Callaway 2024/Will there be a new Callaway driver in 2024

[Jim53]

Just heard back and he tells me the shaft I ordered (GD AD VF 6s) was due in today and should ship in 2-3 days. We will see what happens, that makes sense for my order but you folks that ordered stock shafts still is perplexing.

 

Unless of course they had a run on them, but there seems to be plenty of stock at retailers.

[Zubs724]

On 1/25/2024 at 6:47 AM, Jim53 said:

They keep pushing my ship date out, maybe they are holding them to only arrive by the 26th.

Mine shipped out today from Mexico. Arriving tomorrow. 

[Gareth]

Mine is due here (in the Uk 🇬🇧) this Wednesday I hope. Ordered it with the Kai’Li Blue 60 but I also have a Tensei 1K Pro White 60 and Diamana GT60 to also tinker with in this driver.

 

 

[GolfTurkey]

Sorry if covered previously, but has anyone hit both the Rogue ST Max and ai Smoke Max?

 

I would be interested to hear the difference in launch, spin and draw bias.

[golfheaven69]

Every new driver is so much better than the last one per marketing. Rinse and repeat. 

[gsrjc]

Driver came and it’s awesome. Worked with the fitter to fine tune and instead of the 14 gram in the back, we put in a 7 gram weight and then 3.5 grams of weight on the back of the toe and heel. Made the club more forgiving and ball speed was constant. I liked the feel too and sound changed a little. I remember when I had a M3 driver I used to play with the weights like that in the Y tracks. 

[akronswitness]

1 hour ago, golfheaven69 said:

Every new driver is so much better than the last one per marketing. Rinse and repeat. 

 

Exactly lol How much 'new technology' can golf companies possibly invent every 6 months before putting something into production to be ready for the yearly release. Tiny tweaks to weighting, new paint jobs, boom! The NEW best longest forged face forgiving super carbon fly twist technology driver--only from Callaway.

[mojomover]

4 hours ago, gsrjc said:

Driver came and it’s awesome. Worked with the fitter to fine tune and instead of the 14 gram in the back, we put in a 7 gram weight and then 3.5 grams of weight on the back of the toe and heel. Made the club more forgiving and ball speed was constant. I liked the feel too and sound changed a little. I remember when I had a M3 driver I used to play with the weights like that in the Y tracks. 

curious, do you know what weight you used in the back? Was it a oaradym

one or epic or ai smoke ones?

[JungleJimbo]

 

 

[dcmidnight]

Cancelled my order. Person on the phone said he had been getting a lot of cancellations for the same reason and in looking at my order he had no idea why. Will pick one up at GG this weekend.

[GolfTurkey]

Had a look at these today in the pro shop.

 

The Max sits beautifully square at address. My gripe with my Rogue ST Max is that it sits closed. Maybe it's an optical illusion caused by the color scheme, but the ai Smoke Max looks really stretched back, more so than the Rogue ST Max.

 

The 3d looks amazing. Sits slightly open with a lovely shape. Unfortunately low spin drivers do not fit me; I wish higher spin more forgiving drivers could look like this.

[OhioGolfDude]

Did a GG fitting event last Friday. Wasn't my best driving day by any stretch since it's the off season.  However these numbers looked pretty consistent overall.

 

I was a little surprised how much more ball speed was coming off the TD vs. the other heads for me.

 

Smoke TD 10.5 with Tensei Blue 55 Stiff

 

Now, If I could just get my Attack Angle to be ++, I just might be good at golf...🙃

 

 

 

[OhioGolfDude]

Regarding the Heavenwood - the one in my bag (last year's model) has literally been a GAME CHANGER. So great off the deck and the tee. Replaced both 3wood and hybrid for me.

[dcmidnight]

42 minutes ago, OhioGolfDude said:

Now, If I could just get my Attack Angle to be ++, I just might be good at golf...🙃

 

 

Dont obsess over this. I think we see so many YouTube club testers who are at +5* or +8* that we start to think thats normal.

[txbadger]

On 1/30/2024 at 4:55 AM, dcmidnight said:

Cancelled my order. Person on the phone said he had been getting a lot of cancellations for the same reason and in looking at my order he had no idea why. Will pick one up at GG this weekend.

did the same on Monday when I saw they bumped by estimated ship date to 2/2-2/7.    When I called, the rep said,... "oh.. yeah.. you had an XStiff shaft.. thats why".   I told him there are two stores in my area who have the exact same shaft on the exact same head since Friday.    He then said, "wow.. that's bad luck".    I do like Callaway products for the most part but the customer service is just garbage.   Might have to rethink not wanting to get a Qi10. 

[dcmidnight]

1 minute ago, txbadger said:

did the same on Monday when I saw they bumped by estimated ship date to 2/2-2/7.    When I called, the rep said,... "oh.. yeah.. you had an XStiff shaft.. thats why".   I told him there are two stores in my area who have the exact same shaft on the exact same head since Friday.    He then said, "wow.. that's bad luck".    I do like Callaway products for the most part but the customer service is just garbage.   Might have to rethink not wanting to get a Qi10. 

 

I was not impressed with their customer service this time around - and I'll buy/try just about anything. But there's no reason for me to patronize your website if I can walk down the street and buy the same club off the rack with no hassle. 

 

Left a bad taste in my mouth so I'm going to put off buying a new one. If I can sell my Pardaym TD and buy one cheap here I will - but otherwise Cally will be a pass for me. Like I said, jsut a bad taste.

[radiman]

47 minutes ago, dcmidnight said:

 

Dont obsess over this. I think we see so many YouTube club testers who are at +5* or +8* that we start to think thats normal.

Man, I agree with this so much. I’m in a spot where my AoA is ridiculously high (7-8°) and I’m trying like a madman to figure out a way to bring it down. 
 

Great for the 1 out of 5 bomb. But, man does it put you on a razors edge. It’s like a snap hook waiting to happen on every tee box. I hate it and do not wish it on any golfer haha. 

[bcflyguy1]

4 minutes ago, radiman said:

Man, I agree with this so much. I’m in a spot where my AoA is ridiculously high (7-8°) and I’m trying like a madman to figure out a way to bring it down. 
 

Great for the 1 out of 5 bomb. But, man does it put you on a razors edge. It’s like a snap hook waiting to happen on every tee box. I hate it and do not wish it on any golfer haha. 

This is correct: there is a point of rapidly diminishing return with + AoA; approaching double digits is great for nothing more than making a launch monitor squeal on a range where there's no consequences for misses. In the golf course environment, more neutral AoA is so much more useful.

[OhioGolfDude]

31 minutes ago, bcflyguy1 said:

This is correct: there is a point of rapidly diminishing return with + AoA; approaching double digits is great for nothing more than making a launch monitor squeal on a range where there's no consequences for misses. In the golf course environment, more neutral AoA is so much more useful.

Good insight, thanks for that! 

 

I guess I won't be so hung up on trying to attack on an upswing. The good news is smash was pretty good. Helps that I hit the face mostly.

[bcflyguy1]

23 minutes ago, OhioGolfDude said:

Good insight, thanks for that! 

 

I guess I won't be so hung up on trying to attack on an upswing. The good news is smash was pretty good. Helps that I hit the face mostly.

You can work at getting more positive with your AoA as the improvement in launch conditions means more distance through better launch conditions without having to get faster, but that will take time and only you can really decide if that juice is worth the squeeze. Can be as simple as working with a good teaching pro on some setup adjustments with driver, but if it's compromising your ability to put the ball in play then...

Edited January 31 by bcflyguy1

[eric61]

2 hours ago, OhioGolfDude said:

Now, If I could just get my Attack Angle to be ++, I just might be good at golf...🙃

 

1 hour ago, dcmidnight said:

 

Dont obsess over this. I think we see so many YouTube club testers who are at +5* or +8* that we start to think thats normal.

 

59 minutes ago, radiman said:

Man, I agree with this so much. I’m in a spot where my AoA is ridiculously high (7-8°) and I’m trying like a madman to figure out a way to bring it down. 
 

Great for the 1 out of 5 bomb. But, man does it put you on a razors edge. It’s like a snap hook waiting to happen on every tee box. I hate it and do not wish it on any golfer haha. 

 

52 minutes ago, bcflyguy1 said:

This is correct: there is a point of rapidly diminishing return with + AoA; approaching double digits is great for nothing more than making a launch monitor squeal on a range where there's no consequences for misses. In the golf course environment, more neutral AoA is so much more useful.

 

Just adding another voice here to say that once you're on the positive side, the obsession with AoA can get damaging. I've been working on some stuff and am finding that settling in at like +2 to +3, with the ball teed a little lower, is SO much more useful as an actual golf course swing vs. simulator bombs. 

 

I'd been getting myself into some really bad positions at +6, +7 ... coming way too far from the inside. A perfect swing would be a really high, long, no-spin draw. But I was leaving myself with no real margin for error. I'm really trying to just neutralize my delivery now, and when I succeed, I'm so much more consistent. When I fail, I start hitting up on the ball too much, coming too far from the inside, and really lose control. Even at just +2 or +3, with my 103ish swing speed which certainly isn't fast at all around here, I'm getting plenty of height and have seen the QI10 Max -- a high-spin head, as all the reviews have pointed out -- spinning at just 2100-2300. 

[radiman]

5 minutes ago, eric61 said:

 

 

 

 

Just adding another voice here to say that once you're on the positive side, the obsession with AoA can get damaging. I've been working on some stuff and am finding that settling in at like +2 to +3, with the ball teed a little lower, is SO much more useful as an actual golf course swing vs. simulator bombs. 

 

I'd been getting myself into some really bad positions at +6, +7 ... coming way too far from the inside. A perfect swing would be a really high, long, no-spin draw. But I was leaving myself with no real margin for error. I'm really trying to just neutralize my delivery now, and when I succeed, I'm so much more consistent. When I fail, I start hitting up on the ball too much, coming too far from the inside, and really lose control. Even at just +2 or +3, with my 103ish swing speed which certainly isn't fast at all around here, I'm getting plenty of height and have seen the QI10 Max -- a high-spin head, as all the reviews have pointed out -- spinning at just 2100-2300. 

Ha, that sounds like me.  When connected, I can hit the most perfect push draw.  A head like the Qi10 Max works pretty well with that delivery.  Well, as well as it can anyway.  Anything in the mid to low spin category seems to get me hitting some epic duck hooks.  1300 rpm spin and turning really really hard left if I don't catch it just right.  

 

In it's default setting, the Qi10 Max was keeping me around 2400.  And, I didn't lose many too far left.  The standard and even the Darkspeed X, Callaway AI Smoke Max were too low spinning for me with my swing in its current state.  

 

Currently coming from the inside 6-8 degrees. It's ugly haha.  

[bcflyguy1]

17 minutes ago, eric61 said:

 

 

 

 

Just adding another voice here to say that once you're on the positive side, the obsession with AoA can get damaging. I've been working on some stuff and am finding that settling in at like +2 to +3, with the ball teed a little lower, is SO much more useful as an actual golf course swing vs. simulator bombs. 

 

I'd been getting myself into some really bad positions at +6, +7 ... coming way too far from the inside. A perfect swing would be a really high, long, no-spin draw. But I was leaving myself with no real margin for error. I'm really trying to just neutralize my delivery now, and when I succeed, I'm so much more consistent. When I fail, I start hitting up on the ball too much, coming too far from the inside, and really lose control. Even at just +2 or +3, with my 103ish swing speed which certainly isn't fast at all around here, I'm getting plenty of height and have seen the QI10 Max -- a high-spin head, as all the reviews have pointed out -- spinning at just 2100-2300. 

There are, of course, going to be some exceptions (Colin Morikawa is first to come to mind because his AoA is unusually high + amongst his peers), but for most players regardless of skill level a +3 AoA with driver strikes a great balance between optimizing launch conditions and on-course playability/repeatability. Doesn't mean any one player necessarily has to be exactly +3, but I think for someone searching for what's best for them +3 is most useful as an initial vector.

Sidebar: as tech like TrackMan and GC 3/4 become more prevalent, I find myself increasingly only using it to confirm what the player and I are seeing with our "Mark 1 Eyeballs". Too often, players get wrapped around the axel with the minutiae of what the tech is saying. It's not going to be there in the on-course environment, so it can be problematic when trying to best simulate the playing environment. Often get my best results by fitting clubs of all categories by only bringing Quad or Trackman into the fit once we already know the club is dialed just to confirm what our eyes are telling us. It's never failed to do exactly that. Not saying the tech is unnecessary because of course it has its place; there's just right and wrong ways to apply it.

Edited January 31 by bcflyguy1

[roxald]

Checked my order yesterday and it says processing... today it shows up on my doorstep 🤷🏼‍♂️

Hoping to try it vs my Max Rogue Ls/ Gen 4 Hzrdus Black 6.5 this week.

 

New Ai Max 9°/Ventus Blue Tr 6X

 

[gsrjc]

On 1/30/2024 at 1:43 AM, mojomover said:

curious, do you know what weight you used in the back? Was it a oaradym

one or epic or ai smoke ones?

It was the ai smoke one. The fitter had a 7 gram weight. 

[Jim53]

Mine shipped today for delivery tomorrow.

[Avidswampthing66]

9*  Paradym TD vs A.! Smoke TD 10.5

 

Today I had a head to head with these two drivers.  I was curious if the Smoke TD was actually better, by any margin than PTD.  Shafts I tested were stock Tensei Blue, TR Red and GD-VF.   I gamed PTD with TR Red since it came out last year, so I have a very good idea what this driver does.  The reason I went 10.5 in the Smoke was bc spin was too low w/9* head.   PTD w/ TR Red is a mid to high launch power fade machine with mid 2500 spin.   I saw this on the range today.  It's a great golf course driver.  Next was Stock Tensei, with stock Smoke set up.  I was surprised by this shaft.  Felt pretty smooth if not a little loose.  But, flight was too high with too much spin.  Then, I lowered loft to 9.5 and still too spinny for me.  Good but spinny.  So, I swapped in the GD-VF and this combo sung like Celine freakin Dion.  Mid flight, low spin baby draws.  I know where I hit the ball on the range and I could tell they were longer than TR Red/PTD combo.  I briefly stuck TR Red in Smoke but meh, it wasn't the same.  Smoke TD sounds and feels better than PTD IMO.  I think it looks way better, with the exception of the writing on the crown.  I'm going to enjoy playing this driver in 24 with the VF.  Don't sleep on the Tensie AV Blue stock shaft.  Smooth tempo swingers may really enjoy it.  I thought it felt better than TR and for fun, I took my old TD head and lofted it down to 8* and stuck the Tensei it.  That was a nice combo.  I could see world where Smoke TD 9* paired with a mid bend (spinny) shaft could work.  Especially if you hit up on the ball.   Cheers!

[Jim53]

Mine is arriving today, it will get the test run on Sunday.

[Carolina Golfer 2]

On 1/31/2024 at 8:39 AM, OhioGolfDude said:

Did a GG fitting event last Friday. Wasn't my best driving day by any stretch since it's the off season.  However these numbers looked pretty consistent overall.

 

I was a little surprised how much more ball speed was coming off the TD vs. the other heads for me.

 

Smoke TD 10.5 with Tensei Blue 55 Stiff

 

Now, If I could just get my Attack Angle to be ++, I just might be good at golf...🙃

 

 

 

 

Nice jobs...I'd take those.

 

I'm typically +3 on my launch angle, and I would trade you a a degree or two for about 5 mph of your swing speed, then we'd be pretty much the same distance 🙂   I'm low 80's and hover around 120 to 123 ball speed and am only getting typically 185 to 188 carry and 206 total with my Smoke Max 12 degree.  Our Height and spin are almsot identical as well, my smash might be 1 point higher. 

[OhioGolfDude]

14 hours ago, Avidswampthing66 said:

9*  Paradym TD vs A.! Smoke TD 10.5

 

Today I had a head to head with these two drivers.  I was curious if the Smoke TD was actually better, by any margin than PTD.  Shafts I tested were stock Tensei Blue, TR Red and GD-VF.   I gamed PTD with TR Red since it came out last year, so I have a very good idea what this driver does.  The reason I went 10.5 in the Smoke was bc spin was too low w/9* head.   PTD w/ TR Red is a mid to high launch power fade machine with mid 2500 spin.   I saw this on the range today.  It's a great golf course driver.  Next was Stock Tensei, with stock Smoke set up.  I was surprised by this shaft.  Felt pretty smooth if not a little loose.  But, flight was too high with too much spin.  Then, I lowered loft to 9.5 and still too spinny for me.  Good but spinny.  So, I swapped in the GD-VF and this combo sung like Celine freakin Dion.  Mid flight, low spin baby draws.  I know where I hit the ball on the range and I could tell they were longer than TR Red/PTD combo.  I briefly stuck TR Red in Smoke but meh, it wasn't the same.  Smoke TD sounds and feels better than PTD IMO.  I think it looks way better, with the exception of the writing on the crown.  I'm going to enjoy playing this driver in 24 with the VF.  Don't sleep on the Tensie AV Blue stock shaft.  Smooth tempo swingers may really enjoy it.  I thought it felt better than TR and for fun, I took my old TD head and lofted it down to 8* and stuck the Tensei it.  That was a nice combo.  I could see world where Smoke TD 9* paired with a mid bend (spinny) shaft could work.  Especially if you hit up on the ball.   Cheers!

 

I agree with the Tensei shaft love here. It gave really good spin numbers for me, especially compared to the Denali. I thought the Denali had a nice feel, but spin was up over 3500 on avg and I had some good swings on it. I wasn't getting the same SS, carry or roll sa the Tensei