Just when you thought that with the Mavrik lineup and its three unique driver profiles Callaway might have totally nailed down the breadth of options for golfers, they hit you with something you never saw coming.
The return of the Big Bertha in the form of the B21 driver isn’t what is surprising, what is surprising however, is what is going on internally here. This is one that Callaway believes is totally unique to the market design-wise with its ability to mix a forgiving design with a low and forward CG. Yes, you read that right.
This article is going to focus on the release of the B21 driver, however for the first time in a long while Callaway is bringing a complete Big Bertha lineup to market, and there will be a subsequent piece up on THP pertaining to the fairways, hybrids, and irons.
Return of the Callaway RCH
Worth mentioning before we get into anything else is a bit of a shift for Callaway, not to anything new, but more back to their Big Bertha roots with the return of the RCH graphite shafts as a stock option for the entire B21 lineup.
Some of you have immediately hit that “huh?” face, so let me explain. In the 1990’s to the early 2000’s Callaway did a lot of in-house shaft R&D, and I mean a lot. The goal was creating the perfect shafts to compliment exactly what they wanted in their club designs, and while present day companies work with shaft manufacturers to either find a good fit from their catalogues or maybe make some tweaks here and there, the RCH was created by and for Callaway clubs. Some today will be screaming “made-for!” and you are right, literally made for their designs. Once upon a time there wasn’t the clamoring for after-market options like there is today, nor were shafts designed specifically for clubs frowned upon. Heck, those “made-for” RCH shafts were even used and won on Tour.
Why bring this back in an all new design? Simply put, Callaway wanted very specific things for the shafts in the B21 clubs, particularly the ability to have an active tip flex that would help achieve the dynamic lofts they wanted while also not feeling weak in the swing. For Callaway, the RCH is about being developed and not just picked. That said, for those of you wondering, yes, there will be a significant amount of no upcharge options available still.
Callaway B21 Driver
Price: $499.99
Lofts: 9°, 10.5°, 12.5° w/ Callaway OptiFit Adjustability
Shaft Options: Callaway RCH 45/55/65
Release Date: 9/10/2020
The B21 driver is being presented under the slogan, “Distance any way you swing it”, and based on the tech of the new Big Bertha driver, it should easily back that up. The B21 driver was designed around the reality that most golfers struggle through things like erratic impact locations, an open face angle at impact, and even swinging across the target line while also being steep into the ball. These are traditionally among the most demoralizing things in golf which result in a shot that is usually a weak high and right (for RH golfers) miss which can practically ruin the game for golfers of all skill levels. The goal of the B21 is to pack all of the technology Callaway has into a design that offers distance, forgiveness, and consistency no matter how you swing it.
The major preliminary focus was based around design features that would mitigate the issues so many golfers face with the driver given their swing faults. The reality is most who fit into the aforementioned faults often see significantly higher backspin averages creeping into the 3,000 to 4,000 RPM’s which not only affects control but also hampers ball and swing speed potential as the golfer falls into the trap of steering the ball. There has long been a search for the holy grail of slice reduction in drivers, but Callaway is taking the direction of countering each of these specific tendencies with design features that should free golfers up to enjoy the game more.
First thing first, the A.I. Flash Face is alive and present, not only that, it is by far the engine that is making this unicorn of a design possible. Flash Face with the Mavrik in particular allowed Callaway to see that they could move the CG of a driver low and forward to decrease spin while keeping forgiveness and ball speed through the A.I. face generation program. Usually going low and forward though is only for better players, kiss that idea goodbye.
The B21 is unique to the market in that it is using a low-forward CG in coordination with a huge face, a sub 10g T2C crown, and high-moi head shape which is longer and more triangular to protect ball speeds with impacts across the face. How this is possible though is solely because of A.I., the Flash Face SS21. Any time a new shape is created, a new Flash Face has to be generated that is optimized to just that face, so don’t think that this is the Mavrik’s pasted into the B21. In order to make the design which A.I. came up with work, a special heat treatment had to be used on the face to get it to be durable enough, combined with Jailbreak the internals of this club are pretty staggering and seeks to create a driver that offers low spin and draw bias.
That draw bias is being created through a few different methods. Externally, it is created through the reduced face progression which is the distance from the leading edge of the face and shaft axis. Fancy words to say that the hosel to head connection helps to create a flight that starts left without using the massive offset that is present in the rest of the B21 lineup. Internally, there is also weight placed in the heel to help cut down that spin that comes from an open face at impact.
Design wise, this is a bit of a head scratcher because it meshes things together which we never thought could be blended. There is a weight low and back in the head to increase the MOI even more with the triangular shape, but there is much more weight forward in the design to decrease spin and keep consistency. These are things that have historically been entirely contradictory in club design, but with the application of Flash Face SS21 the speed and forgiveness that previously had to be generated primarily with the shape and weight can now be done with the face.
The B21 driver is not going to be a driver that the golfer seeking the lowest spinning option from Callaway runs out and grabs. The reality is it won’t be as low spin as a Sub-Zero, nor should it be, but it will offer lower spin potential than other designs while still having draw bias, a middle-ground so-to-speak. While some will be curious of the comparisons to the Mavrik Max, this has potentially lower spin while having increased draw bias and both drivers can easily coexist in the market.
The Callaway Big Bertha B21 driver is looking to set a new standard when it comes to correcting the biggest miss in golf. What are your initial thoughts and reactions? Do you plan on giving one a swing? Be sure to jump into the conversation both here as well as the THP forum and let your voice be heard!
And just as I hoped it was back in the groove. I had a terrible round in early December and actually left after 15 holes, my swing was totally missing.
Came to find out later that week I had a A-fib episode that day, at least I didn’t croak on the course.
Started back in March when the weather finally warmed a bit and needed to use my old Fusion driver for a few rounds. The last round I played Friday convinced me I needed to go back to the B 21. We will see this week if I got it all back together. I forgot how straight I hit this thing.
gb
I wasn’t a big fan of how the shaft felt – I think I just love the Ventus Blue – but the results were highly encouraging. I only sliced one shot out of about 30 or so, and I basically hit that one on the farthest part of the toe. More importantly I hit about 10 drives in a row where it was slightly left, slightly right, or straight, with plenty of distance most times (range balls sometimes have really funny ball flights). I started getting tired towards the end and hit a bunch left, but when I was making decent contact, the results were impressive.
I know that I do have a few drives each round that go way right, so I will have to see if I can borrow my friend’s B-21 and take it for a real spin sometime. I can think of at least a couple holes where this thing would really come in handy.
By design this is a pretty darn low spin head, so if you are getting large amounts of spin, you will not see a reduction in a head (425 SFT) that is designed to spin a little bit more. I have the differences at about 400-600 rpms higher with the SFT.
Sorry let me clarify. I am not saying the spin numbers are through the roof they appear on first test to be a little on the high side as the ball tends to flight quite high and falls with no virtually no run out. I typically use around the 65 gram weight shaft in x flex. Swing speed with the driver for me is around the 110 mark. My guess would be without going on a monitor would be around the 2700 spin mark. I would love to get it with the same type of flight around the 2k mark. I am tempted to try the RCH 65 shaft and see if that helps and take a degree of loft off as well. I think the degree of loft off and a 10 gram heavier shaft my just be enough to get it into that goldilocks spin and launch window. thoughts? I was only asking about the Ping G425 SFT as it is marketed as a anti slice/ most help for that shot shape club. 400-600 RPM is a lot really if both heads were the same loft. i could see ppl getting a spin difference of 400 rpm due to a degree or more of loft. Still I am a little shocked that the Ping would spin that much more. i guess the more back spin the less side spin so to speak wold help reduce curvature. Now I wish I had of tried this driver earlier as from what I have seen so far this thing may be a keeper.
Current Driver: Peacoat RADSPEED XB 10.5 with Ventus Blue 6-R (Velocore) shaft
Test Driver: Big Bertha B-21 10.5 with RCH 55 R shaft
About Me: High handicap golfer (shoots in the 90’s) who has a slower swing speed (80-85 mph) in order to maintain control through the swing. Avg. drive = 200-225 yards.
LOOKS
I personally think the dark blue driver head for both drivers look amazing. I prefer the Ventus blue shaft pairing with the blue head for looks, but if I’m going by stock shafts, I think they are just about even. Headcover-wise, I prefer the way the Cobra RADSPEED one looks (I can’t stand the cheap-looking [to me] chrome/reflective parts of the Big Bertha headcover), but the BB headcover fits waaay better, so it’s pretty much even.
SOUND
They both have a medium, crisp sound to my ears, but the B-21 was the clear winner here – it just sounded better on just about all strikes, good or bad.
FEEL/IMPACT
I’m not even close to an expert on this stuff, but I preferred the way the B-21 felt on impact. Hard to describe, but definitely B-21 was the winner here for me.
DRIVING RESULTS
So I went into this having read all about how the B-21 is a unicorn, but I also know I’m driving the ball the best I ever have with the RADSPEED XB this year, so I was excited to see what would happen. I started off hitting about 10 balls for each driver, and I could easily and immediately tell the difference in weight and the active tip that the RCH shaft has. The B-21 definitely felt lighter to swing, which actually messed me up a bit initially because I’m so used to swinging the RADSPEED XB with the Ventus shaft, which is a little heavier. After about 30 balls for each, though, a clear pattern began to emerge, and I ended up hitting more of one driver then the other because I was enjoying it so much. In what probably won’t be all that much of a surprise to people who have already reviewed this club, in the end the B-21 was a decisive winner for me.
When I put a good swing on the RADSPEED XB, distance-wise and direction-wise, it held it’s own against the B-21. However, its when I had decent or sometimes even bad swings where the B-21 really came through. The vast majority of drives I hit today with the B-21 were either straight or close enough, and the distance was phenomenal – even on mediocre swings. In fact, I hit what looked to be some the longest drives I’ve ever hit at my local range, and that’s with crappy range balls and someone who is still very much a beginner when it comes to driving. Can I slice this thing? Yes – I hit about 3-4 balls pretty far right. If anything, though, my misses became semi-big pulls to the left, which frankly happened at the very end when I was getting tired. Additionally, the ball flight was consistently where I want it to be – not too high but also not too low. One of the things I struggle with in using my RADSPEED XB is that each round I tend to hit a few really high, spinny drives that might stay in the fairway but can fade pretty badly and also don’t go very far. I had maybe 1 or 2 of those with the B-21 during the entire range session, and even then the fade was really slight. The vast majority of my B-21 drives had a lower trajectory but often greater distance compared to my RADSPEED XB drives.
The one thing that really made me smile when using this driver was that as I hit more balls, I kept getting the same results – mostly straight, great distance shots even if I didn’t have the best swing. Typically, the longer my driving session goes, the worse I get, but right up until the very end I was just getting the same result over and over and over again, unless I did something really stupid. Based on some of the ball impact marks I saw, some of the drives I hit with the B-21 had no business going straight, let alone pretty far, but that’s what consistently happened.
CONCLUSION
I know I’m late to the B-21 party, but count me as a fan. I knew this could be good for me but I really didn’t expect to like it as much as I do, or see the results that I did, right out of the box. I’m scheduled for 9 holes tomorrow night and 18 Thursday, so I’ll be gaming the B-21 both times to see how things shake out. Really appreciate all the feedback everyone left before, as it definitely inspired me to give this a try!
Looking forward to your continued thoughts. Good stuff so far.
Thanks a ton @JB!
So I was able to take the B-21 out for a spin earlier today – started on the back nine and got in 15 holes before sunset. I was super excited to try out the new driver…and slightly less excited to chunk 3 straight drives way left into OOB territory . I was by myself, and no one was within three holes of me, so I took a deep breath, tried to relax…and smashed a 240 yard drive straight down the fairway. After that, things quickly got on track (this is probably a sign I should warm up before rounds). Here are my additional thoughts:
– I am really enjoying the feel and sound of this driver. Definitely one of the better sounding drivers I’ve used or seen used during my rounds.
– If I can put at least a halfway decent swing, this beauty definitely performs. After my rough start on 10, I was able to hit great drives on the next four par 4/par 5 holes. My nemesis hole is the par 5 13th, where there is sand to the right that creeps just enough towards the middle that even a slight fade ends up in a bunker. Can’t go too far left, though, because there’s water. Trusting I could hit the B-21 straight, I aimed a little left of center…and hit a 240ish yard drive exactly where I was aiming, right on the left edge of the fairway and past those stupid bunkers. That great drive allowed me to try and cut the corner over the water with my 3h…and wouldn’t you know, I’m 10 ft. off the green in two! A chip, a putt, and one birdie later, I was well on my way to declaring this the best driver ever.
– With that said, something others have mentioned in this thread definitely holds true – this club will not cure your swing, and if you swing bad enough, the results will not be pretty. My great driving fell apart on 18, where I saw my first high spinny, sharp fade drive of the day. I was unable to get the driver going the rest of the way playing the front nine, struggling to make even decent contact or ending up with multiple drives off to the right. For my bad drives, I would say 90% was a result of just poor swings and 10% was because I was still getting used to the different feel of the RCH 55 R shaft compared to my heaver, stiffer Ventus Blue 6-R/RADSPEED XB combo. I’m up for another golf lesson soon, and I definitely will be working with my instructor to see if he can help me figure out better swing mechanics. I’m wondering if maybe I should go with a 65 shaft, but I can discuss that with the local fitter – in the past he’s generally recommended a shaft in the middle in terms of weight and in regular flex, so we shall see. I really think I just need to get more comfortable swinging a lighter club and working on my mechanics.
– Compared to drives I’ve hit with my XB on these same holes, I’m a little surprised to say that although the B-21 came out ahead most of the time, it wasn’t as big of a jump as I would have guessed. I’ve hit drives just about as far (if not farther) with the XB as I did today with the B-21, but I needed really great strikes to do so. A miss with the XB almost always results in a strong fade. With the B-21, even on more marginal strikes, I could easily see the ball fight to stay straight. That said, I definitely was able to get some pretty bad shots off to the right, but again I get those with my XB as well. Right now I’d wager that the B-21 is probably the better driver for me based on my current skill level, but I’m more comfortable hitting the XB at the moment (having hit it every round since March until now). Also, the XB is a darn good driver anyway.
– I remembered the RCH shaft has an active tip before teeing off, and then promptly forgot about it the entire round. For me it’s not something that I noticed or that bothered me in anyway during my round.
– I miss the XB’s Infinity Face – I much prefer that look to the B-21’s, and it’s much easier to tell precise ball impacts with the XB as well.
I’m scheduled to play 18 on Thursday, depending on weather and work schedule. If I do play I’ll be gaming the B-21 again and I’ll add any further thoughts if I have any.
I have been getting similar results thus far with myB21 trial. I played last night in SIM league and the driver was solid. My original thoughts on spin being a smidge high was right. I was getting around the 2600 – 2800 range and the launch was very high on the SIM. Distance carry on the SIM seemed to be low compared to my Speedzone. But strangely enough on the course I was only say 10 yards behind a solid drive with the Speedzone. Anyway the straighter flight and more fairways is a big advantage over my current gamer and I feel over time will lead to better scores. The club for me in the stock setting does fly a little high but that is part of the design. So hard to criticise the club for doing what its is designed for. I may try dropping the loft a degree and trying the 65 gram shaft to see if that changes things a little launch and spin. I don’t really want to mess with the club as its performing well in its current guise. I guess I am just being greedy and looking for more yards. Ideally I would like to see a little lower launch and spin. We are always chasing those elusive numbers to give us optimum distance. I have also been working with a coach to try and sort my driving out and I feel the combined work and this driver will improve my accuracy a lot. Hopefully we all will see continued driving improvement and these type of drivers will be in out rear view mirror soon enough.
That’s great to hear John, was looking forward to seeing how you got on with this, looked to be the perfect driver for you.
It was yesterday. Long, for me and accurate. Very controlled fade. If you put a good swing on it, the results speak for themselves.
I’m still accurate with the Xtreme, but the ball flight and distance with the B21 are mind boggling to me. B21 is straighter, lower and longer. I hit 8 consecutive drives yesterday that were almost identical as to ball flight and distance.
I had my best day yesterday with the driver in as long as I can remember.
And 9 of 14 yesterday with three misses left and two misses right. The two misses right were wind affected. The three misses left were pulls, long, for me, and playable out of the rough.
You were the last one to post on here, so you get my question.
Can this driver be set to a square (not closed), or slightly open face angle? I need a new driver and this one is very interesting to me. But I don’t fight a slice at all. My stock shot is about a 15-25 yard draw off the tee. So the closed face is the only thing that is turning me off to it.
To my eye, it sits pretty neutral at standard. If you want to open the face, you can buy a higher lofted head and set it down 1*, or get a quality builder to install a tour strong sleeve and loft it down 2* to really open it up.
I need to just check one out in person and get a store employee to let me set a 10.5 to 9.5 to see how it looks.
It just looked pretty closed to me on their website pics and the couple of YouTube reviews I’ve watched both mentioned it sitting closed at address. The numbers don’t lie, though. The whole face is hot and it flies high and straight no matter where on the face it’s hit, within reason.
It’s adjustable to either a draw or neutral setting.
So from what you can tell, would I be able to set it neutral and deloft a 10.5 to 9.5 and maybe get it a degree or so open?
There’s a video on Callaway’s website about Optifit Adjustability. That may be helpful as it explains the adjustability including loft.
I have a lesson scheduled for tomorrow just to work on my driver swing with this club, and I’m confident with a few tweaks I’ll be able to figure this one out – I just think I’m used to swinging a heaver, non-active shaft/tip. It still feels and sounds amazing on good hits, and I know the unicorn is hiding in this one – just need to figure out how to find it .
Anyway, after he demonstrates rotating my shoulders and opening the club face up on the backswing (somehow without cocking my wrists, which I find difficult to avoid), I take another swing…and the ball goes about 260 yards and straight, easily the best drive I’ve had with this club. Sadly I wasn’t able to replicate that result too often, but I definitely was hitting it much better then before, enough so that my instructor said if it was up to him, this should stay in my bag for a very long time.
Need to work with this club more on the range to fine tune what we went over, but I feel much better about having it in my bag now!
I’ve got a UST Linq Gunmetal 6F5 in mine and it has been a marvel. I saw good results with the stock shaft as well but it was a very short time period before switching to the UST so I can’t really say anything for comparison. I can say that an upgraded shaft put in to this does not diminish, and likely enhances, the effectiveness of this club.
I have a Kinetixx Velocity D30+ in mine and it’s a monster. I never used the stock shaft, but the Velocity feels like it was made for this club. I’ve had good results with the Aldila Rogue White 130msi as well. It’s super smooth, but nothing feels like that Kinetixx.
I keep looking at the RAD, ST-Z, Epic, etc., and the THP part of me wants to hit them all. I even flirted with a Tsi2 and it wasn’t even close. The on course results with the B21 say that I should never hit another driver. It has all but eliminated the vast majority of my misses.
I had planned on posting in this thread this morning and decided to catch up on others comments since my last post in April.
To answer you question, I didn’t do as well with the B 21 with the RCH shaft as I do now using the UST recoil f2 @ 43.5 inches. (yes, I’m an old fart) I have recoils in all my clubs with the exception of my Cleveland wedges and putter. It might be a "mind" thing but I feel the same shaft in all clubs allows for more consistency for me.
The reason I planned to post today is after almost a year since receiving the B 21 from THP (thanks again) it still continues to amaze. about 3 weeks ago a friend invited me to join him and his son at his son’s club as a thank you. I had given him an XR driver and fairway wood I was no longer using.
I had one of the best driving rounds I’ve had this year and my only blow up was on a short par 4 that I came close to driving the green and ended up in a deep bunker just in front of the green that took 3 tries to get out of. I thought of laying up with a 3 metal but I was hitting the B 21 so well I went for it. I know, "save your bad decisions for the golf course" isn’t just an Ad slogan. I shot a solid bogey round.
My second good news round took place in a Chicago suburb playing with my son and his FIL. The last time we played this course (signature Nicklaus course) I posted a 105 score and came home 6 balls lighter than I went with. This time was a different story, I tied his FIL at 88 on his home course of 20+ years and was only 2 strokes behind my son. The one big difference was this year I hit 12 of 14 fairways with the B 21 and what his FIL called my "Trevino fade".
With my previous driver I was hitting wide sweeping fades that I had to start way left to come back to center. Some shots worked but others either clipped a tree branch and fell short or I hit the "dreaded straight ball" and went deep in the woods, or I didn’t start far enough left and rolled into the right rough. Now on most holes I can set up on the left side and fade to center and if I hit straight I’m still in the fairway, but on the left side.
With most of my driver problems resolved and my wedge and putter are working pretty good all I have to do is get some consistency on my approach and I should be golden……..at least till the next round
gb