Spent some range time with these and wanted to write it up as I was working on something in particular that I found interesting. Hard grass and tight lies.
Some speak about wider soles and thinner soles and what works for the eye, but rarely discuss turf interaction between the two and what makes them different. So I decided to take the 9 iron from this set and the 9 iron from the Ping G15 set to the local range that has some different types of hitting areas.
Mats - Both performed rather well. The CBs offered clean hitting and an impact sound that was incredibly nice and put off a great feel. The miss with the G15 was when coming in a little heavy and hitting what would amount to a heavy shot showed the sole of the club "bouncing" off the mats indicating I was hitting the ball thin. VERY THIN. Leaving low shots that were in essence skulled.
Wet Grass/Heavy Grass - The CBs leading edge got a little messy here with the wet grass as it had a tendency to dig quickly (for my swing) leaving a few shots short of their target. The G15s did not suffer from the same "bounce" type of issues off the mats here and while they slid in to the thicker grass and wet grass in a similar fashion, the thicker top line and mass behind the ball on the higher grooves provided a forgiveness that is not really available in the CBs to that extent.
Tight lies/Hard Fairways - The CBs shined once again here in comparison and it showed virtually identical findings to that of the mats. The CBs slid through the turf with perfect interaction and did not have any struggles. The thicker sole of the G15s gave me a bounce off the turf on 2-3 occasions that left a thin shot.
I expected something similar but in all honesty, not to this extent. The forgiveness of the thicker and larger iron excelled in the trouble areas (like it should), but provided an issue or two with the very tight lies offered in some fairways.
I believe the reviewers at Golf.com said the same thing about the CB's, they dug in a little too much for their liking.