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Callaway Releases Big Bertha B21 Driver

SuperStroke
NoLine said:
I was getting pretty jazzed about this club but after reading the interaction with McLovin I’m second guessing things. I’m a low spin guy - 1800 to 2100 depending on the driver and shaft combo. My gamer is a PXG 0811XF right now with Bassara 42 and that thing is the ultimate fairway finder but not the longest driver I’ve played. Back up is a Sim Max with the same shaft that is about 8 yards longer but 11% less FIR’s. I actually look for shafts that raise up my spin to help keep the ball in the air. SS is unfortunately low and due to circumstances outside of my control that is what it is but per every fitter says I’m maximizing my smash factor.


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Based on launch I am seeing and rollout in the fairway I would not worry about this head being too low spin. It's lower spinning than a standard draw driver, but not subzero low that I can tell.
 
tucsondivots said:
Question for the testers: Are you leaving it at Standard setting for the most part (as opposed to Draw setting)? Or since it is Draw biased does the Standard setting suffice? Thanks.
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Standard but I am going to adjust it for craps and grins to see what happens.
 
NVGOLFER80 said:
This driver is pretty low spin.. When I hit it, I saw numbers I would expect to see. I have been pretty amazed at what this driver can do for the right golfer.
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please elaborate
 
Jman said:
Knuckleballs then, eh ;)

If you’re seeing that with the Max, I don’t know that this is the driver for you. This is without any doubt lower spin than the Max.
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Is it lower spin than Epic Flash SZ?
 
tequila4kapp said:
Is it lower spin than Epic Flash SZ?
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Closer to Epic Flash standard IMO. I played that driver last year and the ball flight characteristics are similar. But I thought that was a lowish spinning standard driver.
 
tequila4kapp said:
please elaborate
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Here is a perfect example. I have a friend who is 6 foot 4 and a former D1 college defensive end. Very big, very strong, very athletic. He can nuke the ball with the very best in the world and has a decent move with the club. HIs issue, a huge slice. When this driver came out, I called him up and said callaway made a driver for you..

He went got fit, is playing it with an X stiff in it at 10.5 straight in. While he still hits a fade, and still will lose one right, last week he hit the most fairways I think I have ever seen him hit the entire time I have known him. While being fit he was seeing 170 plus ball speeds and mid-mid high 2000 spins.

This club is not a magic wand, it can still be missed, it can still spin way up on low strikes. But its ability reduce the big miss right is very very good. Its ability to do that and still maintain ball speed is the very best out there..


**Edit -- For me though, I already hit a ball the tends to move left most of the time. When I hit the driver it just wants to go hard'er left. I can still if I really really try get it to go straight but It is 100% going to accentuate my miss. That is why I say in the hands of the right golfer. This is a great driver. But it is not for everyone.
 
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Jman said:
Not in my experience, but for me it’s only about 100-150 rpm higher.
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Thank you. Same question for forgiveness, please.
 
Still intrigued and devouring every word written. I'm going to try to hit one of these in the next few weeks. I'll definitely try it with the stock regular shaft. I hope that people keep the reviews coming. If this thread is still active, and I assume it will be, I gladly post my observations.
 
Jman said:
One hundred percent more forgiving, imo.
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Agree, I have hit some bad shots, but they have not been short at all. This thing launches off all parts of the face.
 
I am not a slicer. My ball flight with driver tends to be straight and when I am really on, I hit a draw. However, when I really go after it, I mean, really try to bust one for me, I can hit a push, because I have an in to out swing path that can be as much as 6 degrees (which I keep working to reduce). When I swing really hard, I can get in front of it and leave the club face open, leading to the big right push. I wondered if this driver could eliminate that one miss that sometimes gets me in big trouble by allowing me to swing hard and get the head square at impact.

A week ago, I went to my local store and hit it. I posted in this thread that the numbers were really good. I had a boatload of various equipment that was not worth much and that I didn’t want to go through the hassle of selling, things like wedges and hybrids. I piled them into the car and unloaded them in trade and walked out of the store with the drive and little money out of pocket. Last night, I had the driver in the bag for the first time.

I pulled the RCH shaft and used one of the two custom shafts that we received at last year’s Small Batch experience with True Sports. It is about 65 grams and plays in between a RipTide and Hzrdus Smoke Black. I got on the first tee and hooked the driver. Hmmm... The second hole was a par 3. The third hole is a long par 4. I hooked it again. I could tell it was close, but not quite there. The next hole I tweaked the set up, moving it from standard at 9 degrees to 8 degrees. I uncorked a huge draw with a boring trajectory. I used it three more times for the 9 hole round and each drive was very long, relative to what I see on this course, in perfect position, with a perfect trajectory and either straight or a slight draw.

This has me excited. If I can eliminate that high right miss that i see once or twice a round, it probably reduces my handicap by a stroke. As others have said, this driver would not suit everybody. However, it is truly a bit of a unicorn and could truly help certain players.
 
Tenputt said:
I am not a slicer. My ball flight with driver tends to be straight and when I am really on, I hit a draw. However, when I really go after it, I mean, really try to bust one for me, I can hit a push, because I have an in to out swing path that can be as much as 6 degrees (which I keep working to reduce). When I swing really hard, I can get in front of it and leave the club face open, leading to the big right push. I wondered if this driver could eliminate that one miss that sometimes gets me in big trouble by allowing me to swing hard and get the head square at impact.

This has me excited. If I can eliminate that high right miss that i see once or twice a round, it probably reduces my handicap by a stroke. As others have said, this driver would not suit everybody. However, it is truly a bit of a unicorn and could truly help certain players.
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This is a lot like me with the sometimes push if i go after it with the Mavrik Max. When you tweaked it by dropping the loft do you think that resulted in reducing the draw bias or why do you think you got better results after the change. The more i read the more this driver interests me.
 
Elmave said:
This is a lot like me with the sometimes push if i go after it with the Mavrik Max. When you tweaked it by dropping the loft do you think that resulted in reducing the draw bias or why do you think you got better results after the change. The more i read the more this driver interests me.
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Reducing the loft by a degree also opens the club face, which was my reasoning for trying it. I think that this very slight adjustment (plus perhaps having loosened up after a few holes) and the resulting slightly more open club face allow the club to be square at impact. This driver also is pretty high launch. I think this helped bring my ball flight down just a touch and made it pretty optimal.
 
tucsondivots said:
Question for the testers: Are you leaving it at Standard setting for the most part (as opposed to Draw setting)? Or since it is Draw biased does the Standard setting suffice? Thanks.
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I originally set it up as draw/stated but bumped it to +1 for a little higher launch.
 
tequila4kapp said:
Thank you. Same question for forgiveness, please.
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thee most forgiving driver ive ever hit, but then again ive never hit 100 different drivers..
out of 25 drivers lets say, this is the best most forgiving driver ive ever hit.
 
Tenputt said:
Reducing the loft by a degree also opens the club face, which was my reasoning for trying it. I think that this very slight adjustment (plus perhaps having loosened up after a few holes) and the resulting slightly more open club face allow the club to be square at impact. This driver also is pretty high launch. I think this helped bring my ball flight down just a touch and made it pretty optimal.
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Did you try the RCH shaft in the driver also to see if it worked better/worse than your custom shafts? Just curious.
 
Newman21 said:
Did you try the RCH shaft in the driver also to see if it worked better/worse than your custom shafts? Just curious.
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I hit it with the RCH shaft in the store. I am planning on getting to a launch monitor very soon. When I do, I will compare the numbers with the two shafts and report in this thread.
 
I had a round last Friday where I started slicing my drives, and I immediately thought of this driver. Then, yesterday, I hit driver 14 times, and not one slice, mostly straight. Loving the Mavrik again :). Still interested to try this one out though.
 
Misike said:
I had a round last Friday where I started slicing my drives, and I immediately thought of this driver. Then, yesterday, I hit driver 14 times, and not one slice, mostly straight. Loving the Mavrik again :). Still interested to try this one out though.
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Just that little thought was all it took to put your Mavrik on notice and cause it to tow the line.
 
My Stroke Lab Double Wide and ST200 are having a fight, ST200 doesn't want to be replaced after only 8 weeks but, my SL wants to move in his Big Bertha relative so it's not the only non Mizuno club in my bag! Arrgg these reviews are making it hard! 🤔🥺
 
Got out for 9 tonight. I really found my swing with this thing. I put the ball maybe 2 balls inside my left foot and hit the ball really hard with this driver tonight. Seems a flat to slightly negative angle of attack really gets the weight behind the ball and blasts the ball down the fairway. The 3 balls I really cranked went 240 (long for me) off a nice mid level launch. They all 3 had a small tail at the end. Basically perfect drives. Makes sense since slicers hit descending blows.

The other thing is this thing is long all over the face. I hit one off the low toe and got a mostly strait 220 yard drive dow the right side of the fairway. The other was off the high toe and got about 225 on a high draw that was just left of center in the fairway. Both great misses for me.

I like this driver a lot. I have a Project X EvenFlow White 65g 6.0 flex shaft.cut to play at 44.5" and a 12g weight to replace the 5g weight to really fit this thing to me. Both coming tomorrow.

More to come...
 
Gonna get out tomorrow and head to the range. Excited to see the ball flight in real time!
 
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