Callaway Apex MB Irons Review (Pros & Cons)

The Callaway Apex MB 2021 iron set is one of the sexiest, sleekest, mouth-watering sets I’ve ever had the pleasure of hitting. If you are reading this article, then I am going to assume that you are a hell of a ball striker OR you simply love the look/feel or traditional blades. With that being said, I’m going to talk to you as if you are a hell of a ball striker either way.

This review is going to give you the pros and cons of the Callaway Apex MB irons. I’ll also talk about the ideal target audience of this set, as well as offer a better value alternative at the very end.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: a blade is a blade is a blade. Blades are all pretty much the same. They have some small differentiators, but they are hardly noticeable even for low handicappers.

Well, that was an unnecessarily long introduction, wasn’t it? Sorry about that. Let’s go ahead and begin.

 

Appearance

Man, where do I even start? While the toplines are a taaaaad larger than most blades, the Callaway Apex MB irons are still a thing of beauty at address and in the bag in general. The main difference between this set of blades and the others is the weight on the club heads – reminds me of the old TaylorMade Tour Preferred line of muscle back irons.

This allows club fitters (not the golfer by him/herself) to be able to adjust the weight of the irons without affecting the center of gravity. Club fitters can change the stop 8g weight to 4 or 12, or any other weight for that matter. Keep in mind it’s not intended to be removed by a non-professional fitter.

 

Performance

I’m going to assume that you’ve hit a set of blades before. If you haven’t, I would highly recommend. Better yet, hit a set of forged blades like the Callaway Apex MB irons.

Performance is going to depend solely on how you are hitting the ball. If you are hitting the ball like crap, you are going to get crap results. Blades like the Apex MB irons are extremely unforgiving. That means that your mishits will be punished gravely by a loss of distance and poor feel at impact. Oh, and that poor feel will be multiplied by 100x on a cold day.

When you are striking the ball well, though, you’ll be rewarded. You’ll be rewarded with incredible distance control, great workability, and feedback on your slight mishits to be able to adjust on the next shot. And the feeling & sound at impact of a perfectly struck shot is like nothing else.

I won’t even lie to you. When I hit my buddy’s Callaway Apex MB irons (on the range and during an entire round) to review them, I was playing like absolutely crap. They obviously weren’t’ fitted to me and my swing, but regardless I just couldn’t hit the center of the club face worth a damn, especially on the longer irons. My Mizuno JPX 825 Pro irons are just so much more forgiving and less intimidating at address. But, when I happened to hit a great shot, I was truly blown away by the results. It’s a feeling that I can definitely get used to.

 

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Nearly indescribable feel and sound at impact. You can hardly feel the golf ball being hit at all. “Feels like butter” makes sense now.
• Great workability. Much easier to work the ball into the green and flight the ball down when needed (into a breeze or hitting into a green with the flag in the back).
• Distance control is consistent, as long as you are hitting the center of the club face.
• Slightly larger toplines than most blades, which makes standing over the ball just a tad less intimidating

Cons:

• Not many golfers hit the center of the club face consistently enough to benefit from a blade like the Callaway Apex MB irons.
• Club fitter needed to adjust the weight on the club heads if needed
• Extremely, extremely unforgiving, especially the long irons
• Will cost you around $1,300, which is a huge price for blades when you can buy similar irons for a far more reasonable price.

 

Who Are the 2021 Callaway Apex MB Irons Made For?

The Callaway Apex MB irons were designed for three different types of golfers:

1. Low handicap golfers that play all the time and are confident they can hit the dead center of the club face 95% of the time or more. Great ball strikers like this are the ones that benefit from the distance control and workability of blades.
2. Golfers of any skill level that want to improve their ballstriking quickly Blades like the Apex MB irons FORCE you to hit the center of the clubface. By forcing perfection, your game will adapt quickly. If you keep playing with super forgiving clubs, then you have to reason to adapt, as your off center hits still end up decently. With a blade, your off center strikes will end up terribly… trust me.
3. Golfers of any skill level that just love the look/feel of forged blades. Golf is all about enjoyment right? Some golfers enjoy golf more by playing with forgiving clubs that help them score better. Other golfers like playing with super compact, hard to hit blades that offer yet another challenge to the already frustrating game that we call golf. Blades look cooler, feel better, and are way more fun to play with (when score doesn’t matter, of course).

 

Better Value Blade Irons

If you are on the market for blades but don’t want to spend over a thousand dollars, I don’t blame you at all.

Back in high school, I gamed a set of super cheap Titliest 690MB irons that cost me like $250. I shot my best tournament score ever with that iron set (69), and I still love bringing it out to hit balls with (when I’m not writing articles of course).

There are tons of used sets of the Titleist 690MB irons on the market. Condition varies from worn down grooves ($150ish) to grooves with LOTS of life left ($400). The average price seems to be around $300 or so, which is a heck of a deal for a set of forged blades that were so popular in their prime (nearly two decades ago…wow). The lofts are about 2 degrees weaker than the Callaway Apex MB blades, but who cares what the number on the sole says?

Blades are blades are blades, right? So why spend $1,300 on a new set of blades when a $300 used set will do just as good?

Oh, and of course if you want to save a little bit of money while sticking with Calllaway, you can just go with the older 2018 and 2015 versions of the Callaway Apex MB irons. They are great options that will still come at a pretty deep discount compared to the $1,300 2021 release.

 

Thanks for reading my honest review of the 2021 Callaway Apex MB Irons!