It’s time to go Rogue, or perhaps as Callaway is phrasing it, “Think Speed. Go Rogue.”
After a release cycle away, where Callaway introduced the Mavrik lineup, Rogue is back, but if you are thinking it’s just another “off year release” that isn’t Epic, you might want to reassess that.
Callaway is pulling no punches here, and though the Rogue line may have a slightly different target in some respects than Epic, this is still them bringing all of their innovations to the table alongside some new ones.
What better place to start than drivers, so let’s get into it!
While the Rogue name is back, there is no denying a lot has changed. Where metalwoods are concerned, the name of the game is stability, and Callaway is utilizing its most extreme weighting technology combined with every other tech which they have pioneered and continue to evolve.
Foremost, every single club in the new Rogue lineup has a unique A.I. face which now takes even more parameters into consideration like speed, launch, and spin robustness through a new optimization formula which means an even more refined face. Make no mistake, Callaway is not at all exaggerating when they say no one is doing club design like they are, and no one is using A.I. like they are.
These drivers have the most extreme weighting tech the company has ever used in a driver, they are using a “Tungsten Speed Cartridge” which uses up to 26g of MIM’d Tungsten, and folks that is a lot of tungsten. This is placed at the very extreme edge of the driver in order to increase speed on off center hits through “ball speed robustness”, which is fancy for minimizing the loss when you miss. Of course, this also helps with making the head more resistant to twisting.
Each driver is also using the new “Speed Tuned Jailbreak Speedframe” which is like what was used in Epic, except more slender with the same balance and stiffness, though some priority is given to further stiffening the lower part of the head.
Finally, the shaping here is a departure from the Cyclone shaping of the Mavrik release, that has gone in favor of a more rearward CG through the use of a “low tail” which looks pretty familiar to be honest, but this does follow the current trend, so it makes a lot of sense to see. It doesn’t mean Cyclone was wrong, this is just a different way to make things happen. This is part of the unibody frame construction that takes from F1 in the notion of making as much of the head one piece as possible while keeping it smooth and thin. It is finished out in all the Rogue drivers with Triaxial Carbon on both the crown and sole.
Even bolder than the tech perhaps, is that Callaway is bringing four different drivers to the Rogue ST MAX lineup. Yes, four.
Callaway Rogue ST MAX D Driver
This one is the most draw biased of the four drivers, it is the club for those who tend to struggle with a slice and need as much shot shape correction as they can get. This naturally has a draw weighted CG and a closed face orientation with the largest footprint to provide the forgiveness, elevation, and directional correction that golfers need without excessive spin.
The MAX D comes in three lofts (9°, 10.5°, 12°) and utilizes the OptiFit adapter. All three heads are also available in RH and LH.
Rogue ST Max Driver Rogue ST Max Driver
Callaway Rogue ST MAX Driver
This is the “sweetspot” driver of the lineup which will fit the largest number of golfers in the segment. It does have a slight draw bias because, believe it or not, that is what most of us need, and this offers the best combination of forgiveness and distance. The Rogue ST Max has the highest MOI of the four models and is somewhat larger but designed to still fit the eye of even the most discerning golfers.
The MAX has three base loft options (9°, 10.5°, 12°) with each using the OptiFit adapter and being available in both RH and LH.
Rogue ST Max LS Driver Rogue ST Max LS Driver
Callaway Rogue ST MAX LS Driver
Ah yes, the Rogue which is aimed at the slightly better player, the golfer which wants to see the ball go right and left at times and can use a more neutral overall bias to do just that. The MAX LS maintains a very high overall MOI thanks to the Tungsten Speed Cartridge but also keeps a lower launch angle and spin rate than the MAX.
The MAX LS also uses the Callaway OptiFit adapter in two loft options (9° and 10.5°) which also are available in both RH and LH.
Rogue ST Max Triple Diamond LS Driver Rogue ST Max Triple Diamond LS Driver
Callaway Rogue ST Triple Diamond LS
Yes, for those who clamor with every single Callaway metalwood release, for this driver release, the Triple Diamond is a regular part of the lineup. Well, as regular as it can be. The Triple Diamond is a 450cc head making it the smallest of the four and has the lowest spin profile with the most neutral to fade bias of the four options. While it still offers all the design bells and whistles of the others, there is no doubt the Triple Diamond is for the smallest segment.
Availability here is in two lofts (9° and 10.5°) with the OptiFit adapter and in both RH an LH.
While it will come as no surprise, Callaway, through their internal and external testing, believes they have created four drivers that will each lead their specific segment in performance. A bold take, absolutely, but the crew at Callaway have never been short of confidence, which they typically back up well.
The Details
Standard shaft options are as follows:
- Lightweight/Womens – Project X Cypher Black (40g, 50g)
- Mid Offering – Mitsubishi Tensei AV Blue (50g, 60g, 70g)
- Low Offering – Mitsubishi Tensei AV White (60g, 70g, 80g)
The Rogue ST drivers will be priced at $549.99 and hit retail on 2/18/22. Be sure to keep a keen eye on the THP Community as we will have a lot of feedback beginning today as 12 forum members already have these in hand!
I fight a big draw that just keeps drawing… that was evident in my fitting so Gerrit immediately started me with the Max LS. It wasn’t too far off so we checked out the Triple Diamond LS and that was it. Launch was definitely lower than the Mavrik Max, so I’m up from 9° to 10.5° and that gets me where I need to be. The sound is excellent and the matte crown is just fantastic! One thing I noticed immediately is that the bottom of the face is HOT! It’s definitely more forgiving and produces higher ball speeds than the Mavrik. I’ve also done some extensive testing on toe hits and they also seem to be more forgiving than the Mavrik. This is a driver I feel like I can get aggressive with and not be punished for mishits and that’s exactly what I’m looking for!
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I dig the cover.
I absolutely LOVE the matte crown, THANK YOU CALLAWAY
Initial thoughts from both the GD crew and James are awesome, will have to ponder this a bit, but it is likely inevitable haha
Yea, again it’s nothing that’s going to cause me to not buy a driver, but I can tell you with certainty I’d never used that headcover either. A driver headcover with a BIG 1 on it is about as cool as iron head covers. They fit into the same bucket for me.
Well let me go ahead and step in and give my thoughts. Coming into the Grandaddy my worst club in the bag for me was driver. Most of that is user error and not equipment error but you get the jist.
I had an epic flash sub zero as a heavy slicer……that’s why it’s very important to get a fitting done lol.
After being presented the driver options the night before at the product presentation I knew what I would be most likely for me to be fit into the next day. The Max D St. The profile is great for a draw bias club. It’s noticeably the largest head and there is definitely some offset, but as someone who has used b-21 tech before I don’t think the offset is as noticeable as that.
My driver may or may not have been shipped to @Tevenor so he will have some great comparison photos to the Triple Diamond version so you all can get a feel of what the looks are like. I should have mine in my grasp here shortly and plan on getting a sim session in as soon as I’m done quarantining ?
Let’s get to the driver itself. The 20 +g tungsten speed cartridge is the big new tech and understandably so. Tungsten is a premium material so like @Jman mentioned, don’t consider this an “off-year” launch. This is a premium product with premium material. As someone who misses the center of the face on driver quite often, I can attest that this thing runs hot even with off center hits. I attribute that to the speed cartridge as well as the AI face having a lot to do with that. The things Callaway is doing with AI technology in the faces is absolutely mind blowing. When they mentioned in the product presentation that each driver had a different version of an AI face tailored to the profile of the golfer it is intended for I thought, wow is this over kill? What they are doing is changing the density in certain spots of the face to increase speed in the places where golfers miss the most. Absolutely amazing technology that is all centered around producing as much speed as possible. So for those epic fans I would highly recommend not counting this product out, soley considering the the new tech in the face. It’s that good. And earlier when I mentioned, “is this over-kill?”. Absolutely not.
in fact, with what Callaway shared with us about what they plan for the future of AI faces this is just scratching the surface. Absolutely unreal tech into this. The speed frame, which has been used in previous drivers, they have adjusted just slightly to better frame the new face, so everything is getting focused around this new face tech.
The tech grade? 10/10
the look of the club is outstanding. I love a matte crown driver and this one looks great. The framing on the bottom is what I see as a slight variation from the original rogue line and is almost the reverse of the sim 2 framing on the bottom.
I’ve seen some people complain about “mono-chrome” pre release pics. Not to worry about that . I love the standard black and yellow color way but if that’s not for you fine. Callaway is offering customization of colors ways for this club. I don’t want to spread misinformation, but if I remember correctly there are 20 different color combinations that customers will be able to select from at some point if they choose to do so.
The look grade for me personally? 9/10
let’s get to the results shall we.
First of all, I was given a max head to start as a bit of a “control” variable. I had my sub zero dialed to d/+1 on a 9° driver so they did the same for me here. First of all, I love the sound of this driver. That’s one thing they talked about during presentation, was making the sound appealing for the golfer and on that front this driver doesn’t disappoint. Very thwack-y, not high pitched or sounding like breaking glass. See video for example.
I hit the standard max solid but there were a few hits where my monster slice came into play. My dispersion because of these monster misses was over 50 yards……
Insert my fitter, Justin, who did his job like a boss. First we switched to the Max D head to see if I liked the ball flight. I definitely saw an improvement immediately which wasn’t shocking. However, I was still producing way to much spin due to the loft of the club. I was in the 3500 range with the MAX D 10° setup.
Justin switched me down to 8° and made a quick shaft modification and the results were damning. Immediately my spin rate dropped 1000 rpm’s. I was sitting in a comfortable ball flight that was consistently straighter than any driver I have hit. I hit 6 balls in the profile. My dispersion rate dropped from 50 yards, to 5 yards……FIVE YARDS. I was looking at a 260-270 carry and was nearing 300 on shots with good rollout. That’s more than perfect for me, especially if that means consistency in keeping it on course.
Unfortunately for me hitting this straight isn’t something I’m used to. Once I got this out to the course I was struggling to change my aim point which was starting too far left. This driver isn’t a cure all for slices. It’s still very possible to hit a large slice with this. However, if you are hitting it with even 80% efficiency in my estimation it’s going to be fast and it’s going to be straight for slicers. I couldn’t believe how many balls I lost just because how hard and straight I was hitting the ball. I wasn’t used to massive rollouts, and 5 yard cuts.
I can’t wait to get this driver to the range and to get practice with it. I feel like it’s going to completely change my game off the tee, which for me as a golfer is what is holding me back. I remember hitting balls with the irons and @DNevsCG and Justin both laughed and said, “Aaron are you sure you are a 9 handicap, because you look more like a scratch?” ….. “how is your short game?”
(proceeds to shoot in the low 90’s and high 80’s)
well not great, but my worst attribute is by far getting off the tee. This club I’m hoping will change all of that for me.
overall I give this club a 9/10. Better players may not flock to it immediately but I think that’s a mistake. With 4 different options I think everyone should be looking into the club. The tech is off the charts and premium, not to mention it gives a glimpse of what the future of AI in golf will look like.
Rogue St Driver line is here and I may be biased but I think it’s going to be the best club of its kind in 2022.
love the new shape. Face looks good. Based on Internet videos, sound seems good as well but that’ll be up for debate until I can have a hit Haha. My only complaint (and it’s very small as it’s an easy fix) is that the tensei blue is the standard shaft. Not a fan of that one, but again, that’s an easy swap and wouldn’t really keep me from buying/getting fit haha.
All in all, initial impressions are really high. Hopefully my shop nearby will be able to let me hit it soon. Also, the fact that they didn’t drive the price wayyyyy up with that weight in there is nice haha.
question for GD peoples, did anyone go through different options of the heads? How much difference was there in terms of spin, launch, etc.
I’m super fascinated by this. What is your swing speed or average distance off driver?
I’m fascinated by the big drop in loft with the Max D. Did he explain why dropping the loft made such a difference. I’m trying to understand the thinking there? Does it close the club face or?
Dropping the loft on a driver can reduce spin as well as increasing speed. Going with the driver that has the highest level of forgiveness and a bit more spin, was a good way to fit him into certain windows of ball flight.
Also liking the mat crown.
I need to find my power tower!
Got to see these in person as the pics of the shape isn’t coming through for me. Some grab me and others are meh.
The flatter lie is getting me giddy as I’m on the shorter spectrum and don’t like cutting down shaft length.
Can anyone compare the shape to the DBD of old?
I’m going to hold off replacing my current head after someone skyd an asteroid with it. The shaft will be an easy test together as I use it now.
I’d say @JB hit the nail on the head there.
I hit EXTREMELY down on the ball. I was playing a 9° D/+1 on my epic flash and got fit into a 9° N/-1.
thats 2 ° of loft difference which caused the massive change in RPM.
with the club having draw bias already as well as max forgiveness they didn’t have to add more draw bias into the adjustable hosel which allowed them to cut my loft to get rid of extreme side spin misses and were able to add a lot of rollout on my shots also to fit my new low penetrating launch that I get with such a steep attack angle.
My average swing speed is around 100.
My average carry was probably 260, but had the potential to carry 280.
I would say at current my swing speed is maybe slighty higher due to the tech.
My average carry stayed in the 260-270 range with less potential for farther carry but my rollout increased significantly.
But here is a little snippet.
#ShortKnocker
I have never played much Callaway equipment int eh past and really i do not know why that is. Maybe just friend bias in the early years, not sure, but i really like what i am reading. I really have a need to try the TD LS.
Love reading the changes for what some of these guys played, to what was actually better…@RealPretendPsychic going to the TD LS with a Tensei White? Great jump and from a 6.0 to a 65 X shaft……I could be swayed
I have a fitting on the 21st and was going to look at the LS but with so many of the GD getting fit for the LS Triple Diamond I’ve gotta try it.
It’s going to be a game changer for me! I’m a work in progress, but the Rogue Triple Diamond LS and new shaft have the potential to eliminate my two way miss while also going for miles! I also went down to a 45” shaft at the direction of the fitter, which hasn’t resulted in any noticeable difference in distance because it’s freezing and I’m not hitting the ball very far with any club!
Driver History
Let me start off by saying I have been a Callaway fan going on 18 years now, having at least 1 Callaway club in my bag since then. My first ever club fitting was for a Callaway Razrhawk driver in 2013. Tour head with a stiff shaft cut down ½”. It was custom built on sight from the Callaway tour truck that was doing demo days across this area at the time. I still have that driver.
Fast forward to 2019 and after using the same driver for 6 years, it was time for an upgrade. Maybe 5 months before I joined THP, I got fit for an Epic Flash SubZero. Definitely a step up from the Razrhawk. A very polarizing driver. A lot of people either seemed to love it or hate it. I personally loved the sound and as someone who tends to have a slot of spin, the super low spin of the head was a good thing. That being said, there were times where I would hit nasty knuckleballs with it. Sometimes they would go forever. Other times they would drop out of the air like a golf-ball sized hail stone after the wind died. Overall, a lot of fun but not always the most controllable head.
Fast forward again to January of 2021. This is after the cancellation of the 2020 Grandaddy and the Grandmama. @JasonFinley offers the 4 of us a chance to select one of the new Epic Speed line that was new in 2021. Given my history with the Epic Flash SubZero and what @Dnevs was saying about the Max LS being ultra forgiving AND not as low spin as the SubZero, I pick that one as the best option sight unseen. And it is great. The Epic Max LS is the best driver I have every played. Up until the Grandaddy.
Notice that I didn’t mention any Rogue drivers in my history and I skipped the Mavrik line altogether as I was still running the Epic Flash SubZero at the time. For full disclosure, I was never a huge fan of the Rogue line. I tried them but for some reason, just never clicked with me. I also did hit the Mavrik SubZero and really liked it but wasn’t enough different to swap out for the Epic Flash Subzero. That being said, I was walking into the Grandaddy with an open mind as the Callaway crew have been rocking on all cylinders with each release.
Current Driver
The Epic Max LS is a fantastic driver. It is a great combo of forgiving, speed off the face, and low spin. I play it at a 9 degree head turned down to 8 degrees. The adjustment weight I tend to play more toe side as my default swing is a baby draw and as part of the setup, I was trying to eliminate the hard left shot off the tee as much as possible. For 2021, I bounced around between a ProjetX Smoke Black RDX shaft in 60g Xstiff, a ProjectX Smoke Blue RDX in 60g XStiff, and a LINQ Purple 7F5 shaft. Each brough a different benefit to it but in each case, the head was a good match. The Epic Max LS ended up delivering my longest measured drive I ever hit outdoors at 347 yards.
That being said, it wasn’t perfect. The hot zone was definitely slightly high and slightly toe side to get the max carry out of it but go to far off the toe and you had a long sweeper. While I was trying to get less draw centric and more fade centric, the head was one that loved to go left side for me.
The Fitting
At the ECPC, Jason was my fitter. We talked about my driver swing and my normal ball flight and what was my problem areas are. Fundamental here is my driver swing in a nutshell:
Jason’s answer? Lets go straight to the Rogue ST Triple Diamond LS. I wasn’t going to argue. This is like Max Verstappen listening to your driving habits in your car and saying, lets go right for the Ferrari. You say “Yes please”. Jason’s reasoning was that based on how I was swinging the irons and the UW which I had done before I did the driver and based on what I was already playing, the Max LS or the Triple Diamond LS was where we would end up. His gut feeling? The Triple Diamond was the right head. It would help alleviate the left side of the fairway for me and allow me to swing freer with more trust which would help eliminate the block rights.
All things I wanted to hear. This was all before I hit a single ball with any driver head.
Out came the head and it looks phenomenal. Once I started hitting it, there was no doubt this was the head for me. The head is more forgiving than you would think given some of the reviews and expectations. I went through a few different shafts but ended up getting fit into the Ventus Blue 6x as the best option in the limited time we had.
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Hard to argue when this is the 2nd ball you ever hit with it. I hit about 15 shots or so with probably 10 of those being in the Ventus Blue shaft. Overall averages were in the slightly over 165mph ball speed, around 280 carry and ~2200 spin with launch windows in the 12 degree on average. This was at an 8 degree setting on the head which matches where I play my Epic Max LS.
This is easily the best looking driver I have seen in a while.
The SS22 flash face is a little more muted in the graphics than the Epic Speed series but it looks really good. The star of the show has to be the matte graphite crown and the sole. Understated but striking at the same time. The gold color of the tungsten speed cartridge and the matching highlights on the crown and sole are a great match. Just a really good looking head visually.
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Lucky for me, and unlucky for @Afizzle2100, I got his driver sent to me. Aaron got fit in the Max D cover which is on one end of the Rogue ST release spectrum. This gave me a great opportunity to do a bit of a comparison between the Max D on one end and the Triple Diamond LS on the other end. You’ll notice the soles are very similar, shapes are very distinctly different but what surprised me was the crowns are different.
Triple Diamond LS on top, Max D on the bottom
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Triple Diamond LS on right, Max D on the left
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Triple Diamond LS behind face on, Max D in the front
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Triple Diamond LS to the left, Max D to the right
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The Tech
@Jman covered all of this but I feel like I need to add just a couple of comments. The Jail break technology is back and better than ever. The new flash face with the AI configuration is in its next iteration of maturity and the unibody with carbon inserts allow a ton of flexibility which Callaway has taken advantage of. My Triple diamond head weighed in just a few grams heavier than my Epic Max LS head. The real change in the Rogue ST line? The tungsten speed cartridge. The gold screwed in thing at the back really helps shift the weight low and to the rear of the head upping the MOI on heads that normally wouldn’t get as much forgiveness, like the Triple Diamond LS for example.
Won’t go to much into this as @Jman covered it all and there’s lot of marketing literature on the features.
The Sound and Feel
The sound on this driver is different than the previous models. Its more muted, more thumpy and less tinny. As we all know that feel and sound are always tied together so the sound is really pleasing which really adds to the overall feel. You can somewhat hear the strike in the video below. When you nut it, the feeling is fantastic. When you hit off the center of the face, its still solid but you can notice a difference in the feel of the strike giving you feedback. I have taken this to the driving range and the sim ( more on that below ) and when I mis hit it, I take a guess where and I was easily able to tell where I missed it.
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The Performance
Time to get to the good stuff. This thing does exactly what it supposed to do. Its an anti-left, low spinning bomber.
During the Grandaddy, the club was delivered to the Hideaway with a Ventus Red instead of a Ventus Blue. The red is a great shaft but to high launching/spinning for what I was looking for so I swapped it out with my existing RDX Smoke Black shaft for the events. Both are 60 gram, XStiff shafts.
Across both days, the driver performed fantastic. Ignoring the first 3 holes where jitters were getting the best of me, the rest of Day 1 was a great day for me driving. I think of the rest of the round, I only missed the fairway once when I was expecting it to turn and it went dead straight. I hit multiple shots over 300 during the day, the longest being on #17, our last hole when we were battling for the 2nd point of the day with @JohnnyCallaway and Royce. 529 yard par 5 and it went 317. Royce promptly flew by me in the air on his massive 330+ drive on the same hole. Damn that guy pounds the ball.
Day 2 was not as great a day but the ball flight was consistent and straight. The driver continued to impress and reinforce the that it was the right choice for me. On hole 15 on the Dye course which is a short par4, it was playing 318 yards to the pin and I gave it a whack. Straight, baby fade, ended up pin high just in the first cut. The ability to control the face and the confidence this inspires at address is really a game changer for me.
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A couple of weekends ago, I took the head to a local GC Quad sim bay so I could put it through its paces and spent 2 hours running through configurations, playing with shafts, etc. These numbers were with same RDX Smoke Black shaft I played at the Grandaddy.
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The spin profile is exactly where I want it. Launch is good and direction was great. I tried to shape some shots which is why you see some left and right shots with variation of ball speed so I could see how hard it was to get the head to move in either direction. Really easy to vary my fade distance. I could get it to draw but you could definitely feel like it didn’t want to. My “fairway finder” swing is going to be really easy to manage and control.
Conclusions
This driver is amazing. Way more forgiving than the Triple Diamond LS name would imply and absolutely nailed on the look and feel. The matte crown is beautiful and the sole I could stare at for hours. The anti left setup works great for me and I can really see this driver being a game changer in one area of my game I already thought was one of my strongest. Now to wait for 3 months of snow and cold until I can get it out back in the open air and on the grass.
It’s going to be a long 3 months…..
I look forward to hearing what driver you ended up with and your thoughts.
What were the numbers they got you to? I remember you hitting your driver so high when we played
What is your clubhead speed? Also a #ShortKnocker.
The matte finish the subtle color difference all look great to me. I think these are going to be great for a lot of people, if I didn’t have a 2021 driver I
mightwould absolutely be in the market for one.Haha what I got fit to isn’t what I currently have. I mention that in my write up which I should have out soon. Super busy morning at work so far!
High 90s, game speed is low 100s.
I think this one was 98 or so.
For this fit though, I was just going for smooth, and middle face.
Out at the Hideaway I was probably low 100s. And This bad b*tch, straight performed!
@Nappy could probably agree with that.
If I recall, it was on the USGA confirming list, but not mentioned here…
Me too? ?
I know the feeling! Unfortunately, our office has been closed and playing catch up stinks!
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Great review!!!!! this!
Yes, you do. Or a ????
Afraid the triple will be too fade biased for me
I watched you pound this thing like a war drum for three days straight! ???
Lol I didn’t realize how abbreviated my backswing was that week I’m putting a video up soon of my swing and I did the same thing. I’m regularly parallel. That must be where all my distance went ?