Shaft helping?
Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Drivers
Had great driving day with it today. Hit 10 of 13 fairways and only 2 drives were not giving me a clean line to the green.
Distances are a bit down but due more to conditions. Tin of rain lately so almost no roll out. And temperatures have been in the low 50s.
That said my P average is only about 8 yards from my best of last year and I expect more distance when course died it and it warms up. Definitely hits it straight but can work it either way.
Have 10.5 lofted down to 9.5* and D seeing with rear weight neutral.
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Distances are a bit down but due more to conditions. Tin of rain lately so almost no roll out. And temperatures have been in the low 50s.
That said my P average is only about 8 yards from my best of last year and I expect more distance when course died it and it warms up. Definitely hits it straight but can work it either way.
Have 10.5 lofted down to 9.5* and D seeing with rear weight neutral.
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Interesting thought. I’ll try to remember to mess with the weight track and see if I notice a difference
Played a new course with some new folks yesterday... Hit a few drives that elicited some oohs and ahhs. Also hit a few that invited the question "is this the same guy that crushed those other drives?" really enjoying the driver with the R flex...
The distance on misses continues to impress me with this driver. I hit a bunch out on the toe this weekend and didn't really have to sacrifice much. I'm not the longest driver of the ball, but I was able to turn a good number of par 4s into short iron or even partial wedge shots. Drove the green side trap on a 270 yard par 4. If I'd been a little further left I think it might have rolled off the green based on how far back in the trap it went. I know sound is personal but I'm really happy with this one. When you catch it in the middle you're definitely with a nice thwack that lets you know you killed one. I was lucky enough to hear it more than a few times over the weekend. I'm always sketchy with a new driver until I settle in, but so far I'm very pleased with this driver over my Rogue ST. I think my longest drives are probably still about the same but the forgiveness gives me more than I was getting from the ST on misses that are still a decent swing. It's definitely not a cure all for wayward swings, but small mistakes have proven to be less painful so far.
Today I played my first round of the year and 1st with the TD. This driver was the only part of my game that worked today. 5 drives over 300 and several others close to it. Very windy today. Hole 1 downhill down wind Arccos measured my drive at 346. Birdied the 2 par 5s on the back 9. The second with a 319 yard drive. I did hit one good that went 222 straight into a 30 mph wind. It was brutal today with every other club in the bag.
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2013
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This right here definitely stands out to me as well. There have been some that I’ve thinned, hit off the heel or toe that I’ve had to shake my head at after getting to the ball.
Definite improvement has been made! Can we keep it up, and build on it even more? Lets hope so.
The winter rebuild still going on, and a couple weeks out from a driver lesson that gave me some very useful things to work on, I headed back into the sim on a gloomy day to get some swings in. What happened has me very optimistic.
The goal has been improve the path, and it should help fix the ball flight. Keeping in mind I am a slower swinger of the club, only maxing out this year at 97 mph with driver (too short, too old, too fat, too stiff lol).
I still hit the odd really bad one here or there, but that seems to come from when I slow down and try to exaggerate things.
Carry is up, total yardage is up, side to side dispersion is far more controlled how, instead of the sweeping hook, they are starting to resemble a draw now lol. Getting back to the distance numbers I was more than happy about before swing changes, but more consistent and with carry numbers remaining more constant.
I have added some of the shots below for context, for if you are interested at all.
The winter rebuild still going on, and a couple weeks out from a driver lesson that gave me some very useful things to work on, I headed back into the sim on a gloomy day to get some swings in. What happened has me very optimistic.
The goal has been improve the path, and it should help fix the ball flight. Keeping in mind I am a slower swinger of the club, only maxing out this year at 97 mph with driver (too short, too old, too fat, too stiff lol).
I still hit the odd really bad one here or there, but that seems to come from when I slow down and try to exaggerate things.
Carry is up, total yardage is up, side to side dispersion is far more controlled how, instead of the sweeping hook, they are starting to resemble a draw now lol. Getting back to the distance numbers I was more than happy about before swing changes, but more consistent and with carry numbers remaining more constant.
I have added some of the shots below for context, for if you are interested at all.
Spoiler
Will add my experience here, as I have been playing the TD Smoke at 10.5 for the last month and have been really impressed. Yesterday was able to play a round with my Son who is a college golfer and just back home from his Freshman year. We went to back tees (7050) yesterday and I shot one of my lowest rounds of the year and he was impressed with how much better my driver was working. I always question some of the marketing claims, but I must say that my miss - out on the toe stays in air and doesn't produce that low spin hook. Really excited for the summer if this trend continues. I came from Stealth 2 Plus and Paradym TD, both at 9, so lofting up (10.5 turned to 9.5) has seemed to be the trick.
The AI Smoke Max continues to impress, I was 7/9 FIR today on holes where I hit driver. One miss was by about 3', the other by about 12', both playable in light rough. Some of the fairways hit were far less than ideal strikes, but still found the short grass.
One of my misses today was a low, heeled shot which felt really bad and didn't sound great, I knew it was bad as soon as it came off the club. It was a low pull fade, but just ended up 3' off the left edge of the fairway, and I went on to par the hole. It was definitely one of those that left me chuckling and shaking my head at how that bad of a shot could turn out that well.
Getting back to this. I love the stability of the Ventus Blue. I had the Gen 1 in my Radspeed and was fit into this year's version for the TD. Going into the Ventus Blue TR has been pretty plug and play from those 2 shafts.
Didn’t pull the driver too much yesterday as the course was very much target golf but had three great faded drives which ironically all three ended up in lousy uneven lies in the fairway or first cut. My group commented that the drives just felt automatic with just a bit of cut off the tee. Definitely seems like I’m turning the corner with my driver. Might still make an adjust to bring the cut back alittle back. I’ll see tomorrow during my Richmond meet up round and decide. Definitely been some 295-300 the last week though coming off the 330 drive last Tuesday.
- Staff
- #3,239
Plugged the Tensei White I had in the St Max LS and was very happy with it today. Very impressed with the head. Drove it really well with this one today…with two misses.
Paradym standard has been in the bag since November. Tried smoke max and it's not much better. Dispersion was just a hair tighter. But smoke didn't show me any ballspeed gains. Actually a fraction slower than paradym, on avg.
Slightly higher launch and slightly lower spin than Paradym. Equated to 2 yards more carry.
Now, qi10 is a different story...
Slightly higher launch and slightly lower spin than Paradym. Equated to 2 yards more carry.
Now, qi10 is a different story...
During my fitting I had a series of bad swings and was just leaving the face wide open hitting push slices. We tried both the max in full draw and the max d. The max d was more draw biased.
Then I made a good swing and my good swing push draw became a 70 yard hook.
I always found paradym to be slow. I struggle to swing it fast. Smash is good, But I just swing it slow. Idk why.Oh, do tell . . . . .
I get 2-3 mph more ballspeed out of qi10 standard at 10.5 compared to paradym set from 10.5 to 9.5. Launch is basically the same. Spin is basically the same.
Now, when I drop qi10 to 10 (tour adapter) I can see 4-5 mph more ballspeed over paradym.
Launch monitor is showing qi10 to be about 10 yards longer with an occasional bomb in it...have seen close to 20 yard greater carry over paradym. Dispersion is slightly better with paradym...slightly.
yeah I really like the reward you get when you hit the center of the face in the sound department. And love the forgiveness reward when you miss it.
Yes the Max D has true Draw bias. I can't quite remember the number that Callaway told us at the Grandaddy...but it's in the ballpark of 8 yard correction. The slider would never be able to make that sort of correction. Also, the Smoke Max D is much more draw biased than the previous Paradym X driver.
Today was really good too!