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Callaway Releases Big Bertha B21 Driver

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SuperStroke
Got out today. Only got to 17 before dark, but I hit 11 of 13 fairways with the driver today. 8 of those were cranked. Did I mention we were playing in 17 MPH average winds today. The course went back and forth between being into the wind and hitting with the wind. Over and over I cranked this thing into stiff headwinds with a slight draw. I got 230 into the wind which is long for me no wind. I hit one with the wind 265 which is crazy long for me. My friend remarked several times how well I was striking it. I am going to finish a full review this week at some point, but this thing is awesome for me.
 
Man I'm going to be nervous that I got had by this eBay listing until this thing is in hand.
 
through a series of unexpected events, this driver will be headed my way. i honestly don't expect it to be a great fit, but i can't ignore the incredible love fest going on in this thread. so i'll be posting some thoughts soon! the mav max is absolutely showing out for me at the moment, but i'm hoping i can do some side-by-side analysis for those (like myself) who've been wondering this whole time how the b21 and mav max compare, and who each driver is meant for. @Jman and others have articulated this very well, so it will be fun to see their feedback play out for my own comparison.
 
Took the plunge on the 10.5, nice looking head though I did dial it down to 9.5. Hoping to get it out this week but outer band storms from the latest tropical storm headed up the Gulf may make that hard the next few days.


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Got the B21 out the range this weekend. Grabbed a 130 ball bucket, of which probably 60-70 were driver swings. It was a range I don't normally go to and I didn't have any sort of launch monitor or anything like that, so it was a complete eyeball test.

I've got a standard Mavrik and when I do my part it's an absolute monster. My usual driver shot shape used to be a draw and my miss would be a hook. After some back and shoulder issues this season though, I've developed a two way miss. I'm working on it now, but figured I'd give the B21 a shot to see if it could help me as I work through it. So I grabbed a 9˚ with the RCH 65S based on some of the feedback here to give it a run.

So first things first. This has been covered, but this won't help you if you put a terrible move on the ball. I think it does make the right miss a little more manageable but I was trying to slice it just out of curiosity and I was able to eat up a good portion of the range with a left to right ball flight. In fact I really didn't have much luck turning it over without using an exaggerated in to out swing. Ball flight was either dead straight or a little fade. I could definitely see the potential of that as anything I lined up on the left side was easily within the fairway I had carved out with the fence posts that was probably 30 yards or so wide. I saw better dispersion with it turned down to 8˚, which is odd, but could totally be because I started grooving a less crappy swing as time wore on.

This driver is a high launcher. Even turned down to 8˚ and I was still seeing a pretty high ball flight. Higher than my Mavrik/HZRDUS Yellow at 9˚. Not an issue at the range, but will be interesting to see how it plays out on the course in the wind.

Distance wise, I'd put the Mavrik a nose ahead, but this one wasn't any sort of a slouch there. Keeping the ball in the fairway is worth a small distance loss in my book. I thought the RCH shaft held up pretty well and definitely pairs well with this head. I plugged my HZRDUS Yellow in just for grins, but it was definitely not a love connection, and I quickly moved back to the RCH. I wasn't all over the face, but I definitely don't always hit it on the screws, and the B21 seemed to offer similar ball speed retention as the Mavrik.

Overall I'm still on the fence. Once I got my swing going I was seeing better results with the Mavrik when I didn't try to kill the ball. Gonna try to get it out on the course this weekend at least once or twice to see how it plays. Regardless of whether or not it ends up as my gamer, this is still a legit driver offering in my opinion. I tend to buy and try drivers because on course performance doesn't always jive with what I see on the range, but anyone who's even remotely interested in this driver or needs help with the fade/slice miss owes it to themselves to give this one a try.
 
thewilderside said:
Man I'm going to be nervous that I got had by this eBay listing until this thing is in hand.
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How sure are you that this driver is genuine, not a fake? I wish you well, and if it is genuine he got a very good deal.(y)
 
tommyhaka said:
How sure are you that this driver is genuine, not a fake? I wish you well, and if it is genuine he got a very good deal.(y)
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This is one of my concerns. That or the user got hacked and I'm never going to see the club.
 
thewilderside said:
This is one of my concerns. That or the user got hacked and I'm never going to see the club.
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I guess the way I would rationalize it out would be to think if I was the owner of the driver and didn't hit it very well or it didn't work out for me, how much would I sell it for used.? $285 sounds about right to me, especially if I wanted to get rid of it quickly. Again, I hope it works out for you, I'm sort of a skeptical individual and would be a bit concerned myself.
 
tommyhaka said:
I guess the way I would rationalize it out would be to think if I was the owner of the driver and didn't hit it very well or it didn't work out for me, how much would I sell it for used.? $285 sounds about right to me, especially if I wanted to get rid of it quickly. Again, I hope it works out for you, I'm sort of a skeptical individual and would be a bit concerned myself.
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I am too, that's why I'm nervous. There were 18 bids from 7 different bidders on the item, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
 
thewilderside said:
I am too, that's why I'm nervous. There were 18 bids from 7 different bidders on the item, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
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There's usually people in these forums that are very knowledgeable about genuine clubs versus fake ones, has anybody said one way or another for sure? You could always send a couple photos to Callaway and they would surely know.
 
tommyhaka said:
There's usually people in these forums that are very knowledgeable about genuine clubs versus fake ones, has anybody said one way or another for sure? You could always send a couple photos to Callaway and they would surely know.
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It's sad that it's come to this but I will probably have to. That's assuming I even get the club in hand. Age old saying, if it seems to good to be true it probably is. I'm feeling very pessimistic about this today 😢
 
thewilderside said:
It's sad that it's come to this but I will probably have to. That's assuming I even get the club in hand. Age old saying, if it seems to good to be true it probably is. I'm feeling very pessimistic about this today 😢
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Of course you'll let us know when you get the club oh, because I think many are very interested in this story. Hope the club come soon.
 
thewilderside said:
This is one of my concerns. That or the user got hacked and I'm never going to see the club.
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How could anyone have cloned a club folks are only getting in hand right now? I don’t think it’s possible. You either got a great deal or you’ll never receive the club imho.
 
tommyhaka said:
Of course you'll let us know when you get the club oh, because I think many are very interested in this story. Hope the club come soon.
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On the bright side, Ebay/Paypal are usually quite good about refunding fraudulent purchases...right?
 
Boone said:
How could anyone have cloned a club folks are only getting in hand right now? I don’t think it’s possible. You either got a great deal or you’ll never receive the club imho.
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Frankly this is my bigger concern, that it'll never show up.
 
I will elaborate on this more later tonight, but the confidence I have with this driver is through the roof! I can’t stress this enough...if you struggle off the tees, hitting fairways, you need this driver in your bag! Callaway has created something spectacular here!!
 
There is no doubt many golfers could screw up their tee shot with that driver, along with every other driver.;)
 
I finished up my lesson today hitting this​
driver. My instructor was floored by how well I was driving the ball! He’s seen me struggle so much in the last year...
especially with a driver. I’ve lost all confidence in my swing probably twice in the last year. Once, when I first decided to start taking lessons, then again about 2 months ago.
After hitting the Big Bertha B21 driver, I​
have 100% confidence in the fact I can put the ball in the fairway off the tee! This is a huge statement for me...really anyone! Do you feel like you can hit every fairway on the course off the tee?! The ball just wants to go straight. Horrible swings typically result in a fade, but a playable one. Your attitude for the round makes a dramatic change once your realize your second shot will be from the fairway, not punching out of the woods or playing from another fairway!
 
McLovin said:
through a series of unexpected events, this driver will be headed my way. i honestly don't expect it to be a great fit, but i can't ignore the incredible love fest going on in this thread. so i'll be posting some thoughts soon! the mav max is absolutely showing out for me at the moment, but i'm hoping i can do some side-by-side analysis for those (like myself) who've been wondering this whole time how the b21 and mav max compare, and who each driver is meant for. @Jman and others have articulated this very well, so it will be fun to see their feedback play out for my own comparison.
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Can't wait to hear. You can plug your Granddaddy shaft in there and give it a go too.
 
DataDude said:
Can't wait to hear. You can plug your Granddaddy shaft in there and give it a go too.
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i have a few different shafts with different profiles. it should be a lot of fun.
 
Time to do the full review...

I was blessed to be chosen to do this review. Thank you :callaway: and :thp: and @JB and of course the indomitable @GolferGal!!

This driver arrived on my porch on Thursday September the 17th. Since then I have played 4 full rounds and several less than full rounds with this driver. I self fit myself to get it right for me and in the words of Phil Mickelson hit some bombs. Let me tell you a bit about myself. I am a moderate swing speed player. Probably 85-90 MPH with my driver. From time to time I can hit drives 240 or so, but I live in the 215-230 range on reasonably well struck balls. I play a fade off the tee and usually aim down the left side of the fairway. I am working on my swing (always basically) and I have been hitting everything slightly straighter so there is some swing improvement going on here. Just wanted to give the background before getting into my thoughts.

Looks

I have to say that I am a bit biased at least on the paint scheme because navy blue with a vivid red is my favorite color combo of all color combos. I was pretty vocal I thought the Epic Flash was one of the uglier drivers I had ever seen. I thought it was a low for Callaway till I saw the Mavrik and the burnt orange. This follows a quite bland teal on the Rogue. Callaway has been striking out in this reviewers opinion on looks for 3 years so seeing these colors was exciting for me. Unfortunately given Callaway's seeming love for changing it up we may not see these again for a long time. The RCH55 shaft and it's metallic coloring paired very well with the look. That said my Project X Evenflow White looks even better with the navy and red. I also paired it with a CP2 wrap with blue and white highlights which just makes this driver pop in hand. I think the look everyone wants to know about though is the look at address. The back probably sticks out enough to bother some of the diehard traditionalists but I think it looks fine at address. There is no noticeable offset if you're worried about that. I despise offset and that would have set me off in the wrong direction.

Feel

Goodness the feels on this thing. First the face is huge so you can miss in a lot of different spaces if you've got a swing like mine. I am going to describe how different shots feel to give you an idea of how good this driver feels. Center of the face flushes feel like you obliterated the ball into a dust cloud. Slightly off center hits high and low feel like you sliced through the ball with a sword. Slightly left and right of center feel like you poked through the ball with a spear. Basically the feel is soft and flush all over the face. You really have to learn these subtle difference I just described to get the feedback you may want though. Otherwise grip and rip it and enjoy the best feeling driver I have ever hit.

Performance

The first round I played I had the RCH55 shaft in. It is a very soft tip. I play stiff tip in all my clubs. I couldn't square the face to save my life. I hit this driver everywhere. I was so disappointed the first night when I had to type that in as feedback. The encouraging thing was that even though I couldn't hit a fairway to save my life, the ball was going really far in the wrong direction. I knew that I loved the feel of the Evenflow White and I also like a slightly shorter driver to play at 44.5". I checked the headweight, ordered a 65g 6.0 in the Evenflow White and a 12g weight for the weight port on the driver head. It comes with a 5g weight so I added 7g to make up for the 1.25" I dropped the playing length. I have now played about 50 holes with this setup and so far the performance is stunning. Yesterday I started aiming down the middle of the fairway and by the back 9 I was aiming down the right middle of the fairway and hitting draws.

The first few holes I played I got in the groove of getting this clubs weight behind the ball and what I started to see was when this club is struck well the ball really doesn't want to move side to side very much. Left and right action is almost always a very slight thing at the tail end of the ballflight. Launch is amazing. This driver gets up in the air and flies a long way. Yesterday by the end of the round I was hitting mid flight baby draws that were rolling out 20-25 yards dead into a 17 mph wind and preserving 220-230 yard drives. With the wind I struck one 265 yards. I hit 11 of 13 fairways yesterday with this driver which is one of my best days driving the ball ever. The fact that this was accomplished in 17 mph winds is just stupid.

Launch with this club is good, but I am sure people want to know about spin. I have not hit this on a launch monitor, but I live in the 3000+ range when I do hit on a monitor at a store. There is no way the shots I was hitting yesterday had anywhere near that much spin on them the way they were flying through the wind. My buddy hits a 230-250 yard high fade off the tee and is generally 10-20 yards in front of me when we play. I can't tell you how satisfying it was watching his fades into the wind get eaten alive and then his fades with the wind sail off into the rough deep right while my balls sailed strait with small tails and kept landing in the fairway. This driver is a serious performer. It definitely won't be the best driver for everyone, but this is not a driver that only a certain group of golfers should try. Anyone could hit this well and it might even surprise some really good ball strikers how well they could hit it. As always and based on my experience with the stock shaft, get fit. The RCH55 might be great for you, but it might not.

Overall Impressions

This driver is a winner. I am already planning on it being locked in my bag for 2021. The high and long flight and the ability to slice through wind will certainly make it a great winter and spring option and I rarely change drivers during the season. This is not your typical draw driver. I think this is a really strong performer and could be huge for a lot of people. Callaway is really pushing the RCH shaft here and they really aren't featuring a lot of other options. That said I just looked online on Callaway's website and it looks like there are several high quality no charge upgrades to get this the way you want it so customize away. If you want more consistency in your driving I would encourage you to give this a shot. As always feel free to ask any questions you may have.
 
Very nice write-up, and glad you are happy. Several things stand out in what you have said, firstly the color scheme which I too would really enjoy. Secondly, how important the shaft is and Driver fitting and successful performance. Another thing that I find interesting is your change of ball trajectory incorporating a slight draw. When I changed my swing around and brought a draw into play, I gained probably 40 yards in length with my Callaway XR 16 driver which is about 5 years old now. I am 65 and have a 95 mile per hour swing speed so I am sort of in a similar situation as you. I have to believe the technology of the B21 is fabulous, but I would have to give credit just as much to a properly fitted shaft and the type of swing that is put on a ball. Comparing the B21 to my xr16 I would have to believe the B21 is a bit more forgiving in terms of dispersion, how much I am not sure. Is it worth it for me to get a B21 to replace my xr16, that is the $500 question.
 
thewilderside said:
Julio, Ridley, Gage, and Hurst? Hey let's hand the ball off up the middle to a washed Gurley
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You might wanna try the NFL thread


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