It's a rare golf club, and this pro just won with it

Lee Trevino famously said that golfers caught in a thunderstorm should grab a 1 iron.

Why?

“Because even God can't hit a 1 iron,” he said.

Over the past 30 years, novices and PGA Tour pros alike have taken notice, because there are easier alternatives to long irons.

Today, the use of the 1 iron is a unicorn on the PGA Tour, replaced by 5-woods, 7-woods and hybrids. Even with the advent of slotted iron designs and specially designed driving irons that have kept 2 and 3 irons alive, pros seem to draw the line when the iron gets stronger than 17 degrees.

But not Ben An.

He won the DP World Tour and the Korean PGA Tour's Genesis Championship over the weekend in the finals. It almost won best remembered for the driver who teed off on the 15th hole from 290 yards to within 10 feet while trailing in two, or his emotional happiness with his grandmother, who watched him win for the first time in his country.

But gear junkies may have noticed something else: Not only is One of the few pros still carrying a 1-iron, but it's also the longest club in his bag, other than his driver. He doesn't have a fairway wood, which explains why he had to hit driver on 15.

The 16-degree Titleist U505 driver has been in An's bag since the Valspar Championship in March 2023; adding a club to An's arsenal was an idea cooked up by An; his bowling coach, Sean Foley; and JJ Van Wezenbeeck, Titleist's senior director of player promotion. Van Wezenbeeck said they were trying everything to find an alternative from 3-lofts to higher fairway woods.

“We had a game with Ben,” Van Wezenbeeck told GOLF.com. “He's such a good iron player—the way he hits the fairway wood, he's serious about the driver. But the iron, it does a really great job of controlling the face and pressing it. So his coach Sean Foley looked at me and said, 'We need something.'”

It was then that Van Wezenbeeck asked the pair if they were open to “anything.”

Like, U505 1-iron.

The U505 isn't a classic 1-horror instrument. As Van Wezenbeeck describes it, it is a metal with hybrid properties. It has a flat surface, like iron, but like alloy, it has one wide and low center of gravity. That low CG is helped by tungsten weights in the heel and toe, making for a higher MOI.

Although Van Wezenbeeck said Valspar's range was a little off, An and Foley noticed when they saw 265 yards out of the gate. The club, with a few tweaks here and there – including switching to a 41-inch Graphite Design Tour AD VF 95 X shaft ahead of the Paris Olympics – has been in An's bag ever since.

“I hit it high enough, I have enough speed, I have enough spin rates,” An said in a Titleist YouTube video earlier this year, “so why don't I try to build that iron with a really low loft, to hit it straight off the tee?” Because that is the whole purpose of using 3 woods.

“A lot of people are amazed at how well I can hit this, and it was a great club off the tee. I can hit the ground, maybe 20, 30 feet off the ground to like 120 feet off the ground.”

Titleist U505 Custom Driving iron

$269.99

A versatile, high-performance instrument that now looks and sounds even better. The IU•505 lets you bring back your long metal game. Drawing on Touring inputs, the refined design delivers the high-end, explosive launch you've come to expect from a utility, now with an incredibly solid feel and sound. The IU•505 is the ultimate resource, presenting the most. A new, clean design creates more confidence at address, while refined Max Impact Technology, a redesigned chassis and a new Variable Bounce Sole all improve overall feel and performance. It all includes a flexible instrument that plays like an instrument. STRONG LOOKS ON THE SPACE With a short blade and shallow face, the U•505 sets the tone for what Tour Pros should be. Now with an even cleaner design, nothing will distract you from hitting the perfect shot and shaping your gaming needs. ENHANCED FEEL With distance as a priority, engineering feel becomes a unique challenge. In the U•505, Titleist engineers used the refined Max Impact technology with extra cushioning in the polymer muscle pad to direct the frequencies created by impact at the player's optimal distance. IMPROVED OFF-CENTRE ACCURACY The •505 features a stable, redesigned chassis and a low CG to help maintain speed and stability on off-center strikes. The single taper face improves heel-toe performance with strong distance dispersion. EFFORTLESS TURF CONNECTION Working with Tour Pros and the milling experts at Vokey Design, our engineers were able to improve our Flexible Bounce Sole by softening the edge so the club can flow quickly through the surface, even after contact. Iron refinement with a goal on one of the longer clubs in your bag.

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It's amazing that An's 1-iron model isn't just reserved for the game's elite or those with access. The U505 1-iron is actually a retail offering from Titleist.

“When we were testing with the Tour players it was like, Hey, this is pushing the limits of that player who doesn't really have — or has scar tissue from playing hybrid 10 years ago when they didn't have CG. fixing what we're doing today, and I said I want something like metal,” said Van Wezenbeeck. “Should we reduce this to 16 degrees? And as we looked at the progress of the loft, we were like, 'That's a 1 iron.'