Gear: Callaway X Forged UT irons
Price: $250 each with Project X U steel shaft or HZRDUS Smoke Black graphite shaft and Golf Pride Z grip
Specs: Forged 1025 carbon steel body with 17-4 stainless steel cup face, tungsten weights and urethane foam. Available in 18, 21 and 24 degrees
Available: Oct. 29
Callaway’s newest utility iron, the X Forged UT, looks similar to the company’s latest cavity-back irons for accomplished golfers, the X Forged CB. But do you remember what your teachers told you about books and their covers? Callaway made the utility irons in a different way to achieve a very different goal.
The X Forged UT, which is only available in traditional 3-, 4- and 5-iron lofts, is for accomplished players who want the precision and lower ball flight of an iron off the tee, but with hybrid-like distance.
To provide that, Callaway designed the club using multiple materials, including 1025 mild-carbon steel in the chassis and a much harder 17-4 stainless steel in the club’s cup face. The club is hollow, so the face can flex more efficiently and help golfers attain higher ball speeds for more distance.
Callaway also added a metal-injection-molded tungsten weight inside the head and a second tungsten weight in the back attached to the head by a pair of screws. The extra weight lowers the center of gravity and helps encourage a slightly higher launch angle. It’s higher than a standard better-player’s iron but lower than a hybrid club’s typical trajectory.
To enhance sound and feel, the X Forged UT’s inner chamber has been filled with urethane microspheres suspended in a foam-like material. The spheres are tiny glass bubbles that absorb excessive vibrations created at impact without impeding the face’s ability to flex.
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