Callaway AI Smoke irons showing wear after one round?

[jjfcpa]

22 hours ago, hammergolf said:

That looks like normal wear to me. 

If that's the case after one round, then my Titleist T350's and Ping G430's must be extremely well made because they look pristine after a full season.

[jjfcpa]

11 hours ago, Nessism said:

 

Yup!  Callaway doesn't chrome plate their GI irons, they are mirror polished stainless...which scratches quite easily.  

That would explain a lot and perhaps also why they are cheaper than some of the others that chrome plate.

 

I happen to be one of those persnickety types that likes their equipment to look new.  I clean the ball and club after every shot and do another cleaning of the clubs after the round.  I would not call this unsettling, but it does bother me.  If the performance wasn't so go, I'd probably switch to something else, but then again, they are staying at our away-from-home home and will only get used a couple dozen rounds a year.

[Socrates]

Nessism has the answer.  After a while they become very uniform and you really don't notice it.

[hammergolf]

2 hours ago, jjfcpa said:

If that's the case after one round, then my Titleist T350's and Ping G430's must be extremely well made because they look pristine after a full season.

Pings are pretty much indestructible. Putting a chrome finish on the sole if a club is never going to look good.

[Old_Lefty]

Nothing new for Callaway polished irons after a dozen rounds they look like they have been played for 2 years .

[nosedive32]

On 4/11/2024 at 6:41 PM, jjfcpa said:

 

I played my first round wit

The most important thing is they performed as well as my set back home (T350's) and gave me some added height that helped me hit some greens.  Really like the feel and performance.  Guess I shouldn't be so picky.

Really like my T350s but to my eye in stores just picking them up for a second without a side by side the AI Smokes look a touch smaller (and seem to have a slightly less wide sole)

 

Am I correct on this? If so it's appealing to me.

 

It wouldn't hurt for me to add a touch of height from where I'm at with the 350s but I don't want to sacrifice distance to do so. Would you say the Smokes are as long while also providing added height?

 

If so I may want to give them a hit sometime to see how they stack up.

[jjfcpa]

I've not compared them outdoors, but I have compared them extensively indoors.  

 

Size is fairly similar although I have to admit that the Callaway's seem smaller, but I think this may be just an optical illusion.

 

There is no question that I think the Smokes are more forgiving than the T350's, but the T350's have a much nicer feel to them since the face is forged (I do believe).  T350's resulted in slight more distance than the AI Smoke, but I"m playing the AI Smoke HL irons.  I'd give the T350's about 1/4 to a 1/5 club more distance per iron.  

 

Height seemed very similar.

 

Spin edge goes to AI Smoke but not by much.  I don't think I have a high enough swing speed to generate a lot of spin with either one, but this would not be significantly different.

 

T350's feel solid and slight softer but still able to tell where you make contact on the face.  Mishits don't feel bad and distance does not seem to suffer - maybe 1/2 a club.  AI Smokes feel slight harsher and mishits don't feel good at all but there doesn't seem to be a lot of drop off on distance.

 

The looks when new go to the Smokes but after just a few rounds, the Smokes look used and the T350's still look brand new after a full season.

 

In summary, the T350's are going to remain my home set and the AI Smokes will be my away-from-home set.  It could be because I've played the T series for the last few years and Callaway's have never been good to me even though I played the Apex for 2 - 3 years.  This is the first set of Callaway irons that I feel comfortable recommending.

[PedronNiall]

Can see not being happy to have to look at that after a single round. Not anything I've run into on any of the forged or cast clubs I've owned, but none had the polished SS these do. 

 

Chalk it up to a lesson learned and know what to look out for in the future. 

[North Butte]

It took my T300's about 40-50 rounds (three months) to get to roughly that point. Now they're at a couple hundred rounds and don't really look noticeably different than they did after 50. I would also be annoyed at clubs looking like that after one round but that doesn't mean they'll look 10x worse after 10 rounds or a 1000x worse after 1000, if you see what I mean.

 

I miss the old Ping tumbled gray finish. Except for the grooves very gradually wearing away it was hard to tell a six month old set from a six year old one. I actually can't for the life of me understand why golf clubs were ever designed to be shiny and polished. That's always seemed stupid to me but it's what golfers are accustomed to.

 

P.S. I once bought a brand new set of irons and on the 6th hole of my very first round I hit an iron out of a fairway bunker, caught a hidden rock and put a permanent little nick right in the middle of the face. It gradually became SLIGHTY less obvious as the face accumulated wear but boy did that suck on the very first day.

[North Butte]

It took my T300's about 40-50 rounds (three months) to get to roughly that point. Now they're at a couple hundred rounds and don't really look noticeably different than they did after 50. I would also be annoyed at clubs looking like that after one round but that doesn't mean they'll look 10x worse after 10 rounds or a 1000x worse after 1000, if you see what I mean.

 

I miss the old Ping tumbled gray finish. Except for the grooves very gradually wearing away it was hard to tell a six month old set from a six year old one. I actually can't for the life of me understand why golf clubs were ever designed to be shiny and polished. That's always seemed stupid to me but it's what golfers are accustomed to.

 

P.S. I once bought a brand new set of irons and on the 6th hole of my very first round I hit an iron out of a fairway bunker, caught a hidden rock and put a permanent little nick right in the middle of the face. It gradually became SLIGHTY less obvious as the face accumulated wear but boy did that suck on the very first day.