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Callaway Releases Big Bertha B21 Driver

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SuperStroke
Tenputt said:
What are you seeing with this shaft in terms of performance?
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A little higher launch angle and much more distance than with other stiff shafts.
 
I still haven’t got mine on the course. I went out to my mom and dad’s farm and hit it against my M5 & SIM. Results weren’t very good. I can’t find the center of the face at all. I know that’s this drivers strong suit but I hit the others in the center more often. And it’s shorter by a good bit. I don’t really miss laterally with the others. My main miss is high on the face with an open face. I was all over the place with the Callaway. I might try a different shaft before I give up.
 
So @thewilderside SMOKES this thing. Over 300 routinely today with it at the THP Experience.
 
LLIB said:
I still haven’t got mine on the course. I went out to my mom and dad’s farm and hit it against my M5 & SIM. Results weren’t very good. I can’t find the center of the face at all. I know that’s this drivers strong suit but I hit the others in the center more often. And it’s shorter by a good bit. I don’t really miss laterally with the others. My main miss is high on the face with an open face. I was all over the place with the Callaway. I might try a different shaft before I give up.
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Amazing sometimes how we can hit one driver well but struggle with another. I have tried 3 different shafts in this driver and can't find the consistency that I do with the Max.
 
JB said:
So @thewilderside SMOKES this thing. Over 300 routinely today with it at the THP Experience.
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I can confirm it was easily the best driving day I've ever had. Thank goodness because the rest of the game was work in progress :LOL:
 
Snickerdog said:
Amazing sometimes how we can hit one driver well but struggle with another. I have tried 3 different shafts in this driver and can't find the consistency that I do with the Max.
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It is. I’m not a good ball striker but damn, I can occasionally find the center of the face. Not with this one though. I tend to miss vertically with the others. My biggest issue is leaving the face open. But with the B21 I had a two way miss with strikes all over the face
 
LLIB said:
It is. I’m not a good ball striker but damn, I can occasionally find the center of the face. Not with this one though. I tend to miss vertically with the others. My biggest issue is leaving the face open. But with the B21 I had a two way miss with strikes all over the face
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You think it may be shaft weight,Bill?


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Jrt13 said:
You think it may be shaft weight,Bill?


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I wouldn’t think so. I stuck a Helium in the TM’s and was hitting them fine. From what I can find that should be similar enough to the RCH 55 that’s in the Callaway to get a decent comparison. I might try to find a RCH 65 and give it a go.

I’m not gonna try too hard. I hit the TM’s well enough. I just found the B21 at a good price and thought I’d give it a go.
 
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Played 9 today. The biggest thing that continues to stand out to me is my miss to right is reeled in. I hit the Mavrik really well but the biggest difference to me is what happens on my biggest miss. The big miss with the B21 has remained on the planet (so far).
 
If the Dick's up here had had one tonight I would be owning one now. Pretty sad selection, a couple of xr16's for full retail and 3 Mavs all with stiff shafts. 😔
 
Windy for tomorrows round so will try this driver again and see what happens. Will try it with the tour ad shaft.
 
So after having my playing partner stand behind me and watch my swing while I hit a few shots he confirmed I was hitting most everything on the heel. Lightbulb moment, I was standing to close to the ball. So I needed to line up the ball on the toe and boom, center face contact. I feel really dumb not being able to figure out the adjustment. :mad:
So or the round today, 11/14 fairways and not one slice or big fade. I was hitting mostly straight and 3-5 yard draws all day long. Setup was +2/N in the 9° head. 25mph winds all day and was seeing some great distances against the wind and getting close to where I would normally be on a calm day. Ball flight was much better and getting quite a good bit of roll out.
Had a Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-5 in stiff flex shaft in play today. Nice smooth feel to it.
 
I think my time with this one is officially up. I see the potential, but haven't been able to hit it as consistently as my Std. Mavrik. Was a fun experiment though.
 
Over the weekend I went to a Callaway fitting at a local course. Results were mixed - let me explain.
I currently game a Cobra SZ Xtreme with LINQ Gunmetal stiff shaft at tour length (44.5 inches). I was hitting it well in my warm up before the fitting. The fitter had me hit a few to start the fitting so he could get an idea of what to start me out with. I striped them all (wish I could do that more often on the course, lol). His immediate reaction after looking at my driver was, "I can't beat that. You would be a fool to take that club out of your bag." He didn't even have me hit the BB21. He did say an updated Mavrik which is slated for "next year" would be a contender but obviously wasn't available for me to demo. I did hit the current Mavrik but without a shaft to match my LINQ it wasn't a fair fight.
I came away a little disappointed that I didn't insist on hitting the BB21 just for some personal experience. It was tempered with the feeling that I had reinforced that my current driver is $$ though!
 
MagicSpell said:
Over the weekend I went to a Callaway fitting at a local course. Results were mixed - let me explain.
I currently game a Cobra SZ Xtreme with LINQ Gunmetal stiff shaft at tour length (44.5 inches). I was hitting it well in my warm up before the fitting. The fitter had me hit a few to start the fitting so he could get an idea of what to start me out with. I striped them all (wish I could do that more often on the course, lol). His immediate reaction after looking at my driver was, "I can't beat that. You would be a fool to take that club out of your bag." He didn't even have me hit the BB21. He did say an updated Mavrik which is slated for "next year" would be a contender but obviously wasn't available for me to demo. I did hit the current Mavrik but without a shaft to match my LINQ it wasn't a fair fight.
I came away a little disappointed that I didn't insist on hitting the BB21 just for some personal experience. It was tempered with the feeling that I had reinforced that my current driver is $$ though!
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It’s a good feeling to know what you have is optimized. I am puzzled by the fitter stating that there will be an updated Mavrik, because it would seem that the next release will be an update of the EPIC line, which has had sliding weights in the past, whereas the Rogue/Mavrik lineage has fixed weight positions.
 
Tenputt said:
It’s a good feeling to know what you have is optimized. I am puzzled by the fitter stating that there will be an updated Mavrik, because it would seem that the next release will be an update of the EPIC line, which has had a sliding weights in the past, whereas the Rogue/Mavrik lineage has fixed weight positions.
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Correctamumdo. Epic Speed
Mav remains another year. Probably at a price break.
 
Picked up a BB B21 head only for a reasonable price. Will try it out once I get to Arkansas.

bb 21.jpg
 
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I played 5 rounds this weekend with the B21. First time I put it in play other than on the range. It was a bit of a mixed bag if I'm being honest. I'm still working on finding the center of the face consistently. Using a lighter shaft than normal and of course every driver is different in terms of setup. When I did have center hits, they were bombs and straight as an arrow. When I didn't find center face, most still went a surprising distance. I can confirm that it's still quite possible to slice a ball into the woods with the Big Bertha - it's not a magic driver :)

Overall I am happy with my better shots with the B21. I am having to tee down more than I have traditionally and that takes some getting used to. Those who have stated that the driver responds best when really getting after it are on to something.
 
I have 36 holes planned this weekend for my birthday...weather depending! Looking forward to hitting fairways all day!
 
Well it was commented on previously, but I'll reiterate that I struck this club extremely well this weekend. I had a good feeling on the range Saturday and it carried over to the course. The first drive of the day Saturday was in front of @DannyLe @JB @JDax and @Afizzle2100 so the nerves were humming a bit. Was very pleased to put it in the fairway with maybe a touch of fade. Next couple of times I played for that touch of fade, but was really seeing more draw with a hint of pull. I think it was hole 5 where it all clicked. I'd drawn/slight pulled a couple drives so I stopped fighting it, lined up down the right side, and let it rip. The result was a great drive that cleared 300 yards and had a beautiful draw. There were several more like that throughout Saturday, and Sunday was a bit more up and down but I blame that on @BHGtylerb putting on a show with the GS53 Max so I was swinging for the fences a lot. My favorite part about this was I would say I had one straight-up slice, and maybe 2 or 3 fades. That's not to say I didn't lose some, but generally they were a result of starting the ball too far out to the right and not bringing it back enough, as opposed to the old start it center fairway and watch it slice hard right. @Afizzle2100 can also attest as he took a couple swings with it on Friday and struck it very well.

My summary is if you tend to miss right, you're doing yourself a disservice by not checking this club out. You can still get in trouble, but the confidence it instills is unlike anything else I've come across in a driver.
 
Finally got my B21 out on the course this last weekend and had some interesting results. Coming from a Epic Flash Sub-Zero with a heavier weight in the front port, the "off the shelf" weight of this seemed very light to me. That said, I also hadn't been on a golf course in about four weeks, so my swing wasn't great.

Hit some good drive and some bad drives (per usual for an 11.6 index) but did seem to find the fairway more in that two-round sample size. I will say with the same shaft as I had in my Sub-Zero and not playing with the weight at all, I do think this was a little shorter. I will experiment a little with a shaft change and maybe throwing a heavier weight in the back and see what that does. At this point I'd say it's way to early to tell - really need some launch monitor numbers to see if what I was seeing was real or just what I was imagining.
 
Still seeing a lot of what I like and not much of what I don't with this driver.

Sidespin is significantly reduced. I don't line up to aim as far left as possible anymore. I am starting to expect a straitish flight with a little tail one way or the other.

One thing I am started to take for granted is the distance throughout the face. It's definitely got a lot of pop even on mishits. I assume this is from the Flash Face AI technology.

The thing I will always love is the look. The color scheme is 🔥. Best looking driver of the year IMO and I am often very critical.of Callaway's choices with colors.
 
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