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Big Bertha Alpha Driver Review

SuperStroke
This thing was an absolute BEAST today for me i honestly wasn't 100% sold during the rounds in the king it was good but i wasn't sure if it would knock the Xhot out of the bag but after today it sure did.... i'll write all my thoughts down tomorrow at work but i keep coming away more and more impressed with this everytime i get a chance to put it in play!
 
After 27 more holes with this in the bag yesterday and getting a shaft that i really think fits my swing well i couldn't be happier with this driver. I talked with Brett yesterday and we both have the same settings on our driver +2 loft neutral with the gravity core down.... i did flip it for a few holes yesterday but the wind was catching it more with the core up and i was losing some distance since i was getting a higher flight so i changed it back. Anyway i felt like it was a pretty forgiving driver i hit a few bad shots with it when i put a bad swing on it and i did screw around a few holes trying to change my swing speed to see how it with the new shaft would handle me going after one. But i found that taking a smooth easy swing gave me the best results. was making solid contact on the face all day and i was hitting a TON of fairways the ones i missed were because i was driving through the fairway on a few holes. It reminds me of the Xtreme but more forgiving and i'm seeing better distance and a better ball flight ( still think thats because i thought the Black Tie was a horrible pairing for me in the Xtreme) i do really like the weight of the club head its heavier and you can really feel where the club head is during your swing. This is a must for me and another reason the Xtreme didn't stay in the bag for me (again cause the shaft was like rebar) But yesterday i was crushing this thing and i was able to work the ball a little bit but mostly i was hitting straight bombs that were hitting the fairway and going exactly where i wanted the ball to go. The best thing for me personally is that i was seeing great distance and i was not swinging as hard as i normally do. i was taking some easy swings and i'm sure the shaft helped keeping my swing speed up with the loading zone in the Project X LZ but the face on the Alpha is still HOT and had the springboard face that i've come to love from Callaway.... the other thing is it SOUNDS so good still one of the best sounding driver on the market like Callaway has dominated over the last few years IMO. I really can see this staying in the bag for quite some time and i think the more time i put in with this the more consistent i will get with it. as of now i'm keeping it at 47" unless i start losing accuracy then i'd consider cutting it down a little bit but i feel like i can hit my mark with this probably better than any other driver i've had since the R9 Super Tri that i had in the bag for YEARS so the fact that i'm already feeling this confident with this driver should mean that things will only get better in the long run. I think i'm gonna start keeping track of fairways hit when i do get out and play and see if my stats improve over the last few drivers i've had. at the end of the day with my distance i am way more concerned with hitting my marks and hitting fairways. Knowing my trajectory so i can cut over trees and cutting at the right place with my driver and knowing my ball will hit that mark is the confidence i love to have with my driver and i was seeing it a lot during the rounds yesterday. Should be in the bag for quite some time.
 
Got some good range time in today and I am going to give the Project X Handcrafted in the Alpha head a go on the course tomorrow. It was a little more consistent than the Kiyoshi Purple today.
 
lmh3 said:
Got some good range time in today and I am going to give the Project X Handcrafted in the Alpha head a go on the course tomorrow. It was a little more consistent than the Kiyoshi Purple today.
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What specs
 
Well first practice swing with the black tie and the head went soaring 150 feet in the air and 50y down range. It was quite the show actually! The head was so freaking high and just flew forever.
 
rtparty said:
Well first practice swing with the black tie and the head went soaring 150 feet in the air and 50y down range. It was quite the show actually! The head was so freaking high and just flew forever.
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Well, that's not good! Hope it's alright.
 
tpluff said:
Well, that's not good! Hope it's alright.
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Guy at Golf Galaxy will be fixing it hopefully. The driver head is fine thankfully.
 
If I was in the market for a driver this year, the Alpha would be on the top of my list. I hit JB's at the outing in HH and one during a fitting. Different shafts, but results were great. I love the feel and the forgiveness on the Alpha stands out to me vs my X Hot Pro (last year's model).
 
Jeff Spicoli said:
If I was in the market for a driver this year, the Alpha would be on the top of my list. I hit JB's at the outing in HH and one during a fitting. Different shafts, but results were great. I love the feel and the forgiveness on the Alpha stands out to me vs my X Hot Pro (last year's model).
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You'll crush the Alpha!
 
rtparty said:
You'll crush the Alpha!
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I really do like it. This and the Ping i25 are my favorite of the new drivers for 2014. If I didn't have my Bridgestone in the bag starting July, the Alpha very well may be in my bag.

Good height on the driver head downt the range, btw. Glad they are getting it fixed for you.
 
Played today with the Alpha Project X LZ combination and loved the results. I have never had much success with any Project X shaft before, so to force myself to commit, I left both of the other drivers and all the shafts in the trunk. My buddy who I play most of my rounds with told me after the round that he couldn't remember me hitting my driver any better than I did today. I hit 11/12 fairways that I hit driver, including on two holes that I would normally have hit a fairway wood off of the tee, but I wanted to see how accurate I could be. This is going out again tomorrow to see if I can get repeatable results on different courses.
 
Nice, Mark! Hope we can tee it up sometime soon.
 
Very nice! That px handmade shaft gettimg good reviews and we all know how good the big bertha drivers are!
 
I'll post this here. With the COG video from the trip to California,

I've got some questions about COG as it pertains to my Alpha And what is really happening when I move weights and things of that nature.


With tho the weight ports I currently have the heavier weight in the port towards the toe. The difference between the two weights in my Alpha is 2 grams....so essentially the affected weight differential is 2 grams to towards the toe. How much does that affect COG?


Also, with the Gravity Core....the difference between up and down is roughly 300 rpm. So that is manipulating the COG in the face to trailing edge axis correct? Which in turn is reprinted in the gearing affect?
 
lmh3 said:
Played today with the Alpha Project X LZ combination and loved the results. I have never had much success with any Project X shaft before, so to force myself to commit, I left both of the other drivers and all the shafts in the trunk. My buddy who I play most of my rounds with told me after the round that he couldn't remember me hitting my driver any better than I did today. I hit 11/12 fairways that I hit driver, including on two holes that I would normally have hit a fairway wood off of the tee, but I wanted to see how accurate I could be. This is going out again tomorrow to see if I can get repeatable results on different courses.
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Good stuff Mark! What does the Handcrafted compare to spin and launch wise?
 
wrayner83 said:
Good stuff Mark! What does the Handcrafted compare to spin and launch wise?
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Kind of similar to the Kiyoshi Purple as far as launch, mid with low spin. But the feel is closest to the Matrix Altus in my opinion, the more active mid section makes it feel like it really kicks into the impact area.
 
I got this out on the course for the first time yesterday. I have the 10.5 head set to a D bias with an aftermarket tour green shaft in it as well. Gravity core down. First few drives I lost to the right a bit, but the last 4 drives of the day were absolute bombs.

I hit 4/7 FWs and was consistently touching 270 yards which is a solid 20 yards more than my current gamer.

The sound with the Alpha is so unique, it has a bit of a muted sound, not that high pitched titanium "ting" that I am used to.

My last drive of the day I caught out on the toe a bit, but I still saw a great, straight, high ball flight that carried about 250.

Overall, I am really excited about the next two months I have with this thing, it's taken my driving game to a whole new level.
 
I went and demo'd this again. Dispersion has been less than stellar both times. I'm normally not a fader of the ball but that's the dominant shot I have seen with the Alpha. Straight shots that are particularly well struck have given me about 8 extra yards of carry, which is great when I can do it. I guess the glass is half full view of things is that I wouldn't have a two way miss with this one. I think a proper fitting would be required to get consistently better results than what I'm currently gaming. It is really amazing how changing the core so dramatically changes spin though.
 
i got this out for a round yesterday at a course i play regularly if i had a "home" course this would be it. Anyway i usually play the 6400 yard tees there which for me is a fun distance at this course makes for some fun and for some challenging holes with the layout. The first hole is a par 5 thats not a super difficult hole but you have to have a good first shot to give yourself a decent shot at going for the green in 2. I hit a great shot that was right down the middle with a slight fade the big thing that i noticed right away was how far it went. it was 20 yards further than i normally hit it on this hole. which took a sandtrap on the left side that normally could come into play out of play. i honestly didn't think much of it at the time. next hole i hit a drive that i lost a little bit but again went a little further than i normally see on that hole maybe 10 yards. nothing that made me think much about it but just figured i was gonna have a good round sitting at -1 after one and having another birdie putt on 2. the next 2 holes are non driver holes so the next hole was the hole where i couldn't believe what i saw. I caught up to a 4some they were teeing off of the whites and let me tee off so i teed off from the blues which is a good 20 yards back easily from the whites. i absolutely murdered the ball on a great line which is just as important on this hole because right is OB. theres a bunker on the left side that i know i can carry and is always my aiming point. it went right over it. started walking to my cart let the other person in the group tee off and off we went. got up to where my ball normally is right over the bunker it was a callaway figured it was mine the guy said i believe thats mine. i didn't think much of it but checked and it wasn't mine but this was at the 150 yard marker which is where i always end up. well i look up and i couldn't believe where my ball was it was another 50 yards ahead of his ball. i have NEVER had less than 120 in on this hole and i think i had 95-100. It was one of the best drives i've ever had in my entire life between the accuracy and the distance. the window i had to place this ball into was maybe 10 yards over this trap if i was off at all on the right side i prob would have flown the fairway and hit it OB. So thats when i started really noticing like wow this is really going further than what i am used to. next hole was a par 3 then a nice par 5 which is another go for it in 2 hole. i hit another bomb hole is 503 yards and the guy i ended up playing with that i caught up to gpsed it for me my drive was right next to the 150 yard marker its slightly downhill but nothing to crazy. So hole after hole i was realizing that i was really gaining some considerable distance and putting the ball in places i have never been on the course it was great and my score really showed how well i was driving the ball hard to not play well when you have a wedge in for most of your second shots and giving yourself plenty of birdie opportunities. i do believe that the shaft is helping me a little bit i like it a lot more than the stock shaft not that the stock shaft was horrible but the LZ70 is really an amazing shaft and i'm blown away by how easy i can swing it and still see my distance. More importantly i'm seeing decent accuracy with it i did miss a few fairways more because of going to far than losing it left or right i think i missed 3 for that one left and 2 right And one of the right ones the club slipped in my hand. the best thing is taking an easy swing is making me more accurate. Really funny that i hate 3 woods and if i keep seeing this distance with this driver i'm gonna have to put a 3 wood back in my bag because this driver is almost to long for some holes on the course. i will def be keeping a close eye with this driver even more so now than ever after last round. Its penetrating ball flight just has a great trajectory that just goes so far so fast it just moves. Really Really pleased with this driver in the bag its not very often i see gains that are truly noticeable and yesterday i definitely noticed some gains!
 
Well, I got a round in finally with the Black Tie installed and wow what a difference! I was getting a great boring trajectory and it totally eliminated the misses left. However, I can slice the heck out of it! I have to remember to take a nice controlled swing and let the club do the work. I love the feel of the head and black tie combo. I feel Callaway made a big mistake with the Fubuki shaft as stock. I think a White Tie would have been a better fit for most. I just never loved the Fubuki for my swing.
 
I demo'd this again today outside. Much better results. They had the 10.5 in white...freekin' gorgeous color, almost a pearl white which looks great with the shaft. Even the guy who says he doesn't care about colors was going "Hmmm, sessy"
 
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