Edel Golf SMS Pro Irons Review

The new Edel SMS Pro irons are unique irons.  And I mean jaw-dropping wow unique.  SMS Pro are a cavity back design but almost feel like blades.  Lofts are slightly weaker than comparable cavity backs on the market but distances actually rival players distance irons.  And the forgiveness you get in such a compact shape is pretty much off the charts.

SMS Pro irons would be compelling just for these reasons alone.  But what makes these SMS Pro most unique, really what separates and distinguishes them from all other irons is their ability to optimize performance for a variety of swings in a way that actually matches your unique swing.

Let's begin with feel.  SMS Pro are one piece, 1025 carbon steel precision grain forged irons that are extremely soft and solid feeling at impact.  The SMS Pro have a deeper soft and solid feel than the standard SMS irons (and I'll draw comparisons throughout this review between the Pro and standard models).  But the gist of SMS Pro feel is they're powerful and strong.

 

A quick side-bar on impact feel.  It drives me nuts when people say it doesn't matter.  Of course impact feel doesn't affect performance in the same way as say loft or perimeter weighting does.  But when you're standing over the ball with an idea in your mind of what shot you envision?  That anticipation of pure, solid feel at impact locks you in to actually executing your planned shot.  We all know how mental golf is.  Impact feel absolutely matters and SMS Pro gives it to you in spades.

As mentioned above SMS Pro is a lot more forgiving than you'd expect for such a compact shape iron.  And in fact I was surprised to find SMS Pro was just as forgiving on low and toe misses as the standard SMS. SMS Pro was also more forgiving than the standard SMS on misses towards the heel.  Wouldn't have guessed that.

 

You do have a wider hitting area (particularly top to bottom) with the standard SMS and also a larger sole compared to SMS Pro.  This of course means more room to miss with the standard SMS (if you’re an inconsistent ball striker).  The standard SMS is easier to launch and launches somewhat higher than SMS Pro with more weight in the sole.  I hit SMS Pro longer than the standard SMS however, with distances that are very competitive to players distance irons.

 

Taking SMS Pro and SMS head-to-head for misses in particular areas of the face I found SMS Pro to perform just as well as the standard SMS in retaining distance and maintaining tight dispersion.  It seems like Edel designed both the standard SMS and SMS Pro models to have the same amount of forgiveness for their respective shape and sizes.  Really well done here.

The SMS Pro have thinner soles than the standard SMS irons but a unique milled grind with leading and trailing edge relief that seemingly glides the club into and out of the turf quickly and easily.  I'm a huge fan of the SMS Pro soles and for me they were every bit as averse to digging as the wider SMS iron soles.  Forgiveness of a wide sole with the workability of a narrow sole?  Another home run for Edel here.

 

So to this point if you came for the feel, distance, and forgiveness of SMS Pro you're going to stay for the consistency and precision matched to your swing.  This isn't marketing mumbo-jumbo or hot air hype.  It's legit and I'm going to tell you exactly why.

SMS stands for swing matching system, and you basically have three removable weight screws you can arrange in different weight ports on the back of the irons (two 2 gram weights and one 8 gram weight).  With both the standard SMS and SMS Pro this is what makes these irons shine so bright.

 

Putting the heavy weight (red circle) in the heel, middle, and toe positions creates real differences in distance, spin, and launch.  As an example I saw five-to-seven yard differences between weights in different positions, a few hundred RPM differences in spin, and to a lesser extent even differences in launch.

 

The SMS weight system excels most significantly however in consistency of distance and dispersion, and feel throughout the swing.  With the heavy 8 gram weight in the toe of my 4-iron I felt a greater sense and awareness of the head and entire club from that first move back right through impact.  It was also a more controllable swing and helped me transition smoother and square up more consistently than with the same weight in the same iron in the heel position.  And clear as day I hit better, more consistent shots with with SMS Pro in this weight position. This was absolutely wild to see and also incredibly exciting and satisfying.

This is a simple (and granted, imperfect) example to understand why and how SMS weight positioning affects feel in the swing and really consistency of your entire swing.  Imagine two hammers.  One has more weight in the front of the head.  The other has more weight in the back of the head.  Now imagine swinging them both.  Entirely different feel right?  And for some this feel will be liked and natural, for others it will be disliked and unnatural.

 

Edel's SMS system takes your unique takeaways, transitions, and downswings into account by positioning the weights in a manner that allows you to swing naturally and rewards you for doing so.  SMS changes the balance and CG of these irons, and really fine-tunes a feel that's best for your particular swing.

I’ve tested the heavy 8 gram weight in different locations for each iron in my set (3-PW) and actually have the heavy weight in different heel, center, and toe locations for my long, middle, and short irons.  And again this is primarily because it results in more or less consistency of strike with the heavy weight in different locations for different irons.  Absolutely great stuff here.

 

As you can tell the SMS weighting system excited me, even fascinated me.  And so just for kicks I did a different kind of testing with my SMS Pro irons as well.  With the heavy 10 gram weight in the toe port I purposefully hit balls off the toe.  It's a popular miss for many recreational and high-handicap players.  And sure enough, moving the CG of my SMS Pro irons closer to the toe area gave me noticeably better results in both distance and direction.  Almost creating a situation where toe strikes reacted like pure strikes.  Something to ponder for those of you with more wear marks on the toe of your irons than in the center.

 

One final note about the SMS weights.  When I first started changing weights I noticed there's no snap or click sound like you get when you tighten a shaft into a driver head.  With the SMS Pro irons you just screw the screws in until they're tight.  No matter your swing speed, impact is powerful when you swing irons.  So I was curious if the vibration and force from impact might loosen the weights.  But not even a wee bit.  From the first swing to the last they don't budge and stay absolutely locked in.

As I said in the beginning, the Edel SMS Pro irons are very impressive with solid feel, stand-out distance, and surprisingly ample forgiveness.  And all this with the heavy weight in the default center port where you ideally want to make contact.  What takes SMS Pro (and SMS) irons up another level however is their ability to help you make better more consistent contact, even make better swings simply by changing around the weights.

 

I'm not saying you'll be posting new all-time low scores with the SMS Pro irons.  But Edel making your iron play convincingly simpler, better, and more consistent does put you on that personal-best path.