William L. Coney Blog: Callaway’s New Hybrid is Also Epic

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Callaway’s New Hybrid is Also Epic

Coinciding with today’s announcement of Epic and Epic Pro irons, Callaway has also announced the Epic Hybrid. Bet you didn’t see that one coming.

As is often the case with hybrids, the Epic features some trickle down technology from the Epic fairway wood. What’s a bit different is that it also features some trickle up technology from the new irons.

Triaxial Carbon Fiber Crown

From the fairway wood (and the driver), the Epic hybrid inherited a triaxial carbon fiber crown. While the mass savings aren’t what you get from larger clubs, by reducing the crown weight to only 5 grams, Callaway was able to give itself some room to play.

This is the first time Callaway has used Triaxial carbon fiber in a fairway wood, and its inclusion puts Callaway alongside PXG has the only companies offering carbon fiber crowns in their hybrids.

Face Cup Technology

Also inherited from the fairway wood is Callaway’s 455 Hyper Speed Face Cup Technology. Callaway credits the technology with making it the #1 Hybrid Brand in Golf, which is nice, but the key point is that Face Cup helps preserve ball speed across all of the face, particularly on the low portion where most mishits occur.

Metal Injection Molding

From the Epic irons, the new hybrid gets updated Standing Wave Technology incorporated with MIM’d (Metal Injection Molding) Tungsten. We discussed the MIM process in a bit more detail in our feature story on Epic Irons, but the key takeaway is that the material, which is 1.8x heavier than steel, allows Callaway to create internal weight pieces with exacting precision. Size and placement of the MIM’d tungsten vary with the loft of the hybrid, but like other forms of internal weighting, its purpose is to help drive the CG low and make the hybrid easier to launch, and in this case, achieve the same CG properties as a non-adjustable hybrid.

As far as the footprint of the Epic Hybrid is concerned, it sits in the middle of the Callaway lineup. It's not nearly as compact as the Apex hybrid, and not nearly as large as the Steelhead XR. It's a mid-sized hybrid that should appeal to players of all ability levels.