William L. Coney Blog: First Look: PXG 0311X Driving Iron

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

First Look: PXG 0311X Driving Iron

It keeps the ball low and sends it far … feels buttery smooth … and looks smoking hot. - Bob Parsons

The Open Championship is often where new driving irons make their debut. 2017 proved no exception, so while another company’s driving iron-ish design became the stuff of legends over the weekend, it’s not even a little surprising to learn that PXG’s first ever driving iron was also in play last week.

Some of you may be saying, but what about the 0311XF?. While it’s true that its oversized design isn’t far removed aesthetically from most driving irons, from a playability perspective, the 0311X is most certainly something entirely different within the PXG lineup.

While the 0311XF, despite its so-called jacked lofts, is designed to launch high, the 0311X is designed to do the opposite. In fact, the key performance attributes are of the 0311X are low launch and low spin.

As you might expect from a club making its debut at the Open, the 0311X is a wind-cheater, it's made to fly low, and presumably, roll like a sombitch.

That’s perhaps surprising given that the 0311X’s features a wide sole often associated with high launch designs, but that’s but one of the notable design considerations. To bring the ball flight down, PXG’s latest offering is engineered with minimal offset and a CG that’s positioned closer the shaft axis.

According to PXG, that creates less dynamic loft through impact, which means a lower, more penetrating ball flight.

Like all PXG irons, the 0311X Driving Iron features an ultra-thin face supported by PXG’s TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) inside its forged body.

Retail Reality

Driving irons aren’t generally in high demand at retail, and given PXG’s price point along with the reality that most average golfers need higher launch and benefit from a bit more offset, we’re talking about a niche within a niche within a niche (maybe inside another niche), but the new offering confirms PXG remains committed to building a full catalog of clubs to fit everyone from PGA Tour Professionals to the Super Game-Improvement crowd.

Noting that the 0311X is the first PXG iron product to bear the standalone X designation, it should be interesting to see what comes next – although I’m told it’s likely going to be a while before we see a new generation of irons from PXG.