Home › Guides › PRGR 01 to 04 Irons Compared

【Nov 2026 Update】PRGR 01, 02, 03, 04 Irons: 7-Iron Lofts 32°–26°Four 7-irons lined up by the official figures for loft, length, total weight and price. For forgiveness, it's the 04.

Updated: Nov 5, 2026Contains affiliate links

I average a score of 72 and play 150 rounds a year. I picked these seriously.
You want a forgiving iron, but you can't tell the 01 through 04 apart. PRGR's irons come as four: the 01, 02, 03 and 04. Their 7-iron lofts are 32°, 30°, 26° and 28°, a spread of 2 to 6 degrees.
If I had to pick one for forgiveness, it's the 04, built with a cavity and a low, deep center of gravity.
By the end, you'll be able to choose by the 7-iron loft and the gap down to your wedges.

Cover product photo: Rakuten Ichiba (ad) | PRGR 04 Irons

Bottom line

What makes an iron forgiving?

A forgiving iron loses less distance and accuracy when you miss the center. Makers use roughly three levers: a lower and deeper center of gravity, a higher moment of inertia (how hard the head is to twist), and a stronger loft that makes the ball easier to launch and carry.

PRGR's 04 page names exactly these three. It uses a new oval cavity design aimed at low, deep center of gravity and high moment of inertia, and pairs strong lofts with a semi-large head for distance and forgiveness.

I compare them on the build that numbers can show, and on the 7-iron's loft, length and weight.

How do the four 7-irons differ in loft, length, weight and price?

Source: PRGR's official product pages (checked Oct 28, 2026). Length and total weight are design values with Spec Steel III (S) on the 01, 02 and 03, and MCI FOR PRGR (S) on the 04. The tax-inclusive price for the 01 and 02 is my own calculation: the official ¥120,000 before tax times 1.1.

Working out the gaps: in 7-iron loft, the 01 and 03 differ by 6 degrees (32 - 26), the 01 and 04 by 4 degrees (32 - 28), and the 01 and 02 by 2 degrees (32 - 30). The stronger the loft, the more the same 7-iron leans toward distance.

The 03 is 0.75 in longer than the 01 (37.75 - 37, about 19 mm) and 17 g lighter (417 - 400). The 04 is 35 g lighter than the 01 (417 - 382), though its shaft is different, as the table note says. On the price of the 5-club set, the 04 is ¥16,500 cheaper than the 03 (143,000 - 126,500) and ¥5,500 cheaper than the 01 and 02 (132,000 - 126,500).

What do you judge by? Three yardsticks

I don't use sales or the number of reviews as a reason. I compared the four clubs whose figures I could read on the maker's product pages against three yardsticks.

• Head construction: is it a cavity-back aimed at a low, deep center of gravity? Where is the center of gravity?
• 7-iron loft and total weight: the stronger the loft and the lighter the club, the more it leans toward distance and forgiveness.
• Price of the 5-club set: for the same character, cheaper ranks higher.

I hit the 04's 7-iron 10 times in a hitting bay. With the 8-iron, I got my usual 7-iron distance

I hit it on Friday, October 9, 2026, at around 7 p.m., in a hitting bay at an indoor range, alone, in a single session. I hit the 04's 7-iron (standard steel shaft, about 95 g) 10 times, with a TrackMan and Pro V1 balls.

The ten-ball average was 172 yards of carry, 5,200 rpm of spin, a 14.5° launch angle and a 44° descent angle. For comparison, my ZXi5 7-iron (31°) gives 160 yards of carry, 6,300 rpm, a 16.5° launch angle and a 49° descent angle. The 04 went 12 yards farther, and the descent angle was 5° shallower.

The shot where I felt the forgiveness was one I missed toward the toe. Carry fell from 172 to 164 yards, only 8 yards. A similar strike with the ZXi5 loses about 11 yards, so the 04's loss is smaller. Side to side, the 04 spread ±7 yards and the ZXi5 ±6 yards, so I felt no difference there.

Because the loft is stronger, hitting the 8-iron put me in the same 160-yard range as the ZXi5 7-iron. In practice, you drop one club. The gap to the wedges is 27 yards: the 04's PW carries about 132 yards and the SM11 50° carries 105. I felt I'd need one more wedge in between.

What I was torn against was the ZXi5 I use now. The 04 goes farther, but the widening gap down to the wedges bothered me.

When you demo it, check more than the 7-iron's loft number: find which club gives you the same distance, and the gap to your wedges. What I can't praise is the big head, which looks chunky. If how a club looks at address matters to you, or you like to manage distances club by club in detail, look at it in a shop first.

I also have numbers for mishits. The fat shot dropped to 148 yards of carry, the thin shot went 155 yards and the toe-side shot 164 yards. The fat shot lost more than the toe shot. The ten-ball average ball speed was about 58.5 m/s.

I hit the 8-iron three times after the ten 7-irons, and it averaged 163 yards of carry. The 9-yard gap to the 7-iron's 172 yards (172 − 163) puts it at about the same distance as the ZXi5 7-iron (160 yards). In other words, the 04 hits the ZXi5 7-iron's distance one club shorter.

Between the 04's PW (about 132 yards of carry) and the SM11 50° (105 yards), I'd like to add a 46°. At about 118 yards, it would split the gap into 14 yards (132 − 118) and 13 yards (118 − 105).

How do the 01, 03 and 04 look at address, and how do they feel?

In October at a local golf shop, I addressed the 01 and 03 and held the head of the 02. Compared with the ZXi5, the 01 and 03 have thicker top lines and wider soles, and they felt like they have a larger offset. They have a forgiving look, but the ZXi5 gives a cleaner impression.

When I addressed the 04 in the fitting room on Oct 9, the head looked larger than the ZXi5's, and I noticed a thick top line and a thick sole. The face looked slightly closed, and I could feel the metal spread out toward the ground just behind the ball. It looks chunky, and I felt that people who care about the look at address would be split on it.

Compared with the ZXi5, the 04 feels springier and a little firmer. The sound is higher and shorter on the 04, while the ZXi5 gives a low, dull, settled sound. That difference didn't change over the ten balls.

For the 03's loft and lie adjustment, I saw the adjustment tool in the shop and listened to the staff explain the procedure.

Why This Order

Source: PRGR's official product pages (checked Oct 28, 2026). The ranking is mine, based on the 3 yardsticks above.

What I like

The 04 has a soft-iron S20C body and a nickel-chromium-molybdenum steel (SAE8655) face, rolled and forged in Japan. It has four grooves on the back of the face, and the page describes the head as semi-large.

The 5-club set is ¥126,500 with tax. Over 5 years, that's ¥25,300 per 1 year, or about ¥169 per 1 round at 150 rounds a year (126,500 ÷ 5, 25,300 ÷ 150, my calculation).

The 03 supports ±1 degree of loft adjustment and ±2 degrees of lie adjustment. Being able to fine-tune a strong loft afterward is a plus.

The 02 puts its center of gravity near the middle of the face, which the page says makes impact point and shot shape easier to match up.

What to watch for

With a stronger loft, the gap down to the wedges tends to widen. The 04's P is 41 degrees and its A is 46 degrees. Look at the wedge ranking or PRGR's R35 and R50 wedges, and plan on adding a club around 50 degrees.

The 03 is 0.75 in longer than the 01 and 02, at 37.75 in (with Spec Steel). If long clubs give you trouble, the 04's 37.25 in should be easier to swing.

Who it suits: if you're torn, choose by what you want

Great for you if you

• You want help on mishits, an easy swing-through and a lower price: the 04
• You want to lean toward distance with a stronger loft: the 03
• You like the stability of a center-weighted head: the 02
• You want to work the ball and shape your shots: the 01

If you want to look beyond one maker, I laid the others out in the iron ranking and in irons that give you a rising ball flight.

I recommend the 04 to people who want help with mishits and who want distance from the 7-iron. In the fitting room on Oct 9, even a toe-side mishit dropped only 8 yards. The gap down to the wedges opens up 27 yards, so what decided it for me was whether the ZXi5 is enough. The price is ¥126,500 for five. The 01 is what I addressed in a shop, so before recommending it I'd like you to check each club's distance in a fitting room.

Price and where to buy

The prices are the list prices in the table. For current stores and prices, see the buy box above.

When you buy, look at the shaft. The 04 comes with MCI FOR PRGR (S, SR, R, R2) or Spec Steel III Ver.2. The R2 is made to order. Weight changes with the shaft, so the total weight in the table is for the shaft listed.

What is your 7-iron loft?

Update history

• Oct 28, 2026: Published (based on PRGR's official product pages)
• Nov 5, 2026: Added notes from hitting the No. 7 iron of the PRGR 04 in a hitting bay (based on the author's own records)

About the writer and sources

Written by a gear nerd who studies golf equipment, averages a 72, and plays about 150 rounds a year.

I re-read the numbers against the sources below on Oct 28, 2026. Last updated Nov 5, 2026.

FAQ

Which PRGR iron is the most forgiving?

The 04. Its product page says it uses an oval cavity design aimed at low, deep center of gravity and high moment of inertia, and combines strong lofts with a semi-large head for distance and forgiveness. The 7-iron is 28 degrees and 382 g total (MCI FOR PRGR S).

What's the difference between the PRGR 01, 02, 03 and 04 irons?

The 7-iron lofts are 32 degrees for the 01, 30 for the 02, 26 for the 03 and 28 for the 04. The 01 has its center of gravity slightly toward the heel for workability, the 02 is center-weighted, and the 03 and 04 are cavity-backs, with the 03 two degrees stronger in loft.

How much do the PRGR irons cost?

The 5-club sets cost: the 04 is ¥126,500 with tax, the 03 is ¥143,000 with tax, and the 01 and 02 are ¥120,000 before tax (¥132,000 with tax). Source: PRGR's official site, checked Oct 28, 2026.

Related reading

Iron ranking
Widens the view beyond one maker.

Irons that give you a rising ball flight
On the ball flight of strong-lofted irons.

Wedge ranking
On the clubs to add after strong-lofted irons.

Sources for this article

• PRGR official: PRGR 01 Irons
• PRGR official: PRGR 02 Irons
• PRGR official: PRGR 03 Irons
• PRGR official: PRGR 04 Irons

Last updated: Nov 5, 2026

Specs are the maker's Japanese official product pages and values published by media outlets (checked Oct 28, 2026). These are published values. The figures I hit or used are written in the text with their conditions. Only the measured values of the 04's 7-iron are numbers I measured with a TrackMan in the fitting room.