Good discussion and will only add that I am not sure if we are at the bottom. As designers, we don’t like to see a PW with 38 deg. That’s a little ridiculous, in my opinion. Our new KE4 Max iron PW has 43 deg. and the GW has 48 deg. GW’s were created to fill the “Gap” created by the stronger lofts. At least right now, with what we have in development, I can’t see going stronger than the 43 deg.
Don’t believe for a minute the move to lower lofts has anything to do with anything but distance. Creating the perception that a player is hitting his #6 iron farther because some new technology or material when in reality it is because it now has #5 iron loft. We have gone stronger to compete. We could not continue to make irons with more of the traditional lofts when all the others were going stronger.
Britt Lindsey
Britt, thank you for your honest answer to this question. I always laugh when the marketing spiel on cog went low so we had to reduce loft gets parroted by golfers. This happens a lot on forums. You are one of the few who acknowledge what it is actually about. Kudos for the honesty.