Gear: Callaway Mavrik, Mavrik Max, Mavrik Pro irons
Price: $799 (Standard, Max)/$899 (Pro) with True Temper Elevate or KBS Max steel shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet Soft grips; $899 (Standard, Max) with Project X Catalyst graphite shafts.
Specs: Cast stainless steel with cup face design, internal tungsten bar and urethane microspheres
Available: Feb. 6
A year ago Callaway released the Epic Flash driver family and touted that the faces in those clubs were designed by supercomputers that utilized artificial intelligence. Simulating how more than 15,000 prototypes would perform, the system revealed things to Callaway’s design team that would have taken years to develop.
For 2020, Callaway has used the same method to create a new iron family: the Mavrik, Mavrik Max and the Mavrik Pro.
Callaway instructed the computer to consider ball speed, launch angle and spin as it simulated prototype faces for the new irons. Not only did it come up with different face patterns for each of the three club types, it suggested unique faces for each club in all three sets too. Callaway said the suggested designs for the long irons produce more speed and distance while the short iron designs help golfers control spin and trajectory more effectively.
Each iron also has a unique tungsten weight that helps Callaway tune the center of gravity to benefit players most. Extra tungsten in the long irons helps produce higher shots, while smaller pieces of tungsten in the heads of the short irons help golfers keep approach shots down.
Tungsten is not easily welded to stainless steel, so Callaway encases each of the tungsten pieces in a urethane liquid infused with millions of tiny glass bubbles. After being injected into place, the urethane solidifies. The company refers to the material as Urethane Microspheres, and it not only holds the tungsten weight in place, it dampens vibrations and enhances feel at impact without decreasing ball speed.
All these technologies – the computer-designed cup face, tungsten weight and urethane material – work together to broaden the ideal hitting area and protect ball speed on mis-hits.
The standard Mavrik is the longest-hitting of the three new irons. It’s a game-improvement club that has a moderately thick topline and sole width with some offset. The lofts are stronger than those designed into many game-improvement irons (the 5-iron is 21 degrees and the pitching wedge is 41 degrees) because the tungsten weight helps get the ball up in the air. As a result, shots go farther and hit their apex farther downrange.
The Mavrik Max is a super-game-improvement iron for higher-handicap golfers who struggle with consistency. The lofts are not as strong as the standard Mavrik’s (the 5-iron is 23 degrees and the pitching wedge is 43 degrees), but the heads are larger to make them more forgiving.
The Mavrik Pro irons are the most compact of the three. They have the thinnest toplines and soles, and only moderate offset. The iron lofts are 0.5 degrees weaker than the Mavrik Max, but the pitching wedge and gap wedge lofts are the same as on the Max.