Maltby KE4 TC Pro Driver

[03trdblack]

New KE4 TC Pro driver head arrived today from the Golfworks. Initial impressions are that it looks better in person than on the website. Small compact head and nice flat lie angle. Head sits slightly open and they nailed the feel/sound. I've only hit it into my net so far so looking forward to getting out on the course to give it a full test. 

 

I only wish they had left off the alignment dot on the top of the head and left it completely clean. 

 

 

[PJE]

Nice looking club. 
I agree on the sight dot. It’s kind of jarring with white contrast. I think it would look better in red? 

[jblough99]

@03trdblack Any chance you could get a couple pics with a ball for perspective.  From what I’ve read this is pretty compact heel to toe.

[03trdblack]

12 minutes ago, jblough99 said:

@03trdblack Any chance you could get a couple pics with a ball for perspective.  From what I’ve read this is pretty compact heel to toe.

 

Sure, I can do that tonight 

[03trdblack]

13 minutes ago, 03trdblack said:

 

Sure, I can do that tonight 

 

Here you go. It's a very compact head for sure. 

 

 

 

[5 O'Clock Charlie]

21 hours ago, 03trdblack said:

Head sits slightly open and they nailed the feel/sound. I've only hit it into my net so far so looking forward to getting out on the course to give it a full test. 

 

I only wish they had left off the alignment dot on the top of the head and left it completely clean. 

 

Glad I am not in the minority with the dot. Curious as to the sound, is it more of a thud or more of a tink? I have an old R510 TP that I like to take out once in a while still and that is more muted and if it's like that I may consider grabbing this. Thanks for sharing!

[jblough99]

Wow that looks really good!  Face is very compact, reminds me of a deeper faced 300 mini.  Might have to grab one for testing over the winter.

[03trdblack]

9 minutes ago, 5 O'Clock Charlie said:

 

Glad I am not in the minority with the dot. Curious as to the sound, is it more of a thud or more of a tink? I have an old R510 TP that I like to take out once in a while still and that is more muted and if it's like that I may consider grabbing this. Thanks for sharing!

 

They nailed the sound/feel of this head. The best way I can describe it would be that it feels like the face is really thick. It's a super dense but soft feel like hitting a forged iron but with just a little bit of metallic noise to it. 

[03trdblack]

31 minutes ago, jblough99 said:

Wow that looks really good!  Face is very compact, reminds me of a deeper faced 300 mini.  Might have to grab one for testing over the winter.

 

If this behaves like my 300 mini and becomes it's big brother, it's going to be fantastic. The 300 mini is special. 

 

I like how Golfworks stated they aligned the center of gravity in the dead middle of the face. 

[achappy]

Looks like there may have been a design change for the adapter.  That looks much different than the KE4 Max adapter but the site says they use the same.  

[03trdblack]

1 minute ago, achappy said:

Looks like there may have been a design change for the adapter.  That looks much different than the KE4 Max adapter but the site says they use the same.  

 

It's the same adapter as far as I know. 

[jblough99]

They did change the adapter recently but all they did was remove the plastic ferrule making it all one piece.

[achappy]

14 minutes ago, jblough99 said:

They did change the adapter recently but all they did was remove the plastic ferrule making it all one piece.

 

It seems like just more than the adapter as the head design is different. Here’s the KE4 Max and I don’t see this adapter fitting the Pro.  But Golfworks lists the same adapter so wondering if that’s a misprint for the Pro??

 

It’s not an issue for anyone buying new as you will get an adapter for the head.  The issue is for those like me who maybe thought they could just buy the head and reuse a shaft.  Doesn’t seem like this is the case.  

 

 

[03trdblack]

If you're looking at the adapter in my pictures, it will be different because I'm using an All-fit adapter. The adapter that comes with the head is the same as the one you posted. 

[achappy]

1 minute ago, 03trdblack said:

If you're looking at the adapter in my pictures, it will be different because I'm using an All-fit adapter. The adapter that comes with the head is the same as the one you posted. 

 

Ahhhh, that explains it.  Thanks for the clarification.   Continue on with regularly scheduled programming 😃

[Colej]

Hopefully the new fairways follow suit with this head. They’ll be a hit as well. 

[ode]

2 hours ago, 03trdblack said:

If you're looking at the adapter in my pictures, it will be different because I'm using an All-fit adapter. The adapter that comes with the head is the same as the one you posted. 

I forget the AllFit hack🤔....demo'd the Max and fiddled with the collars and got one of them to work..... pretty sure it was ping, but 🤔

 

Glad they did away with the ferrule but not the freely spinning cog, to me there was an advantage with shaft alignment!

[ode]

And agreed re the alignment dot although no biggie to me......and I strongly prefer matte to gloss😉

[03trdblack]

3 minutes ago, ode said:

I forget the AllFit hack🤔....demo'd the Max and fiddled with the collars and got one of them to work..... pretty sure it was ping, but 🤔

 

Glad they did away with the ferrule but not the freely spinning cog, to me there was an advantage with shaft alignment!

 

All-fit has a Maltby specific collar now and it's the same as the one that fits the Ben Hogan drivers. 

[jblough99]

How is it working out, any updates?

[03trdblack]

2 hours ago, jblough99 said:

How is it working out, any updates?

 

Today was the maiden voyage w/ the Maltby.  I shafted it with an Autoflex 505x and set the loft down to 7.5*.  Honestly couldn't find much of anything bad to say about the performance all day.  Felt and sounded awesome! 

 

It was a cold round, 37* when we teed off, but it warmed up a little bit by the end of the round.  Ball seemed to travel about a club short due to the cold and extra clothing layers.  That being said, I was hitting this driver in all the normal spots I'd normally hit around my course so I'm hoping it'll show even more distance when it warms back up.

 

One thing I will change in my next round is to add a bit more loft as it appeared to have a bit lower flight than I'm used to and the spin seemed to be very low.  I could see some shots fall out of the air a bit but had a good amount of roll out.  I think 8* loft setting with the Autoflex will be perfect.  I had one shot that was hit slightly low heel that seemed to fade a bit more than a more forgiving club would probably but that's how I'd expect a lower MOI driver head to react and I was still in play.

 

MOI is lower on this club at around 4455 g-cm^2 which is almost exactly the same as the original Taylormade SIM driver (which I loved) but the Maltby feels/sounds better and more springy feeling off the face.  The SIM had a harder sound/feel to it.

 

A few other final things that I'll point out was it was a little bit different to look down at the flatter lie angle at address.  I enjoy this quite a bit as most drivers seem too upright these days.  The head is definitely compact so at 45" or 45.5" it will seem much smaller looking than a lot of people will be used to.  Finally, the face is a little bit shallower and I felt I had to tee the ball down just a little bit lower than I'm used to in order to make sure I didn't catch one high on the face.  I'd love the face to be just a little bit deeper since the head is already smaller to look down at.

 

Overall this is a great driver for someone looking for a more compact and low spinning head.  That won't appeal to a ton of people but I can easily recommend it without hesitation.    

 

 

[Vintage1976]

Thanks for the pics and reviews!

 

This head looks like it has promise. From the pics, the shaping and the face kind of favor an updated Titleist 905 head to me, which I love 😍

 

 

[gioreeko]

On 12/10/2023 at 1:19 PM, 03trdblack said:

 

If this behaves like my 300 mini and becomes it's big brother, it's going to be fantastic. The 300 mini is special. 

 

I like how Golfworks stated they aligned the center of gravity in the dead middle of the face. 

the 300 mini is a cheat code for me. I average around 280 or so with a normal swing, and can get around 300 if I go after it a bit. It drives my stepson crazy because I outdrive him with his driver and it drives him nuts, lol. I wish there were a 9 or 8.5 degree head that were about 350 or 360 cc, that would be perfect

[Colej]

I could see picking one of these up and playing it at 44” or 44 1/4” 

 

just a little heavier shaft weight and more head weight. 

[03trdblack]

13 minutes ago, Colej said:

I could see picking one of these up and playing it at 44” or 44 1/4” 

 

just a little heavier shaft weight and more head weight. 

 

Absolutely! 

[IndyBonzo]

For those testing this club - any insights on how it does off the deck, and whether this (like a Mini) could be a 3W replacement?

 

Love the look and promise of this club.

[03trdblack]

It's not that small and will play like a normal driver off of the deck. Not a 3 wood type replacement. 

[TheHorse]

Any comparison to OEM drivers would be great!  I have the mini driver and LOVE the feel of it.  Also have the stealth and HATE the feel of it, but my numbers are pretty good.  If I could swap this head out I have to imagine it would have a better feel.

[mustang]

We need to hear more on this head?   Someone send it to the guy reviewing irons!!

[03trdblack]

3 hours ago, TheHorse said:

Any comparison to OEM drivers would be great!  I have the mini driver and LOVE the feel of it.  Also have the stealth and HATE the feel of it, but my numbers are pretty good.  If I could swap this head out I have to imagine it would have a better feel.

 

From a looks and size perspective, I'd say it's closest to something like the TSR4 driver.  The feeling compared to the Stealth is very different as it has that more traditional metal titanium sound than the carbon sound the Stealth has.