The arms race for distance irons continues and Callaway are aiming to blow the competition out of the water by going not only Rogue, but Rogue with the X factor.
Compared to the standard Callaway Rogue irons the X version is longer and deeper to offer more forgiveness from a deeper centre of gravity.
The offset is greater and the sole has a raised trailing edge to get the weight further back without getting in the way at impact.
Most of the time they look like any other iron, but when you get to the longer irons then the cavity starts to peak out from the back of the ball at address like here with the 4-iron.
The face uses the same 360 Face Cup which is the thinnest Callaway has created to date and because this is spread over a larger area than the standard model, the ball speeds from off-centre hits are maintained more easily.
The sound and feel from the Rogue X is good for this size of iron. Yes, it is a little on the hollow side, especially in the longer irons, but the introduction of Urethane Microspheres helps modify the vibrations and makes it sound better than the Steelhead XR.
This is a urethane material that is inserted into the cavity behind the face and contains spheres that become air pockets to absorb any unwanted sounds and improve the feel and they do well at this.
However the Rogue X is all about distance as you can see when I took it on GC2 against the other Rogue models.
The Rogue X uses higher ball speed speed and low spin to get that distance and as you can see that is what it delivered for me, but I would be a little concerned about the relatively shallow descent angle as it will therefore roll out more than a standard Rogue.
I should point out that this is not a particularly fair fight as the Rogue X 6-iron is 24°, the Rogue is 26° and the Rogue Pro is 27°. However in today's landscape they are all 6-irons because they all have the same peak height...
If you didn't do this then the faster ball speed of the Roque X would send the higher lofted 6-iron into orbit, like an 8-iron would. However all this loft strengthening means that the 4-iron is a crazy 18.5° or a 2-iron in old money.
I was averaging over 200 yards carry for the 4-iron, which was 4 yards more than the Rogue 4-iron and up where my 19° hybrid currently is, so if you don't like hybrids then the Rogue X long irons could be an alternative whatever level of player you are.
It's all gone horribly wrong with club numbering these days, but that's the way it is and if you want to win the number distance battle then the Rogue X is one of the irons you want to go into battle with.
Clearly for mid to low swing speed players, the greater speed and forgiveness from the Rogue X should help their mid to long iron play and as long as they get the gaps right at the shorter end by going down to the 51° G wedge then they should be fine.
The Rogue X are the same price as the standard Rogue irons, which means towards the top end for a distance iron. They are decent value for money so it just depends on whether you value them more than the competition.