in association with
hybrids
performance
★★★★★
i n n o vat i o n
★★★★★
look • sound • feel
★★★★★
p l ay e r c o m m e n t
“The weighting on this head is perfect. I can feel the clubhead throughout the swing, which helps me keep it on plane longer.”
★★★★
APEX • APEX PRO
★★★★★
i n n o vat i o n
★★★★★
look • sound • feel
★★★★½
p l ay e r c o m m e n t
“Light and speedy, the club is through impact before you know it. The attractive green accents pop just like the crisp sound.”
demand
demand
c a l l away
performance
★★★★
RRP AED 1,349
cobra RADSPEED • RADSPEED ONE LENGTH
RRP AED 995
▶ It’s not as if Callaway’s Apex hybrid was one of those secretmenu options at In-N-Out burger reserved for burger-a-holics. But the club did have a limited, enthusiastic audience of mostly elite players who liked the ultra-compact size and iron-like setup. However, this year’s Apex hybrid is more like In-N-Out’s DoubleDouble, fully loaded with forgiveness and ball-speed ingredients in two sizes based on how hungry your game is. The standard Apex (pictured) is for those who want all they can get. It’s larger and features a huge slab of tungsten in the rear and toe to balance the center of gravity for extra forgiveness and a lower-spinning launch. The Apex Pro stays truer to the original compact footprint and doesn’t need the extra tungsten, producing instead a lower launch with a little more spin. Still, both designs get their extra sizzle from new cupfaces designed by Callaway’s artificialintelligence platform, unique to each model and loft. Also newly designed with A.I. input are the internal “Jailbreak” bars that join the crown and sole. Both face and bars (now angled and placed farther apart) work in concert to produce better all-around flexing, including extra juice on impacts high and low on the face.
▶ Hybrids have been assigned an almost impossible task. Not only are they asked to produce distance and a high launch in an area of the game in which many golfers struggle, they must do so despite difficult lies and unruly swings that often make contact with the big ball (Earth) before the little one. Cobra’s solution for years has been the use of rails on the sole that lower the clubhead’s center of gravity for a higher launch and reduce turf interference from all sorts of lies to help direct clubhead speed into the golf ball. The problem with sole rails, however, is they can stiffen the lower part of the face so that you don’t get the benefit of a flexible-face design. Cobra’s solution is to hollow out the front part of the rails. This provides the full benefits of turf relief while allowing the face to flex as freely as if the rails were not there. In addition, thanks to the use of thinner, stronger and lighter steels in the body and face, this year’s design works even better by repositioning internal weighting in extreme areas in the front (heel and toe weight pads) and rear (a central sole weight). That arrangement generates better ball speed with forgiveness and a higher launch with low spin.
Demo this club at eGolf Megastore, or buy online at egolfmegastore.ae
Demo this club at eGolf Megastore, or buy online at egolfmegastore.ae
july 2021 | golfdigestme.com
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