Callaway Golf has made some of my favorite irons over the past couple of years, with the Apex CB being a particular highlight for me. So, when I heard that there was a new player's distance offering, I was thoroughly looking forward to putting it through its paces. Let’s see if the Callaway Apex Ai150 irons can rival some of the best irons in the game, and what they have to offer your game.
To give you the top line, the Ai150 sits in the compact distance iron category alongside the likes of the TaylorMade P790 and the Srixon ZXi5. The 7-iron loft of 31˚ is obviously still strong in traditional terms, but is between a degree and half a degree weaker than much of its competition in that iron category.
Tech-wise, we are looking at an iron whose design base was the very popular on-tour TCB iron. Essentially, Callaway just took the TCB profile, thickened the top line, added some offset, and widened the sole a touch, and the Ai150 is the result.
It features the Ai Smart Face, which is designed to not only promote ball speed but also deliver that ball speed consistently, a key component of any better player's iron. Callaway has also added its tri-sole to this model in an attempt to enhance the turf interaction experience.
In terms of looks, truth be told, I am not totally in love. From a shelf appeal perspective, they are fairly clean and minimal, which ticks my box, but I have to say, I never love the half-and-half combination of high gloss chrome and matt finishes. To me, it cheapens the look a touch, and I would much prefer to see a clubhead be one thing or the other, which always looks a lot more premium in my eyes. For example, the Elyte irons from Callaway look stunning with high gloss chrome throughout, while the Apex CB irons look equally as appealing with a more brushed matt finish. Irons simply don’t need both for me.
With none of the other models in the Apex range featuring any sort of chrome, it is a strange addition that somewhat interrupts the cohesion of the range. However, looks are all subjective, and plenty of people I have shown it to around the office loved the visual on offer with Ai150.
In the playing position, the dimensions and shaping are nice and frame the ball well. The fairly prevalent offset will appeal to players who fear the right miss, and while it isn’t my preferred look, this will offer a nice alternative to many irons in the category, like the TaylorMade P790, that have sought to minimize their offset.
As with the best Callaway irons I have tried in the past couple of years, the performance is undeniably excellent. Impressive ball speed output and excellent feel across the face are the real highlights of this compact distance iron.
Callaway is marketing these as a single-digit handicap player iron, but with the levels of forgiveness I experienced in my testing, I think they may be doing themselves a disservice. Many 12-15 handicap players I know would comfortably be able to game the Ai150 and be very happy about it.
As someone who has been banging the drum for some time, I am thrilled to see so many more companies paying attention to sole geometry, and Callaway has done a really good job in that regard. The tri-sole is extremely effective on both entry and exit to the turf, offering an extremely smooth ride.
My launch monitor data results were pretty much identical to one of my favorites in this category, the Srixon ZXi5, which can only be a good thing, and the consistency of the numbers was very encouraging to see.
The Ai150 is undoubtedly a good, solid offering in the players' distance category. I guess I am just struggling a little to see why the Callaway iron lineup needed it. While I suppose there was a bit of a loft gap between the Apex Pro (7-iron - 33˚) and the Apex Ai200 (7-iron 30˚), I am not sure what additional performance I am getting here versus just weakening the Ai200 iron by a degree.
That said, as a standalone product, it is a very good iron that achieves everything it set out to do from a design standpoint. The ball doesn’t care if there are too many irons in a lineup or not; the ball only knows impact, and everything that happens after impact with the Ai150 is truly very good.
The Ai150 is available in 3-AW and has an RRP of $229.99 per club.
