Golf Information Editor Nick Bayly places the brand new Callaway Apex Ai300 irons by their paces
As a 13 handicapper with an 18 handicapper’s iron recreation, I like loads of forgiveness constructed into my irons, and whereas Callaway’s new Ai300 irons are billed as a recreation enchancment mannequin, their dimensions and general take a look at tackle are barely extra compact that you just’d anticipate 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 positively sit on the low finish of that handicap class in that they may swimsuit and enchantment to first rate ball strikers, and positively lead to some efficiency positive aspects, whether or not it’s in ball speeds, constant distance off the center, in addition to people who aren’t struck off the lifeless centre of the clubface.
My ball flight with the Ai300s was greater than regular, helped by the weighting within the head of the membership, and photographs into greens ‘dropped and stopped’ which confirmed me simply how rather more spin Callaway have of their up to date Apex mannequin.
My photographs have been additionally longer than regular distance-wise, and dispersion was fairly tight and constant once I hit a variety 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 perfect 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 check set, I favored how the ball got here off the membership with the 5-iron, and the mid-to-high ball flight offered 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 be perfect for many who wrestle for consistency with their swing.
General, I feel these are a really well-conceived and executed set of game-improvement irons. The efficiency positive aspects are evident for mid-to-high handicappers and so they additionally made me need to develop into a greater ball striker, reasonably 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.