Callaway FT Tour

[G.Review]

What do you think?

 

 

[Redhill]

My FT-Tour neutral 9.5* stiff Voodoo knocked out of the bag the previous 1st string driver........ Adams 9015D 10.5* NV Xstiff. Just a whisper longer and easier to move it out there deep.

[Sub_Roc]

I got a 10.5 with a Voodoo SVS6 in it to replace the 9.5 FT-3 Tour draw with NVS 65S.
FT Tour feels a bit more "hefty" and not as lively but still gets it out there with good roll.
The ball flight is more consistent due to more stable shaft tip but the neutral weighting and more open face seems to make it harder to turn it over for hitting draws.
I feel I can go after a shot with more effort and it will deliver every time with either a straight shot or slight fade.
Emits a powerful "thwack" sound at impact with none of the hollow sound as the FT-3.
The stock GP white New Decade grip adds a nice touch.

One of the top dog among the many drivers I've owned.

[tobaccoroad]

I just got a FT Tour with a Kai'Li 73 X and it is amazing how much more boring the flight is. I hit the ball fairly straight with a swing speed of 113-118. My previous gamer was a Superdeep Rip 70 X and I liked it a lot but believe it or not I would sometimes spin the s*** out of it.
I am not sure if it is the FT Tour or the Kai'Li but it is a LOT less spin than the Superdeep with a RIP. A buddy of mine was an All-American and is currently an Assistant Golf Pro and he had me hit his FT Tour with a Whiteboard 73 X and it definitely went farther. This is not some magical "you'll gain 20 yards with the new blah blah blah". It was more of getting a low spin head with the correct shaft for my swing.
I hate the high ball with no roll. Any good player can hit it higher at will but it is much tougher for me to get a driver down low.
The TP RIP is a great stock shaft but it is not as tight as the "Real" RIP.
The Kai'Li is VERY tight and you can feel the loading happen. The FT Tour head is a great match for a low spin shaft and the sound (which is always a personal thing) really sounds nice and clean to me.
Bottom line: This driver/shaft combo is enough to make me want to stop reading these forums. I'm worried that someone might try to talk me out of it!!!

[130R]

Still playing this driver with a Kai'li shaft; one of the best drivers Ive used; although Ive just ordered a R11 TP which Ive been waiting on for 2 weeks. But definately will not be letting go of the FT Tour

[ays21886]

[quote name='tobaccoroad' timestamp='1304658040' post='3211788']
I just got a FT Tour with a Kai'Li 73 X and it is amazing how much more boring the flight is. I hit the ball fairly straight with a swing speed of 113-118. My previous gamer was a Superdeep Rip 70 X and I liked it a lot but believe it or not I would sometimes spin the s*** out of it.
I am not sure if it is the FT Tour or the Kai'Li but it is a LOT less spin than the Superdeep with a RIP. A buddy of mine was an All-American and is currently an Assistant Golf Pro and he had me hit his FT Tour with a Whiteboard 73 X and it definitely went farther. This is not some magical "you'll gain 20 yards with the new blah blah blah". It was more of getting a low spin head with the correct shaft for my swing.
I hate the high ball with no roll. Any good player can hit it higher at will but it is much tougher for me to get a driver down low.
The TP RIP is a great stock shaft but it is not as tight as the "Real" RIP.
The Kai'Li is VERY tight and you can feel the loading happen. The FT Tour head is a great match for a low spin shaft and the sound (which is always a personal thing) really sounds nice and clean to me.
Bottom line: This driver/shaft combo is enough to make me want to stop reading these forums. I'm worried that someone might try to talk me out of it!!!
[/quote]

So...I am a high ball hitter w/ the driver. My previous gamer was a Titleist 905S 8.5* Blueboard 83x (keep in mind this was a full bore-thru head so no tipping on the shaft). I got fit for an FT in Carlsbad and ended up w/ a 9.5* w/ a Whiteboard 83x. When I first got it, the shot was high, left and spinny as can be. I was hitting it so high it was terrible. I called my fitter he said tip the shaft an inch. Now, I konw the the WB is revered on these forums for being a "STOUT" as can get shaft and I had it tipped. Your're thinking I'm crazy but it helped a lot. Much less spin, however, still hitting higher than my 8.5* Titleist. In fact, I find the misses (heel shot especially) to be high and spinny and BAD! Any ideas? Kinda concerned a dropped a pretty penny and it's not doing what I want. Hitting into the wind? 4get about it. I may get lucky to hit it 280. Ball I play is ProV1 x (new one) and Nike One Tour D, lowest spinning balls out there.. Wut gives? Oh, its not the swing. Rest of the clubs in the bag are money. Is ur FT Tour an 8.5?

[tobaccoroad]

[quote name='ays21886' timestamp='1304695320' post='3212448']
[quote name='tobaccoroad' timestamp='1304658040' post='3211788']
I just got a FT Tour with a Kai'Li 73 X and it is amazing how much more boring the flight is. I hit the ball fairly straight with a swing speed of 113-118. My previous gamer was a Superdeep Rip 70 X and I liked it a lot but believe it or not I would sometimes spin the s*** out of it.
I am not sure if it is the FT Tour or the Kai'Li but it is a LOT less spin than the Superdeep with a RIP. A buddy of mine was an All-American and is currently an Assistant Golf Pro and he had me hit his FT Tour with a Whiteboard 73 X and it definitely went farther. This is not some magical "you'll gain 20 yards with the new blah blah blah". It was more of getting a low spin head with the correct shaft for my swing.
I hate the high ball with no roll. Any good player can hit it higher at will but it is much tougher for me to get a driver down low.
The TP RIP is a great stock shaft but it is not as tight as the "Real" RIP.
The Kai'Li is VERY tight and you can feel the loading happen. The FT Tour head is a great match for a low spin shaft and the sound (which is always a personal thing) really sounds nice and clean to me.
Bottom line: This driver/shaft combo is enough to make me want to stop reading these forums. I'm worried that someone might try to talk me out of it!!!
[/quote]

So...I am a high ball hitter w/ the driver. My previous gamer was a Titleist 905S 8.5* Blueboard 83x (keep in mind this was a full bore-thru head so no tipping on the shaft). I got fit for an FT in Carlsbad and ended up w/ a 9.5* w/ a Whiteboard 83x. When I first got it, the shot was high, left and spinny as can be. I was hitting it so high it was terrible. I called my fitter he said tip the shaft an inch. Now, I konw the the WB is revered on these forums for being a "STOUT" as can get shaft and I had it tipped. Your're thinking I'm crazy but it helped a lot. Much less spin, however, still hitting higher than my 8.5* Titleist. In fact, I find the misses (heel shot especially) to be high and spinny and BAD! Any ideas? Kinda concerned a dropped a pretty penny and it's not doing what I want. Hitting into the wind? 4get about it. I may get lucky to hit it 280. Ball I play is ProV1 x (new one) and Nike One Tour D, lowest spinning balls out there.. Wut gives? Oh, its not the swing. Rest of the clubs in the bag are money. Is ur FT Tour an 8.5?
[/quote]

Yes- It is an 8.5 degree head.
As I am not a club fitter I can only relay my own experiences and if they are similar to yours than it may help.
My miss is high RIGHT. I almost never hit the low hook (although I can definitely pull a drive mildly left from time to time).
I do a pretty good job coming in from the the inside so I tend to push the ball high right for my miss. My previous setups were:
FT-9 Tour 8.5 Fubuki 63 X
Taylormade SuperDeep 9.5 Rip 70 X
Cobra LV4 X 9 Fubuki 63 X
Nike Sumo 5000 8.5 Creation 63 X
Taylormade 425 TP 8.5 Aldila Protopype 70 x

Out of all those drivers, the only 1 I was able to consistently hit with a boring ball flight was the 425 TP with Protopype. I am not sure if the FT Tour with Kai'Li is tipped or not, but from what I have heard it is like a new version Blueboard. The 'Ahina is the new White. I hit the Whiteboard basically the same as the Kai'Li. I am not sure how much 8.5 vs 9.5 makes, but my latest experience comparing the SuperDeep (supposedly a low launch low spin combo) -which would spin like crazy at times- to the FT Tour with Kai'Li showed me how much difference the 2 shaft/clubhead combinations are.
Hope this confusing mess of a post helps!

[ays21886]

It does thanks. Hopefully heading to Oceanside for Titleist Fitting and Carlsbad for TM fitting sometime this summer to get it all squared away!

[lukesmurf59]

I think its a great driver, even the stock set up rocks. Thinking of buying one but not sure on specs...

[chrisgilly09]

Just picked up an 8.5 head this week and threw in my Project X 6.5 (tipped to about 6.9). Med height, flat traj, very long, and very stable. Only miss is right, cant hook it at all but it suits me well

[semipopular]

Has anyone had a problem with cracked faces? I really like the FT tour but I have 2 buddies that have cracked their faces twice. Callaway is good about it and will replace them, but its just inconvenient. It may have something to do with hitting a lot of range balls with their thin faces, but I'm just curious if anyone has had the same problem.

[Roscoe P Coltrain]

It's funny that you bring this topic up. I just called Cally just yesterday to get an R.A. for my 10.5 FT Tour with a Motore 73x. I had noticed it was sounding louder after the ball was gone but didn'tpay much attention to it. I was giving a lessons Friday and was hitting it in between and It really sounded awful. I'm a good driver of the ball but I looked to be knuckling in a different way. I found that there was a small crack in the face along with it coming loose at the hosel. I have a Razr Hawk Tour coming as a replacement but it's gone because the specs are different. (Lie angle and Face Angle)Gonna go to the White Drive Co. and not Cobra.

[nickb0818]

[quote name='semipopular' timestamp='1313269495' post='3481937']
Has anyone had a problem with cracked faces? I really like the FT tour but I have 2 buddies that have cracked their faces twice. Callaway is good about it and will replace them, but its just inconvenient. It may have something to do with hitting a lot of range balls with their thin faces, but I'm just curious if anyone has had the same problem.
[/quote]


My FT Tour 9.5* developed a crack on the crown where the carbon fiber meets the titanium. Because the club had been reshafted, Callaway told me they would NOT honor the warranty. I did make an attempt to save the club...I heated the titanium to break the epoxy bond and removed the carbon fiber. After cleaning it all up, I epoxied it back together. Sadly, after only a few swings, it began to sound badly and I retired the club to practice swing duty around the house. (and I ordered another FT Tour!) IMHO, it is the longest, flattest, straightest driver out there. I haven't hit the Razor Hawk Tour, but it looks like FT Tour 2.0.

[Ol' Dirt McGirt]

Love this driver!!!! Longest driver I've ever had gained 10-15yds with it.

[nitram]

The best performing driver head I've hit in over 30 years of golf.

[Redhill]

After a rotation through my inventory of current drivers it's back in the bag. I went through a Adams 9015d X NV, an Adams 9064LS red alpha stiff and the FT -tour is back in the bag and rocking it.

I must be a slow learner.

[Ham Solo]

I put this driver in play a couple of weeks ago when I started playing again. So far, so good.

[fairways n greens]

I gamed a lot of different drivers this year....909d2 w/ blueboard 73x, ping i15 with whiteboard 83x, and then more recently a r11 tp with the fujikura blur. I was really enjoying the r11 as I found it extremly easy to hit. one of my friends was getting rid of a few clubs and i really liked how the ft tour felt in my hands, i could tell looking at it that it would set up well for me. i took it out on the course and got a good feel from it from the get go. ive got an 83x whiteboard in it, and it produces a great ball flight. i dont carry it as far as i did the r11, but the total distance isprobably about 8 yards further on average. i think its going to be staying in the bag for a while.

[CarloGolfer]

Snagged one of these off eBay for $130, shipped, with an Xcon 6. Helluva deal.

Really nice driver. Hotter off the face than the Ft-9 and Ft-iQ, not quite as straight as the iQ. Nice sound at impact. Not too loud, sort of a muted thwack.

Two thumbs up.

[Chasingolf]

I had a $1000 R11 set up. Tour Japan head with gold weight. Brand new tour van fubuki alpha 73x. And still my ft tour stock rip beta 60x out performed it. Now the Ft tour is not as forgiving. It is a monster off the tee with incredible roll out. The driver head produces super low spin. Just reshafted it and will see how it goes Thursday :-)

[spires1020]

For starters, I want to say that I really wanted this thing to work out. It is the best looking Cally Fusion driver available.

So anyways, I put a Fujikura Motore F3 70 X-flex in one of these, the swingweight came out to be a bit lighter than I wanted it to be, but that's my fault for not catching it before putting it into action. Prior to the Motore F3 it had the stock Aldila VooDoo SVS6, which was a better combo for me (should've just left it in).

Head seemed to be fade-biased, as I had troubles getting this thing to straighten out, but once I got it figured out I still went back to my FT-5 as it was just as long and more forgiving, couldn't seem to get the FT Tour to draw at all.

[Rhythm&TempoRenzo]

I'm a lefty with a 9.5 & Aldila VooDoo SNV6 tipped 1/2" (per Cally would lower spin) my misses are high left - maybe its the face angle. But it's still long. My other stick is a Titleist 983k w/the made for Speeder. I went back to that club - although it's about 20 yards shorter I don't miss with it. Maybe a shaft change will help my FT Tour - any suggestions? My swingspeed is 110 if that helps...

[DRGJR72]

Picked this stick up in an 8.5 tour issued version with some Graphite Design deal for a shaft and it is a pretty sweet dealy. Got about 5 mph increase in ball speed and the flight is decent (think the shaft if it was slightly lower launching would be perfect!!).

All in all.. This driver is a beast. Low spin, decent launch (need shaft optimization), and ballspeed galore.

I have a FTIZ that I am going to compare it to and will see what the differences are. Should be interesting as they are completly different heads, but might yield results that could be similar (but one gets there a little easier and with less effort). We shall see.