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Callaway Big Bertha Alpha 815 Driver Review Thread

SuperStroke
Looks like another week or two before my club gets their demos in. I am really eager to it the 815. All the early feedback is positive and I like what I'm hearing about the forgiveness. I'm pondering a little side trip next month when I'm in Orlando to the Annika Academy to get fitted for one if I can squeeze it in.
 
v.man said:
Looks like another week or two before my club gets their demos in. I am really eager to it the 815. All the early feedback is positive and I like what I'm hearing about the forgiveness. I'm pondering a little side trip next month when I'm in Orlando to the Annika Academy to get fitted for one if I can squeeze it in.
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Looking forward to your thoughts v.man.
 
Got my hands on this at GS this morning hit the 9.0 in stiff and was hitting spinny moon balls with it.

I liked the feel and sound but no way I could play with spin in the 4000 range. I tested another low spin head and saw similar spin results so it could be a swing thing for me but another driver put up solid numbers.
 
Today was the first day I actually saw the results of non center contact. The distance lose was significant. I mean 30 yards difference. I managed but it was something I took notice of early on in the round.

Conversely I saw some staggering distance on center shots with some pretty stout SS. The club is awesome and just let me know to stop hitting outside the sweet spot.
 
Tadashi70 said:
Today was the first day I actually saw the results of non center contact. The distance lose was significant. I mean 30 yards difference. I managed but it was something I took notice of early on in the round.

Conversely I saw some staggering distance on center shots with some pretty stout SS. The club is awesome and just let me know to stop hitting outside the sweet spot.
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You saw that much distance loss with the regular 815 by missing off center? Can I ask where you missed and by how much? Im not seeing the loss of ball speed on the launch monitor, so Im genuinely curious here.
 
I have seen on both the 815 and dbd, misses low and heel are really punished
 
JB said:
You saw that much distance loss with the regular 815 by missing off center? Can I ask where you missed and by how much? Im not seeing the loss of ball speed on the launch monitor, so Im genuinely curious here.
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I hit a couple low and toward the heel and was 30 yards behind my play partners. When I flushed it I was 15 yards out in front. On average we were side by side. But I took notice of the lack of distance on what I thought was a pretty good strike.
 
Heel misses are the ones that I have seen severely punished. Toe, high and low not so much.
 
golfinFF said:
Got my hands on this at GS this morning hit the 9.0 in stiff and was hitting spinny moon balls with it.

I liked the feel and sound but no way I could play with spin in the 4000 range. I tested another low spin head and saw similar spin results so it could be a swing thing for me but another driver put up solid numbers.
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This makes me feel much better about me seeing 2600 spin I was seeing with the 10.5 head. I can't wait to try out the 9* head and see what I can get.
 
JB said:
You saw that much distance loss with the regular 815 by missing off center? Can I ask where you missed and by how much? Im not seeing the loss of ball speed on the launch monitor, so Im genuinely curious here.
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That's about the same loss I saw with my high toe misses. But not complaining cause it was better than the BBA14.
 
This is really interesting to me because today on the monitor, I hit about 6 balls low and towards the heel and did not see that distance loss. I find it incredibly forgiving compared to just about every low spin driver out there.

Looking forward to continued feedback.
 
JB said:
This is really interesting to me because today on the monitor, I hit about 6 balls low and towards the heel and did not see that distance loss. I find it incredibly forgiving compared to just about every low spin driver out there.

Looking forward to continued feedback.
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Full disclosure, I've been swinging at like a dog. But didn't think I was swinging that bad. Other factors could have played into the lose I saw.
 
I got mine on the course today for the first time. I played in a captains choice tournament with my father n law and two friends. We played all but 1 of my tee shots. I am in love with this driver. The Black Tie shaft was pure butter to me. I had the best launch and flight I have ever had on a driver. I had it set on 9 degrees and on a draw and it was the best I have ever hit a driver. I had a few off center hits both on the toe and heel. I could hear a difference in sound but the flight and distance were not very noticeable. Now with that said when I did hit a few dead center it was like the ball was shot out of a cannon. Most of my contact was center of the face with it being either dead center, slight lower, or just a tad towards the toe side. I know I was hitting the ball further than my older Razr X. I am not sure on how far but I can tell you that we measured 279 to the flag on one par 4. I hit the ball dead on line with the flag and it plugged into the hillside of the green. It was one of the best feeling drives. This driver has given me a new found confidence and the Black Tie shaft caps it off. I will be playing for score tomorrow with this bad boy and will put it on a monitor later in the week.
 
I do want to try a Black Tie on this head. Search starts now.
 
I tried this on the LM at GS today. Average spin was 3500 with the core down, I believe. Distances were in the ballpark of what I get with my current gamer. Shaft felt nice, face felt like it had some crisp pop to it. I switched the core and got a ton more spin and lost distance. Nice driver, I just didn't quite see the performance I might have hoped for. I wonder if I would need to look at different shafts. Not sure.
 
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OUZO Power said:
I do want to try a Black Tie on this head. Search starts now.
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The Black Tie I have is the one offered by Callaway. The original one was still an up charge. But so far it is giving me the flight and less spin that I have been looking for.
 
tpluff said:
This makes me feel much better about me seeing 2600 spin I was seeing with the 10.5 head. I can't wait to try out the 9* head and see what I can get.
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I was shocked by the numbers I don't know where the core was and I was swinging a "S" but I did the same with the other two clubs as well so I am not sure that was the whole story is. I felt like I made solid contact and the best I could put up was 265 with it the R15 was worse and the G30 was 297.
 
golfinFF said:
I was shocked by the numbers I don't know where the core was and I was swinging a "S" but I did the same with the other two clubs as well so I am not sure that was the whole story is. I felt like I made solid contact and the best I could put up was 265 with it the R15 was worse and the G30 was 297.
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You need to try it with the core in both positions. You never know, maybe the position it was in today was the bad one for you. When I switched it I caught one that felt very flush but it was like 30 yards shorter. I learned core up isn't right for me.
 
tequila4kapp said:
You need to try it with the core in both positions. You never know, maybe the position it was in today was the bad one for you. When I switched it I caught one that felt very flush but it was like 30 yards shorter. I learned core up isn't right for me.
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I hit one ball with the core up on mine and lost a good 20 or more yards with a ball I felt I struck well. The core will likely never move again.
 
Just finished 18 holes with mine. Hit 9 out of 14 fairways and strangely the 5 I missed were all to the left not a single slice this morning and even the missed fairways were playable. I was getting around about the same distance as I was seeing with the old BB but I think more forgiveness in this one. Its a lot shorter than the distances I have been seeing with the JPX 850 on well struck shots, but more forgiving on the badly struck shots.
 
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To the guys that were seeing some really high spin...one of the great things about this offering is the myriad of different shafts that Callaway is offering with no upcharge. With a good fitting this club can be made to perform.

I'm excited to get mine out for its second round with the Project X LZ, initial results were very good.
 
Tadashi70 said:
I hit a couple low and toward the heel and was 30 yards behind my play partners. When I flushed it I was 15 yards out in front. On average we were side by side. But I took notice of the lack of distance on what I thought was a pretty good strike.
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I also noticed some distance loss on heel shots. That seems to be the weak spot for me.

I'm not sure that I've seen the same amount of distance lost, though.
 
ATLGolfer said:
I also noticed some distance loss on heel shots. That seems to be the weak spot for me.

I'm not sure that I've seen the same amount of distance lost, though.
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It wasn't something I expected either. I'm never behind the guys I played with and usually the longest in the group. It was a mix of miss hits and poor energy transfer. I've never seen that kind of loss with my tee game. (Calgon take me away)
 
Lynchburg14 said:
The Black Tie I have is the one offered by Callaway. The original one was still an up charge. But so far it is giving me the flight and less spin that I have been looking for.
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So for a non-stock offering they have a made for Black Tie?

I have to say that's very odd considering the demand volume that one would expect would be very little as that shaft isn't for the masses.
 
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