Defined as taking a different path and defying convention, the naming of Rogue sits with the whole family of irons and woods that stand for technology and speed.
When you put the Rogue irons down at address then they look pretty familiar and you would be hard pushed to separate them visually from the ever expanding arsenal of irons that Callaway has at their disposal.
However on the inside the Rogue irons are unique as they have Callaway's fastest 360 Face Cup to date and the weight has been managed to place the CG directly behind the centre zone.
The COR is claimed to be in the region of 0.835 which is driver fast, so distance is then really going to come down to the launch conditions.
Taking it on GC2 against the Callaway Epic iron you can see that the Rogue generated a little more ball speed and a bit more spin which probably cancelled each other out to give a small distance gain for me, but with a higher flight and a steeper landing angle.
The Epic probably sounds and feels a little more solid, but so is the price which is almost twice as much, so the Rogue is definitely an alternative to those who can't stretch to the Epic.
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Usually with distance irons the size of the head and the cavities that allow the face to flex can affect the sound. However Callaway has filled the void behind the face with Urethane Microspheres to improve this.
Small glass spheres are included in the urethane that is inserted into the cavity and these create little air pockets that absorb the unwanted sounds.
It does a pretty good job and out on the course it sounded like most other normal irons of this size, so it does its job well but it's not going to turn the Rogue into a forged blade.
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The design has a hint of the Callaway Legacy irons about it and the corporate Rogue colour is not maybe now quite as butch as the lime green of the Epic.
Compared to the other Rogue irons, the standard model sat where you thought it would, but a little more spin and distance than the Rogue Pro and not as far as the super strong Rogue X
The Rogue is probably the most playable of the three models for the majority and high single figure to twenty-something handicappers will find the distance, forgiveness and feel combination should work in their favour.
The stock steel shaft is the True Temper XP 95 ST 15 which is pretty light for this type of iron to help the speed and is stable enough for accuracy.
The looks are fairly clean and restrained, so the Rogue is a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing. As they are numbering clubs by peak height rather than loft, the set can start at an 18° 3-iron and goes right the way through to Lob Wedge at 58°.
You would probably need to go through to the 49° A wedge at least before going to specialist wedges, but really the whole numbering thing is getting out of hand. You would probably start the Rogue set with the 20.5° 4-iron, which is really a 3 in old money,and will probably go further, so I could see some sets starting at 5-iron.
Yes, I get that a shorter shafted 6-iron that goes as far as an old 5-iron is going to make your more accurate, but it needs to spin and you still need to cover the shorter end of the bag so all you are doing is kicking the problem down the road.
Ignore the numbers and you could get 8 implements going in steady gaps to cover 100-200 yard shots with a consistent look, feel, head design and sound and from that perspective there is nothing wrong with the Rogue.
Despite the reasonable price is it above most of the distance iron competitors and the cost of a wedge or two more than the Callaway Steelhead XR irons, which are also forgiving distance machines with less tech.
The Rogue is reasonably priced and does give you distance, forgiveness and consistency, so if you are a mid-handicapper looking for assistance then you won't go far wrong.