Callaway Releases Big Bertha B21 Driver

i had a similar response earlier as far as having to get after the club to get good results, i felt as if the more gas i gave it the better, getting on it has gave me some really good results with distance obviously and ball flight more so.
I'm definitely happy to hear this. If that holds true it's going to take some getting used to as usually when I get after my driver things can go very wrong :LOL: I'll take it though, the last three drives (hit a second one on #8 that had similar ball flight but was about 20 yards shorter) I hit were all 280+ and in play. If that becomes the norm with this club I'll be ecstatic.
 
Hit a huge drive on #2 Par 5 today. Hit it over the dogleg right 280 yards! Left me 170 into the hole! Hit it into a greenside bunker on #3. It’s a short par 4 that curves left. Hit really good drives. I did hit 2 slices today. Had to wait a lot on the back nine. I had 2-3 drop kicks that went about 220-230 but straight. So, all and all, I hit some of my best drives ever, a couple not so good ones, and 2 bad slices. But, I still hit like 85% of the fairways, which is what this driver does! You put a good swing on it and you’re rewarded, swing it poorly and it really minimizes the negatives and you typically can still hit the fairway. It’s down right amazing what this thing can do!

I had a little test of this club today after seeing J.B on the range today. I hit about 8/9 balls and I have to say its a solid driver. This b21 driver has the 55g/stiff shaft and not that far off weight wise to what I play.

I play a Mizuno ST200 and love it, its a 50g regular shafted club and when its hit its really hit long. However I've been having some left issues and to be fair that Callaway b21 shouldn't be for me right now due to its draw bias set up. That being said this club had a nice feel to it, great solid sound when hit, plenty forgiving, though I did struggle to figure out where on the face I hit it.

From the 8/9 balls I hit 2 were small blocks, one big draw, one baby draw and the rest just straight, go figure those straight balls with the way my regular swing has been going lately and its left bias, it was rather surprising.

I'm not a Callaway player, always found there clubs a bit underwhelming, but like I said this was a solid club (to be fair everyone makes solid clubs now). Not a game changer though.

When I finished I went back to my club and stripped it :eek::LOL: My be when someone is finished testing this b21 you can sell it to me as a training aid ;)
 
Doesn't look like you can change the weights on the B21. :(

B21 Pic.png
 
As @Blame Me will attest, I hit some bombs with this driver. I hit some duds too, but they were at least playable. It gives me confidence on the tee and then that resonates to the rest of my game! In the past, I almost knew the hard right slice was inevitable, so I was defeated before even swinging a club.
 
Well that is awesome JB, thanks! Wonder why the Callaway site has that bad info on it.
 
Well that is awesome JB, thanks! Wonder why the Callaway site has that bad info on it.
I assume by interchangeable they mean two weights you can swap back and forth.
 
Doesn't look like you can change the weights on the B21. :(

View attachment 8969364

I think by interchangeable here they are talking about moving CG by swapping those two weights. The BB21 has one weight, which I’m guessing they use for swingweighting.
 
Well I was able to sneak out for 9 holes this afternoon and got to use this for the first time. My thoughts are a little scrambled so bear with me. First, this is not a swing fixer. I definitely did not have my "A" swing today, I hope it was me adjusting to using a new driver. I have the 10.5* (set to -1 / N) with the RCH55 in stiff flex, there was heavy wind today and they had just rolled several fairways which was unfortunate.

Positive thoughts:
This lives up to the anti-right billing. That's not to say you can't hit a fade, but I had several shots today that started leaking right and I was pleasantly surprised to see that's all it did was leak. A couple of them I fully expected to lose way right, and they remained on that lazy drift to the right and in play. I would say my best shot of the day with this was on #8, a driveable par 4 that plays 300 yards. Hit a beautiful low-mid flight draw that rolled and settled on the back of the green, with a Grint tracking measurement of 307. On #6 I hit another low-mid flight with a baby fade that settled at 282. Was very happy with both of those.

Not as positive thoughts:
I'm going to preface these with first time swinging this club and probably should have hit the range first. The first thing I noticed was it took me several holes to settle in and maybe I was being too cautious, but I really felt like I had to get after this club to get good results. Maybe that's a good thing and a result of trying to tempo down my swing in the past to keep the ball in play. First drive with it was a fade that found the fairway but only got out to 255. Second drive very similar, fade out to 255. Drive on #5 I'm willing to toss out as it was a balloon ball into a strong headwind, but only 225. As I type this out I'm starting to think it may have been not putting enough oomph into the swings as the drives got better flighting and distance as I got further in. The other thing I don't love (yet) is just the weighting of this. It just feels so light, much different than my M4, and I'm not sure I loved it. I think I might buy an aftermarket weight set and put a heavier weight in the head.

All in all, the further I got into this post the more I'm pleased with my first experience with this. Will definitely need to get to the range and do some comparisons with the M4 just to see if the weight thing and swing effort piece hold true.
The shaft is light. Very light.
Yep, you can definitely change the weight. I already did it to mine.
 
I had a very light Japanese manufactured driver and found by adding hot melt into the head it fixed the weight problem and made the head feel a lot more solid - went from a loud ting to a pleasant thud...just like you get from the B21
 
Anybody tried this with a Helium? I tried it with the stock shaft and didn’t care for the feel. Results were interesting. I’ve always liked the feel of the Helium and I’m guessing it’s profile is similar to the stock RCH
 
another range session for testing, and head to head against the mav max the b21 was outshined. it’s not the right fit for me, which is to be expected as someone who needs launch and spin. i found my misses with the b21 to be too wild relative to the max that was so much more consistent.

the next step is to take it to the course. i have a round scheduled for sunday afternoon. my goal is to hit one drive each with the mav max and b21, and play the ball in with each then compare scores. not sure whether the course will be open enough but that’s the plan.
 
Anybody tried this with a Helium? I tried it with the stock shaft and didn’t care for the feel. Results were interesting. I’ve always liked the feel of the Helium and I’m guessing it’s profile is similar to the stock RCH

I did. I tried it with a helium black and still had poor results. It performed about the same for me as it did with the RCH in it.
 
another forum said new Flash driver coming in Feb
 
This driver with the Graphite Design Tour AD GP 6 S is magical. Below are my first two drives today after a two week layoff. 7/11 fairways with driver today. 3 of my drives were 300 yards or better. The best part, though, is that a couple of times I hit real clunkers and I still was in the fairway. This one truly is a game changer for my game.

8C26E421-E380-4823-A0B1-6A4353C5C432.jpeg6E909804-C565-4364-9D76-323CD4FD11BA.jpeg
 
I should add that the 331 yard drive I hit on hole number one is the best drive I have ever hit on this particular hole and that is going back to my younger days. If you get past a certain point, the fairway begins sloping down and the ball will run down the hill, which is what happened to me today. I have never experienced that. It got me down to a little knockdown gap wedge for my approach. I birdied the hole and it got me off to a great start on a very difficult course.
 
9 holes with the b21 vs mav max, and the b21 had to throw in the towel. FOR ME, which is not surprising. the b21 never launch high enough, and it gave me 2 of 7 drives that i feared most: a decent swing, a bit wayward strike, and a (bad) result i did not expect. one was a 147y (that’s not a typo) no spin high toe hook, and the other was a fade that went ob on a good swing center strike. there were other misses that ended up in the fairway, but on decent strikes the max was much higher and 15-20 yards longer. if you’re lower launch and lower spin, i’d recommend trying before you buy. it was a fun experiment, but this one will be moved on to other buddies who can test it and provide feedback.
 
9 holes with the b21 vs mav max, and the b21 had to throw in the towel. FOR ME, which is not surprising. the b21 never launch high enough, and it gave me 2 of 7 drives that i feared most: a decent swing, a bit wayward strike, and a (bad) result i did not expect. one was a 147y (that’s not a typo) no spin high toe hook, and the other was a fade that went ob on a good swing center strike. there were other misses that ended up in the fairway, but on decent strikes the max was much higher and 15-20 yards longer. if you’re lower launch and lower spin, i’d recommend trying before you buy. it was a fun experiment, but this one will be moved on to other buddies who can test it and provide feedback.
Did you loft up ?
They make a 12.5*
 
9 holes with the b21 vs mav max, and the b21 had to throw in the towel. FOR ME, which is not surprising. the b21 never launch high enough, and it gave me 2 of 7 drives that i feared most: a decent swing, a bit wayward strike, and a (bad) result i did not expect. one was a 147y (that’s not a typo) no spin high toe hook, and the other was a fade that went ob on a good swing center strike. there were other misses that ended up in the fairway, but on decent strikes the max was much higher and 15-20 yards longer. if you’re lower launch and lower spin, i’d recommend trying before you buy. it was a fun experiment, but this one will be moved on to other buddies who can test it and provide feedback.
I am super shocked you didn’t see higher launch! I’ve seen some really high drives from this head.
 
Did you loft up ?
They make a 12.5*

it was a 9* head. i lofted up to 10*, 05.* higher than the mav max (10.5* lofted down to 9.5*)
 
I am super shocked you didn’t see higher launch! I’ve seen some really high drives from this head.
Yeah, me too. Low launching is not at all what I would expect.
 
I am super shocked you didn’t see higher launch! I’ve seen some really high drives from this head.

Me, too. It was only when I went to a super stiff tipped shaft, the Graphite Design Tour AD GP that I saw a really flat, boring trajectory.
 
it was a 9* head. i lofted up to 10*, 05.* higher than the mav max (10.5* lofted down to 9.5*)

Why not try the 10.5 ? If it launches to high could always reduce it down.
 
Why not try the 10.5 ? If it launches to high could always reduce it down.

it was a trade. this driver was never something i would seek out, but i figured i could loft it up and see how it performed loft to loft against the mav max. it was more about adding input to the forum than any serious bag contender.

i would also think going for 10.5 would sacrifice too much ball speed. i never really saw much ball speed/distance out of the b21.
 
This one continues to be a TOWERING launcher for me, it’s hilarious at times. The bigger story though remains the way this controls spin on misses is just unlike anything else, ever.

It’s not the lowest spinner for me on center strikes, and that’s where I lose some decent distance, but the misses are most certainly more in play and longer.

Remains much lower spin than the Mav Max in the same loft and shaft setup, 400-500 rpm in fact, so that’s going to be a potential factor for some imo.

Also also, the ball speeds are there. They’re on par with the Mavrik and Mav Max that I have, and that’s something else that’s really impressed me.

Plus, that sound!
 
Back
Top