- Updated: March 27, 2024
MacGregor MT-86 Pro Irons Review
Return of the Mac...With Power and Forgiveness
Ryan Heiman
Founder and head author at Independent Golf Reviews
The MacGregor MT-86 Pro Irons were in my bag for 5 rounds of golf. They are the rebirth offering from a brand with a long history in the golf industry. The name MacGregor is nostalgic and popular. Their new clubs take design cues from their most popular clubs in the past, but add some modern features for powerful and forgiving irons.
This is my MacGregor MT-86 Pro Irons Review for 2023.
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The MacGregor MT-86 Pro irons are a modern forged hollow muscle back iron with a foam filled inner and tungsten weight. That is about as modern as it gets while looking like a “retro” club. There really is a lot going on with these irons. They have a very thin explosive face, pair with foam and weighted with tungsten to move the MOI. The look however is very blade like. They hide all their technology with single “screw” in the toe. They are clean looking and have a thin top long. They are brightly chromed and have iconic logoing. All in all this is on nice looking set of irons for the better golfer with modern forgiveness and power.
The MacGregor MT-86 Pro irons are a direct to consumer brand so you can buy them with KBS Tour shaft, Recoil shafts or heads only. You can either let them build them to your specs or you can install some custom irons shafts that better fit your swing. The direct to consumer prices are very competitive. Their build quality is very good. If you are looking for a new set of irons, these are great option to bring back some nostalgia to your bag while adding modern performance.
The MacGregor MT-86 Pro Iron specs for a 4-PW set have modern lofts and just a little offset. If you are comparing to Titleist irons, they fit between the T-100 and T-200. (I’d love to see a “Tour” version that has even less offset) This mean you are getting a modern players “blade” that adds some power and forgiveness to help better golfers score well. They have modern lofts which some people call “jacked” but with the low tungsten weight and muscle back iron, these irons still hit high so to combat too high of flight, lowering the lofts is a good move which then leads to distance gains, but still lots of height. These clubs are about 1/2 to 1 club longer than my “standard” distances. My “go-to” distance with an 8-iron is 150 yards, the MacGregor MT-86 Pro 8-iron went 157 on average. That added yardage doesn’t require major changes, but if you are coming up short, now you might be just past the pin.
The MacGregor MT-86 Pro irons also have healthy dose of forgiveness. They aren’t a cavity back or super game improvement iron, but the sweet spot is fairly large for such a blade like iron. Forgiveness of these irons comes from the thin face, low weight and foam fill. This modern technology mean you don’t need to find that pinhead sized center of the face to get straight and long shots. These blades can play for low and even mid handicap golfers. They launch high and have near ideal spin. They like to go straight with some ability to work the ball while keeping it in play at a consistent distance.
The MacGregor MT-86 Irons performed on the course very admirably. The long irons have lots of power. I was really impressed with how easy and accurate I hit the 4 and 5 irons. The ball just exploded off the face and held a very straight line. If you needed a fairway finder on a narrow fairway, these were easy and confident. The mid irons launch the ball high and land it softly on the green. The short irons were good at attacking pins and holding greens. The spin numbers are very good which often saw the ball hitting and stopping very close to the ball mark on the green. Distances were easy to dial in, with just the club extra yards, usually meant I was just past the pin, rather than being short. Every club hits fairly high, rather straight with good spin. KBS Tours have become industry standard with great feel and easy launch. Paired with these heads they certainly offer high launch and soft landings. The factory build is very high quality and the stock Lamkin grips top off an OEM quality package.
MacGregor MT-86 Pro 8 Iron Stats
Data from Flightscope Xi Launch Monitor
➜ Spin: 8132 rpms
➜ Launch Angle: 32.1*
➜ Dispersion: 2.7 yds
➜ Club Head Speed: 89.9 mph
➜ Ball Speed: 119.2 mph
➜ Total Distance: 160.4 yds
➜ Carry Distance: 157.2 yds
Summary
The MacGregor MT-86 Pro Irons bring back a nostalgic brand with excellent performance. They are not your grandpas irons, these clubs have power and forgiveness while looking like a classic blade. They have strong lofts, a little offset and amazing feel and looks. It is a package that certainly appeals to a low to mid handicap golfer. If you grew up playing MacGregor, but want a modern “blade” irons these are a perfect combo of power and forgiveness. While the brand may still have a long road ahead of them to get back to their glory days, the MT-86 Pro irons are great step in that direction. Add to that the option to buy just heads or built at the direct to consumer prices, you certainly will like what you see get with the MacGregor MT-86 Pro irons.
For more information: MacGregor Golf
Ryan Heiman – Founder and Head Author of Independent Golf Reviews
Ryan has over 10 years of experience testing and writing golf reviews of nearly every brand out there.
HCP: 3
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