The Callaway Apex Forged iron is Callaway’s flagship franchise. Its origins date back to the original Japan-only Callaway Black Series irons which did very well in its home market, but its premium price kept it from achieving commercial success in other markets. It was revered by club geeks worldwide. It was instrumental in making Henrik Stenson the 145th Champion Golfer of the year.
Callaway then brought the Black Series Irons to the rest of the world when they rebadged them as the Diablo Forged iron in 2011. It was wildly successful, especially with the Internet golf community, myself among them. I was so enamored with my Diablo Forged irons that I acquired a backup set, lest anything happen to my gamer. The Diablo Forged irons stayed on the market for almost five years before being refined, technically updated and rebranded as Apex.
Built on the bones of the Diablo Forged iron, the Apex Forged 16 was a formidable iron. Improving on it wasn’t going to be easy but just as all things, improvements in CAD, finite element analysis and manufacturing drove the refinements to the Apex iron. The fact that it took three years for Callaway to improve on it speaks to just how good an iron it is.
Presenting the Apex 19 irons.
In recent years, past few years Callaway has led the way in advancing players irons through technology. With the new Apex 19 iron, Callaway engineers have continued the tradition, making exceptional progress at infusing serious performance technologies into a small, forged 1025 carbon steel clubhead. The result is a multipiece, multi-material iron that’s easier to launch and promotes more distance without sacrificing the size, shape and feel that better players demand in this category of iron.
Apex 19 employs Callaway’s proven Face Cup technology, which promotes faster ball speed on both center and off-center hits for more distance. Callaway engineers brought two additional, proven technologies to Apex 19 for the first time in this type of iron-MIM’d tungsten weighting for precision CG positioning to optimize flight in the long and middle irons, and urethane microsphere technology, to improve sound and feel.
MIM stands for Metal-Injection Molding, a process that results in a dense, precisely shaped, precisely weighted piece of tungsten. Using this process gives Callaway engineers precise control over the CG position in each individual iron, promoting easier launch in the long and middle irons, and a lower, more controllable flight in the short irons.
Urethane microsphere technology was introduced last year in Callaway’s Rogue irons. It involves a pocket of an especially formulated urethane, infused with approximately 500,000 miniscule “microspheres,” positioned behind the clubface, touching the back of the face. This microsphere-infused urethane flattens under pressure, allowing the urethane to behave in a porous manner, permitting it to compress and “give” with relative ease. That allows the urethane to absorb undesirable vibration at impact without slowing the face’s speed. Arriving at the precise shape and positioning of the urethane to achieve maximum benefit in each iron required extensive experimentation and computer modeling. The benefit of urethane microsphere technology is significantly better sound and feel without sacrificing ball speed and distance. Purists will bristle at the thought of using any material to attenuate feel in a forged iron, but the results are transparent to the golfer.
Apex 19 also features Callaway’s Spin Control VFT (Variable Face Thickness) technology, wherein the face thickness is thinner and thicker in strategic areas to promote less spin off the long irons for more distance and more spin off the short irons for increased control.
Together, these technologies—Face Cup, MIM’d tungsten weighting, urethane-infused with microspheres and VFT spin-control—makes the Apex 19 easy to launch, delivers a soft and agreeable sound and feel, promotes fast ball speed, and promotes better spin characteristics throughout the set. All of that makes Apex 19 a great option for golfers who typically game Player’s irons, but it’s also brought this category within reach of golfers who love the look, feel and performance of this type of club but don’t think they’re good enough to game it. The technologies that promote more speed, easier launch and fantastic feel has made it possible for a much wider range of golfers to play this type of iron.
It’s interesting that Callaway has resisted going with a hollow bodied design and has opted to stay with a more traditional construction. It’s clear that the aforementioned technologies work holistically to provide the desired results without resorting to a hollow build.
The Apex 19 irons look to be a tad on the small side for a player’s distance iron. But don’t let that scare you. This club packs a ton of forgiveness in a small package. If you’re the sort that needs the assistance this club brings to the table but longs for the look of a blade, the Apex Forged 19 takes you most of the way there. True, there’s a bit of offset; totally understandable in this type of iron and really, barely noticeable into the middle of the round. The topline is a bit chunky, but the dividend is in the results.
The Apex 19 feels sublime at impact. Gone is any hint of harshness from the high-speed steel face. These feel as good as almost any other iron on the market. Mizuno and Miura blades might feel a smidge better, but without hitting them back to back, it’s impossible to tell.
That small head size pays dividends when you need to play out of the rough. It cuts through long grass much easier than a larger one. The sole design is admittedly biased toward the better player but still offers plenty of usability; it’s not a butter knife by any means.
What drew me to the Apex 19 irons was the insane consistency from each iron from shot to shot. With other players’ distance irons, the occasional flyer was a fact of life. Not so with the Apex 19. On the launch monitor, the only discerning factor for distance was the quality of the strike. Good hits were within a yard of each other, and the dispersion was tight. These results were echoed in field trials.
Coming from another iron in the same category, the switch to the Apex 19 was seamless. The clubs came ready to play. The lofts and lies were perfect—completely identical to the Srixon 545. Swing weight was perfect through the set. Amazing to see this level of quality directly from the manufacturer. The only thing that needed doing was to have the grips built up and it was good to go.
On course, as in every other area, there were no surprises. The clubs performed exactly the way they were supposed to. The long irons were particularly impressive. They were extremely easy to hit and a joy to hit shots. Shaping shots isn’t the specialty of a head such as this, but it is possible. If that’s a priority, then you should turn your attention to the Apex Pro 19, a pro-style cavity back iron that packs most of the tech found in its slightly larger, more forgiving sibling.
Switching from one set of irons to another is usually difficult and requires rethinking the distances you get from each club. It is made even more difficult when you’ve had as much success as I have with my Srixons.
The Callaway Apex 19 does its part by being extremely predictable and consistent from club to club. Despite the lofts being identical on both sets of irons, the Apex 19 hits the ball further at full trot, but distance is easy to moderate when you need to hit a specific number. Then there’s the consistency of that distance from shot to shot.
It’s an utterly gorgeous iron and that does much to ease the transition. You can tell Callaway designers took pains to get the look just right. Yes, the topline is still on the chubby side, but the shape of the toe and the (lack of) offset are beautiful in the eyes of the Apex 19’s target golfer. It is the total package.
The Apex 19’s biggest competition for the space in my bag was the Apex Pro 19 which offered incredible playability for an iron of this type. It is extremely accessible for an iron of this type and will suit golfers with handicaps into the low teens. But it was the Apex 19 with its length, ease of use and wonderfully soft feel that won the day. Hit them both. Your mileage may vary.
The Apex 19 comes locally with either Nippon Steel Modus shafts in both 105 and 120-gram weights, as well as the Fujikura Speeder graphite iron shafts and is now available at all Transview Philippines stores in Podium, Solaire and at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club proshop.