New Callaway Ai150 Apex Irons Are Good Enough for Tour Pros

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Who would have thought a year ago that you and I would be standing here doing this? Okay, Johnny Wonder here. Uh, this is going to be kind of a fun video um that you’re about ready to watch. So, I made my uh made my return back to ECPC to try out all the new Callaway irons. Now, truth be told, a lot of the stuff I knew was coming out, but I was excited to hit a couple of the things that you’re going to see. In this video specifically, you’re going to see Johnny Thompson, who is uh now the tour uh tour content manager at Callaway, and I kind of walking through the new AI50 iron, which is an iron that I think is uh quite brilliant. You know, they’ve always needed a TCB Plus, I will call it, or a better players plus iron. The fun thing about what they’ve done here is the shape is there, you know, for better players like me. They’re forgiving. they have all the things that I would need to kind of maintain, you know, ball speed, spin, all the fun stuff that we’re going to that we’re going to need if we’re going to go out and play good golf. One of the things that you’re going to notice um that I kind of find interesting when it comes to to Callaway Irons is they are they excel at packing in a ton of technology into a tight package. Like they just I don’t know how they do it. They’ve done it. fascinated me when I worked there and it still fascinates me to this day. They just keep putting more things and the packages and the chassis keep getting smaller and smaller. Uh AI50 is exactly, you know, definitely a testament to that. Uh so what you’re going to see here is JT and I just on the range kind of working through it all. Here’s a Callaway AI 150. Me and JT at ECPC. Let it roll. Okay, JT. So, we have AI 150, which as described to me was kind of like that that TCB player that just wants a little bit extra, little extra, a little more forgiveness because the head is a little bit bigger, but similar offset. Okay. Um, also in the longer irons, you might see a little bit of a different performance. Okay. Due to construction. And then did you guys do so it looks like you guys did a little bit of work to the sole like there’s a little bit little extra relief up here. So that pre-wear is something that I I’m real proud of of R&D for getting on board with this because turf interaction on these compared to some of the uh like the TCBS that had a much more flatter sole through testing with tour through testing here at the ECPC it’s shown that just tur turf interaction has improved and if your turf interaction improves there’s just going to be a level of consistency but also feel through the ground. Like if you feel the club’s entering the ground and exiting quickly, right? It just it feels better. But then also, you know, if you come in a little toe high or a little like heel down, it’s going to help kind of help shallow that and and just, you know, mitigate what happens if you get something that really wants to dig from the heel or dig from the toe, the twisting and turning, right? So like I mean I can’t emphasize enough, we talk about this, you know, on the tour trucks a lot, like turf interaction essentially is like your it’s kind of your decider of where you’re going to get it on the face, right? So for for all for all handicaps, like I’ve always felt like if you had a proper soul, it didn’t really matter what was going on the perimeter of the iron for the most part. If the club got through the turf, then that player is going to going to catch the right part of the face. You know, when I see an iron like this with a little bit of front edge relief, and you got to be I mean, and at the same time, you know, the leading edge on this thing is still pretty sharp. So it’s, you know, even for your pickers, it’s still going to work. Yeah. Because then there’s some trailing relief, too. So again, if you just had the the leading edge and you still had a big heavy back, you know, you could get into the ground, but when that back starts to engage with the ground, it could sort of start to bounce out and it might not feel as good, right? Um but yeah, kind of feel like you’re hitting driver off the deck all the time. That’s always felt like on a really like if you go play in Texas or something off a hard ground. Yeah. It’s just, you know, it’s almost you feel like you just can’t get the leading edge under the ball. So yeah. Tell me a little bit about look because uh off camera you we were talking about the finish on these. So, I I think and I’m seeing a trend and a lot of this is just from some of the other OEMs and some of the cool stuff that’s coming out, some of the limited drop stuff. Going back to chrome. Mhm. Which for you and I we probably love because because of how we grew up. Um like I like that you guys didn’t make these satin that they’re chrome cuz they’re going to look different in the bag. They’re going to look bladyy in the bag. To me, it’s always been sort of a nod that you’re taking that iron uber seriously. Like if you’re going to chrome it out and make something that pretty, make it make it shiny. Mhm. Um I I just I think it’s cool. So, all right. Let’s see. All right. Like a Cadillac. It’ll take long to warm up. So, that felt good first glance here. Like, I hit that. Okay. Yeah. Maybe a groove low, but I’m still getting the launch. Yeah. I didn’t lose a ton on ball speed. It’s starting to get loosened up. Like these are interesting cuz I’m not losing the look I like but I’m still getting the performance that I would want. And that’s like to be honest like this is how I’m hitting these like where I’m hitting them on the face unless my timing’s on that day. This is how I hit it. Yeah. I got a feeling we you’ll see some of these in tour players bags on the PGA Tour. You could see some, you know, four, fives, and sixes, right, coming into play because it it’ll blend with more your traditional tourns that we offer and the TCBS and the MBs. Okay. Um you’re going to have a lot easier blend there where you can get some technology in a smaller chassis. Like that was a little closer to the face. Yeah. When I’m testing irons like this, for me honestly, it’s just even three quarter shots because that’s where I’m that’s where the that’s where an iron like this is going to expose itself for spin is if you take speed off, then what happens? Yeah. Um cuz in the past, what would happen when that ball loses its energy or or or it’s it launches so high with such little spin that the ball’s out of my hand the moment I hit it? Like the more like the higher up the face I’m getting. Now I’m starting to get some really fun numbers here. That was 7500 spin. When I’m looking at an iron like this is the spin is the only thing I’m really paying attention to. Yeah. Tell you what, you get them out of the middle they go. Like these are plenty fast. I guess the the biggest takeaway so far and JT hit on a couple interesting points, but you know, I know there’s other OEMs that make irons, you know, sort of in this class, but this is the first one that I’ve seen that mimics something that’s legitimately on tour where you’re taking a platform like TCB, which was the most successful tour iron probably we’ve ever made, and then putting a little bit of a little bit of horsepower in there. Yeah. You just consider like who plays them, too. Well, yeah. Yeah, I mean you got Xander, Rombo, Burns, I mean anybody any of the auction any of the top players on our staff is playing that iron. So we’re we’re providing sort of what they love, right? With a improved soul and then a construction that, you know, guys that don’t play golf for 10 hours a day, seven days a week, right? They can get some forgiveness out of it. Let’s hit Let me hit one more little chippy one here. The cool thing with these is when you hit them out, I mean, if you hit them a little thinner, if you hit them out of the guts, they feel just like my TCBS. I’m not losing anything there. Like, they feel exactly the same. Good. I know you love that iron, so that’s a good comment. So, this might be a little easier for me to hit cuz I can hit uh I can take a full rip here. So, into the five iron. Again, we still have the face plate, but there’s a hollow body construction here. Okay. So, think about feel here. Think about sound and then also flight. Yeah. So, ideally, you just want to want this to get up in the air. Yeah, these are money. And and and as far as looking down, like if you’re going to base it off of the TCB platform, if that’s I know I know this is an exact mimic of a TCB fire environment, but like that’s not too big, not too small. The one thing I’m really liking those if I close closed my eyes, I wouldn’t know if you’re in the eight or five, right? And the construction of these are very different. And in the past, we’ve had some uh similar setups like this where you could kind of tell through sound, you know, that there was a little bit slight difference in construction. But right, I tell you what, they get up they get up in the air fast. Let’s hit one more. That was bottom groover. And again, like I don’t I’m not my wants and needs with a five iron are very small. Like I’m not I just literally just want something I’m not going to not going to make a a bogey with. So plenty of confidence looking down at this. It’s plenty forgiving because I’ve hit a couple of these all over the face and they’re still flying. Okay. Like that was really thin. Unfortunately for me, my mit is a performance killer. Yeah. Which is thin. Thin and lofty. Yeah. So, I’m gonna lose a lot. Yeah. So, I have to cheat it with technology to make that make that look prettier. I mean, no doubt these are launching nice. Yeah, they’re getting up in the air fast. Okay. Impressed. I had the good opportunity of having my friend Emmy Grill come to the range to ECPC, which is like your home come your home driving range essentially. Like he’s got a card to get in here. So, he’s going to be hitting the A150s cuz he saw them when I was filming the last video and was asking about what they are and apparently he went inside and ordered a set. Is that correct? With my phone. Okay. With his phone. So, this is more the shape that I like. Okay. A little bit more, you know, rounded stuff. Yeah. fully. This is a more more more right angles in this iron. And and this one has a you know what do you call it? Like this front edge more like a chamfer. Like essentially it’s just it’s just a more bounce up front. I like the fact that you can like go steeper on the ball. Okay. And that’s kind of it’s not going to dig on you. Correct. And that’s something that I feel like most of the pros are they trying to do especially when like under pressure, right? That you want to go like, you know, a bit more down and make sure that you get the ball. Well, you’re getting more the ball first, right? So, okay, let’s hit a couple of these. There you go. And how was that one? That was like a good hit even though I didn’t get through the ground. But you got out of the middle. Yeah. Okay. But you can see it’s more more my number. Um, very, you know, very close to the spin that I will be looking at. As long as I see under 8,000, you’re good. I’m happy. Okay, let’s do one more. There’s a pretty big takeaway from what I’m seeing with you, which is actually really interesting. Yeah, there you go. Okay, so this is uh Thanks for doing all that hitting for me, by the way. This is this is where it gets pretty exciting for me is as we’ve progressed like you know when I started at Callaway in 2021 irons like this tend to live in a certain bucket meaning like they had the look but they were still hot like remember Rogue SD Pro uh some of the Apex Pro product it was still hot like you know you’re still making some performance sacrifices to play that iron. What I’m seeing with you with all three of these irons is for the most part, you as a tour professional, you’re not giving up a lot spin-wise, there’s some adjustments to be made to get those in the same pocket as your TCBS, but still get the spin, still get a little bit more forgiveness. You like the look of those things. So, like, is that an iron like the AI 150? Is that an iron that you would play? Well, I already I already have a set on the way. Sure. which is kind of like what I and again for me it’s very important to put it down see it and say hey I can play with this and I know they’re a little wider you know there’s a little bit more mass so there’s more forgiving I’m looking forward to testing this with my shaft my weight my length and everything cuz I’m already seeing that it’s it’s a good spin rate and it’s right on my window and it’s going the distance I want so well and if you miss it a little bit you’re still you’re still you’re still I’m I’m really happy with what I’ve saw so far. Nothing better than getting feedback from a tour player, especially on stuff like this. So, that’s why I always whenever I get a chance to get uh the real hitters to hit kind of everything, it’s always way more interesting in seeing my weak ass hit golf balls. So, bikini balls. So, anyway, that’s Emmy uh and JW from the range. Maybe see those in your bag. TBD. Hopefully, that means they’re great. We’re out of here.