Upon being told we would have some new clubs from Snake Eyes coming in for full THP Reviews, I was hit with a mix of feelings. On one side, of course there was curiosity, especially in seeing that they would be releasing an entire lineup of metalwoods. It is that other side of things where I was admittedly left a bit confused as I had no clue that the brand/name had been revived. No matter the roller coaster of thoughts I had rolling in my head, I was certainly curious to see what they had up their sleeves.
Quick Take
It is nice to see the revitalization of Snake Eyes centers around simplicity, cleanliness, and affordability. From top to bottom the driver, fairway, and hybrid showed themselves to be solid performers that while they may not set the world on fire with cutting edge materials or innovation, can get the job done without emptying the bank account. Ultimately, the Snake Eyes 685X driver and metalwoods are serviceable clubs which are more than capable of allowing the game to be enjoyed for the right segment of golfers.
Snake Eyes 685X Metalwoods
It is a bold move to revitalize a brand with a full line of clubs from top to bottom, and honestly, it would have been fair for Snake Eyes to come back as an iron and wedge company since that is what they were known for once upon a time. However, that isn’t what has happened, but there was definitely some due consideration put into how best to bring back the brand as a full lineup.
The Snake Eyes 685X metalwoods are full metal designs, you’ll find no carbon fiber here and undoubtedly that is part of what let them keep the prices in a range that makes the decision to release a full line much more understandable. We got the 685X hybrid, fairway, and driver in for review, read on to see how they stacked up.
Snake Eyes 685X Hybrid
I’m leading into this with what might be the best club of the trio, which makes sense because hybrids can afford to be much more simplistic in their designs and materials than drivers and fairways. The 685X hybrid is a 17-4 Stainless Steel clubhead which does have a face cup built in to offer more speed. There is a 10g fixed weight at the rear of the clubhead and plays well into the effort to maximize launch and playability.
Visually, I quite enjoyed the hybrid. It is for sure the most subdued of the three clubs and is a nice mid-sized clubhead with a fairway shaped face. The matte black crown with Snake Eyes logo as alignment looks good and the hybrid set up as the most neutral clubhead of the 685X lines.
You can see some data for the 4-Hybrid which I had in-hand below and I believe it shows that there is a surprising bit of power packed into the 21-degree clubhead. I was extremely comfortable with it at setup which did lend for swinging confidently. The data was recorded off the deck and the UST Mamiya Recoil DART pairing gave me a much flatter trajectory than I anticipated coming in.
The sound/feel here is crisp and powerful, which was a pleasant surprise. On misses, you get a fair bit of forgiveness and the fairway-like shaping definitely helps there for my style of swing. While I don’t think it is the lowest spinning, longest, or most forgiving hybrid, I do think that in a hybrid you can get a lot of performance still with a dialed back amount of tech. The hybrids are available in 3 (19.0), 4 (21.0), and 5 (24.0) options.
Snake Eyes 685X Fairway Wood
There are two options in the new Snake Eyes fairways, the 3W (15.0) which we got in for this review, and also a 5W (21.0). The heads are paired with the UST Mamiya Helium shaft and are the most outside the box of the three options in the lineup.
What I mean there is not in terms of the 17-4 Stainless material or internal cup face design, but rather the shaping and natural bias of the clubhead. The fairway sits closed and has a very angular overall shape which was reminiscent in a lot of ways to the Bobby Jones Black fairways of a few years back. While that may be an obscure reference to some, it is actually more complimentary than anything as though the look is unique, the performance was solid.
You will see in the Foresight data below, the 685X fairway was an overall easy launcher for me with the recorded shots coming off the deck and any time I get to or above 30-yards peak I am pleased. With the fixed 10g in the rear of the club, it is built for a more playable launch and mid-spin performance. Though the shaft isn’t the best fit for me, the overall design of the head and its closed face was mostly responsible for the right to left flight I was seeing.
Unsurprisingly, as the all metal headshape gets bigger compared to the hybrid, the sound/feel gets louder and sharper as well. It isn’t off putting, but if you are accustomed to any sort of composite feedback then this will be a trip back in time for you.
Overall, the fairway performed well for what it is, and more importantly, it does what it claims, easy launch from tee and turf and with that is a good amount of spin and what I would call middle-of-the-road distance.
Snake Eyes 685X Driver
When I saw that the Snake Eyes 685X driver was a full 6-4 Titanium clubhead at sub three hundred dollars, I had some intrigue. However, when I noticed that Snake Eyes included an adapter system allowing +/- 1.5-degrees of change and an adjustable three-weight system (2g, 2g, 10g) I had some hopes for the clubhead and what I might see.
The 460cc headshape has a full face cup in the 6-4 Ti design and the overall shape of the head is really nice. It isn’t a pear shape, but it is a symmetrical shape that is not over-elongated despite the somewhat shallow and wide face. The Snake Eye logo as the alignment on the matte black crown is pretty killer, but I do think they tried to do too much with the white accents at the rear of the head at address.
While the driver sits neutral to slightly closed to my eye, internally I definitely feel like there is some draw bias going on even when the heavy weight is in the back-center port. It is because of that natural tendency I had to hit the ball more right to left when I grabbed data on the Foresight with the 10g back as well as in the toe to try and neutralize some of that bias.
As you can see in the data above, the driver wanted to go left for me, but it also put up a notable amount of spin. I do want to say that I think a solid amount of the spin is due to shaft fit and my swing, and with that there was also some efficiency drop-off on my end. Even with that situation though, there were some promising ball speeds for such a simple and affordable driver.
Most of all, I enjoyed seeing the launch, spin, and speed change for me when I put the heavy weight out in the toe. Even though there was still a right to left bias, the changes you can see in all that data are something Snake Eyes should be proud of. While it may not be a fit for me, it does what the company claims it to do, and for golfers in the mid-to-lower speed realms it, and the entire 685X lineup, could be good options.
The Details
Availability: Now
Driver: $279.99 with UST Mamiya Helium in RH/LH – 10.5
Fairways: $179.99 with UST Mamiya Helium in RH/LH – 3W (15.0) and 5W (21.0)
Hybrids: $139.99 with UST Mamiya Recoil DART in RH/LH – 3H (19.0), 4H (21.0), and 5H (24.0)
