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Callaway Big Bertha Alpha 815 Driver Review Thread

SuperStroke
Range session went well today. A couple of bad swings, but the good swings were rewarded and it's just addicting hitting this club. I usually set aside 10 balls to hit with the driver and today after those 10, I went through another 10 bc I was having so much fun hitting this one.
 
mikeg_74 said:
Range session went well today. A couple of bad swings, but the good swings were rewarded and it's just addicting hitting this club. I usually set aside 10 balls to hit with the driver and today after those 10, I went through another 10 bc I was having so much fun hitting this one.
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I love the feel of this club better then any other driver on the market, I just haven't found a shaft that gives me the accuracy I need.
 
jim54 said:
I have a Black Tie I might try lofted up, maybe that would help me some. The ball flight was not crazy high but just seemed to drop out of the air. Is that a too much spin thing or not enough? It was odd, when I made good contact it felt great and looked up to see it soaring away...then plop about 190-200 yds. Now a good drive for me is 220ish so everything matters when I lose any.
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Drop out of the air kinda sounds like too little spin, but I could be wrong there. I had that issue with my SLDR doing that, so I know how frustrating that is. It climbs fine the first two thirds and then just kinda falls straight down it feels like.
 
NoLine said:
I love the feel of this club better then any other driver on the market, I just haven't found a shaft that gives me the accuracy I need.
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What shaft are you using? I have the Rogue Silver 60 (stiff) and its a pretty good pairing. The stock Speeder and I just couldn't get along.
 
mikeg_74 said:
What shaft are you using? I have the Rogue Silver 60 (stiff) and its a pretty good pairing. The stock Speeder and I just couldn't get along.
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The Speeder and the Diamana - neither worked. I tried a rogue but in a way too stiff flex, even with the stiffer the normal flex it was the most accurate I hit.
 
Is that the same speeder that is in the V series?
 
Barberakb said:
Is that the same speeder that is in the V series?
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I believe the Bassarra is the stock shaft in the V Series. I think the Speeder 565 and Speeder 665 are no upcharge options though IIRC.
 
Sox Fan said:
I believe the Bassarra is the stock shaft in the V Series. I think the Speeder 565 and Speeder 665 are no upcharge options though IIRC.
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I think it depends on what head you get. Atleast I thought the 9 degree head came stock with a speeder.
 
NoLine said:
The Speeder and the Diamana - neither worked. I tried a rogue but in a way too stiff flex, even with the stiffer the normal flex it was the most accurate I hit.
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IMO, the Rogue R is pretty similar to the Tour Regular in your G30.
 
NoLine said:
Thank you - I'll try and pull one out of the fitting cart to try.
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Also the Black might work better for you than the Silver. The Black is supposed to be not as tip stiff as the Silver & that might be better.
 
sanriopurin said:
If your mishits are high, definitely place the core up. Think of it like this: more mass will be behind the ball when it's mishit, imparting more oomph.
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I've tried this for a few rounds and it looks good. It hasn't been that windy, but my fear ofc is that in windy conditions the higher amount of spin will make the ball harder to control.

But so far it's worked quite well
 
mikeg_74 said:
What shaft are you using? I have the Rogue Silver 60 (stiff) and its a pretty good pairing. The stock Speeder and I just couldn't get along.
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Second that a million times. Although the stock Speeder was stiff it was also just 55g making the SS faster than normal. Thus the 60g Rogue Silver 60 was a better fit for me too. Low piercing ball flight on the good hits.
 
Went to the range a little while ago and worked on my driver alot.....the lateral forgiveness is incredible with this driver. Each shot when I knew it was off the toe (my usual miss) stayed on line with minimal distance loss.

Also when I connect with the ball and towards the top half of the club with the core up it just "feels" incredible... Ball just goes forever

Tap tap taparoo
 
Not sure there is a head with better overall speed retention out right now for me. I keep hitting more and more, and the numbers just haven't lied. I know some will yell "homer" or whatever, but fact is, I play what works.
 
Not my most consistent day hitting the driver, but lateral forgiveness on this one is amazing. A few bad tee shots were all swing related, but I caught a few that left me with a wedge in. I haven't had that happen in a while. I continue to enjoy this driver and on days like this when I didn't have my best, the performance speaks volumes.
 
First day with the BB Alpha 815 on my home course. 7 of 13 fairways hit with Driver. Hit 5 wood off of one tee. Of the misses 4 were just a yard off the fairway. Really l loving the mid-high ball flight I'm seeing from it. Very predictable ball flight.
 
Callaway Big Bertha Alpha 815 Driver Review Thread

Just chiming in here, not much more to add that hasn't already been said. This thing is amazingly forgiving across the face and just wants to go straight. My misses were going right today, but even if it looked like it was gonna slice OB the ball seemed to stop slicing then straighten out staying in play.
 
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Loving this driver. Never have felt better. Today I hit one way out on the toe and thought I lost it short right in some junk so I re-teed. Found my first drive on right side of the fairway WAY further than I deserved.
 
Jman said:
Not sure there is a head with better overall speed retention out right now for me. I keep hitting more and more, and the numbers just haven't lied. I know some will yell "homer" or whatever, but fact is, I play what works.
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Sorry if you've already answer this, Jman...haven't seen it if you have, but since the other day I went in to hit the 10.5 XR and didn't love it, I tried the 815 Alpha and was surprised by the numbers (on a monitor) being better for me across the board. Care to compare and contrast your experience with them since judging from your WITB sig, you are gaming both?
 
katman said:
Sorry if you've already answer this, Jman...haven't seen it if you have, but since the other day I went in to hit the 10.5 XR and didn't love it, I tried the 815 Alpha and was surprised by the numbers (on a monitor) being better for me across the board. Care to compare and contrast your experience with them since judging from your WITB sig, you are gaming both?
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No problem dude, I'm using the XR right now to contribute to that review thread and for the sake of curiosity myself. Loft to loft, the XR launches higher for me, but it also spins a touch more, not a ton, but a bit. The biggest difference is the sound/feel with the 815 dominating that IMO, and also the forgiveness/ballspeed-retention on the 815 is better based on the numbers I have recorded so far. A lot of this has to do with headweight and design obviously, and as such the XR has a higher average clubhead speed for me.
 
Jman said:
No problem dude, I'm using the XR right now to contribute to that review thread and for the sake of curiosity myself. Loft to loft, the XR launches higher for me, but it also spins a touch more, not a ton, but a bit. The biggest difference is the sound/feel with the 815 dominating that IMO, and also the forgiveness/ballspeed-retention on the 815 is better based on the numbers I have recorded so far. A lot of this has to do with headweight and design obviously, and as such the XR has a higher average clubhead speed for me.
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JMan,

Does this mean the 815 is longer/more accurate? Thanks.
 
The past 2 weekends have been very interesting with this in the bag. Typically, I’ve been a tempo guy just trying to get a nice pause at the top of my backswing and then come through from the inside and “swing over first base”. When doing that, my big miss is getting too lazy and having a big dropkick.

Well, 3 rounds ago I was having an off day all around so just started swinging as hard as I could with driver. Perhaps it was a lack of swing thoughts during the swing, but things have been pretty good with the driver since then. Haven’t seen any more dropkicks and the only miss is a push up the right side but not too bad dispersion wise.

The coolest thing has been the distance. Having guys like GregDan & texashacker34 (both of whom had previously seen me play) say a ball was hammered was pretty awesome. I won’t get into the numbers too far but just say that I think I’m seeing around 15 yards further carry and was hanging with GregDan pretty good for the most part yesterday.

Besides the distance gains I’ve seen, I’m still enamored with the forgiveness of this head. The toe misses feel like robbery when seeing a minimal distance loss and a baby draw. I’ve played some good drivers over the last 3 years but this beats them all without too much competition. Really happy to have the 815 & Speeder 665 pairing in the bag.

Swing as hard as you can and drink a little vodka. Another good pairing.
 
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