BS: In many ways designing a muscle back has similarities no matter who is making them but in this case, the experience was more of an exploration of taking the best of what Rick liked from the past, keeping it and adding in his own personal preferences to truly make it his iron. That involved as you know now 33 versions but what this process landed us on is a very special iron that has attributes you don’t see very often.

JW: It sounds like this project was a bit old craftsmanship and new tech—computers and a good old fashioned grind wheel.

BS: Yeah, the Sunday before Torrey last year, we had Rickie in the workshop and I pulled out some old MB heads and started grinding. As we went along and the ideas started flowing he’d say a little more off here, blend this line, a little less off there, etc… It was a great day especially if you’re a gear nerd like me.

JW: From the look of it there is some “old school” attributes to this iron. Did you look back at old forgings for inspiration?

BS: I went into our archive for inspiration. Gathering iconic blades from years past; MP14/29, Ram FX Tour Grinds, Wilson Staff Fluid Feel sets, Cobra Norman grinds, etc… The crazy thing was I forgot how much offset many of those old school blades had. That’s when I realized we could pick out certain design features and aesthetics, but ultimately this new iron idea was going to be just that, an entirely new creation. Remember Muscle Backs typically follow the similar design rules, where we and many other great companies get creative is in the engineering of it all. Edges, lines, widths, etc… all while making sure they hold up for the best players in the world. No easy task.

JW: Let’s talk about that offset—or the fact that it’s not there, mathematically or optically.

BS: LOL. That’s the first thing you will notice with these. His old irons had barely any offset, to begin with, (40/1000th of an inch) so we are already dealing with very little space. So the real question was how do we take out more offset and eliminate any appearance of offset. That’s where it got interesting. If you set it down, you would notice that the hosel has no taper to it at all. That taper, believe it or not, can optically add the appearance of some offset, next step was to flatten out the “par” area—most irons have a little space from the ferrule to the scoring line; these have basically none. So to your point, mathematically, there is zero offset and optically there is zero, which is rare.

JW: You mentioned the 7-iron being the anchor club in this set. Explain that. 

BS: Rickie loves the look of the 7-iron; it’s his favorite shape in the set. The idea was to transfer the look of that club into the whole set. You can really see it in the shorter clubs where the roundness or softness in those clubs is replaced by sharper lines from toe to heel. That’s where visually the set will catch any player’s eye.

JW: From a spec standpoint, is Rickie married to certain lofts? Another way to ask is are the Rev33 engineered around his loft preferences or was a bit more fluid?

BS: Rickie’s specs have always been right where they are now (47 PW on down). The set was engineered around his specific lofts. I understand with launch conditions/preference being stuck on certain specs could add some extra math but in this case, it didn’t hold us up much nor was it really a mountain to climb. Remember these are soft metal MB’s so a degree here or there won’t alter the performance.

Rickie Fowler Rev33 iron specs (4-PW)

Shafts: KBS C-Taper 125S+ (soft stepped)

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Align (non-brushed RF style)

• 4: 23° / 61.5° / D3 /38
• 5: 27° / 62° / D3 /37.5
• 6: 31° / 62.5° / D3 /37
• 7: 35° / 63° / D3 /36.5
• 8: 39° / 63.5° / D3/36
• 9: 43° / 64° / D3 /35.75
• PW: 47° / 64.5° / D3 /35.5

JW: He has been in a KBS Tour C Taper S+ for a while. Was that the shaft all the testing was done with?

BS: Yes, he switched to a Dynamic Gold S400 at one point last season to find some spin, but the KBS has been in the bag for a while, so the Rev33 was tested with that shaft.

JW: In speaking with Rickie last year, he mentioned the turf interaction being so good on King MB. Was that sole something you wanted to keep in the Rev33?

BS: We didn’t want to sacrifice anything he loved from the King MB irons, so the sole shape, camber ,and bounce remain the same. Since he plays at 1/2-inch short, we also continue to add tungsten plugs to increase weight. Blade length from heel to toe is about the same as well, but aesthetically everything else has been changed. Even the copper finish was his pick. We set out to make a unique iron that was his, and we didn’t stop until it was just right.