An Inside Look at P·790 | True Beauty Lies Within
Clean, minimalistic, drool-inspiring aesthetics that scream to be hit are a mainstay of the P·790 franchise, and the latest model upholds that history. New for 2023, the design team placed a band of tour satin across the pearl chrome finish to create an mmm mmm good look.
However, with these irons, it’s what you can't see that truly sets them apart.
FROM THE OUTSIDE IN
Before we take an in-depth look at the internal technology that powers this new design, we must first explore how the overall design played a critical role in determining each iron's internal structure.
"P·790 is a collision of art and engineering. The allure lies not only in the clean design and visual appeal, but also in the high-performance machine that lives within. It’s the total package, an ideal blend of external elegance and internal power.”Matt Bovee, Director of Product Creation for Irons
Golf club design is a delicate dance of creating, shifting and optimizing weight. Changes to any area of the iron will have an impact on performance. Before we could start on the internal design of the new P·790, we needed to determine how much discretionary mass was available in each head. That's influenced by the external shape, so understanding that was essential for what we wanted to accomplish. Locking in every element of the aesthetic from the top line to the sole.
HARVESTING ADDITIONAL MASS
One gram can go a long way in when constructing golf equipment. With P·790 we harvested up to 8g of weight from certain irons, and when you give engineers that much mass to play with they can do some pretty creative things. Where’d all that extra weight come from? Here’s how we mined the mass.
Thick-Thin Wall Construction – This is the first time thick-thin wall construction has been used in P·790. Honeycombed cutouts puzzled across the internal back wall remove excess weight from above the strike zone. This allows engineers to strategically position more weight lower in the clubhead to achieve precise performance characteristics.
SpeedFoam™ Air – SpeedFoam has been integral for the feel and performance of P790 from the start. The proprietary urethane material fills the hollow-body construction to dampen vibrations at impact and help produce a forged iron feel. The lighter “Air” version also creates weight savings that can be intelligently redistributed.
EVERY CLUB IS DIFFERENT
The team pinpointed a specific outcome for each individual iron. For long irons (3-5), the goal was increased launch. For mid-irons, increased MOI and an expanded the COR area (sweet spot). For scoring clubs, it was control, trajectory and optimal spin.
To determine the ideal internal mass distribution of each iron, we turned to a powerful resource that's being applied in industries worldwide. Artificial intelligence. Armed with an equation that included our desired output, various material usages and discretionary weight properties, we produced AI-driven mass optimization within each P·790 head – ensuring that every gram was strategically placed to deliver the best possible result for that specific iron.
The outcome? Internal structures that look more like a Rorschach test than a high-powered iron. Rest assured, these placements are anything but random – and their purpose is not left to interpretation.
3-5 Iron
Observational data suggests many players start to lose confidence in their ball striking in the 3-5 iron range. Why? There's less loft and less club face to work with. We prioritized launch and forgiveness in the long irons to combat that loss of confidence. While the desired outcome is the same within this subset, the internal structures within each iron have some unique idiosyncrasies. Each long iron features a heavy tungsten weight positioned low and towards the toe, but the noticeable difference is the sound stabilization bar. (It's that finger-like structure that extends vertically within each clubhead.)
Each bar serves a similar purpose: They reduce the amount of unsupported space between the internal structure and the topline. What does that do for you? It helps control vibrations and frequencies at impact, producing an elevated forged iron feel and premium sound within this forgiving hollow body construction.
You'll also notice a difference in the thick-thin wall construction. That's the honeycomb-like area on the inside wall of the iron. It's designed to remove weight from the upper portion of the iron so it can be redistributed lower in the club. This drives CG lower, which helps the ball go higher.
The result? Every iron is individually optimized for launch, forgiveness, sound and feel.
Bovee is nicknamed "The Professor" – and it's not because he's got crazy handles on the basketball court (AND1 Mixtape reference anyone?). Bovee describes the P·790 6-iron as the interpolation between the 7- and 5-irons.
And now you see why we call him The Professor.
In the world of math, science and data, interpolation is defined as a value or position that helps fill in the gaps between data points to provide a more complete and continuous representation of the data.
Within the scope of P·790, it means the 6-iron bridges the gap in performance between the long irons (3-5) and the scoring clubs (7-8). If you look closely at the internal structure, it has features of both. The tungsten weight shifts to the toe (like the 7-iron), but the sound stabilization bar stays more toward the center of the head (as in the long irons).
This helps position the 6-iron CG directly between the 5 and 7, maintaining the FLTD CG construction of the P·790 set. Available for the first time in P·790, this strategic design (FLTD CG) positions the center of gravity lowest in long irons and progressively shifts it higher throughout the set. This intuitive concept allows for easier launch and more forgiveness in the long irons. In contrast, the shorter, weaker lofted irons have a higher CG to control ball flight and optimize spin.
For many golfers, the 7-iron is the start of their "scoring clubs," meaning the point where they feel confident enough to attack the green. Loft is your friend at this stage, so you don't need help launching the ball into the air – but instead require control, consistency and optimal spin. The internal structure of the P·790 7-iron is engineered to deliver just that.
Forgiveness and ball speed are constant throughout the set, but this is where accuracy becomes premium. Shifting the tungsten weight low and towards the toe increases the clubhead's moment of inertia (MOI). A higher MOI makes the clubhead more resistant to twisting or rotating upon impact with the ball. This means off-center hits (towards the toe) result in less loss of distance and maintained accuracy, minimizing the harmful effects of mis-hits.
These irons are organically the most forgiving in the set due to the added loft. With the 8-iron, our team use a varied form of thick-thin wall construction to manipulate the center of gravity location to ensure that CG continued to progressively shifted higher. The 9-iron and PW have a more traditional forged hollow body construction while maintaining the FLTD CG construction that ensures consistency, accuracy and optimal spin to help players control trajectory while attacking flags with the scoring clubs.
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