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Callaway Big Bertha Alpha 815 Double Black Diamond Driver Review Thread

SuperStroke
Okay, back from the range with the launch monitor. Here are the numbers.

This is the average of the best 5 balls.

Ball Speed 152
Launch Angle 14.3
Spin 2111
Carry 256

This is the average of all of the balls

Ball Speed 145
Launch Angle 11.8
Spin 2206
Carry 233

When hit well, this is one heck of a solid performer. When I missed, you can see what happened as my launch went down and ball speed went down and carry went way down. I freaking love the sound of this one and the setup, but when I missed low or towards the toe, I was punished more than I normally am with the regular 815.
 
JB said:
Okay, back from the range with the launch monitor. Here are the numbers.

This is the average of the best 5 balls.

Ball Speed 152
Launch Angle 14.3
Spin 2111
Carry 256

This is the average of all of the balls

Ball Speed 145
Launch Angle 11.8
Spin 2206
Carry 233

When hit well, this is one heck of a solid performer. When I missed, you can see what happened as my launch went down and ball speed went down and carry went way down. I freaking love the sound of this one and the setup, but when I missed low or towards the toe, I was punished more than I normally am with the regular 815.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting these #s. Very cool to compare clubs this way. Have you considered doing this with impact tape on and including the pic with the results so THP'ers could know what you consider "out on the toe" etc? I think this would help someone who knows what their usual impact patterns are. It would be really cool to see how far off the center garners big drops in carry. Also comparing those to the impact patterns on the 815 would be neat. I really appreciate all the info! Just thought about this as I was reading. Thanks!


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Hey JB

Did you find any that you thought were good, based on feedback, only to have the foresight tell you different?
 
LordByron said:
Thanks for posting these #s. Very cool to compare clubs this way. Have you considered doing this with impact tape on and including the pic with the results so THP'ers could know what you consider "out on the toe" etc? I think this would help someone who knows what their usual impact patterns are. It would be really cool to see how far off the center garners big drops in carry. Also comparing those to the impact patterns on the 815 would be neat. I really appreciate all the info! Just thought about this as I was reading. Thanks!


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Click to expand...

Outside of doing individual impact tape for each shot, it makes it hard to see because after a series of balls, you are going to see the tape fairly filled if that makes sense. At least for photographic info. Not something I was planning on doing, but can do that or something else if people want/need it.

blugold said:
Hey JB

Did you find any that you thought were good, based on feedback, only to have the foresight tell you different?
Click to expand...

Not really.
 
JB said:
Outside of doing individual impact tape for each shot, it makes it hard to see because after a series of balls, you are going to see the tape fairly filled if that makes sense. At least for photographic info. Not something I was planning on doing, but can do that or something else if people want/need it.






It was just a thought. Doing tape for Indy shots would be a huge pita! Ha. Excellent content as of late! Always improving.


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Click to expand...
 
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JB said:
Okay, back from the range with the launch monitor. Here are the numbers.

This is the average of the best 5 balls.

Ball Speed 152
Launch Angle 14.3
Spin 2111
Carry 256

This is the average of all of the balls

Ball Speed 145
Launch Angle 11.8
Spin 2206
Carry 233

When hit well, this is one heck of a solid performer. When I missed, you can see what happened as my launch went down and ball speed went down and carry went way down. I freaking love the sound of this one and the setup, but when I missed low or towards the toe, I was punished more than I normally am with the regular 815.
Click to expand...
Thanks for these numbers JB. I was hoping to look into these a little further and wondered if the 'best 5 balls' results were included in with the 'all of the ball' results and about how many total balls were included? A rough guess is good. Also I'm assuming the head speed would typically be around 103mph. That would've provided a solid 1.48 smash on the best 5 balls.
 
Had my first real range session with this one last night where I played with settings. I am still hooked on the 9.5 with the gravity core down. The one thing I am noticing which really I am struggling with are the low on the club face misses. Much like JB, I am seeing a huge discrepancy in distance, however; mine by appearance seems to be spinning alot and almost ballooning and losing its distance... Doesnt make alot of sense to me based on what I have heard from others. The ones I hit though are so much better than anything I have hit in the last 5 years that I will take the miss and go on
 
Daddio said:
Thanks for these numbers JB. I was hoping to look into these a little further and wondered if the 'best 5 balls' results were included in with the 'all of the ball' results and about how many total balls were included? A rough guess is good. Also I'm assuming the head speed would typically be around 103mph. That would've provided a solid 1.48 smash on the best 5 balls.
Click to expand...

Yes the best 5 were included. 18 were hit total.
I dont deal in club head speed because the launch monitor does not give that info (and in my opinion is fairly irrelevant in compared to ball speed).
 
Thanks very much. Right I feel the same as to ball speed being the far more important metric. I was just going to assume club speed so as to get a rough estimate on smash factor and how it's impacted on those 13 less than best hits with DBD.

OK calculating this; it looks like those 13 less than the best shots suffered 10 mph ball speed loss (from 152 to 142) and a 32 yard loss of carry (from 256 to 224). Definitely a driver for those who find the sweet spot and appropriately named. About a 0.10 loss in assumed smash factor too on those average or poor 13 shots.
 
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JB said:
Okay, back from the range with the launch monitor. Here are the numbers.

This is the average of the best 5 balls.

Ball Speed 152
Launch Angle 14.3
Spin 2111
Carry 256

This is the average of all of the balls

Ball Speed 145
Launch Angle 11.8
Spin 2206
Carry 233

When hit well, this is one heck of a solid performer. When I missed, you can see what happened as my launch went down and ball speed went down and carry went way down. I freaking love the sound of this one and the setup, but when I missed low or towards the toe, I was punished more than I normally am with the regular 815.
Click to expand...

Spin increasing on off center contact as well? You seeing fades and additional left/right spin to relate to that? I know some faces introduce less spin when hit away from center, found it intriguing to see this one add it.

Super intrigued by this one, as always. How's the sound?
 
Canadan said:
Spin increasing on off center contact as well? You seeing fades and additional left/right spin to relate to that? I know some faces introduce less spin when hit away from center, found it intriguing to see this one add it.

Super intrigued by this one, as always. How's the sound?
Click to expand...

Yes for me


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Canadan said:
Spin increasing on off center contact as well? You seeing fades and additional left/right spin to relate to that? I know some faces introduce less spin when hit away from center, found it intriguing to see this one add it.

Super intrigued by this one, as always. How's the sound?
Click to expand...

That part can be rather misleading, because much of that will depend on where its hit. If brokden down into individual strikes you would absolutely see spin drops on some off center strikes.

Sound is very much like your Callaway sound. Muted crack that feels deep.
 
I just picked up one of these, look forward to hitting it sometime soon
 
Looking forward to the first round of the year with this monster Sunday. It will be messy. Excited to provide some feedback as well.


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I did get a second range session in today. I was fighting my setup. I will say that I really do love the sound of this driver.

I'm two range sessions in and I am already thinking I outsmarted myself with the shaft, but it feels really good
 
flog2424 said:
Had my first real range session with this one last night where I played with settings. I am still hooked on the 9.5 with the gravity core down. The one thing I am noticing which really I am struggling with are the low on the club face misses. Much like JB, I am seeing a huge discrepancy in distance, however; mine by appearance seems to be spinning alot and almost ballooning and losing its distance... Doesnt make alot of sense to me based on what I have heard from others. The ones I hit though are so much better than anything I have hit in the last 5 years that I will take the miss and go on
Click to expand...

Have you played with the tee height at all? I've found with the deeper face, I need to tee it up a bit higher than I normally would. I find it a much friendlier head with high misses vs. low.
 
scottaz said:
Have you played with the tee height at all? I've found with the deeper face, I need to tee it up a bit higher than I normally would. I find it a much friendlier head with high misses vs. low.
Click to expand...

Did this last night on the range and found out the same thing. Started teeing it a bit higher and was reducing spin and getting a lot more carry it seemed. Thanks for pointing this out!


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Anybody tried this with a Tour AD BB?


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flog2424 said:
Anybody tried this with a Tour AD BB?
Click to expand...
I've got an AD-BB7x with my DBD. I haven't really gotten a whole lot of playing time with it. I've played one round with that shaft and one round with my old Accra Tour Z ST 75 that I was fit for in my old Alpha. Both of these shafts are pretty similar in weight and launch. I think the Accra might be a bit lower spinning but I'm not sure. I played 18 with the AD-BB and hit a few decent drives but nothing spectacular. I only measured the first one and it was just 275. But it was about 32 degrees and the first hole I had played in about 2.5 months. I played 12 holes on monday with the Accra in the DBD and only hit 5 drives with it. None of which were particularly good but that was all me. I plan on going back to my fitter next week to get fit for irons and we talked about also checking these two shafts out on the Trackman. I'll have more to report then.
 
flog2424 said:
Did this last night on the range and found out the same thing. Started teeing it a bit higher and was reducing spin and getting a lot more carry it seemed. Thanks for pointing this out!


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Click to expand...

No prob! I think the dbd is one that requires a bit of tinkering to lock in. With the weights, core and deeper face, it's a different animal. But the more I play around with it, the better it gets and it was pretty awesome to start with.

I was indoors on trackman a while back with it and they didn't have high tee's and I wasn't seeing what I was on the range or course. I had them find me a longer tee and bam! My miss tends to be towards the toe and I see very little difference there vs. dead center. Low and heal however....no good for me.
 
After my iron fitting yesterday at Cool Clubs, I hit a few drives with my DBD and the AD-BB vs the Accra Tour-Z ST 75 that I was fit for there last year. They were very similar but the Accra was more consistent for me. Anyone looking for a AD-BB might want to check out the marketplace forum soon.
 
wluker17 said:
After my iron fitting yesterday at Cool Clubs, I hit a few drives with my DBD and the AD-BB vs the Accra Tour-Z ST 75 that I was fit for there last year. They were very similar but the Accra was more consistent for me. Anyone looking for a AD-BB might want to check out the marketplace forum soon.
Click to expand...

Maybe this guy!


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Well, it is in there now if you want to look at it. AD-BB 7X. It is a great shaft if you like something in the 75g range. I don't think it is all that big and bad like it might sound. You definitely need to put a decent swing on it. If I didn't have my custom fitted and built Accra Tour-Z shaft, I would totally game the AD-BB.
 
I hit it 4 times yesterday the first 2 were ok, but the last 2 were probably 20 yards farther than were they were normally w/ my BB Alpha. I was using the Chrome Soft which i think goes about 1/2 a club farther for me.
 
I think I may have to crank my DBD up to 9 degrees just to gain a bit more spin. I'm launching it well but it was just turning over all day today and not carrying like it should. When I was at my iron fitting on Thursday, I hit this on trackman and it was spinning around 1600. I tried the core up but that just doesn't work for me. One more interesting thing for me is I'm drawing almost everything instead of hitting a fade. That isn't a bad thing just opposite of my drives from all last year.


War Eagle from my iPad
 
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