You’ve probably already read a few, but there’s a reason people come here for Callaway Apex Hybrid reviews. We write for the common golfer, not the technical golfer. While we mix in some technical knowledge, we like to write from the perspective of your typical casual golfer. We aren’t professionals, but we know our way around a golf course. Regardless of your playing experience, we don’t want to give the same cookie-cutter review other sites out there will.
Who is the Callaway Apex Hybrid for?
First things first, the Callaway Apex hybrid is not a game improvement club. We’d only recommend it for players that shoot between even and around 10-over on 18 holes. In other words, golfers that shoot in the 70’s to mid-80’s. If you’re someone that’s pushing 100 or struggling to make pars, you’re better off with game improvement clubs, or even just clubs that are easier to hit.
For above-average golfers, there is a tendency to play skinnier irons. While most golfers won’t venture as thin as blades these days, someone with an 8 handicap isn’t going to be using super game improvement cavity back irons with a two-inch flange. With hybrids, most golfers have the same mindset. They don’t want big, bulky hybrids that make it seem like you’re using a driver when you’re above the ball.
Callaway must have asked come golfers what they wanted to see before designing this club because they hit the nail on the head. Callaway Apex hybrids maintain a low profile but have some flair. The original release had a pretty plain bottom, but with the introduction of jailbreak technology, they had the chance to get a bit more creative. Lucky for us, they jumped at it.
Customer Review Summary
4.9 stars, 15 reviews – Callaway Golf
4.8 stars, 17 reviews – Golf Galaxy
4.9 stars, 19 reviews – TGW
4.8 stars, 17 reviews – Dick’s Sporting Goods
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Club head does not come with wrench since it is not adjustable—aka no unnecessary tinkering with the club when you should be adjusting your swing instead
- Premium performance from a club head that approaches game-improvement status. Golfers at every skill level can hit this
- Different benefits for different players. Adds consistency for high handicappers and improves ball flight and distance for low handicappers
Cons
- Comes only in a men’s version, limiting shaft, length, and loft options that would benefit a larger pool of players
- Black finish on the club may wear off over time, but don’t worry. This is only aesthetic and performance will remain consistent over time
Producing the ideal ball flight
Here’s my perfect ball flight. It’s a par 5 and your 260 out after a tee shot. This is too far for you to reach under regulation, but you can get it close. Thanks to a cart path that crosses 40 yards in front of the green, you have a unique opportunity. If you can land it on the path, you’re putting for eagle. You might scuff the ball, but it’s a small price to pay.
The cart path is six feet wide—we have a hard time hitting a green 60 feet long. Forget about it. Maybe my perfect ball flight isn’t exactly realistic, but hey, a golfer can dream. Instead, an ideal ball flight maximizes distance through launch angle and shape-ability. We’re doing Callaway Apex Hybrid reviews because the club can pull it off. Now the golfer has something to do with it, but the club is capable of pulling more than its own weight.
For a low to mid-handicapper, the Callaway Apex Hybrid makes shaping the ball easy; a key factor in getting a review out of us. While a high handicapper might prefer a draw bias to make up for deficiencies in their own swing, Apex Hybrids are neutral.
Better Recovery = Better Opportunities
When you consistently break 90, it means that you’ve advanced beyond the point where double bogeys outnumber your pars. While it’s unlikely you’ve eliminated those from your game entirely, it shows you are pushing towards the level where you’re shaping shots. Basically, this means you aren’t just trying to make contact anymore. As a slightly better than bogey golfer, straight shots don’t always cut it. To meet your own goals, you need to set yourself up for the next shot. This is especially true with longer shots, most of which can be taken with a hybrid.
Callaway Apex Hybrids are easy to hit high and shape. Even after missing the fairway off the tee, you can recover with ease. With a wood in hand, it might not be possible to power through the rough and get enough of the ball to get back on target. Another major problem with woods, they are not as lofted or easy to launch. A hybrid solves both these problems. Yet another reason for our Callaway Apex hybrid reviews.
Irons are the easiest to get through rough, but fail when it comes to distance. Even in a 3-hybrid vs. 3-iron debate, the hybrid will always win out on distance. With the same comparison, it is much easier to launch a hybrid. More yards, better launch—hybrids have a clear advantage.
Maximum forgiveness
When the golf industry wanted to make drivers easier to hit, they enlarged the head. Makes sense, right? If something is larger, it’s harder to miss. This isn’t true in just golf but in most facets of life. It just so happens that in golf we use small clubs to hit a small ball. We all remember when we first started playing, it wasn’t that easy. Maybe you forget missing the ball entirely, but you’d be lying if you say you don’t still occasionally top one or hit it off the toe.
With an enlarged clubface and high, squared-off toe, there are few hybrids as forgiving. You aren’t always going to make perfect contact. Not even the pro’s do that. For a casual golfer, it’s all about being prepared for when things don’t go as planned.
On Callaway Apex Hybrids, the center of gravity is lower than other similar models. As such, it is less difficult to launch the ball. Additionally, when you come slightly up on the ball as you make contact, you still hit the ball close to your max distance. Even with below center contact you can get at the sweet spot and continue advancing the ball.
With a lower center of gravity in mind, it also makes sense why this club is easy to hit out of the rough. When you physically cannot hit the ball above the middle on the clubface, it could mean trouble. Manufacturers like Callaway know that you’re going down into the dirt more often than not with hybrids and face adjustments must be made. After all, if it didn’t take into consideration the player, we wouldn’t even consider Callaway Apex Hybrid reviews. We’d just move onto the next club.
More ball speed means more distance
We aren’t going to go into the deep physics of it, but if you want a ball to go farther, you need to find a way to get it going faster. Not for nothing, this is probably a principle that you already understand. In golf, however, we’ve realized that so much doesn’t make sense that it’s just easier to spell it out sometimes. If the ball is hit on the right angle and in the right direction, it will travel more yards the harder it’s hit. If all else remains the same and you don’t hit it as hard, it will not travel as far.
A lot of people can swing a golf club fast. When you’re talking about a difference of 5-10 yards, swing speed becomes slightly less important and ball speed becomes more relevant. When you make contact with the ball, you want as much force to transfer to the golf ball as possible. Again, the more power you can put into the ball, the farther it will go.
Callaway Apex Hybrids have a clubface made of Carpenter 455 steel. This material, combined with a forged face cup design helps to keep ball speed high no matter where contact is made. While older clubs had a very concentrated sweet spot, this makes it so that the entire face is a sweet spot.
Callaway Apex Hybrid reviews—how Jailbreak Technology helps ball speed
To start, jailbreak technology features two steel bars placed vertically inside the clubhead. While they are not visible, they play a huge role in strengthening the clubface and allowing you to increase ball speed. Before jailbreak technology was added, weight was more evenly distributed throughout the clubhead.
With this technology in place, weight is shifted forward, stiffening the face. Through this, it helps transfer energy directly into the ball as it comes off your club. By adding ball speed, you add distance. By keeping the weight so close to the face, it also makes it possible to evenly distribute the sweet spot across the clubface. The alternative would be creating a focal point, which is what other companies have to do.
Initially, Callaway began placing jailbreak technology in their drivers. In the years since they started incorporating it into the designs of woods and now hybrids. Want to know why they’re expanding the number of clubs it goes into? It works. While for the foreseeable future jailbreak is limited to metals, we’re happy to see that it’s catching on given the results we’re seeing.
Callaway Apex Hybrid Reviews Takeaway – The Perfect Transition From Long Irons
For most golfers that Callaway Apex hybrids are designed for, hitting a 3 or 4-iron is not impossible. Where the problem comes is what you’re leaving on the table by not hitting a hybrid instead. Let’s just get this out of the way. A long iron is easier to hit low and in most cases is easier to aggressively draw or cut the ball. That being said, hybrids are better.
We like the Callaway Apex hybrid because it provides an easy transition from iron to hybrid—hence us doing this review. Now if it were the best in the business of looking like an iron while not actually being one, we’d be talking about a driving iron right now. The problem with those, they still play like an iron. This version of the Callaway Apex gives you the best of irons and hybrids.
This particular hybrid can be hit low or high by the right golfer and will effortlessly travel past where your matching iron would go. Say you hit a 4-iron 220, a 4-hybrid might go about 235 for you. Distance is great, but hybrids are more reliable and consistent.
For many of the positive reasons that we highlighted in this article about the Apex hybrid being good, an iron would be bad. Irons do not provide as consistent power across the entire face and you can really see those misses. To make things a little easier on yourself, go with a smaller, but powerful hybrid such as the Callaway Apex.