Callaway XR and XR Pro Irons: The New Face of Distance and Forgiveness, Literally

In this day and age of the golf industry, if you’re not putting out more distance you’re losing ground and sinking yourself into mediocrity. Well, mediocre and Callaway don’t mix; never have, never will. The new Callaway XR iron is far from mediocre, far from average, even far from just “good”. Whatever adjective you had in mind has been blown out of the water. These boys are insanely, exponentially, off the charts, out of this world fantastic in every aspect of performance.

Let’s Examine Why

The new XR irons are Callaway’s first ever cavity back iron to hit the market that has incorporated a face cup into the head. This wasn’t just any ordinary undertaking. It was a huge engineering effort and took all of their manufacturing talents to be able to produce a cavity back iron with a face cup. A special heat treating process during was necessary in order to make the face work expertly in conjunction with the rest of the iron’s thinner body style. For Callaway, this represents the biggest change in iron technology for the game improvement classification of clubs they’ve ever put together.

The main engine behind the XR iron is the Cup 360 face. This face is supported by a very thin piece of steel, which makes it extremely flexible, and makes up the club’s 2-piece construction. The area behind the face essentially doesn’t touch the rest of the clubhead. The special heat treating process used during manufacturing makes that space between the body and face possible. In addition, Callaway has designed a sole that is thinner (less chunky) than previous models which adds to the flexibility dynamic of the overall club and improves turf interaction. What does this means to you? At impact the face produces a trampoline type effect to increase ball speeds on center hits, off-center hits, and all across the face leading to more distance throughout the entire set.

The other piece to the puzzle with the XR iron is Callaway’s internal standing wave, a technology that has been highlighted in their fairway woods in recent years. This element lowers the overall weight and center of gravity of the club and has been positioned to not touch the flexible elements of the club head, giving the 360 face cup room to provide the improved ball speed characteristics of the XR. The wave stretches across the entire face from heel to toe and takes the club’s MOI (measure of forgiveness) to another level, which creates more consistent speed, especially on mishits, and increased distance.

Shaft Details

The Callaway XR iron set is available in a standard 8-piece set in steel or graphite, or a combo set with two hybrids and 6 traditional irons. The irons will feature a True Temper Speed Step shaft that checks in at just a shade under 90 grams in regular and stiff. The graphite option will feature the True Temper Project X SD shaft in light, regular, and stiff, weighing between 55 and 58 grams and is designed to produce higher launch for those players that need the extra lift. The ladies Callaway XR iron set will also incorporate True Temper’s Project X SD graphite shaft and will weigh in at 47 grams.

XR Pro Series

On the other side of the spectrum sits the Callaway XR Pro iron set. This is one sharp looking players iron. But guess what? It still has the 360 face cup technology that stars in the traditional Callaway XR iron. This club certainly presents itself as the traditional players iron with its small head with shorter blade length and thinner top line compared to the XR iron. Because of these factors, it made the manufacturing process even more challenging for Callaway’s experts since there isn’t as much room to incorporate that same technology and keep the pro shape that better players are seeking. The shape and scope of the head are inspired by the Callaway X-14 Pro series while the new 360 face cup and internal standing wave have massively restructured the club with modern day innovations. What this has done is create the most forgiving players iron Callaway has ever engineered without sacrificing the preferred soft feel of a forged type club.

The XR Pro iron set is available in a traditional 8-piece steel set in right or left hand. It will feature a KBS Tour V-90 steel shaft in regular (89 gram), stiff (90 gram), and X-stiff (96 gram) for a mid-launch profile and low spin. However, there are LOTS of custom shaft options available, check out the options below:

Now you’re equipped with the information about the Callaway XR iron set! If you have any questions don’t forget you can speak with one of the many PGA Professionals at GlobalGolf.

Check out What We Have to Say about the Rest of the Callaway XR Line Up:

Chris Wadwick

Chris Wadwick has been a Class “A” member of the PGA of America since 2011. He is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in Business Administration. He brings a deep understanding of the inner workings of the golf business, especially club fittings, product knowledge, and visual merchandising, working for Dick’s Sporting Goods for over 7 years and Occoneechee Golf Club for more than three years, prior to that. When he is not in the office, you can always find him at a nearby golf course, attending games at his alma mater, or spending time with his wife and four dogs.