Callaway drivers, fairway woods, and irons are all new in 2024. The Paradym Ai Smoke line boasts impressive forgiveness powered by advances in artificial intelligence technology.
GOLF’s Fully Equipped hosts Jonathan Wall and Ryan Barath have been looking forward to Ai Smoke’s release. They sent GOLF’s Tim Reilly to test Callaway’s new product to see how it can improve his game as a mid-handicapper.
In Clubtest Debriefs, Wall and Barath interview GOLF staffers who are testing all the industry’s 2024 products.
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Welcome to Club test debrief where editors and writers put the latest gear through their paces and offer their insights on their not only their testing experience but stand up products for 2024 and there is a lot coming from Callaway in 2024 and to break it all
Down for us it be Tim Riley he’s our head of digital programming at golf.com Tim what’s up man how you doing I’m doing great Jay well how are you I’m I’m I’m doing SW all right man so you had the opportunity to go to the El Callaway
Performance center and you were there to test the new Callaway AI smoke lineup you’re a golfer what’s what’s your handicap right now is a 9.4 okay so you’re a single-digit handicapper and squeaking in there but yeah what were you hoping to accomplish when you stepped foot uh on
Ecpc I think it’s probably two things for me I think the biggest thing is probably overall gapping in my in my clubs I feel like that’s always been an issue for me just hitting certain clubs be a three Club stretch you know from that kind of four or five hybrid range
That kind of Blends together with very little difference like that’s a big area of concern for me and and the other one is just I I don’t have high swing speed I’m a pretty moderate swing speed guy I mean Brad can attest to that he was
There with me so getting any extra yard I can get is a good thing for me you know everyone wants distance in yards so I’m certainly in that in that boat there where I’m trying to get as much as I can out my golf swing I I am as slow steady
Smooth type of guy I don’t try to kill the ball um so whatever I can get out of my numbers in my swing like I try to get everything I can out of it so you ended up in a Callaway AI smoke driver right away it took two swings for
Me to notice the difference and the difference I felt instantly was because I knew my first two swing for Miss hits you know I was off the toe and off the top through the swing I’m like those weren’t my smoothest hits and as soon as
I saw the ball flight and the data and the numbers I was like all right that that was a little different for me cuz I know when I hit and miss it it’s like I lose some yard or I go a little bit more snap hooky whatever it may be my ball
Flight was pretty much as good as what a good hit is for me and that was probably the most surprising so right away I was like that’s interesting because I felt that first ball the toe for me which usually equals like a snap hook in my in
My case the way I come across and I looked up and I was I was very surprised to see this kind of tight draw straight so I was like well that’s interesting next swing knew I hit it off the top and I was like all right that might be a
Little bit more of the Fly ball it really wasn’t it was still pretty smooth another little tight draw again and then I saw the numbers and you know I’m typic in that kind of like 240 I can probably get it up to like 250 if I hit it like
Really well and I started seeing like 255 260 like right away and I was like okay that’s pretty big like jump for me so that was like it took literally all two swings and then when I started getting the third or fourth I started flushing the ball and I saw those extra
10 yards come up from there I was like all right this is like something I would instantly look to change out of my bag there which I was surprised by I frankly like I said I last year’s Paradigm I was not I not the guy that Rush out to do
Those things but the two Miss hits and how much better the flush hits felt it was it within five swings I kind of knew I had like a winner right there their AI that AI meaning artificial intelligence that they they use a supercomputer that’s constantly learning and that
Computer is is adjusting and modifying the the face of their drivers and their irons and so many clubs now in in Callaway’s lineup yeah and what I love to hear is what you said with that driver you were using last year’s Paradigm you put in AI smoke and automatically you’re starting to see
More consistent numbers on those M hits and that’s just simply the the computer getting smarter in in learning more from year to year and that’s where golfers are are ultimately gonna see the biggest you know you want to call them gains everybody wants to see gains in the distance department but they’re looking
For that those gains out of the center which is not where the average golfer is hitting the ball you’re hitting it more on a regular basis off the heel or the toe so to be able to tighten up those numbers off of those missed areas and
Get that Delta closer to what you might have out of the center that that’s ultimately that’s the name of the game here and that’s where you’re right from from year to year I would always tell golfers you’re not going to see big gains unless unless a company’s making a
Face material change or or something that is just completely new but that what what makes Callaway’s lineup so good is that the computer keeps learning and with those new learnings come more consistency and Tighter dispersions and that’s what you saw what they Calli really focused on is using the AI to say
Okay this is where a lot of these golfers tend to miss using this product yeah let’s make those misses better and obviously you you experiened that in two swings well that because that’s the way I go no fitting like I’m realistic myself I know I’m not a toy handicap I’m
Not a scratch golfer like I’m not gonna flush the BL every swing so I know that going in so when I flush a couple of swings in a row like I feel great I am curious those numbers are like want to know but what I really want to know is
What do my miss m hits do because like that is the area that I need like the most help with is kind of like honing in on what I do Incorrect and kind of getting those corrected as much as I can through the gear or my swing whatever it
May be so that’s what I’m most curious about when I get a fitting is just how can I correct what I do wrong because I know that’s not going to change I know I’m gonna M hit the ball it’s gonna happen I am not gonna it’s not like oh
I’m gonna do it like once a around it’s like no I’m gonna do it a few times around so how does this kind of gear adjust to like my fault and like my swing in my game and that’s kind of what I own to it and that’s what surprised me
Most about it in those first two swings I want to switch gears from the driver and go straight into Paradigm AI smoke in in your Fairway Woods this is an area of the bag this is Uncharted Territory a lot of them don’t really want to fiddle with this area because they don’t know
What the hell they want to do you know it’s it’s like well let’s go three-wood fivewood and find a rescue or something in here maybe I’ll I’ve used a four iron for my entire life why wouldn’t I use a four iron when I take a look at at your
Setup Tim this is what I this is what this is my feeling man I get this feeling looking at it where I I don’t really know if you were quite familiar with what you wanted to do with your setup but you did make some tweaks you’ve got the three-wood you’ve got the
Fivewood but you get into that hybrid that four hybrid that eliminated your four iron and I saw that that four Iron Man I don’t want to put you on the spot here but you said it was your punchout Club yeah which the that’s that’s just painful because that’s an important spot
In your bag it’s a sad reality I think my most common setup for the last couple years has been like a four iron has gotten to a point where like I have no confidence in it so I go strictly I go five iron my four iron is if I’m trying
To hit something like out of the trees keep the ball low just punch it out and then I go I have two hybrids in my bag but the issue with my hybrids is that it they go such a similar distance where there really is no difference in them I
Came to explain why why but I have not had a fivewood in my bag and I don’t know how long and you’re a guy that should because if you’re not if you’re not a high swing speed guy you need that you need that extra launch you should be
Playing something that’s helping you get that ball in the air which is something I’ve learned you know going through the but prior to that I think when the hybrid kind of space exploded I became like victim to it like oh I gotta play hybrids I need multiple hybrids it’s
Easy to hit like this is great I could hit it from multiple lies like and I and it was easy to hit for me so I’ve just kind of fallen into that I’m like why do I need a fivewood one I just have two hybrids so that’s kind of what i’ had
Been kind of playing around with the last few years just because I thought that was The Logical decision for me where I haven’t been bothered to I haven’t even tried a five with forget about having in my bag I haven’t even tried to hit one it’s not like oh I’ve
Tested the mount it just wasn’t for me I just haven’t even picked one up and tried it out to even find out if it was the right club for me it’s always easier to make the ball come down than it is to make the ball go up because you’re
Fighting Gravity so uh if you’re looking to fill those gaps in your bag if you have shot clubs that can go higher it’s always easy iier to make it go lower than it is trying to to raise it up again espe because to raise it up you
Need more speed you need the ability to have extra Loft on that golf club and I I think Callaway has really focused a big portion of like a lot of their innovation in this part of the bag like they’ve always had and and to their credit they’ve done it for a long time
They’ve had the 11 Woods they’ve had the theine nine Woods they’ve had the seven Woods the heaven Woods all of those different golf clubs that were designed for a lot of golfers to fit into those categor there really is no excuse to not have something that fits that Gap it really
Just comes down to the understanding how it works from a fitting perspective and yeah that was I remember we were when we were on our way to the the fitting Center that day and I was like how can you don’t have a five like it’s it’s
Like the one club that I either mess with the most or it’s the one club that I will I will like leave in my bag the longest because when you have it it’s it’s such a a versatile golf club just from a loft perspective a useful perspective now Club you’re going to
Pull out of the bag a lot is going to be iron and you you saw that there was there was a big Improvement as we talked about being a shallow player you actually saw a big Improvement in your ability to hit the ball a little bit higher although we
Didn’t I don’t think we necessarily gained a ton of spin on your iron shots the ability to hit it higher and stop it faster is such a component of the ability to score and we we talk about we’ve talked about this over and over and over when it comes to Club test when
It comes to all of our editors uh going through the process of getting fit is there’s there’s one thing to gain distance there’s another thing to gain practical distance or useful distance and for you you gained height with your irons and you gained some stopping power
Because when you are a shallow player so for anyone out there you know you’re someone who’s not maybe a big divot taker hit it lower on the club face more often you have they have improved the technology on lower part of the all over the face with again utilizing face
Geometry especially lower on the club face so when you do miss it in that direction you’re still getting something that’s going to carry yeah so my natural ball flly with the irons is relatively low you know I don’t have this kind of high kind of soft landing area I I’ve
Noticed in the past other game improvement irons I’ve tried where I’ll gain those 10 15 yards but I’ll just find myself just flying greens all the time so it’s like all right I’d rather to be in short now I’m in the back rough so it becomes like is that really worth
It for me and and I I didn’t think it was so it’s something like these uh these AI smokes I was trying out the biggest difference I was seen was that my kind of launch angle was much higher I was Ling much softer you know the spin
Rates were up and that was encouraging I was seeing with clubs like my five and six iron I was now holding greens like I had the ability to actually land and stay which is very important for me and especially with my low irons like I
Think one of my my strongest Bo of my irons is when I start hitting like that eight iron nine iron pitching wedge and gap wedge like I’m I’m really good from those numbers and the fact that I was seeing increased spin rates there and that I was seeing even even better spin
Rates the fact that I’d be able to hold greens even better with those clubs on on top of it was also very encouraging so I think that was the biggest difference I was seeing I wasn’t seeing these giant yardage gaps but at the same time the biggest benefit that I think I
Needed were those spin rates because I just needed to like know where I’m going to land and that’ll stay there if I hit the greens with those clubes so for me that was the most encouraging part rather than trying to chase I need the distance elsewhere when it came to these
Clubs like I really just need to know that when I hit the green I’ll stay on the green you had a chance to try the drivers the fairways the irons but I want to know what was the biggest equipment win for you leaving ecpc it’s
Hard not to say the driver to be honest just because those first two two swings just left such a lasting impression on me like so fast it’s crazy to say two swings made a world of a difference but it was just right away just knowing that
The two M hits that I most commonly do with my driver were corrected that fast and seeing it instantaneously that was the biggest takeaway um the other one honestly it was probably just the addition of a fivewood the fact that I haven’t had a fivewood in Forever felt comfortable
Knew its purpose and knowing that that gapping was kind of taking care of that kind of that four hybrid to a fivewood to a three-wood just having that sord out just kind of put me at ease knowing that I had something for that biggest range that 190220 range that I’ve had
The hardest time with yeah I think being able to clean up that gray area for you is going to be huge in the long run I I am looking forward to seeing you out on on a golf course and not having you pull a four iron and just punch out punch out
Club yeah you’re you’re you’re properly sorted so uh I think everybody should be put on notice yeah don’t don’t play him for money right now no I’m shooting I’m looking we’re in that 94 I think my goal is to I think I want to get somewhere in
That six seven range so I’m hoping now having some clubs that all serve a purpose my bag will help me get there so I I feel good about it yeah as you should all right Tim thanks again man thanks for walking us through your time at Callaway’s elely Callaway performance
Center with the new paradigm AI smoke lineup thanks Jo
2 Comments
Am I tripping or did yall decide to merge with the tour validated YouTube channel?
Where is the jailbreak – the biggest invention after the sliced bread???????