CALLAWAY AI 150 IRONS V TAYLORMADE P790 IRONS, DECISION MADE

CALLAWAY AI 150 IRONS V TAYLORMADE P790 IRONS, DECISION MADE

Callaway and Taylormade do not like each other, they are bitter rivals to the end and in the Player’s Distance Iron market, a market which the P790 iron virtually created by itself, Taylormade would be especially annoyed if Callaway, of all brands, were to upstage them with a model of their own. Well, with the introduction of the new Callaway Ai150 iron, Taylormade have a big fight on their hands. Watch here to find out just exactly who comes out on top.

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Hi, I am Fraser Malcolm, welcome to my channel. I am the Head Professional at North Berwick’s East Links (Glen Golf Club) in East Lothian, Scotland.
I have been a Professional golfer for over twenty-five years and have a wealth of experience teaching a wide range of players, from three-year-old beginners to elite county players. I have a strong background in junior golf coaching creating an all year round junior programme called Beginnagolf.
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OTHER VIDEOS:

🎥CALLAWAY AI 200 VERSUS P790, TITLEIST T200 & PING I530 https://youtu.be/j2i4XeeXsuk

🎥 PING G440 V CALLAWAY ELYTE IRON https://youtu.be/QeY7EV3DeHs

🎥 CLASH OF THE TITANS G430 V STEALTH https://youtu.be/ZalrxHhTlJ4

🎥PING I530 VERSUS PING BLUEPRINT S, MY NEW IRONS, BUT WHICH ONE? https://youtu.be/IDUpztk_Kh4

▶️ 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐊𝐄𝐘𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒:- #callawaygolf #callawaY #callawayai150irons #pingi530 #taylormadep790 #ironreviews #bestirons #betterplayerirons #GolfFM #callawaygolf #IronPerformance #GolfFitting #ironreviews

Hello and welcome to Golf FM. This is a test on the Callaway AI50 up against the P790 from Tailor Made. The Tailor Made P790 is an absolute stalwart. Been around for years, been tweaked and changed over the years to make it better and better. This is the latest edition, the 2025 edition, which is as good as it’s been. as forgiving as it’s been and as soft feeling as it’s been and as good-looking as it’s been. So, Callaway have now finally got their act together and got this AI 150 out and it is now a proper rival for the P790. And the only thing you would say is that the lofts are not exactly the same. So, we’ve got 30° on a 7iron for the P790 and you’ve got 31 in this Apex. So, it’s pretty close. If this AI150 gets close to the P790 with a onederee deficit in loft, then you know it’s good. If anybody’s seen my other video, which was 31 minutes long up against loads of different rivals, P790 was in that. But of those clubs that I tested, this one felt like the closest rival and the biggest test for it. So, I wanted to delve a little bit deeper into it and see what it looked like when you did a larger sample of shots and more testing than I’ve done previously. So, I’ve actually got some outside shots of this, believe it or not. I was actually allowed out of the shop for once. I sneaked out when no one was looking and went up in the sunlight and hit some shots cuz I wanted to see how these things would feel outside turf. So, what do these two clubs do? If you don’t know anything about these, these are players distance irons, which really means something that looks quite bladyy, but helps you a massive amount. So, it’s got a hollow body generally, and it’s effectively a perimeter weighted club inside, but doesn’t look like that. So, they’ve got all sorts of tech. The Tailor Made has got tech coming out of its ears. It’s got forged face, which makes it feel soft. It’s got speed foam behind that, which again tries to make it feel soft. It’s got, do you know what? I’ve forgotten what it’s all called, to be honest. It’s just so much. If you want to find that out, look at some of the videos that they do for that. And I’ll show you some while I’m talking. But it’s got flighted center of gravity, so it gets the long irons up in the air and the short irons down. It’s just the list goes on. It’s endless the technology in this. And the AI150, the Callaway, has got its own story, slightly different, and a story that I think you might quite like. So, settle down, put your feet up, and listen to this. hollowbodied in the long irons from three down to seven iron. So, similar sort of makeup to the P790 and all the other ones that do that softer, lighter face, helping you where you need it. And then the short irons, eight to wedge, are a solid structure. So, they’re not hollow body inside. And that is what all of the tour players pretty much use because the theory goes that if it’s a solid structure, it won’t give to the point where it becomes like a trampoline and springs out a really fast one on you. Now, there’s a school of thought that you get what’s called flyers with hollow bodied irons. For the vast majority of people, and I include myself in that as a club pro supposed to be playing off scratch, I do not notice a problem with flyers in these clubs. I could hit as many flares out of a difficult lie or a flyier lie than I would ever feel like I’ve done just on a normal shot suddenly going a lot lot further. So I don’t find it a problem. That’s the honest truth. But some people do. I know they do. With the Callaway, you’re taking that out of the equation and you’re really precise scoring club. So you’re eight down to wedge. You have got no chance of that happening. And some people will be able to sleep better at night knowing that. To me, it wouldn’t actually matter that much. I quite like the idea of it, I have to say, but I’m using Ping I530 at the moment. And as I say, I don’t notice a difference. So, that’s kind of the story. We’ve got two blade light clubs with very little offset, thinner top lines, both trying to help you out as much as they can. And these two, as Tailor Made and Callaway always are, are better rivals. And at the end of this, hopefully I will be able to squeeze a result out of this. Even if it’s by a tiny margin, I’m going to say which one I think is best. So, let’s return to the dark dingy dungeon that is the swing room and hit these clubs back to back. Need to just discuss Lukes on these. Bag appeal. I know to some people is irrelevant or they say it’s irrelevant. I would like to think it was irrelevant, but it isn’t. For me, I have to really like this view. And I know it does nothing that view, but if you like the look of something, potentially I think you’ve got more scope for persevering with it if things are not going so well. It’s a bit like putters. I you’ve kind of got to really quite like the look of a putter. Forget all the science and everything behind it that’s about what’s supposed to help you. I think if you like the look of something, you tend to give it a bit more of a go. And so you’re not just going to throw in the towel the minute you’re not hitting them very well and blame it on the club. So looks are important to a certain degree and I think there’s nothing between these two. Some people will think the P790 is nicer. Some people will think the AI150 is nicer. It’s up for grabs. The only thing I would say is that the smaller profile, smaller, shorter blade in the AI50 is more appealing to me and might be to lower handicaps. The lower your handicap is, probably the smaller you want your club generally to look. In terms of the sole, the P790 does look a little bit thicker. Actually, the AI150 is slightly closer in look to the P770. The reason I’m not put the P770 up against it is because the loft and standard guys in the P770 is 33 and it’s 31 in the Callaway. So, it’s not really a fair fight. I might do a test on that. I’m threatening you with a test that I might do on that where I’ll make the P772 degrees stronger and do a light forlike test on that. Let me know if you want me to do that. I’ll be doing it regardless of what you say, but you can let me know if you want me to do that. The sole’s a little bit thicker on the P790, but Callaway have done a lot of work on the AI150 to make sure that this gets through the turf really well, and I mentioned that in my outside part of this test that I’ve done. Okay, so testing the Callaway Apex AI150 outside as against the tailor made P790. So just putting them down, looking at them, it’s a much smaller head on the i150. Really notice I noticed inside in the swing room as well, but yeah, you really do notice it as outside. It’s it’s a little bit small and I like that. I like that. The P70 is still a nice head, reasonably thin top line. There’s a bit of thickness to it, but it’s the same as the Callaways. They’re not that much different. So, I’m going to hit the tailor made first. I’m down to green. I don’t actually know how far away it is. We’re downwind, but it’s roughly the right distance. Had to rush here cuz it’s a busy day. There’s a lot of people about. That was an okay stripe, but not brilliant. Feelwise. Felt all right. I’ve got Ping I 530s. Didn’t feel any softer than that. That was a better strike. Just leaking it a little bit right. Try and aim a bit more left. The wind’s taking that away. It’s what my excuse anyway. That felt nice. When you get them out the middle, they are nice. Turf interaction seems absolutely fine off a really bare lie. It’s a little bit less good than the last one, but okay. Fairly straight. That was a decent strike as well. It felt good. Felt nice. Absolutely no complaints. reasonably soft and good turf interaction. So, this one AI150 not hit this outside. Really like the look of it. A bit more rounded looking, but just definitely a bit smaller. See how these feel? That was a decent strike and a nice shot. Another one. Decent. A little bit leaky to the right. Turf wise seems seems fine. I haven’t dug into this one as much with these strikes. See, we can get a juicier strike this time. Better feels good. Possibly. Would that feel a we bit softer than the P79? So similar. It’s not funny, but possibly possibly a little bit softer. Let’s try the last two. A little bit leaky, but a decent strike. They feel nice. They do feel quite similar to the P790. I don’t think I’ve hit this batch as well, but I don’t think it’s anything to do with a club, to be honest. It’s just me lack of ability. Ah, that was a bit heavy, but it still got through the turf. Not too bad considering, yeah, not a lot in it feelwise. Not a lot in it. Both I suppose the takeaway is they both feel pretty good. They don’t feel like cast clubs. They feel like forge clubs to some extent. As I’ve said in other tests, I have felt a little bit softer in certain other models. Okay. So, just in terms of where they finished around the green cuz you know you’ll probably want to see that you got right. So, that’s the green there. And we’ve got only two or three I think on the actual button surface. Rest of them spread over a reasonable distance. But that just equates to the strikes that I was hitting. Not hitting them absolutely perfectly. But they all went ended up roughly in the same vicinity. It is downwind on a really hard and bouncy lynx lynxy surface. So, depends what down slope it hits or what up slope it catches. But they did pretty well overall. So, back to the weed dungeon with no light in it. Okay, I better get on with this or we’ll be here for 31 minutes again. So, top line against each other. quite similar in terms of the thickness of the top line, but the first thing you notice is the fact that the i150 looks shorter heel to toe, and I like that. It’s also got a different finish. That’s up to you what you like the best, but I personally prefer the look behind the ball of the Callaway. So, that is points towards the Callaway so far. But the P790 is a really nice looking club and I have no problem with it whatsoever. Okay, so let’s get on with hitting them. So P790 behind the ball. Nice looking club. Very little offset at all, which I like. Thinish top line considering how much help packed into this. Little bit bigger than I would possibly like, but slightly shorter than my 530, which is quite nice as well. So very happy with the head. talk about. Let’s see how far it goes, how forgiving it is, and also what the feel is like. Don’t let me forget to talk about the feel. Don’t have perfect, but felt reasonably nice. A little bit about right. They definitely don’t feel as soft as an absolute forged club would. So, 163 in the air, 179. Fairly low spin at the moment, but t always get that cuz they do go a long way. That’s a little bit off the bottom, but I don’t think it’ll lose a lot of speed for me. I’m not go too much into dispersion. I know what other people do. I think too much of dispersion figures is relying on the golfer, right? Coming into the ball with the face open from the inside across it, face closed. All the little things that people do and I do affect a dispersion, affect where the ball ends up. I’m not a robot, but what I can tell is when I don’t hit it 100% and say it’s reasonably straight, how much do I lose in terms of my ultimate distance? So, that was a good strike that went 177 in there. 192, right? So, when I don’t hit it, how close to that figure am I getting? That’s what forgiveness is for me. Yes, it probably helps with the offline part a little bit, some of the design in this, but ultimately if the face is at certain angle and the paths at a certain angle, the ball doesn’t know that the target wasn’t there. It’s just doing what’s force has been applied to it. So really for me, the most important thing is how much speed does it maintain? How much ball speed does it maintain when you don’t hit it properly? Okay, get on with it. That was a really nice strike. And these feel really quite nice. I could easily use these. And they come in a really nice darker finish, which they’re calling battle worn. So, I’d love to see them in real life and see what they look like. If anybody’s got a set of those, tell me about it. Tell me if they’re nice or not, cuz I I could be tempted. That was decent again. Ended up 175 190 in the air. Maybe a little bit more towy than the last one. So, that’ll be interesting to see. Oh, it’s not that bad. pretty straight. So, we got 172, 185. It didn’t hit quite as well and it didn’t go quite as far, but it wasn’t far off. Didn’t fall off that much. And as I’ve said a million times, I’ve had clubs before, blueprint s pings, which I got purely for looks, and I thought they would have a degree of forgiveness in them cuz they still looked per weighted. Well, I was sorely mistaken because they would fall out of there 20, 30 yards short of a given target if you didn’t hit them out the middle. And it wouldn’t look that bad a shot that you’d hit. It could be quite straight. If you hadn’t hit it, you were pitching or chipping rather than actually just a long putt from the front of the green. Now, that was a definite toe strike, but I could quite easily hit a shot like that on the golf course. And that’s still got 168 to 183. That’s what you’re paying for, holding on to that speed. And these do it really well. Pretty decent. A little bit less out the toe. I would say that one a little bit further. 173 190. Yeah, not bad. I’d be reasonably happy with most of these strikes on the golf course. I wouldn’t expect to flush everything. Be nice if I did, but I don’t. 1691 182. I’m getting reasonable all green figures there. Look at that. 6,100. That’s a world record for me spin-wise with one of these types of clubs. That was a nice solid strike. They do feel nice. They do feel nice. There are some softer models out there. I would say, I keep saying it every time, but Wilson Dino Power forged are softer feeling than this. And the AI200 from Callaway is softer feeling. But then AI200 has quite a bit more offset than this. 176 191. Nice strike. Again, it’s a responsive feel, but it’s relatively soft. And another nice strike. That was so painless. I got out of that 10 shot run pretty much with 10 shots. You have no idea how long that takes sometimes. 175 for 190. So there’s a pattern developing there with the distance. Right, let’s get on to the AI 150. Yeah, immediately put it down. Looks like a smaller thing all together. And as I say, that would be the size I would like if I could get a set of irons. And I’m not discounting that I might be tempted into these at some point in the future. I’ve got, as I say, I’ve got Ping I530s and they’re big brutes and they but they really help me out and they go a long way. They go further than these and so I’m hitting less club in effect, shorter shafted clubs in effect, which I like doing and know the losser strong, but these are very appealing to me. Right, let’s see how these go. That was a nice strike. And I would say on my first hit there that almost thought that felt a little bit better than the P790. But we are talking fractions. Oh 179 for 197. So I never got anything quite as strong as that. And remember these are one degree less loft. So they should go less distance. And that hasn’t. That’s gone more. Oh, that was a nice strike. I I think this fractionally feels better off the face than the P790. Feels a little bit softer. It’s powerful. Wow. Pretty low spin and it’s going out low and it’s coming down at not a high angle as much as the P790. So I think there’s possibly a little bit more flight easy flight with the P790 at the moment. This probably going out a wee bit flatter and hence a bit further. But that went 1791 98. I only got orange on descent angle 41, which is a wee bit too low. I hit that off the bottom. Did I hit a few like that with the P790? I kind of did. A bit thin and a bit clean. And it’s still gone. 1687. Yeah, decent. I think not as flushed as some of them. 178 197 4 and 1/2 spin 40. It’s pretty low in these things. I would have to watch what shaft I put in this. I’ve actually got dynamic gold mid 115 S300 in this. So that’s supposed to kick it up a little bit, but that’s a little bit too low and spin and everything. I tried to give that a little bit more height and get it out to the right just to see if I could get those spin figures up a bit. 4 and a half 45° descent angle. That’s a bit better. 1771 193. It’s going further than the P790. And it’s one degree weaker. That’s a good strike again. A little bit out to the right. 182 in the air. 198 45° descent angle. So that’s passable at nearly 200 yds with ultimate distance, which if you haven’t played in the east coast of Scotland on the firm courses, that’s what you’re ending up with. 182 would be the carry in a hot country in a soft a soft golf course. Nice strike. Again, I like the feel of these. You really do feel nice. Some would say it’s the absolute softest, but it’s a tiny bit softer than the P7. That’s gone a long way again. 1821 199. Spin is low 4 1/2 but 43 43 descent angle and it’s coming down at a decent angle. Remember it’s ultimately getting to about 200 ys which used to be about five iron in old money. And that is a 1 in longer shaft of five iron which is harder to hit the middle. Yeah, I can potentially hit quite a lot of strikes like that in my life. Not perfect but reasonably straight. And it’s ended up going 175 192. So it wouldn’t have been too far off the ultimate distance there again. So they are very forgiving these decent. I wouldn’t say as good. A little bit right. 172 187. Not as good. Held on to not too bad again. Decent strike again. Nice. Nice feel. Little bit left. Six. I might have done a little bit better than that. 1 and a half. Right, we’ll leave it there then. I think that’s 10 of each. Let’s have a look at the figures. Okay, so we’ve got 118 ball speed on the P719, 119 on the AI50. So, normally something’s a bit stronger lofted. That actually gives it more ball speed. And that’s not the case here. You’ve got 1 mph advantage on the Callaway. So, maybe they’ve somehow made that face a bit faster than the P790. Don’t know. 18 degree launch and 17 degree launch on the Callaway. Quite a big difference in spin, four and a half to 51 on the P790. So there is an argument to say that the P790’s got some weighting in there that’s maybe trying to launch the ball a little bit higher, which is a good thing normally. Although if you play in very windy courses, maybe the AI50 wouldn’t be a bad shout cuz it’s seems to be inherently lower spin. That’s a little bit too low spin. And I would have to watch what shaft I went for to make sure I tried to get that spin level up a little bit. Carry 172 in the P790 and 176 in the AI150. 187 total and 194 total. Descent angle 44 on the P790 and 43 on the AI50, which is acceptable, especially when you look at how far it’s actually going. So, okay, it was a little bit lower launch in one degree, but also only a slight difference in the descent angle. So, still usable for me. I I get quite a lot of low spin figures like that in these type of clubs. Some people will spin that up a lot more than I would. I know they look really low, those spin levels, but again, if I’ve got a slightly more suited shaft to me, then I might actually get the ball up in the air a wee bit better. So, conclusions. I did say I would give you a result and I think the result is and I think you probably can see it coming for a number of reasons. I would recommend the AI150. Now don’t get all angry if you’ve just bought a set of P790s and you came on because YouTube knew you were looking at P790 stuff and it’s suggested my video and you’ve walked into a nightmare where somebody said that isn’t as good as the clubs you’ve just bought. Your club is brilliant. Do not get this round the wrong way. We are talking extremely fine margins here. These are both brilliant golf clubs and you would not go wrong with either of them if they’re properly fitted to you and they suit you. I just think the smaller head on this AI150, the feel and actually the performance is it’s quite a strong club, although I would have to watch what the spin was doing are saying to me that it is fractionally ahead of the P790, which I think is amazing because the P790 has been up at the top for a long, long time and it is pretty much number one equal in this category which is fiercely fought. over this categories. Lots of clubs in that I haven’t even mentioned. Just about every manufacturer on the planet makes one of these types of clubs. So, you’ve got a really good choice of these, but these are two absolute beauties. And in this particular test, I think the AI50 just nudges it and comes out on top. So, if you’ve got any questions, put them in the comments and I’ll get back to you. But thanks again for watching and I’ll see you in the next one.