Callaway Apex Ai200 and Ai300 Irons - 2024 Forum Review

[Indy_Oz]

On 9/12/2024 at 7:59 PM, Wib081 said:

So my 921 forged on trackman I can get 190 if I step on my 7 iron. Normal carry on good contact 175 carry consistently. I will say these feel a club to a club and a half longer and I don’t have to step on them. I swing driver fast but my irons I don’t like to and never have tbh. So the fact I can get distance out of them like today is great. I’m 42 and I don’t know how much longer I can swing like o do now with my driver so having these in the bag is quite nice! The thing that shocked me was how quick the stopped! They landed great and with minimal rollout 

Only 42? You can keep that swing speed a good while longer if you look after yourself. My driver CHS is around 110mph right now if I go hard but controlled. I turned 50 earlier this month and I'm slowly returning to the physical condition I was in a year ago (before a couple of niggle injuries early this season). I have no intention of slowing my swing speed down for a while longer. I know the day will come, but my ego enjoys hitting the ball past my younger golfing buddies. Ha ha.

[JohnSmalls]

Managed to sneak an hour at our new indoor hitting facility today with the new Full Swing overhead launch monitor.  I forgot to charge my phone before I left for my lunch break and ended up with a paper weight for a phone so unfortunately no photos.  The Full Swing system wouldn't send an email today either so I am going off of mental notes.

My focus and goal today was get a better idea of the yardage gap through out the Ai200 set. Also played a quick virtual 9 holes to work on hitting some golf shots.

Main observations today:

• 10-12yds between every club from PW-6i
• 20 yard gap from AW-PW
• 5-7 yard gap at very best from 6i to 5i
• Low toe strikes offered noticable forgiveness

I expected a little more seperation but I am very happy with very consistent 10-12 yards through the bag.  AW-PW gap may have been from getting warmed up, no worry there yet. More testing needed with 5 iron.  Decent strikes were struggling to get to/past 200 yards with the best topping out around 205-207 today.  That number should be much closer to 215 for optimum yardage gaps.

Bonus thoughts/observations:

• Ai200s feel a little bit heavy compared to my Wilson CB w/ DG 120 S300.  
  • Wonder if swing weight or overall weight is different?
• Wilson 7 iron (34*) vs Callaway Ai200 7 iron (30*) is about a 1 club difference in distance
• Wilson 7 iron (34*) vs Callaway Ai200 8 iron (34*), Wilson was a couple of yards longer than Callaway
• Callaway AW does perform nicely when opening the face on tight artificial turf lie
• Ai200's performance (subjective & quantitative) improves when tee'd up

Overall fun day, with some decent data collected.  I won't quite say trends are developing just yet, but some ideas are forming.  

[Shrek74]

12 hours ago, JohnSmalls said:

Managed to sneak an hour at our new indoor hitting facility today with the new Full Swing overhead launch monitor.  I forgot to charge my phone before I left for my lunch break and ended up with a paper weight for a phone so unfortunately no photos.  The Full Swing system wouldn't send an email today either so I am going off of mental notes.

My focus and goal today was get a better idea of the yardage gap through out the Ai200 set. Also played a quick virtual 9 holes to work on hitting some golf shots.

Main observations today:

• 10-12yds between every club from PW-6i
• 20 yard gap from AW-PW
• 5-7 yard gap at very best from 6i to 5i
• Low toe strikes offered noticable forgiveness

I expected a little more seperation but I am very happy with very consistent 10-12 yards through the bag.  AW-PW gap may have been from getting warmed up, no worry there yet. More testing needed with 5 iron.  Decent strikes were struggling to get to/past 200 yards with the best topping out around 205-207 today.  That number should be much closer to 215 for optimum yardage gaps.

Bonus thoughts/observations:

• Ai200s feel a little bit heavy compared to my Wilson CB w/ DG 120 S300.  
  • Wonder if swing weight or overall weight is different?
• Wilson 7 iron (34*) vs Callaway Ai200 7 iron (30*) is about a 1 club difference in distance
• Wilson 7 iron (34*) vs Callaway Ai200 8 iron (34*), Wilson was a couple of yards longer than Callaway
• Callaway AW does perform nicely when opening the face on tight artificial turf lie
• Ai200's performance (subjective & quantitative) improves when tee'd up

Overall fun day, with some decent data collected.  I won't quite say trends are developing just yet, but some ideas are forming.  

I'm digging those gaps from 6i down. I have noticed that many of us, when we get to the top of our irons have a gapping issue. I'm not even sure I'll keep a 5i in the bag going forward next year due to it being almost the same as my 6i at this point (similarly to you). Plus, I'm far more consistent with my hybrids than my 5i on strike, direction, and distance. Maybe it's just me, but it's something I've noticed on the forum and read in articles - mid/high handicap gap issues with long irons. *shrug*

[GolfSpy_BOS]

27 minutes ago, Shrek74 said:

I'm digging those gaps from 6i down. I have noticed that many of us, when we get to the top of our irons have a gapping issue. I'm not even sure I'll keep a 5i in the bag going forward next year due to it being almost the same as my 6i at this point (similarly to you). Plus, I'm far more consistent with my hybrids than my 5i on strike, direction, and distance. Maybe it's just me, but it's something I've noticed on the forum and read in articles - mid/high handicap gap issues with long irons. *shrug*

Yes, it is fairly common, and I don't think it's the 3* loft difference either.  I think on a "good" strike, the yardages are there, us mere mortals just are not as good a striking it as the club gets longer. 

6 iron seems to be a good spot for a lot of golfers to consider the switch to a hybrid, depending on how you use that slot in the bag.