 As golfers in 2023 we are spoiled for choice from every brand no matter what your handicap or what you like the look of what you like the sound of every loft option every bounce option they all seem to have you covered and now Callaway have introduced another product that you didn't know you needed this is in fact Callaway's new apex utility wood and what that means is it's not a fairway wood and it's not a hybrid either wow that's incredible isn't it so the question is what is it and who's it designed for so first of all what about the size and profile it's bigger than a hybrid but it's smaller than a fairway wood you've then got three loft options you've got 17 19 and 21 degrees those loft options mean that it's a potential replacement for both your three and four hybrid and also potentially your five and seven woods now i've actually asked for the 21 degree and the reason i've done that is because i find that to be the most versatile loft certainly for me because what i'm thinking of i'm thinking of playing it from the tee and also from the fairway and also potentially from the roof so that 21 degrees gives me plenty of flexibility that i don't think is in that 17 and 19 option and from our dry ball data it looks like the ball carries around 200 with a full swing with a respectable three and a half thousand rpm and i'll talk further about dry ball data later and how it impacts on the overall performance of this uw club because we will of course be ranking this club in every separate department in our new ticks every boxes format and that's a prime example of that flexibility and that ability to dig the ball out of what was a pretty heavy lie there and the utility wood with 21 degrees just cut through that grass i really like that option i prefer that than a hybrid in that case and probably prefer it than the bigger profile of the fairway wood as well but in terms of carrying a ball 200 yards while i already have a hybrid can do that and i already have a seven wood that can do that so why would i want the callaway utility wood well for me there is one singular reason that you would choose to play the callaway uw over a hybrid and a fairway wood that is such a solid strike and a fantastic ball flight but the reason has zero to do with performance at all and it's all to do with profile and shape because the only difference that this thing does significantly difference is it looks different like i said it's bigger than a hybrid smaller than a fairway wood and to be honest with you i love it i just love the profile at the address position it gives me everything i want i'm not sure length of shaft i think it's 41 and a half inches in terms of length and i've got plenty control over it sometimes hybrids do get a little bit small for me and fairway woods are supposed on the bigger side and what they've done with this is they've just got that happy medium between the two so for me the one main reason that you would look to change this is because you prefer the way it looks than the other options today's video is brought to you in partnership with hot golf the online golf mega store bringing you the hottest deals in golf and of course the club's featured in today's video find the link to the hot golf website in the description below and check out some incredible giveaways and offers now i said it was the main reason but there is another reason which we'll talk about very very shortly it's a lot to do with this weighting system that callaway have introduced in this and another driver that was quite different in some sort of performance as to quite what you might expect but before we get to that i just want to start on our tix aller box is format let's start by the looks of this thing now i'm going to talk about the looks in terms of shelf peel first of all now when you look at it what it's got is a weighting system that is pushed forward you've also got some rails on there which you can't remember the terminology for them it's on screen for you now but it's to aid turf interaction and i'm not going to quantify whether that is a success or failure or not but from a looks perspective from underneath shelf appeal i've got no problems with it it looks fine but i think for me where it particularly looks good is that address position and it's not necessarily about the looks it's more to do with the profile but either way we'll just give it a very simple and straightforward tick in the looks department that's a super ball again super ball flight are able to just step on that one a little bit and flight it down a little bit lower and that's again something that we'll talk about well now let's talk about on-course performance because that's the next tick in the box that i really like in terms of what it's done out here on the golf course so don't forget we play it from the tee we play it from the fairway and i've also played it from out of the rough and on each occasion it's done exactly what you'd want this type of club to do and when i see this type of club i want versatility in a club that's got 21 degrees in it it performs far better than i could with a four iron and it does things slightly differently than like i said a hybrid and a fairway wood so in terms of on-course performance it's been superb and a definite tick in the box the next thing i want to talk about is that sound and feel box there's another really good shot you know solid again the sound and feel is not necessarily something everyone's going to buy a hybrid or a fairway wood for it's not something you pay a lot of attention to but for me it's always key and i think that Callaway have got this really spot on because i found a lot of the paradigm line up to be a little bit too soft a little bit too muted in many ways and with this it's spot on and it feels like that the ball is firing out there it's zipping off the face without making some kind of loud bang when it goes off there and i think again that's got something to do with where this weight is positioned which i'll talk about very very shortly but in terms of sound and feel 100% another tick in the box for Callaway now the other piece of our criteria is dry ball data and it's hard to have a barometer because what do we measure it against in terms of there is no other utility wood that i can compare it to so what i'm going to look at right now is some standard numbers that i would expect to be looking to get with a 21 degree hybrid fairway wood equivalent and for me what the utility wood does particularly well it hits all those parameters but the particular bit of interest for me in the 21 in particular is that high launch angle that descent angle reasonable spin number and all over it's just a good mix up of numbers that mean whatever type of shot you're looking to play whatever whether it's a par 3 and you're looking trying to stop the ball on the green you've got that descent angle to do it you've got the ability to flight it down and lower that launch angle which like i said that means another set of numbers again but trust me out here on the course we've seen the ability to do that so the flexibility that this offers means that those parameters for me in terms of dry ball data are 100% hit in terms of what i'm looking for at least from a 21 degree club in the bag so it's another tick in the box and we've only got forgiveness really to consider and how do we consider whether this has been forgiven or not because quite honestly i've hit it from the center of the clubface on pretty much every shot that's the right club that's another solid and straight shot as well but forgiveness i mean i'll say that if there's anything with that one in particular maybe a little bit off the bottom grooves and it was a shot earlier on though we hit off the fairway where i commented to anabiana camera that it did far better than it should have in terms of got a little bit of ground before ball so there the two shots alone that i'll base the sort of forgiveness element is very hard one to pass judgment on the ball hasn't done anything really different in terms of where if it's on a clubface and it's ended up in a similar sort of position in the case of i've ended up carrying in and around that 200 yard mark so forgiveness it's an odd barometer but we'll put it in there and we will say that it's got a tick in the box so i think that's all five isn't it it's a Callaway product that ticks every box and for me that one thing that i've held on to talk about throughout is the the waiting system being pushed forward because it's a weird one this club in Callaway's sort of description is aimed at the better player it is in the apex pro lineup but for me it's a very playable club it's a very forgiving club like we just spoke and that weight push forward often suggests otherwise because weight forward generally means a more lower spinning it means CG is pushed forward so it's not really helping in terms of launch as well so it does everything that suggests it is in that better player category but somehow the way this club is set up and they did it in a driver as well i think it was the big birther B23 that came out this year as well where weight was pushed forward but they still maintained launch and forgiveness and i think they've got a similar setup in terms of technology in this club as well so two things that really stand out for me shape and profile is one of them second one being that weighting system is not a negative it's very much a positive in my opinion or whatever's going on inside of there there'll be all kinds of batwing technology we've got these rails on the bottom that are doing special things as well the overall thing is it ticks every box and it is a definite interesting product for me the problem it causes me is that how do i get it in the bag and what am i going to remove to replace that's the big question anyway if you've got this kind of dilemma if you're looking for this kind of club it's got to fit the bill it's got to be worth a try and i'm pretty sure that you'd be super impressed with what this apex utility would do and it's certainly worth one for consideration right i'm all done i'm finished you've got plenty more content to come from portal championship golf course thanks for joining us and i'll see you all soon