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Callaway Releases Big Bertha B21 Driver

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SuperStroke
MaybeDuffer said:
What is the loft on your Mavrik Max?
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Max is a 9° head, I play it both ways S/N and at times +1/N.
My striking was decent, but not game worthy by an means as I am pretty wore out from a bad sinus infection right now. But couldn't let a new toy sit in the box without going out and hitting it. :LOL:
 
Tenputt said:
One thing that I would note is that I would expect your Mavrik Max to launch higher, so what you are seeing is probably accurate. The max will definitely be higher spin and for those who need the launch and spin, the Max may well be a better fit.
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This. If one needs spin, the Max is a better direction.
 
I had intended to post this yesterday but TS Zeta came through Metro Atlanta Wednesday night and I was without power all day yesterday. There are consequences to living in the most wooded big city in the country
I fully expected to get rained out Wednesday for league play but only suffered a two hour delay. Not bad considering we had a lot of rain Tuesday afternoon.
I put the RCH 45 shaft back on the BB B 21 after having played the Speeder reg flex for a few rounds. The last time I played I noticed my fade was getting broader so I figured as I tired I got lazy and came OTT.
We were cart path only and for some reason I played better than the week before, what a strange game this is.
I made a conscious effort to slow my swing down a bit and my drives seemed to improve over last week with a fade being there but still leaving very playable second shots. I did notice I seemed shorter this week but attributed that to the lack of run out due to very wet fairways. I played the fade on #'s 2,3,4 and 5 staying near the middle of the fairway.
On #7 I lined up to play the fade and hit a dreaded straight drive that would have been OK if the hole wasn't 45 degrees right with the dog leg. still got away with a bogey.
The back nine was similar to the front until 18 and I yanked it left up into the woods on a hill. I got lucky and was able to punch a 6 iron out on the fairway for a look at the green.
I was able to hit my 7 wood to the fringe and 2 putted for par.
Two of the guys I played with Wednesday commented that my fade seemed more managed than they remembered from previous rounds and I went through the B 21 explanation and how it has given me more confidence on the tee box.
I think I'm going to keep the RCH shaft on the B 21 at least through the winter. I have a fitting at Golftec sometime in the future and may tinker more with shafts when I can look at more data when doing so. For now I'm just going to stick with the combo Callaway designed and try to get the best from it. So far it has done more than expected overall.
When I look back at my driving this year I remember how the Mavrik Max allowed me to play my fade but the B 21 has narrowed that curve so much that I am now playing a lot more from the "short grass". Not having to scramble to make a second shot has improved my score a bunch and made my game more enjoyable.
This club has definitely been a confidence builder for me.
 
It is continually mentioned in here how this club limits side spin to alleviate slicing, but I wonder how this club would react to somebody who likes working the ball left to right right to left? A key component for many golfer's game is their ability to work the ball around dog legs and such.
 
tommyhaka said:
It is continually mentioned in here how this club limits side spin to alleviate slicing, but I wonder how this club would react to somebody who likes working the ball left to right right to left? A key component for many golfer's game is their ability to work the ball around dog legs and such.
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I have been able to work this more than some other drivers. Here’s why. I am not a fader of the ball. When I try to hit a fade, I sometimes hold the club open too much and leave myself too far right. With this head, I can hold off just a tad on my release and I get a little fade. I can draw this club at will. My miss with this club has been a bit of a hook off the toe. It doesn’t happen much, but it does.
 
I sent my Tour Exotics back to Budget Golf(90 day playability guarantee) for this driver due to all the positive reviews not only here but everywhere else too. My first driving range session was disappointing. Went out last weekend to play and was very happy with my drives. I bought a 9 degree head and lofted it up to 10. Really had a nice front 9 with this driver. It is long and straight for me, but I’m old and slow. First hole I was 130 out (on a wet course) and normally would have been 150. Very impressed. Let my playing partner hit it (regular RCH shaft) and his first words were I need one of these. His went 320!! My first Callaway driver too.
 
Just_Hacking said:
My B21 came in yesterday and will be in the bag for tomorrow's round. I did have a chance to test it out week before last and really like what I was seeing. I was getting more roll out of it than I was on my Rogue at least on the day I tried it. I am really looking forward to see how it fairs tomorrow.
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If it works better than you were hitting your Rogue when you got going this past weekend, you're going to have to keep it.
 
Greg Kulbick said:
If it works better than you were hitting your Rogue when you got going this past weekend, you're going to have to keep it.
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I hit some really nice ones today for sure with even more roll than with the Rogue. If it continues to perform like it did today it will stay in the bag for a long time.
 
Played 9 this evening and hit the b21 driver extremely well. On a long par 5 and a great drive had a pitching wedge in. It just works for me. Very pleased.
 
Tenputt said:
I have run out of superlatives to describe how well this driver works for me. According to Shot Scope, my performance average distance is 294 yards. Today, I hit driver 12 times. I hit 8 fairways and four of my drives were over 300 yards. My longest was 335 yards. There was no wind. this was not down hill. It was just a freaking long drive for me into a place on this particular fairway that I have never reached before, not even when I was in my 30’s and had much more club speed. This was a par 5, where I had a 7 iron into the green, a good look at eagle and birdied the hole.

This very well may be the best piece of equipment that I have ever had in my bag in terms of really changing how I score. Once I put a very tip stiff shaft in it, it is just an absolute monster, but yet I am hitting a ton of fairways. Wow, I wish we were not at the end of the season. I don’t want to lose this magic.

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What app you using?
 
Put the RCH back in yesterday for grins and hit it well. I definitely overpower it a bit, but, it’s still spitting out solid numbers for me.

I’ll say again the sound of this one is impeccable. Hitting it side by side with Mav Max reminded me how good this is compared to that in particular.

IMO much of it compared to other drivers is a choice of lower spin jumps on misses, much lower in many cases or a driver that provides lower spin on solid strikes. I know which I prefer, but I think for the masses I hat reduction in spin on misses here is going to e more than worth it in terms of how much direction and distance is retained. It’s mind blowing at times.
 
I took both my SpeedZone and the B21 out for my round today. I played the SpeedZone on the front and the B21 on the back. I hit 3/5 fairways on the front with the SpeedZone and 4/6 fairways on the back with the B21, so I can’t complain about accuracy with either driver. However, the B21 definitely feels and sounds more pleasing to me. I also unleashed another couple of drives of over 300 yards with the B21. I am hitting the B21 on the screws repeatedly. I just have more confidence with it in my hands.

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Tenputt said:
I took both my SpeedZone and the B21 out for my round today. I played the SpeedZone on the front and the B21 on the back. I hit 3/5 fairways on the front with the SpeedZone and 4/6 fairways on the back with the B21, so I can’t complain about accuracy with either driver. However, the B21 definitely feels and sounds more pleasing to me. I also unleashed another couple of drives of over 300 yards with the B21. I am hitting the B21 on the screws repeatedly. I just have more confidence with it in my hands.

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You are really killing this driver. Looking forward to seeing how it performs tomorrow for me.
 
I was just looking at my stats from yesterday’s round. Here is the Arccos summary:

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boggyman said:
Thanks
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Just to make it confusing, yesterday, I used Arccos, because I was playing the new Cobra irons that have Cobra Connect.
 
So I was able to get out and play 18 today. Played the front 9 with one ball and the back nine with a different ball. Driver 9° head set up at +1/N just like the Max I play. Being that both shafts I received to try with the club came in stiff I plugged in the Blue Ventus 5R shaft.
I hit 11/14 fairways today. You can easily slice this driver as I had 2 missed that said to the next fairway. My other miss was a pull down the left side that just didn't bounce back to the fairway.

Front 9 was played with my normal ball the 2020 Chrome Soft. The thing I noticed the most was the height of my drives was not as high. The upside to this was I noticed quite a bit more rollout, this is both good and bad. On my course you can get away with some rollout and not get in trouble, a couple courses I play this would lead to issues of running thru fairways or getting you stuck behind trees. I did notice a few yards of distance gains because of rollout.

Back 9 was played with the same setup but with the Srixon Soft Feel ball. This ball is a bit softer and I can compress it a bit more. Had some really good results on drives and the longest drive of the day was with this ball. Right at 267 yards with roll.

Overall it is a good driver and does as advertised, it wants to go straight. I was able to move it left or right small fades or draws. Easier to fade than draw for me.
For me I need a bit more height for carry, and even lofting this up +2 I'm not sure I would get what I need. Carry is king in my opinion when it comes to the driver. With the lower ball flight of this driver it is one that I would not make my gamer. I could see though that the lower flight could be beneficial in really windy conditions.
For me I would be better served with the Mavrik Max and changing to a less spinny ball as I saw my last time out.
I would like to try this driver with the stock shaft in Reg flex to see if that would make a difference.
I will give this another run next weekend on a different course, but I have tried this before and played only one round with a driver and realized it wasn't for my game so I don't see that changing with the B21.
 
Snickerdog said:
For me I need a bit more height for carry, ...
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Interesting. As I noted, earlier: My brief test was far from definitive, but I don't recall getting lower height out of the B21 I demo'd vs. my X2 Hot. Both 10.5° with R flex shafts.

If my planned range day tomorrow and game later this week pan out and if my driver handling really is improved, I may demo again near the end of the week and see.
 
In typical 2020 fashion, my November 1st golf was canceled due to the 6 or so inches of snow we got in the Boston area on Friday last week so the B21 remains un-hit in my bag. Hopefully this weekend will bring a chance or two to get it on the course. Until then, I'll live vicariously through this thread.
 
Well think of it this way, this driver can still be the greatest driver ever made in your imagination. As long as you don't hit it, you don't have to experience reality, but can imagine hitting 14 of 14 fairways with drives over 300 yards long.:)
 
@tommyhaka, perhaps you should consider giving it a rest? There are members that have tried this club and it didn't work for them. They moved on. That's one thing. All you're doing is sniping at people with positive experiences to report. Perhaps I'm speaking out-of-turn, but ISTM you're increasingly looking like nothing more than a troll.
 
I'm not sure why two possibilities, that no driver will magically fix all negative tendencies or imperfect swings, and that this one can help a lot and is a great driver for many, cannot co-exist? Those two ideas are not mutually exclusive.

I love this one, and it absolutely helps mitigate my occasional tendency to send balls right off the tee.
 
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