Golf Information Editor Nick Bayly places the brand new Callaway Apex Ai300 irons via their paces
As a 13 handicapper with an 18 handicapper’s iron sport, I like loads of forgiveness constructed into my irons, and whereas Callaway’s new Ai300 irons are billed as a sport enchancment mannequin, their dimensions and total take a look at deal with are barely extra compact that you just’d look forward to finding in a membership that’s constructed for this class of the market.
Having mentioned that, it’s a broad spectrum and this Ai300 irons undoubtedly sit on the low finish of that handicap class in that they’ll swimsuit and attraction to respectable ball strikers, and undoubtedly lead to some efficiency positive factors, whether or not it’s in ball speeds, constant distance off the center, in addition to those who aren’t struck off the useless centre of the clubface.
My ball flight with the Ai300s was larger than regular, helped by the weighting within the head of the membership, and photographs into greens ‘dropped and stopped’ which confirmed me simply how far more spin Callaway have of their up to date Apex mannequin.
My photographs had been additionally longer than regular distance-wise, and dispersion was fairly tight and constant after I hit a spread of photographs with every iron within the set.
The decrease irons, the 9 and PW, felt easy when it got here to getting the ball up within the air, making them superb for gamers like me who usually wrestle to maintain their approaches on the inexperienced, as these irons create excessive ball flight for softer landings.
Like many mid-handicappers I usually really feel as if I lose a little bit of management when hitting longer irons, and consequently solely go as much as a 5-iron in my present set.
Though there was no 3- or 4-iron equipped with my take a look at set, I appreciated how the ball got here off the membership with the 5-iron, and the mid-to-high ball flight supplied a pleasant mixture of distance and dispersion management.
What additionally impressed me, all through the bag, was the efficiency I used to be nonetheless in a position to generate with lower than good strike. Having irons with enhanced turf interplay for mishits can also be superb for individuals who wrestle for consistency with their swing.
Total, I feel these are a really well-conceived and executed set of game-improvement irons. The efficiency positive factors are evident for mid-to-high handicappers and so they additionally made me wish to change into a greater ball striker, quite than doing all of the be just right for you.
RRP: £1,199/£1,299 (st/gr, 4-PW). For extra particulars, go to eu.callawaygolf.com.
