Callaway Apex Ai200 – Syndication Server

Callaway Apex Ai200 vs. Apex Ai300: Which is right for you?

Golfers in the market for new irons might need help understanding how the two clubs are similar.

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Callaway recently dropped three new irons: the Apex Ti Fusion, the Apex Ai200 and the Apex Ai300. The Ti Fusion not only looks different than the Ai200 and Ai300 thanks to its black PVD finish but it is also made using titanium, making it very unique in the world of better-player distance irons.

The Apex Ai200 and Ai300, however, look very similar. Golfers in the market for new irons might need help understanding how the two clubs are similar, what makes them different, and what types of players Callaway had in mind when designers created the Ai200 and Ai300.

Have no fear, Golfweek is here to help.

Callaway Apex Ai300 iron. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

Construction and Technology

The Apex Ai200 and Ai300 both feature a multimaterial construction and a forged 1020 carbon steel chassis that is attached to a thin, forged 455 Carpenter stainless steel cup face. The faces were designed with the help of artificial intelligence. While Callaway has been using AI to create driver faces for several years, these are the first iron faces designed with the analytical help of supercomputers.

The result is a hitting area that should give golfers more distance over a larger area, but also more consistency because the hitting area does not have hot spots or excessively rigid areas.

Callaway designers added urethane microspheres inside the heads of both the Apex Ai200 and Apex Ai300, and the soft material absorbs excessive vibrations to soften the feel and enhance the sound that is created at impact.

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Callaway Apex Ai 200 iron — The Apex Ai200 irons are forged from 1020 carbon steel for a softer feel and have adjustable weight plates that allow fitters to change the swing weight. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

The Apex Ai200 and Apex Ai300 also both feature a screwed-in weight on the back of the head that custom fitters can swap to change the swing weight of the clubs based on their length or a golfer’s preferences.

Who are the Apex Ai200 and Apex Ai300 for?

The Callaway Apex Ai200 is a better-player’s distance iron that is shaped and intended for golfers who want a better-player’s club. These golfers want more speed, but they don’t want to sacrifice control and feel to get it.

The Apex Ai200 is smaller than the Apex Ai300, and has a slimmer topline, less offset and a shorter blade length.

The Apex Ai 300 can be put squarely into the game-improvement category and is built for golfers seeking forgiveness and distance. It features a larger head and thicker topline, which gives it a more confidence-inspiring look in the address position for players who shoot in the 80s and low 90s.

The Apex Ai300 creates a higher launch angle with increased ball speed, while also generating less spin than the Apex Ai200.

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Callaway Apex Ai 200, Apex Ai300 iron — The Apex Ai200 (left) has a shorter blade length, a thinner topline and slightly less offset than the Ai300. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

The Takeaway

The best way to find the irons that are right for you is to work with a custom fitter who has a launch monitor and hit shots with lots of different head and shaft combinations.

The Callaway Apex Ai200 and Apex Ai300 irons look very similar, and working with a custom fitter, they can easily be blended into one set that can provide you with the benefits of both clubs.

That said, if you are a lower handicap golfer who values feel, shot-shaping, and compact aesthetics but now want more speed, the Apex Ai200 might be something you should try.

However, if your priorities in a new set of irons lean more toward added distance and enhanced forgiveness, the Apex Ai 300 offers higher MOI (moment of inertia), so it will be more stable.

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Callaway Apex Ai200, Ai300 irons

Callaway enhanced the feel and updated the look of its game-improvement Apex irons.

Gear: Callaway Apex Ai200, Ai300 irons
Price: $200 each with True Temper Dynamic Gold Mid steel shafts or UST Mamiya HDC Recoil Dart graphite shafts and Golf Pride Z grips
Specs: Forged 1020 stainless steel body with forged 455 stainless steel face, internal urethane microspheres, and adjustable back weight
Available: NOW

Who it’s for: Mid- and higher-handicap golfers who want more distance, feel, and consistency from shot to shot.

What you should know: Callaway enhanced the feel and updated the look of its game-improvement Apex irons, then used artificial intelligence to create iron faces that deliver more distance, along with spin and trajectory consistency.

The deep dive: When Callaway sold Ben Hogan Golf in 2012, it retained the naming rights to Apex, an iron family that had been synonymous with high performance, feel, and classic looks for well over a decade. The first Callaway Apex irons arrived in 2014 and were popular from the start. The standard Apex irons retained the classic looks while hiding game-improvement features, while Apex Pro and TCB irons blended feel, control, and consistency into clubs that could help amateur golfers win club championships and professionals like Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele win majors.

Yes, Callaway released an updated Apex Pro last year, along with the Apex CB and MB, but the standard Apex’s most recent update was in 2021. Now, however, Callaway has announced the release of the Apex Ai200 and Ai300, two new Apex irons that blend popular Callaway technologies and features with Apex heritage.

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Callaway Apex Ai200 irons — Callaway has reorganized the names of the new Apex irons to make it easier to understand how they relate to each other. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

First things first: the new names. To make understanding the Apex line easier, Callaway has switched to a number system. The larger the number, the bigger and more forgiving the irons will be. Smaller numbered clubs will focus more on feel, precision, and control. Callaway hopes that even before they hit the new Apex irons, golfers will be able to easily understand how each club relates to the others in the Apex family.

The Apex Ai200 (which replaces the Apex ’21) and Ai300 (which replaces the Apex DCB) now cosmetically match the most recent Apex Pro, CB, and MB irons, even though both are hollow-bodied irons designed for mid- and higher-handicap players.

The Ai200 and Ai300 feature a forged 1020 carbon steel chassis that is attached to a thin, forged 455 Carpenter stainless steel cup face. Callaway injects urethane microspheres inside each Ai200 and Ai300 head to soak up excessive vibrations, enhance feel, and improve the sound created at impact.

While some of that may seem familiar, what is new is that the 455 Carpenter stainless steel cup face has been created with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) in the same way Callaway used it to create the faces in the Ai Smoke drivers. Knowing they wanted to create more ball speed but maintain the spin rates and launch angle characteristics in the Apex irons, Callaway engineers programmed supercomputers to run thousands of simulations of impacts using different face patterns and designs. The result is a hitting area that should give golfers more distance, but also more consistency because the hitting area does not have hot spots or excessively rigid areas.

BUY: Callaway Apex Ai irons

Callaway has added an adjustable weight plate to the back of the Apex Ai200 and Ai300. It is not meant for golfers to change, but it allows fitters to adjust the swing weight of the heads during fittings for extra customization.

The Ai200 has been designed for slightly more skilled golfers who tend to hit down on their iron shots and compress the ball. It has a thinner topline than the Ai300, along with slightly less offset and a narrower sole. The Ai200 should produce a lower initial launch angle and a touch more spin than the Ai300, but because it is larger, the Ai300 will offer more stability on mishits to go along with its higher ball flight.

Both the Ai200 and Ai300 have strong, modern lofts. The Ai200’s 5-iron has a loft of 23 degrees and a pitching wedge at 43 degrees. The Ai300’s 5-iron has 22 degrees of loft, and its pitching wedge is 42 degrees. Working with a custom fitter, golfers should easily be able to create blended sets of Ai300 long irons and Ai200 scoring clubs.

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Below are several close-up images of the Callaway Apex Ai200 and Apex Ai300 irons.