Twenty three years ago, Callaway completely redefined the golf club market with the launch of the Big Bertha, a metal-headed driver. And look what happened.
Made of stainless steel instead of persimmon wood and bigger than almost anything else at the time, it sparked a massive revolution in golf club design and manufacturing.
The square-headed FTi apart (whatever happened to square headed drivers, weren’t they ‘the future’?), Callaway have probably lagged behind TaylorMade in the innovation department in recent years – until now!
Because this year’s new Big Bertha Alpha driver looks incredible and takes golf club adjustability to an entirely new level.
Loft, lie and weight distribution feature in most brands’ drivers these days. But with the sexily named Gravity Control Adjustability, Callaway have provided the golfer with an unparalleled level of self-fitting ability.
It’s essentially the first driver to let golfers independently adjust four key performance characteristics to optimise ball trajectory, control and distance – namely loft, lie, shot bias and, for the first time ever, centre of gravity
(CoG) height.
And it’s the last point which really underpins the whole Gravity Control Adjustability system, as it affects spin rates, which anyone who has been custom fitted will tell, is normally ‘adjusted’ through shaft choice.
THE ALPHA’S ADJUSTABLITY EXPLAINED
Gravity Core
The Callaway Big bertha Alpha’s removable Gravity Core lets you adjust unwanted spin independently of launch angle, so you get completely optimised ball flights and longer distance.
The basic premise is that depending on which way around the metal core is inserted into the middle of the sole of the driver, the spin rate can alter by as much as 600 to 700 RPM. By positioning the heavier end of the core towards the sole of the club, CoG is lower thereby reducing backspin rates.
Loft
The adjustable hosel brings in the added dimension of adjustability to loft. There are four options to help you adjust launch angle and backspin.
• stated loft (S)
• stated plus one degree (+1)
• stated plus two degrees (+2)
• stated minus one degree (-1)
Lie/face angle
Via the Alpha’s hosel, you can also alter the face angle to either a draw or neutral bias. Rotating the fitting towards D promotes a draw, but also increases the lie angle.
Weights
The next adjustability comes via a pair of weight screws, 1-gram and 7-gram, which can be positioned to promote a left-to-right shot shape (heavier weight in the toe), or right-to-left (heavier weight in the heel) shot shape. Extra 3-gram and 5-gram weights are also available.
So, all in all, there’s massive adjustability with the Callaway Big Bertha Alpha. We’ll be hitting it soon to feed back how it feels and performs with our resident PGA Pro tester.
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