Callaway

It’s not as if Callaway’s Apex hybrid was one of those secret-menu options at McDonald’s 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 a Big Mac, 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 centre 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 artificial-intelligence platform, unique to each model and loft. Also newly designed with AI 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.

LOFTS 19, 21, 24, 27 (apex); 18, 20, 23, 26 (apex pro)