NEWER = BETTER? CALLAWAY APEX UW (2021) vs CALLAWAY APEX UW (2025)

The original Callaway Apex UW released in 2021 earned a cult-like following out of the gates. Golfers of all skill levels loved the seemingly perfect blend of the best hybrid qualities and fairway wood qualities. Many of the best players in world still game a 2021 Callaway Apex UW, including Xander Schauffele. New in 2025, Callaway has released the third generation Callaway Apex UW. How does it stack up with the original Callaway Apex UW from 2021?

0:00 Intro
2:04 Testing – 2021 Callaway Apex UW
11:00 Testing – 2025 Callaway Apex UW
13:53 Data & Conclusions

In this video, 2nd Swing’s Drew Mahowald is joined by master club fitter Tyler Fitzel for a comparison of the original Callaway Apex UW from 2021 and the newest version of the Callaway Apex UW released in 2025. How will they stack up on Trackman?

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Does the 2021 Apex Utility Wood actually hit the ball farther than the 2025 brand new model? We think that might be the case. Today, we’re going to test the 2021 Callaway Apex Utility Wood against the brand new, just released 2025 Apex Utility Wood, and we kind of think this one’s going to perform a little better. I’m joined by Tyler Fitzell, master club fitter at Second Swing. And Tyler, when this one was released back in the day, it kind of surprised a lot of people. It was explosive, a lot of ball speed, and almost performed distance-wise like a three-wood. Yep. And so now today, we’ve got the brand new one two generations later. Yeah. Um what do you expect we’re going to see today? Well, the first is I I think with the way that they have added a little bit more weight and they’re trying to push the envelope between um a hybrid and a fairway wood. I think we’re going to still see some explosive power there, too. Um they’ve added a car carbon crown on the new model to this, but this right here has been one of the favorites of so many um people that we just keep flying off the shelf with this thing. And so for them to have another model come out that we get to go back to. Um I think it’s going to be a hit. I think it’s going to be a great test. Yeah, because I remember I mean there were players even taking three woods and five woods out of the bag for this guy right here in maybe the 17 or the 19 degree version of it. So today we’ve got a 19 degree in both of the models here and you’re going to hit some shots for us, Tyler. Yeah, you’ve got stock stiff shafts with each one. Um I think I’m going to go ahead and predict I think the old one’s actually going to ter in terms of distance actually going to be further. I don’t know about the other numbers, but I’m going to say the 2021 model actually goes farther. I am going to try to make that happen. So, it’s not like I’m gonna try not to make this happen, right? But I would slightly agree with you. I have always loved the look and for me, I love the shape. Uh I think it’s this perfect combination. Uh but we’ll see whether or not technology catches up and that’s one of the things we do every day. You know, what’s the new technology? Let’s put it to the test. Let’s do it. So, Tyler, we’ll start with the original, the OG. Yes. The 2021 Apex Utility Wood or UW. Um, aside from all the explosive numbers we just talked about that we initially saw with this club, I think another part that people loved was the look of it. Yeah, it’s a classic. There’s not a whole lot going on on the crown there. It’s just a clean glossy black. And then it’s also a really good shape, too. It is. I’ve played for a very, very, very long time. People who know me know that I’ve played an old Callaway hybrid, a couple of them, for a long time. They have a very similar shape. Also is kind of this roundedness on both sides, a little skinnier or slimmer through the middle. This is a little bit bigger. Um, but this is a shape that I’ve preferred. And so that’s one of the reasons I stepped up and said, I’ll I’ll hit. Yeah, I’ll hit because this just looks exactly like the hybrids that I already have. And the next step for me would be going into one of these anyway, right? is when I feel like that hybrid’s not not going to cut it for me in terms of what I’m getting launch and spin. So, sure. Yeah, I’m I’m intrigued by this because we’ve had a lot of, you know, people comment and then fitters in general tell us that this club is still one of the best. So, what were what would you Tyler be sort of expecting, you know, numbers wise? I don’t Do you play a 19 degree hybrid or is it more of a fairywood at this spot in the bag for you? So, I’ve got actually got an 18. Okay. Okay. And and a 21 for hybrids. Yeah. Okay. And what I’m thinking about doing with this is like for me the 18 is just getting a little bit too low. Okay. So I think for me there’s there’s the opportunity of going into this the the 19 the 19. I think that’d be really good. There we go. Couple dead straight ones there. The last one had a little little cut to it. Yep. That’s pretty much what I expect to see out of it, though. Yeah. Um it it doesn’t waver a whole lot. That’s one of the things I like is it’s just directionally I always kind of had to hit it pretty straight. And then the other part of it too is I’m looking for something that carries around 200. That is a little bit skinny. Okay. Talk to me about uh the feel of that one and like sound and Yeah. how that feedback is. It’s got a little bit of a metal ping, but it’s quite crisp. Yeah, I think I agree with that. And so, uh, it’s not necessarily something where I look at it and think, “Oh my gosh, this is it’s too loud or it’s too soft, but depending on it’s really the metal face. You can kind of really hear this.” Sure. Is like that’s what’s giving it kind of that crisp um metal sound to it. Sure. Um, it’s one of the things that they also we look back at the technology is they had what I believe these are called speed blades. Yeah. Um, was it speed blade? Yeah. Well, they had the V steel too. It might be a part of that. It might there’s it’s similar to V steel, but I don’t think it’s it’s it’s close. But yeah, that was the year I think of the like the velocity speed blades. Yeah. Or that was the era there where they had I think it was maybe the um the Apex or the excuse me, the the Epic series of drivers. Let’s go after a couple and just kind of see what happens here. That was a good ball right there. Yeah. Little extra height to that one, too. Yeah. And that’s just maybe, you know, maybe not swing speed wise, but for me it was just trying to stay in the moment a little bit more and just swing. And again, you know, 204 carry, this is perfect for those those uh parfs that you want to try to get about 200 yards out of a little off. Yeah. Okay. Um, and then the other thing that’s really unique about this is for for me is I’ve always liked the idea that you not only have something that’s very hybrid like on this end of it, but they’ve gone the other side. So, they lengthened this out. Once they’ve lengthened this out, you get a little bit more um swing speed, you get a little bit more ball speed, you can you can get a little bit more launch and spin. This is really a fivewood, right? At 19 degrees, 18 19 degrees, this is really just a fivewood. Yeah. And it’s very very close to kind of being that in between five versus seven wood. But what I also like is I when I get into a fairway wood, it gets too long. Yeah. So now all of a sudden this I have to kind of work on the swing to make sure it it’s getting through the zone. This is just easier. Yeah. I think it’s a really good tweener for player. There are a lot of players that don’t love the look of a hybrid. Yeah. Um but then you know maybe the fairwood goes too high or something like that. It launches too high with too much spin. That’s where this can be a really good tweener. That might have been the best one. Oh, yeah. Look at that one. And it was all right. So, excellent. Yeah, we’ve got some numbers. Uh, let’s bring up. We’ll go dispersion. We’ll go numbers. And we’ll kind of identify too. I know there was a couple you didn’t exactly. Yeah, that’s okay. You know, the ones that were a little bit more weak on that side. We’ll go carry here, too. That was what you were trying to emphasize a little bit, right? Was was that was that carry. Um, I mean, I think obviously we’ve got, you know, six pretty good balls out there. I mean, you had a couple, this one, maybe this one and this were slight misses, but overall, if we look at all six, you were saying that you wanted to hit this club on carry of 200 yards. We’re 1.4 yards off from that. Yeah. Um, we have, you know, 147 smash factor is pretty darn efficient. That’s that’s hot for um anything that’s not a driver, right? Off the Yeah, it’s not off the That’s good. I mean, that’s great for anything. Well, and this this is a this is excellent especially when you start talking about wind control. Yeah. Because of the launch, if you look at that launch, 11 and a half’s not a super high launch to it, but it’s also a really good launch. Yeah. It’s like it it’s kind of in that medium zone. Sure. And then the other side of that too is you get on maybe some of the par uh par 3s where Yeah. you might be on a T um and then you want to drop over to a you talk about the mini drivers, they’ve kind of taken over mini driver everything, right? But like for long irons, I don’t put a long iron in my bag anymore. I’d much rather have a hybrid just because I can get more um stability with it. Yeah. So that’s for me where I I start looking at these as just long irons. And now this is a really really beefed up hybrid. Yeah. It that’s essentially what it’s kind of a a big brother to a hybrid. Yeah. Um I also wanted to note I I removed your kind of I know there was one for sure that you you right away made a comment that it might have been thin. Um, and uh, right away your average carry goes to exactly 200 yards. So, uh, that I mean, and these numbers are are are pretty darn good, right? I mean, when you hit the ball square, it kind of turns over just a little bit and you’re carrying it over 200 yards. Y, your slight misses are going a shade under 200, but it’s still it’s not damaging you too much there, right? Um, you’re still within that that close range within what, eight yards, uh, within that number. So, I like what I’m seeing here. I’m so now before we I give you the 2025 model, is there a prediction that you have here? I mean, this the shaft is slightly different, stock stiff or both. Um, but is there a prediction that you have here? Why you kind of you’re looking at that? You’re taking a peek at it. Um, we talked about some of the technology that tungsten sole plate and that added weight on kind of on the sole right near the the face. Um, what else are you seeing from that and what do you maybe predict will happen here? Well, I’m wondering if this actually might be a little bit higher. That’s the what I’m looking at because the carbon fiber top, which is now what they’ve added in, at least on this version of it as well, allows them for more weights. They have more weight. Now, both versions have what’s known as kind of this step, right? This stepping pattern that allows for turf interaction. And that’s one of the things that I I’m looking at is I’m on turf here, so both of those should be very similar to it. Um, and then they’ve also added in what what they talk about as their tungsten speed wave. Yeah. Right. And that is try to stabilize this a little bit more. So it looks almost identical. It’s very very difficult to tell apart between the two. And what I’m I’m interested is just seeing all right well what has uh essentially four to five years of technology done. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. because I think we’ve you’ve said it before too on whether it’s podcast or or you know YouTube video is like year to year a lot of times there’s not a huge change right now there has been one model in partic or in between these two yeah but we’re talking about four years now and so is there a huge jump in you know where there’s consistency maybe that’s what they’re going for with the improvements maybe it’s pure distance I I again this one went so far and was so explosive originally that I just that was my thought but maybe we’ll see something different here from a lot of the people that I’ve worked with um in the hitting bay on clubs like this, they don’t come out of the bag. Yeah. Once these Yeah. If it’s working well, it’s performing well, this is going to stay in the bag a long time. Yeah. So, it’s really going to be interesting because I’ve played with the original UW and I haven’t played with this yet, but I’m going to find out what it looks like. Maybe you will be playing with it. Uh yeah. So, well, we’ll give that a shot and see what happens. Way towy. Okay. Way towy. Very high. But one thing I’m already I already noticed and we’ll see how it maybe it could have been just the the slight miss that you had there, but that sound was very different. Higher pitched. Yeah, that was very different. Well, that I I would imagine is because of the carbon, right? That’s could create a different internal sound. Oh, yeah. That was much Yeah, that was better. Okay, that was better. 148 on the smash factor there. Yeah, I felt like I hit it pretty solid. Not a uh at at least from the first few hits, this is definitely a different sound. Oh, for sure. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. It’s almost like there’s like a a whistle kind of that impact. Yeah, that was a better one there. You surpassed that 200 carry mark there. Yeah. 1.49. 49 on the smash factor. A very efficient strike there. That was good. I It felt good. That was spinny. I don’t feel it. So far, so far, again, we’re we had a couple shots left here, but so far, I feel like that that pop that kind of that that blew us away with the original model. Yeah. Is not quite there. I feel like And and I’m not sure about the little tail off to the right. That’s right. And that could be part of it, too. It’s kind of almost like diving right, which was not the case with the original. This looks flatter. Interesting. Okay. Like right away when I set it down, it looked flatter. All right. I might I might try to see what if they messed with the line angle at all. I They would. To to me is like I don’t mind it not going left. I don’t That’s not a bad thing. I like that. There. I felt like that was probably my best swing at it, too. Oh, yeah. Look at that shot. Okay. I mean, I don’t know what else you’d want out of out of this club than that. Dead straight. I my first impression by looking at what I’ve seen on some of the numbers is I think this is spinning more. Okay. I think this is because even even on the um the original, you know, the I think well I think the the what we’re going to run into is I think the spin numbers might be pretty close, but I think there was a couple misses that you had with this uh with the original that might have spiked those spin numbers, but I think your good swings. I think you’re right that this one is spinning more. Yeah, another good good poke there. Okay, so that one spun a little bit lower. That was a little bit lower spin. Well, and I don’t know if that was out on the toe or not. Let’s take a look. So, looking at dispersion, looking at numbers, we’ve got basically this is including every shot that we’ve hit. Yeah, that dispersion pattern is pretty similar, right? Um, but we’ve got a I mean, it’s very very close across the board here. Uh, and I think I first want to highlight all the shots and then we’ll kind of highlight, you know, your best ones, which I think for you are kind of this pack of five right here. A couple with the older, couple with the newer. Um, you know, you see the club speed is very similar, ball speed similar, smash factor is the same. Interesting. The launch was a little bit different about a degree. Yeah. So, and then we talked about spin. It’s actually the the newer model was spinning a little lower uh on average. And then the numbers distance-wise are very close in terms of that carry. So, but what I’m going to do, let’s kind of talk about these ones here. So, we’ve got, see, this is where you were referring to that lower spin. So, these are the these are the the best swings from the 2021 model. Yeah. We’re in the 22. That one’s at 32. This is 25. Okay. Yep. And then now we’re going to talk about these two with the newer model. We’re in over 3,000. Over 3,000. Yeah. So, I think there’s a kind of a different couple different ways to look at this. As an average overall, all good shots and bad shots included, things are pretty close. Yep. And the spin um is actually a little lower maybe on the m hits with the newer model. Yeah. When you hit the ball good, hit it solid, I think it’s flipped where maybe the spin is lower with the older model and that could result in more distance. Well, and I like I like this for a couple of reasons. One of the things that we continue to talk about are the options that we’re going to be getting out of our fitting. If I’m looking for a little bit more spin, I’m maybe looking at the newer model because what I need is I need some stopping power with this too. If we’re looking at the dispersion gap from about 200 towards 226 or if you come back 200 versus 224 as we’re looking at it, right? It’s the stopping power. That’s the thing that I’m going to need out of this is like generally speaking, it’s not just a blunt object that I need to go as far like my driver. My driver is just going to go as far as I possibly can go. Y So, I’m going to need a little bit more control with this. And um I think that’s a huge piece to this. Um we’ll have to look that up in terms of the lie angle on it, but like from a look perspective for me, I don’t necessarily prefer this look. You like the older one as much as the older one. Now, there’s some things about it, right? Like I don’t think it’s any different here. Yeah. And I’m not so sure that it’s it’s a whole lot different on top except for the carbon fiber. Yeah. Right. So I I don’t have any clubs that have this brake or this line. Everything I’ve got is just gloss on the top from fairway metal. And um this I don’t know. Would have to just, you know, get used to it if this this is a great option though. So yeah, I I think those are all I mean that’s those are all things that matter when it comes to you know you the player or anybody watching this when they’re going to test a club. the look part matters and obviously that’s going to be player dependent to a degree. Um I did what I one thing I did kind of manipulate here when you were discussing that stuff was I did take out what you know seemed to be the worst swing with each right. Uh we’re talking about a 189 carry with this and then down to 191 here. Um and and things stay pretty similar. You know we had about 200 carry which again is really that’s really funny to me that you mentioned 200 carry right off the bat and then we’re kind of right at that number with these clubs which I think is worth noting. Both are really hot off the club face. Um I I think what I’m coming to the conclusion of here is maybe the newer model is slightly more forgiving. The misses were maybe a little bit better. You can even see on the dispersion there where these ones off to the right. You did get more distance out of those misses. Correct. Just based on the dispersion here. Um but I wonder if your good swings might still be better with the older model. A little bit more um distance potential out of them with that lower spin rate. So, it’s going to be if you were put making a decision like you had to put one of these in the bag, it’s going to be kind of up to you which you prefer that mishit performance maybe with the newer model or maybe the max potential of your good swings. If I’m coming in and I’m saying I need a club in this in this area because like currently I have an 18 degree Callaway hybrid. Yeah, it comes off just a little too low. It doesn’t hold very well. If I’m going to come in and I’m looking at these as options, it’s going to be very, very close. I’m also looking at this as a long-term solution, right? If this is a club that’s going to work for me, I’m probably going to get in 19. I’m probably going to go with the one that maybe does launch a little bit higher or has a little bit more of that forgiveness. We talk about all the time, what is forgiveness? Y, it’s essentially more ball speed on a missit. Yeah. And if we’ve got more ball speed, we have some better distances. I miss it out to the right another 10 yards. 10 yards farther with a long club’s a good thing, right? you know, 10 yards shorter on a long club’s not. Yeah. And also is if I’m hitting them really well and they have some spin with some stopping power, I’m higher, I’m farther, it stops. This is the tool I think I would go with the new one. Sure. Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, with the slight slight maybe advantage you’d have on these good swings with the older model, Yeah. maybe isn’t quite worth the performance you could save yourself on the mits with the newer model, right? So, I think overall we saw those improvements that are supposed to happen with golf clubs over those few years is the forgiveness improves. The the performance that you can save yourself when not hitting the center in the face. We we saw it show up today with the model that’s four years newer. So, u but golfers can try it out for themselves. I mean, the Apex UW, the whole Apex lineup, they’ve got utility wood, super hybrids, utility irons. Um come into a second swing store and try them out for yourself. schedule a fitting or you can connect with one of our master fitters online as well and we can help you get dialed in for one that could help your bag. So, Tyler, thanks for doing the testing. Um, this was a great this was a great test here. Love it. [Music]