Darren K.
Pittsburgh Panther
I'll be playing with 3 other guys and they all want to give this club a swing or 10. I'll be sure to get some opinions from them as well as my own!
Callaway XHot Hybrid - Forum Testing Review
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- #152
Awesome! Looking forward to some more opinions.
DevRickus
The Dirty Jerz
From talks we have had in the past, it sounds like we have pretty similar ball flight issues so I figured you would enjoy this club. Glad to see its treating you well so far.
I'm seriously thinking about these after seeing some of the initial reviews. My question for you guys, is would I be better off with one of the woods, or a hybrid? I'm looking at likely a 4 or 5 wood, or the 3h. After seeing these reviews, I get the feeling that the 3h would give me the distance I'm looking for, but I already have a 3 iron, but I've never had confidence hitting woods.
Dan
Dan
Darren K.
Pittsburgh Panther
My personal recommendation would be to assess your gap. I hit the 3h about 20 yards less than my 3w. That's about what I wanted for me. So I'd take a look at your other woods and your 3i and see what fits for you!
That's the thing, I have such little confidence in my previous woods, I don't carry/use them. I just grabbed a random one from the garage for a tournament because they required 14 in the bag, and it made more sense than 2 putters. As of now, my bag goes straight from driver to 3 iron.
Dan
Darren K.
Pittsburgh Panther
Hmmm...interesting! How far do you hit your driver and how far do you hit your 3 iron?
nicedivot
strangers in Paradise
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I am not official forum tester for this. However I spent some time at a store with 19 degree hybrid and this thing is really easy to hit.
I would buy this hybrid if I were looking for one.
If you like working the ball, like draws and fades? this will listen and follow your command (of course you put the right swing to it, not just yell at the club
)
You want to hit high or low? the club listens and follows the commands.
only thing I did find not up there is that it seems to be slightly upright.. I would have really liked it if it were about 3 degrees flatter.
that's it folks
I would buy this hybrid if I were looking for one.
If you like working the ball, like draws and fades? this will listen and follow your command (of course you put the right swing to it, not just yell at the club
)You want to hit high or low? the club listens and follows the commands.
only thing I did find not up there is that it seems to be slightly upright.. I would have really liked it if it were about 3 degrees flatter.
that's it folks
Darren K.
Pittsburgh Panther
I'd say go for it then. 3h might work for you. I'd figure out how far you hit it before you make any decision.
SharkHat
Aquatic Headwear Fanatic
I hit it again today, and I agree. Turf interaction is great, and even in the couple mishits that I had today, this club just flat out moves the ball.
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- #162
Go hybrid if you don't hit woods well. Go with a 2H if you think it'll fill a better gap for you
That thought crossed my mind, but I can't find a 2h listed anywhere on their site?
Dan
Buckjob
My Friend's Call Me Drew
hit the pro hybrid tonight 18* i was really impressed with it.... i am def going pro model it has a little less offset and i like the smaller club head and i was crushing it off the grass. was hitting it further than my current 17* i20 by 5 yards.... solid 255 yards on the trackman with a great ball flight it was getting dark so i couldn't see how much roll i was getting or if i could stick greens like i have with my current hybrid but i'm thinking of going with a 17* 4 wood and maybe a 20* xhot pro this year so i should get some more height and land a little softer and hopefully still have a hybrid i can stick close on some longer par 5s. really looking forward to getting this in the bag sooner rather than later.
I'm really liking seeing how everyone is liking the turf interaction. When you're hitting, are you pulling any sort of a divot with the club as it's a iron based club, or does the design not take one? Are you more of a sweeping swing or a steep angled swing?
Dan
nicedivot
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that depends on if you are a natural sweeper or digger.. and then each time you swing you try to hit a little more on the descending blow or more leveled...
SharkHat
Aquatic Headwear Fanatic
It's been hard for me to judge the divot so far, since the grass tees at my range are still chewed up. I'm still mostly on mats. Right now my plan is to get out for 9 holes on Saturday, so I'll know more then.
slodsm
Hybrid hooker
I can go either way, I set the ball up in my stance a bit and make a sweeping driver type swing and it will start off low and fast and steadily climb or I can set it mid stance for a normal iron swing and take a light divot (I'm not a digger, my divots take all the grass but little dirt) and it will take off like a rocket and get height quickly. I haven't tried each way with good balls, only range balls that have seen better days so I can't comment on distance differences between the two.
nicedivot
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sweeping vs digging type swing is more to do with more roll out or not, in my opinion.
In general, sweeper's ball will give more roll out and digger's ball will stop faster
slodsm
Hybrid hooker
From what I saw today though just experimenting on the range it affects launch angle as well for these. Of course all the ones I swept may have been caught slightly thin too since its not my normal swing. Just my observations.
Taptaptaparoo
Taptaptaparoo
nicedivot
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launch angle or the overall ball flight? I admit it is hard to separate these two
and I would go as far to somewhat agree with that 
slodsm
Hybrid hooker
Launch angle, my swept shots launched low and climbed decently but fell rather quickly one they hit the apex, also fairly straight. The ones I hit down on with my normal swing launched higher faster, reached the apex sooner but looked to descend slower.
To me the obvious answer for the second one would be increased spin due to a descending blow letting it get up quicker, the sweeping blow I'm not sure. I'm not good enough at any of this to give a good answer but both shots were repeatable. The descending blow also created a nice draw.
Distance on each shot was in the 200 range, hard to see on the particular range (not my home course, near my daughters dentist) and the ground was wet so nothing was rolling.
Taptaptaparoo
To me the obvious answer for the second one would be increased spin due to a descending blow letting it get up quicker, the sweeping blow I'm not sure. I'm not good enough at any of this to give a good answer but both shots were repeatable. The descending blow also created a nice draw.
Distance on each shot was in the 200 range, hard to see on the particular range (not my home course, near my daughters dentist) and the ground was wet so nothing was rolling.
Taptaptaparoo
nicedivot
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it does sound like exactly what you said "might have caught a bit thin" when you tried sweeper's swing.
As for launch angle, here is my opinion. *keep in mind that everyone has his/her opinion* Assuming we attach a club to a swing machine so that only thing that is different is sweeper swing or digger swing (meaning that club face angle is same just that sweeper swing is more leveled with the ground)... launch angle would be same for both. Why? because in my opinion, launch angle is "initial launch angle" so that would be the same because at the point of impact, whatever the effective loft is, they are same *remember we are using swing machine so we make all variables equal except sweeping or digging*
as soon as ball launches (initial launch) then overall ball flight kicks in and each will now continue to fly differently. assuming both were hit at the sweet spot, digger's swing will add more backspin. so when they land it will give less roll out.
and that is what we see on PGA tournament from those pros. when they want a more roll out they would do sweeper swing. they want more back spin to stop the ball faster then they do somewhat a digger swing.. *again this is my opinion and not a universal law *
As for launch angle, here is my opinion.
*keep in mind that everyone has his/her opinion* Assuming we attach a club to a swing machine so that only thing that is different is sweeper swing or digger swing (meaning that club face angle is same just that sweeper swing is more leveled with the ground)... launch angle would be same for both. Why? because in my opinion, launch angle is "initial launch angle" so that would be the same because at the point of impact, whatever the effective loft is, they are same *remember we are using swing machine so we make all variables equal except sweeping or digging*as soon as ball launches (initial launch) then overall ball flight kicks in and each will now continue to fly differently. assuming both were hit at the sweet spot, digger's swing will add more backspin. so when they land it will give less roll out.
and that is what we see on PGA tournament from those pros. when they want a more roll out they would do sweeper swing. they want more back spin to stop the ball faster then they do somewhat a digger swing.. *again this is my opinion and not a universal law
*