Callaway Big Bertha Alpha 815 Double Black Diamond Driver Review Thread

I played in an annual scramble yesterday, at a beautiful course in Iron Mountain, MI. It was THE day that I fell in love with this driver. It was the longest I have driven the ball and had total confidence of where the ball was going to end up. The shaft and head felt in perfect harmony. It's inspiring to have that kind of confidence in this [any] club.

blugold said:

I played in an annual scramble yesterday, at a beautiful course in Iron Mountain, MI. It was THE day that I fell in love with this driver. It was the longest I have driven the ball and had total confidence of where the ball was going to end up. The shaft and head felt in perfect harmony. It's inspiring to have that kind of confidence in this [any] club.

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Timberstone?

BamBooBender said:

Timberstone?

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You are correct.

Its such a great feeling to have. I got it last year right before #TheGrandaddy with the Bertha 815 and since that time have felt great standing over the ball.

blugold said:

You are correct.

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Only really good course in IM. haha
My house was like 2 miles from there (Spread Eagle), but I have never played there. Pretty much just worked 6-7 days a week back then and didn't golf much. Maybe I'll have to go ahead and do it when I'm up there visiting the grand kids.

Yeah, something clicked. But yesterday I was worried about running out into hazards and bunkers I never thought of before.

I'm going to be putting this driver up against last year's Alpha to see which one offers better accuracy. I was nearly unstoppable with fairways as the year ended, and am having a bit of consistency issues with the DBD which REALLY surprises me based on the comments of less spin and more forgiveness.

Should be a fun comparison. When I hit both on the screws, they provide me with tremendous numbers based on my expectations. The DBD has been set to 8* that usually produces a mid flight and misses left (I'm assuming I'm just shutting the face). The Alpha will be set to 9.5* and typically produces a mid-high flight. No idea where the miss will be this time around.

DBD.

My bet lies there.

Really need to make the trip to demo an Alpha 815. Love the look, and the few swings I have had with one I enjoyed. Too bad nothing around here has them.... want one V Series, or an XR? No problem.... An Alpha 815, so take a 2 hour drive to get your hands on one.

Dan, have you had a chance to hit the XR Pro? If so, I'm wondering how you think the DBD compares.

Hello big bombs! This is about as good as I can hit a golf ball.

bigskyirish said:

Dan, have you had a chance to hit the XR Pro? If so, I'm wondering how you think the DBD compares.

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The XR Pro has not been hit yet, no. Seems to be avoiding me somehow!!

I find it unlikely that I'd prefer it to the DBD though. Lots of similar characteristics to last year's Alpha, which fit like a glove for me having played that for 8 months.

I took my DBD out on the course since shortening my Fubuki shaft to 44.5" and it just doesn't seem fair. Looking down at the head with an inch less on the shaft makes it look so much easier to hit. On the first hole I hit it 25 yards past my previous best drive and on the 7th hole I hit it 320 yards up a plateau and into the wind. My swing has been getting better as I've been hitting the range about three times a week but it hasn't gotten that much better. I still chuckle when I think about the fitting. I told my fitter I wasn't willing to consider the DBD as I didn't think I was good enough for it. I got mine the day after they were released and the honeymoon continues. I'm going to cut my Rogue to 45" and see if that is a nice compromise.

I am abusing this driver right now. Today I didn't hit every fairway with it, but I suppose one yard off, and 10 yards through should get the nod for 'excellent' if not 'ideal' results overall.

Can't wait to get out again, honestly. It's been a great experience thus far, as long as I don't turn the ball left. All swing, though.

Slap a 2 inch strip of lead tape on the pear of your DBD....Wow! wakes the ball up!

Interesting. Just seems like a really good way to move. CG low and back. I hope it works well for you.

It could be the weighting or loft variance, but I must say I find the '14 Alpha head to be more accurate for me. I made the switch this weekend and started hitting fairways immediately.

Not sure what it is about the DBD, but my miss was left (and hard left at that). I'll have to give it another rip this week because I love the look of the head overall, but for the time being I am beyond comfortable back in the '14 Alpha head.

My DBD arrived on Tuesday and I snuck out of work a little bit early yesterday to hit some balls with it. My driver swing has been very hit or miss all year. I've had several stretches where it is absolutely the best club in my bag and feels almost point and shoot, but I've also had several stretches where I consistently leave the face open at impact. I've been in one of the bad stretches for the last couple weeks so I was fighting my swing for the first bucket I hit.

During that first bucket, I was thinking the DBD was probably a big mistake. I tried a bunch of configurations - gravity core up, gravity core down, heavy weight in the heel, heavy weight in the toe, and tried those variations with both the Rogue and the Whiteboard (I didn't mess with the loft - kept it at 9*). I was all over the map. I hit some horrible toe shots that went virtually nowhere, some huge blocks, some heel cuts, a couple of big hooks while trying to avoid another miss to the right, and a few great drives. But I was so inconsistent with a terrible two way miss that I couldn't tell what I liked and what I didn't. One of the things I definitely noticed with the DBD is that the head is noticeably heavier than the X2Hot Pro head. I didn't feel the difference as much with the Rogue in the DBD, but as soon as I put the Whiteboard in, I noticed it immediately. The added weight could have been contributing to me leaving the face open, but I was hitting the X2Hot Pro just about as bad, so it was definitely swing.

When the first bucket was finished, I decided I couldn't leave on that and went and grabbed another one. I hit some irons to start and figured something out. I switched to driver and all the sudden, my driver swing was back and I was able to get some much better insight. Let me just say first that the DBD is a beast when you hit it well. I hit the X2Hot Pro further than any driver I've played, and though it was tough to tell on the range, I'd say my best drive with the DBD was at least 10 yards further, maybe more. I'm guessing it is the result of reducing spin, since the X2Hot Pro has always been in the mid 3000s for me. Because of the way the range is configured, it was difficult to tell whether the DBD or X2Hot Pro is more forgiving. You can definitely feel mishits with both clubs, but I think the feel is more pronounced with the DBD. That said, I'm not sure feeling the mishit more necessarily translated to a worse result. I'd say they were probably relatively similar, but I'll get a better idea of that out on the course. Here are some other thoughts:

- For me, the DBD at 9*, Gravity Core down, with the Whiteboard seemed to launch slightly lower than the X2Hot Pro at 8.5* with the Whiteboard. I still saw plenty of height, though I probably wouldn't want to mishit it too badly if I were trying to take it over some trees. Some of my thoughts on launch/flight are probably skewed because I hit so many terrible shots during the first bucket. With a good swing, I'd say I saw a pretty consistent mid-flight.

- I definitely saw better distance with the Whiteboard than the Rogue. The Rogue launched higher.

- I seem to draw the DBD a little more than the X2Hot Pro, which I have mixed feelings about. I have always played a draw and like it, but I used to have a big hook as my miss. With the X2Hot Pro my best drives tend to be dead straight or a very slight draw. I have pretty much entirely eliminated the hook miss, which has helped my scoring dramatically, and I'm not willing to reintroduce it. That said, I'm not sure yet whether a hook will be a problem with the DBD or not. I may be able to help that by switching the 5g weight to the toe. I didn't mess around with that configuration too much last night since it was exacerbating the open club face miss that was screwing with me so badly at first.

- Purely based on everyone's favorite descriptor "feel," the weight of the X2Hot Pro/Whiteboard feels more comfortable to me, but that could easily just be because I'm more familiar with it. Time will tell.

- If I had to guess right now, I'd say that the DBD will be longer for me, but that the X2Hot Pro might be more consistently accurate. But I have a long way to go to figure that out. If it does end up being the case, I'd say right now that I'd lean toward the X2Hot Pro, though there too many variables to say for sure. It really depends on whether I can find the center of the clubface with the DBD as often as I can with the X2Hot Pro, what the distance differences are, and what the accuracy differences are. I would love to pick up some distance with my driver, but keeping the driver in play has been key for me this year. That said, if the DBD is only slightly less accurate, but substantially longer, it will probably stick around.

If anyone is interested in more thoughts as I go along, I'll keep updating the thread. I'm playing on Saturday and then in a shamble on Monday, both on courses I know well and have played the X2Hot Pro on many times, so I should get some real chance to see how the DBD fares.



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I took a bit of a break from the DBD recently and moved back to the '14 Alpha. Having some extra range time the other day, I spent time moving shafts between the two heads to see what I think performs better for my swing. What surprised me about the DBD, is that despite being 8* to the '14 Alpha's 9.5, it still seems to launch at a similar angle (all visual).

I'll be curious to get some numbers on it to see if the spin rates are lower (I would presume they would be) and when the carry is more optimal. My biggest issue right now with the DBD is that my miss seems to be an exaggerated draw or hook. It's great to remove the right side of the golf course, but it's also quite punishing when I miss big.

That said, when I moved the TP6HDe into the DBD last night, and hit about 6 balls on the range before I ended my evening, I was absolutely hammering the ball. Full on mid flight with a tiny draw, and every one absolutely peppered. I think I'll leave that setup alone and see what comes of it.

I keep wanting to hit one of these but my RFE is being so good to me I would feel like I cheated on it.

I bought a 9* 815 DBD off of the preowed Callaway site and received it last friday. I have to say it is a monster and a lot more forgiving than I thought it would be. It orginally came with a stiff 60g Rogue shaft as I really just wanted the head and for $180 for very good codition I thought that was a steal. To my surprise when it showed up it was still in plastic and not even the slightest mark of any kind on it. I played it with the Rogue for a couple rounds on the weekend as I waited for a X-flex Fujikura Speeder Evolution 757 to arrive. I just started to get the head adjusted to my liking and this happened...



It started to crack a bit toward the hostle after about 10 balls and totally blew apart after maybe 75 balls.

To Callaway's credit, once they replied to my email after 3 days, I have another driver being shipped for a Tuesday delivery. I'm not sure if they always do a cross ship and 2 day shipping on warranty replacements but I am extremely happy with their service. Hopefully this next one lasts more than a week.

They will ALWAYS make it right.

Hope the new one is a bomber!!

I had been struggling with my DBD most of this year and was regretting getting rid of my '14 Alpha. I had been following some setup advice from my fitter that I really like and I think that gave me really inconsistent results. I was all over the place. After my round a couple weeks ago when I was 0-14 hitting fairways I decided to ignore that advice and go back to my setup from last year. I saw instant positive results. I was 6-11 hitting fairways with driver and only two were in trouble. One of those I hit really poorly and the other was just a slight pull that caught a tree and put me in a bad spot. The ball flight was back to a predictable little cut and my towering launch was back. The distance was excellent as well. I'm averaging 303 yards with my DBD according to Arccos with a long of 338.

SaskeyInWash said:

I bought a 9* 815 DBD off of the preowed Callaway site and received it last friday. I have to say it is a monster and a lot more forgiving than I thought it would be. It orginally came with a stiff 60g Rogue shaft as I really just wanted the head and for $180 for very good codition I thought that was a steal. To my surprise when it showed up it was still in plastic and not even the slightest mark of any kind on it. I played it with the Rogue for a couple rounds on the weekend as I waited for a X-flex Fujikura Speeder Evolution 757 to arrive. I just started to get the head adjusted to my liking and this happened...

It started to crack a bit toward the hostle after about 10 balls and totally blew apart after maybe 75 balls.

To Callaway's credit, once they replied to my email after 3 days, I have another driver being shipped for a Tuesday delivery. I'm not sure if they always do a cross ship and 2 day shipping on warranty replacements but I am extremely happy with their service. Hopefully this next one lasts more than a week.

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Mine cracked on top as well. I've had faces cave but this was new. My crack on top of yours would have made a giant cross. It happened dead center, from the face to the back of the head. Cally had it replaced in less than a week.

Having owned this in 9* with the Rogue 60 stiff for a week now, with 1 round and 3 range sessions under the belt, I can say without a doubt, this thing is a cannon. Easily 10-15 yards longer than my previous R9. I tinkered with it a bunch in my first range session and settled on GC down, +1* and instantly felt comfortable. It's flying high enough that I may consider going back to std loft, but I still get good roll out with the super dry conditions we've seen here in NC lately. Playing last Sunday, I hit it 7-8 times, driving 2 greens over 300 yards out, and bombing one 330 on a par 5 to almost reach in two (played short of the green to protect against going long and dead). It's probably a bit of a honeymoon, but so far I'm hitting nearly everything dead in the "X" on the face, so I can't really comment on the forgiveness too much. The few that I've hit lower-center on the face still fly long, though a little lower than dead center hits.


Give 'em hell!