available with KBS shafts and Lamkin grips

The golf industry has seen a recent boom in direct-to-consumer brands, and one of the best in the business is Takomo Golf. Based out of Finland, Takomo offers a full range of products, including wedges, irons and woods. 

We had the pleasure of testing both the 101 and 301 irons earlier in the year and absolutely loved them, so when we opened up the 101T irons, we knew we were in for a treat. 

Without wanting to give too much away, we enjoyed using the irons so much that they have gone straight into our best irons guide. 

The 101T irons were developed to provide better players with a compact hollow body head that also provides an added level of forgiveness. This player profile slots the irons straight into the player's distance category, which is hotly contested by some of the most popular models on the market, including the TaylorMade P790s and the Titleist T200s.

Unlike Titleist and TaylorMade, in-person fittings aren't available with Takomo. However, the brand does offer a wide selection of shaft, lie, length and grip options, allowing you to customise your setup before purchase.

Once ordered, our clubs came in a matter of days, so to see how they performed, we took them down to Custom Golf Works in Woking to get some data before heading to Foxhills to test their on-course performance. 

Takomo 101T Irons: Looks and Feel

While these irons impressed us across the board, the first thing that took us by surprise was their looks. Taking off the individual wrappers, we instantly fell in love with the simple yet stylish brushed chrome finish.

The branding is kept to a minimum, allowing the steel's beautiful lines to do all the talking. Buying direct-to-consumer can sometimes be slightly nerve-wracking, as having not held the clubs in hand, you are taking a bit of a leap of faith in terms of both looks and performance. 

However, we are here to reassure you that these irons look just as good in real life, if not better. 

Sat behind the ball, they have a generous blade length and thin topline, which looks very similar to the Titleist T200 irons. 

Overall, the 101Ts are stunning and sit right up there with the best-looking irons we have tested this year. 

In terms of feel, these irons are a touch firmer than they look, but the level of stability and power on offer at impact was really impressive. 

The hollow body head combines well with the thin precision-milled face to provide quite a spring sensation that can be felt right across the face. 

The feel was consistent even on bad strikes, with additional feedback received from toe and heel shots, but not enough to be off-putting or harsh. 

Takomo 101T: Performance and Forgiveness

Before we took these irons out on the course, we first wanted to crunch some numbers, so we headed down to Custom Golf Works to get them on a GC Quad.

We typically look for about 165 yards of carry distance from a 7-iron, and these clubs delivered precisely that. We found we were able to hit our golden number consistently, and the spin rates and rollout also remained very consistent from centre strikes.

Where these clubs perhaps don't quite perform as well as something like the TaylorMade P790 or the Titleist T200 is the level of forgiveness on offer. 

Now, this drop-off is by no means considerable, however, we did find that when struck from the toe or heel, our spin rates did fluctuate more than what we have come to expect from the bigger brands. 

While these poor strikes were obviously down to human error, it did mean that our bad shots were punished slightly more than we've experienced from the aforementioned models. 

That being said, this small level of inconsistency is precisely that. Small. Considering these irons cost almost £500 less than their big brand competitors, they performed exceptionally well throughout testing, and were a joy to play with out on the course. 

So, the question is, coming in at almost half the price of some of their competitors, do these irons offer better value for money based on performance and forgiveness? It's very hard to say anything other than a resounding yes. 

Should you buy the Takomo 101T Irons?

If you want a set of irons that offer premium performance, looks and feel but come without the premium price tag, then the Takomo 101Ts are well worth your consideration. 

Direct-to-consumer club purchasing has come a long way in recent years, and Takomo absolutely delivers on its promise of cutting corners where it matters to the consumer. By reducing spend on retail and marketing, the brand has managed to use that money on the design and performance of these clubs, and the results speak for themselves.

These clubs offer stunning looks, a powerful feel, and performance levels that can rival the best irons on the market. Tie that all up in a bow and add a £500 price tag on top, and you have one of the best deals anywhere on the market.

Take me to more equipment reviews!