Connect with us

Equipment

Callaway Epic Forged irons: Premium speed in a forged body

Published

on

With the release of the original Epic irons, Callaway did something they had never done before—build an iron that oozed ball speed and hid a lot of tech in a mid-sized package. Now imagine all that technology and greater speed in a more refined shape with a forged body…that is the all-new Epic Forged.

Built with the idea of offering speed and shotmaking in one package, the Epic Forged achieves all of that thanks to tech that is being used for the first time in a forged iron. The most notable being the Suspended Tungsten Core—which is comprised of the densest form of this heavy element. The issue with using this almost pure form of Tungsten is that it’s extremely hard to work with when using conventional construction methods. But Callaway defies convention and is using the patented Urethane Microspheres in the Suspended Tungsten core of the Epic Forged to precisely position mass creating the ideal center of gravity. This promotes controlled launch and spin, while allowing the face to flex as needed to create maximum ball speeds.

So what good is all this speed if you can’t control it?

Variable Face Thickness: Sure this tech isn’t new, it dates back to the above Hawkeye VFT driver (that was a great driver in its day), but if the Epic Flash driver has taught us anything, it’s that by looking beyond convention you can find new ways to utilize known technology. Built into the 360 Cup Face, the newly designed VFT pattern helps players achieve even more consistent ball speed and spin rates club to club. The reason this is so important: Callaway knows even average golfers want a club they can hit controlled shots with. A 7-iron isn’t any good if you’re not confident in the hitting the shot you want to.

Don’t think that we’re done talking about what these have under the hood just yet…

Since the Epic Forged irons go all the way into a sand wedge, there were some design decisions to be made to on how to make sure the scoring and recovery clubs still offer forgiveness but with even greater consistency and feel, Starting at the approach wedge and going to the sand wedge (the set goes PW, AW, GW, SW), instead of using the 17-4 SS cup face, Callaway engineers are using a forged faceplate to compliment the forged body. Inside of these still-hollow wedges, they are using a resistance welding technique to precisely locate a MIM (metal injection molded) Tungsten weight to achieve superior trajectory control.

The last piece to the puzzle.

A club will always be the sum of its parts and Callaway is pulling out all the stops with the Epic Star Forged set and the components that will accompany this technology package. The stock options will include Aerotech Steelfiber FC (flight control) and Mitsubishi Chemical’s  Tensei AV Silver shaft to optimize feel and control.  The other upgrade is the Golf Pride Tour Velvet Align Silver Grips (Align grips offer a textured raised rib on the bottom of the grip to help the golfer place their hands in the same position over and over again). All of these pieces come together to create a premium iron from Callaway.

The Epic Forged will be available at retail starting August 2nd. 4-SW. Retail price of $300 per iron.

 

Your Reaction?
  • 119
  • LEGIT28
  • WOW10
  • LOL16
  • IDHT3
  • FLOP12
  • OB11
  • SHANK115

Ryan Barath is a club-fitter & master club builder with more than 17 years of experience working with golfers of all skill levels, including PGA Tour players. He is the former Build Shop Manager & Social Media Coordinator for Modern Golf. He now works independently from his home shop and is a member of advisory panels to a select number of golf equipment manufacturers. You can find Ryan on Twitter and Instagram where he's always willing to chat golf, and share his passion for club building, course architecture and wedge grinding.

27 Comments

27 Comments

  1. Reese

    Oct 1, 2019 at 7:26 pm

    All I know is that I hit a demo seven iron this week. Awesome feel and I hit it easily 150 yards,which, since I am seventy years old and a 20 handicap, the equivalent to my five iron. It is expensive but at my age why hold back any longer ????

  2. John Doe Argie

    Jul 30, 2019 at 11:38 am

    PW at 41 degrees? Give me a break! From a set a sticks I just expect consistency and performance, not a placebo for my ego. For that I have my therapist already….

  3. Martin

    Jul 26, 2019 at 6:52 am

    Nice looking irons, but $300 each ouch.

  4. Dave r

    Jul 17, 2019 at 6:55 pm

    Ya right $300.0 a club . There is no way one club is worth that much. R&D has not gone up 700% in the last 5 years who are you people kidding. No wonder the game is dying

  5. Travisty

    Jul 17, 2019 at 6:04 am

    $300 per iron?! What is happening to golf equipment lately?!? These insane price hikes across the board just make me sad. And that’s coming from someone who can afford these if I wanted to. OEM’s are actively not growing the game by releasing $2-3K iron sets, $600 drivers, $200 wedges, $500 putters. It’s getting absolutely ridiculous.

  6. jgpl001

    Jul 17, 2019 at 3:46 am

    A little bit further up the web page you had the new MP20, now you have this ugly ducking?

    Truly awful

    Callaway make some good stuff, but it time to stop this nonsense, nobody will buy this stuff

  7. Brandon

    Jul 17, 2019 at 12:47 am

    I don’t understand the need to rename the clubs. Why not just call the 18 degree a 2 or 3 iron and go from there???

  8. Bobbyg

    Jul 16, 2019 at 11:48 pm

    Give me blades or give me death.

  9. Midwest Golfer

    Jul 16, 2019 at 8:38 pm

    Yes $300 an iron is too much. and expected of these PXG WANNABES. 41 degree PW is too strong and there would be 11 degrees difference between it and my 52 gap wedge.

    • Johnny Penso

      Jul 17, 2019 at 10:14 am

      Yes, you couldn’t possibly find a wedge to bridge that gap.

    • cajunone1983

      Jul 19, 2019 at 12:58 am

      People get caught up on the certain clubs loft. Forget that the pw is 41° and just go with the aw as your pw and go from there. Look at the lofts and not the club. If you play a hybrid than your set would stop at a 5 iron instead of a 4 iron. I have the first Apex Irons from 2014 and I have a 5 iron and a u85 3 utility bent from 20° to 21° to make the gapping correct. Worry about putting your set together by lofts and not which club it is. The aw is the pw

  10. jim

    Jul 16, 2019 at 7:41 pm

    yall are upset at 300$ a club but not upset at a 41 pitching wedge…gonna need 3 gap wedges in this set.

    • JP

      Jul 16, 2019 at 9:54 pm

      It’s getting plain stupid. Soon enough they’ll market iron sets by the distance the Pw flies. 190? 200? Haha

    • Gibson888

      Jul 17, 2019 at 9:38 am

      They’re essentially forcing you to buy a 9 club set to attempt to keep the gapping consistent. Sneaky sneaky.

  11. Books Kepka

    Jul 16, 2019 at 3:11 pm

    3 clams per iron?!! So uhhh….really?! Callaway iron, $300 per? Does the club swing itself? Callaway? Come on game ‘o golf, you’re better ‘n that!

  12. 2putttom

    Jul 16, 2019 at 2:02 pm

    300 a club ! that makes em’ a target for theft.

  13. Thomas A

    Jul 16, 2019 at 10:48 am

    Jacked lofts. That’s it, nothing more.

  14. dat

    Jul 16, 2019 at 9:20 am

    Insane price for insane people.

  15. Big mike

    Jul 16, 2019 at 9:00 am

    Have any of the Callaway “Premium Offerings” ever been a hit? I’m thinking Epic and Epic Pro Irons which can be found now for about a third of their original price. I guess this is Callaway attempt to go after the ultra premium PXG consumer and I can’t fault them for that any more than I could PXG for chiming out with their cast,0211 irons

  16. Patrick J Floyd

    Jul 16, 2019 at 8:55 am

    $300 per iron, I sell golf equipment and I can tell you this will be a tough sell. The ultra high end iron is falling away-

  17. JP

    Jul 16, 2019 at 8:24 am

    “Suspended Tungsten Core—which is comprised of the densest form of this heavy element”

    Really? How many different densities does one element come in? What kind of marketing babble is this?

    Optimum COG? That changes player to player. So these will not be suited to everyone.

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Whats in the Bag

Kevin Tway WITB 2024 (May)

Published

on

Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 80 TX

5-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 90 TX

Irons: Wilson Staff Utility (2), Titleist T100 (4-9)
Shafts: Mitsubishi MMT 100 TX (2), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (4-9)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (48-10F @47, 52-12F @51, 56-14F), SM7 (60-10S)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (48-56), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (60)

Putter: Scotty Cameron T-5 Proto
Grip: Scotty Cameron Black Baby T

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Plus4

More photos of Kevin Tway’s WITB in the forums.

Your Reaction?
  • 4
  • LEGIT0
  • WOW0
  • LOL0
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK0

Continue Reading

Equipment

Did Rory McIlroy inspire Shane Lowry’s putter switch?

Published

on

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article.

The timing of Lowry’s putter changeup was curious: Was he just using a Spider putter because he was paired with McIlroy, who’s been using a Spider Tour X head throughout 2024? Was Lowry just being festive because it’s the Zurich Classic, and he wanted to match his teammate? Did McIlroy let Lowry try his putter, and he liked it so much he actually switched into it?

Well, as it turns out, McIlroy’s only influence was inspiring Lowry to make more putts.

When asked if McIlroy had an influence on the putter switch, Lowry had this to say: “No, it’s actually a different putter than what he uses. Maybe there was more pressure there because I needed to hole some more putts if we wanted to win,” he said with a laugh.

To Lowry’s point, McIlroy plays the Tour X model, whereas Lowry switched into the Tour Z model, which has a sleeker shape in comparison, and the two sole weights of the club are more towards the face.

Lowry’s Spider Tour Z has a white True Path Alignment channel on the crown of his putter, which is reminiscent of Lowry’s former 2-ball designs, thus helping to provide a comfort factor despite the departure from his norm. Instead of a double-bend hosel, which Lowry used in his 2-ball putters, his new Spider Tour Z is designed with a short slant neck.

“I’ve been struggling on the greens, and I just needed something with a fresh look,” Lowry told GolfWRX.com on Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship. “It has a different neck on it, as well, so it moves a bit differently, but it’s similar. It has a white line on the back of it [like my 2-ball], and it’s a mallet style. So it’s not too drastic of a change.

“I just picked it up on the putting green and I liked the look of it, so I was like, ‘Let’s give it a go.’”

Read the rest of the piece over at PGATour.com.

Your Reaction?
  • 3
  • LEGIT1
  • WOW0
  • LOL1
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK2

Continue Reading

Equipment

Webb Simpson equipment Q&A: Titleist’s new 2-wood, 680 blade irons, and switching to a broomstick Jailbird

Published

on

With seven career wins on the PGA Tour, including a U.S. Open victory, Webb Simpson is a certified veteran on the course. But he’s also a certified veteran in the equipment world, too. He’s a gearhead who truly knows his stuff, and he’s even worked closely with Titleist on making his own custom 682.WS irons.

On Wednesday at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship, I caught up with Simpson to hear about his experience with Titleist’s new prototype 2-wood, how Titleist’s 680 Forged irons from 2003 ended up back in his bag, and why he’s switching into an Odyssey Ai-One Jailbird Cruiser broomstick putter this week for the first time.

Click here to read our full story about Simpson’s putter switch on PGATOUR.com’s Equipment Report, or continue reading below for my full Q&A with Simpson at Quail Hollow Club on Wednesday.

See Webb Simpson’s full WITB from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship here

GolfWRX: It seems like you’ve been a little all over the place with your irons in the past six months or so, and now going back to the 680’s. Is that just a comfort thing? What’s been going on with the irons?

Webb Simpson: Titleist has been so great at working with me, and R&D, on trying to get an iron that kind of modernizes the 680. And so the 682.WS took the T100 grooves, but kinda took the look and the bulk and the build of the 680’s into one club. They’re beautiful, and awesome looking. I just never hit them that well for a consistent period of time. It was probably me, but then I went to T100’s and loved them. I loved the spin, the trajectory, the yardage, but again, I never went on good runs. Going through the ground, I couldn’t feel the club as well as with the blade. So last week, I’m like, ‘Alright. I’m gonna go back more for…comfort, and see if I can get on a nice little run of ball striking.’

So that’s why I went back.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by GolfWRX (@golfwrx)

OK, that makes sense. I know you had done some 2-wood testing recently. Is that in the bag right now?

It’s like day-by-day. I used it at Hilton Head every day. Valero, I used it one round. And this week, me and my caddie will do the book every morning, and if it’s a day where we think we need it, we’ll just put it in and take the 3-wood out. I love it because it’s a super simple swap. Like, it doesn’t really change much.

Yeah, can you tell me about that club? I mean, we don’t really know anything about it yet. You know? I haven’t hit it or anything, obviously.

It has grooves like a 3-wood. Spin is perfect. And it’s honestly, like, everything is in the middle of a 3-wood and driver number. Trajectory, spin, carry, all of it. So, a Hilton Head golf course is almost too easy to talk about because, you know, there, so many holes are driver 3-wood.

Valero, our thinking was we had two par-5’s into the wind, and we knew that it would take two great shots to get there in two. So instead of hitting driver-driver, we just put it in. And I used it on those holes.

Hilton was a little easier because it was off-the-tee kind of questions. But Colonial will be a golf course where, you know, there’s a lot of driver or 3-woods. It’s kind of like a backup putter or driver for me now. I’ll bring it to every tournament.

So it’s, like, in your locker right now, probably?

Well, it would be. It’s in my house [because Webb lives near by Quail Hollow Club, and is a member at the course.] It’s in the garage.

Oh, yeah, that’s right. Do you know what holes you might use it out here if it goes in play? 

Potentially 15, depending on the wind. Second shot on 10. Could be 14 off the tee. The chances here are pretty low (that he’ll use the 2-wood). But, like, Greensboro would be an awesome club all day. I’m trying to think of any other golf courses.

There’s plenty that it’ll be a nice weapon to have.

It’s interesting, the wave of 2-woods and mini drivers. Like, it’s just really taken off on Tour, and all the companies have seemed to embrace it.

Yeah. The thing I had to learn, it took me, like, at least a week to learn about it is you gotta tee it up lower than you think. I kept teeing it up too high. You need it low, like barely higher than a 3-wood. And that was where I got optimal spin and carry. If you tee it up too high, you just don’t get as much spin and lose distance, I don’t know if that’s just a mini driver thing.

And you obviously have a Jailbird putter this week. What spurred that on?

Inconsistent putting. I’m stubborn in a lot of ways when it comes to my equipment, but I have to be open minded – I just hadn’t putted consistently well in a while. And I’m like, ‘Man, I feel my ball-striking coming along. Like I feel better; for real, better.’

If I can just get something in my hands that I’m consistent with. Being on Tour, you see it every year, guys get on little runs. I can put together four to five tournaments where I’m all the sudden back in the majors, or in the FedExCup Playoffs. You can turn things around quick out here. I’m like, ‘Man, whatever’s going to get me there, great.’

My caddie, David Cook, caddied for Akshay at the Houston Open and he putted beautifully. Then, I watched Akshay on TV at Valero, and he putted beautifully. And, I’m like, ‘I’m just going to try it.’

I’ve never tried it for more than a putt or two, and I just ordered what Akshay uses. It was pretty awkward at first, but the more I used it, the more I’m like, ‘Man, it’s pretty easy.’ And a buddy of mine who’s a rep out here, John Tyler Griffin, he helped me with some setup stuff. And he said at Hilton Head, he wasn’t putting well, then tried it, and now he makes everything. He was very confident. So I’m like, ‘Alright, I’ll try it.’”

And you’re going with it this week?

Hundred percent.

Alright, I love it. Thank you, I always love talking gear with you. Play well this week. 

Thanks, man.

See Webb Simpson’s full WITB from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship here

Your Reaction?
  • 43
  • LEGIT5
  • WOW2
  • LOL2
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK4

Continue Reading

WITB

Facebook

Trending