Chris Kirk debuts custom 'Gun Blue' Callaway Apex MB irons at Travelers Championship

Chris Kirk has a sophisticated and tasteful eye for golf clubs, which made him an integral part in the collaborative design of Callaway’s new Opus wedges that launched on the PGA TOUR this week.

It's that same discerning eye that also helped create a new set of Callaway Apex MB irons, with a special “Gun Blue” colorway.

In the world of golf irons, there are various types of metal finishes that help achieve the aesthetic that golfers want. For example, chrome, satin and black PVD are popular in the golf industry. A popular “finish” among PGA TOUR players is actually a club with no finish at all; that is what’s called a “raw” finish.

Kirk typically prefers his irons to have a black look – he says they help him hit the ball better, because the dark finish makes the head look smaller. Black PVD, however, isn’t necessarily the most durable finish, because it tends to wear overtime.

During the prototyping process of Callaway’s Opus wedges, though, Kirk and Callaway began using a Gun Blue formula application process on his raw wedges. Kirk has actually used this process himself when treating his own wedges in the past, but now they’re teaming up to create the Gun Blue look for his irons.

Bluing, or black oxidizing, is a treatment process that’s popular in the worlds of guns and golf to change the color appearance of raw metal. The benefit, aside from strictly creating a new aesthetic, is that the Gun Blue finish is especially durable to help prolong the wearing process, and the substance can be re-applied to achieve a similar effect in the future.

Take a look at Kirk’s freshly “blued” Callaway Apex MB irons in the photo below.

Eventually, they will start to look like his more worn Gun Blue wedges, but for now, they have a fresh, dark-black look.

Kirk, who is changing from a Callaway X-Forged cavity-back iron into the Gun Blue Apex MB blades this week, spoke on the iron change with GolfWRX.com on Wednesday.

“I’ve been wanting to get back into a blade, and so I had these built on Monday,” Kirk told GolfWRX.com. “My favorite set I’ve had in a while are the older Apex MBs, and they were raw. And so I would always Gun Blue them just the same as I always do my wedges. We’ve done that forever. So they had a set of new, raw Apex MBs on the Callaway truck, and Dean (Teykl) on the truck has taken over so I don’t have to do it anymore. So he did that for these and they turned out great. I had a set of CBs made earlier in the year in black, but they were like a black PVD coating, and I didn’t love the way that they wore. So these will wear and they’ll rust and kind of stay looking good for longer.”

It's hard to find a more serious gearhead than Kirk on the PGA TOUR. It’s also hard to find better-looking irons than his, too.