An interesting experiment - Rogue X irons

[Stuart]

So, I have recently been looking at new irons to replace my Apex CF16s. I really like them, but they were possibly a touch (only a touch) unforgiving for my crap swing and when I play fairly infrequently now.

A long time friend who was a golf pro (he got sick of the daily grind and moved onto another career, but still is an excellent coach and knows my game well) suggested I try something completely different to what I was considering. And so, I now have a set of Callaway Rogue X irons. Yes - those Rogue X irons that feature a 7 iron lofted at 12 degrees or something equally ridiculous.

I have many many many swing flaws that combine together to result in a high launch high spin ballooning flight. In Armidale, which is always windy, this is a bugger of a combination. The Rogue X, which admittedly has some truly bizarre lofts, seems to counter some of my problems re launch and spin, and is actually working out pretty well. If we simply ignore the number on the bottom of the club, I am hitting more greens in regulation from the same spots on the fairway.

As I said, this is not something I ever would have considered. The enormous amount of off-set is visually off-putting, but doesn't seem to affect the ball flight that much. After a couple of rounds, I started to get used to it. They were also re-shafted with my old favourite DG X100s, which I gather is not a normal shaft for Rogue X.

All in all, so far so good, but the experiment is in its early days.

[3oneday]

Lots of people use clubs beyond their abilities.

[Captain Nemo]

Lots of people use clubs beyond their abilities.

im probably one of them...

[3oneday]

Maybe, but it’d take a power of convincing for me to use a 12 degree 7 iron

[Captain Nemo]

I might bend one tomorrow see what happens!

[Daves]

The Rogue X 7i is 27* standard (the 4i is 18.5*!). In comparison a standard Ping Eye 2 7i was 36* and a 5I 28.5*. The Eye 2 +s were a little stronger at 35* and 27.5* respectively.

In comparison, the strongest lofted 7i I can find in my collection is a TM AeroBurner @ 29.5*, and that is seriously pumped, so I can only imagine what a 27* 7i would be like. I guess your 4i to PW is really a 2i to 8i set with a bit of help it get them in the air. There is a pretty big gap to fill at the bottom end.

[Stuart]

The 5I-GW is roughly equivalent to a 3I-PW. I then play my normal 50,56 and 60 wedges. I haven't found any gaps at the bottom of the bag, but others' experiences may vary of course.

I was told to ignore the number on the bottom, and just focus on whether it improved my ball flight. It took half a round to re-adjust distances in my head, but as I said in the first post, I am now hitting more greens from the same positions on the fairway. The ball flight is definitely better - I have been trialling hitting two balls from the same spot with equivalent clubs that go the same distance (i.e. 7 iron apex versus 8 iron Rogue), and the Rogue definitely has far less ballooning and seems to be less affected by the wind (marginally, and possibly just random error at this point), but it still stops just as quickly.

I was somewhat cynical about even trying them, but there is clearly more going on than just massively reducing the loft. Again, it is still early days in the experiment phase, but I have been somewhat surprised by what I have seen.

[Stuart]

I should also say that the lofts are roughly one club stronger through the set - there is around 3-5 degrees difference between my Apex CF16s and the Rogue X.

For example, the Rogue 4iron is 18.5 degrees, compared to the Apex at 21.5; the 9 iron is 36 degrees in Rogue versus 40 in Apex.

[NewyMitch]

Thanks for posting up this experiment. Are you playing equivalent lofts to get your yardages about right?

[Diamonds]

So it seems the equivalent of gripping down a club stronger. Next club up with a shorter shaft, so you are permanently hitting knock down shots.

[Stuart]

Thanks for posting up this experiment. Are you playing equivalent lofts to get your yardages about right?

That was the starting point - I simply moved down one club and that made the lofts approximately the same. But I am still experimenting as the distances aren’t quite locked in as yet. I need to spend some more time with 9 iron, PW and GW in particular to work them out.

[Stuart]

So it seems the equivalent of gripping down a club stronger. Next club up with a shorter shaft, so you are permanently hitting knock down shots.

I’d never thought of it that way before, and now that I have ... no.

Ball flight simply hits a better window for me, without needing to try and manipulate my swing at all. However, I was also able to hit a great low ‘stinger’ with the 4-iron under a tree, and also hit a nice 7 iron up and over a tree*. Both hit the peak height I expected.

I suspect (purely based on actual play and not tested on a launch monitor) that the total height is no different, but how it gets there seems very different. Same for descent angle, which seems to be very steep with the Rogues (ie. dropping straight down). Again, this is just for me. Everyone else may have a different experience. In my normal conditions, this is resulting in the ball being less affected by the wind, and particularly so when hitting directly back into it.

* I also hit a number of other trees dead centre, but we won’t mention those.

[Stuart]

A brief update.

Good points:

- As mentioned, the ball flight is very good. My Apex irons tended to have a 'rainbow' trajectory, whereas these seem to rise more slowly, peak later in flight and then drop quicker. For me, in windy conditions, this seems to be working out well and particularly in terms of minimising distance loss back into the wind.
- Their feel is surprisingly good. For big clunky cast irons, I give them a big tick. For comparison, feel is much better than any of the Ping G series irons I have tried.

Bad points:
- The offset. For someone whose bad shot is an extended draw (hook), I have found my really bad swings go much further left than with my Apex. Good swings are fine, so it is clearly user-error, but, as a crap golfer, bad swings do tend to occur fairly frequently ... the factor that compounds this problem is that mishits are not penalised as much in terms of distance, which means a pull-draw can go a LONG way left.
- The 9 iron, PW and GW are all very large. This hasn't been an issue so far, but it is something I am still quite conscious of.
- I am able to hit a fade if necessary, but I have to try very hard. In fairness though, I have the same problem with my Apex.

The ponderables:
- The 4 iron and my 3 hybrid go the same distance (and have about the same loft). The way they get there is very different though, with my hybrid going high and then stopping on impact, while the 4 iron lands quicker but then runs out more. Do I really need two clubs that go the same distance?
- Do I go with a blended set with my Apex irons? For example, if I dropped my hybrid, I could easily hit my desired gapping with a combination of 5-8 iron (Rogue X) and then 8-GW with my Apex. This would mean I carry two 8 irons, but they do separate by distance nicely.

[Stuart]

To quantify the distance differential re wind (average wind in Armidale over the past few weeks has been 25-30kph):

I hit a number of back-to-back shots with my Apex 7 iron (31 degrees) and Rogue X 8-iron (31.5 degrees) during a practice round. Downwind the Apex was probably slightly longer (a few metres at most), while with cross winds they were pretty similar. In both cases, the Apex seemed to be more affected by the wind (ie. going longer downwind, but also being moved more with cross winds).

However, directly back into the wind, the Rogue was substantially (at least 10 metres if not a bit more) longer. This would tend to gel with my previous experiences where I would often find I needed to club up by two (i.e. going from a 7 iron to 5 iron) with my Apex when going straight back into the wind. I am therefore finding a big improvement in that I am hitting a 7 iron Rogue into greens that I would have previously hit a 5 iron Apex.

[gameboy]

i bought a mens set of Rogue X's for my wife (she's 6.1) and i also had a set of the OG Apex's.
Had a hit with them - the offset was a bit distracting and they were also quite clicky.
But they had good distance and were pretty easy to hit. will have another hit sometime.

[gameboy]

btw - sounds like they have lower spin than the apex's - which sort of makes sense if they have given them higher lofts