Equipment
Callaway Big Bertha OS Irons and Hybrids
Spend enough time around golf courses and driving ranges and you’ll realize there are a few different types of golfers playing the game — everyone from the guy hitting 300-yard buttery draws to the newbie or recreational golfer who just wants to get the dang ball airborne.
Callaway’s new Big Bertha OS irons and hybrids are for the latter. Let’s take a look at the new technologies in these super-game improvement clubs, and how they can help golfers enjoy the game more.
Release: Big Bertha OS irons and hybrids will be in stores Sept. 30. They’re available for pre-order Sept. 9.
Big Bertha OS Irons
Take the back badging off of the Big Bertha irons and the structure looks a bit like Bane’s mask from the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises. Behind the face sits vertical bars, which Callaway calls an Exo-Cage. It’s made of steel to support the face of the iron at impact.
“It’s the most complex iron that we might have ever made,” said Alan Hocknell, Callaway’s Senior Vice President of R&D.
The cage design, while having a positive effect on both lateral and vertical forgiveness, is inherently a higher-CG design than what’s ideal for an iron, especially a game-improvement iron that has the goal of higher launch.
As such, Callaway added tungsten — a total of about 100 grams throughout the set — in order to keep the weight as low as possible possible in the club head, while retaining the forgiveness benefits from the Exo-Cage.
The two-piece irons also have Callaway’s next-generation Face Cup, which is thicker in the center of the face and thinner near the perimeter for higher ball speeds on off-center hits to help bad shots fly more like good shots.
Also available for slower-swing-speed players is a set that is designed with higher-than-standard lofts and lighter club weights. The difference between the irons is denoted by a different color scheme.
The Big Bertha OS irons (4-SW) sell for $1,099.99 with steel shafts (True Temper Speed Step 80) and $1,299.99 with graphite shafts (UST Recoil ES 460).
Big Bertha OS Hybrids
Also designed for a super high launch and big forgiveness are the Big Bertha OS hybrids, which are the largest hybrids in Callaway’s arsenal, according to Hocknell. In their design weight is placed extremely low and rearward, as the hybrids use mass properties to manipulate CG back.
Due to their larger head sizes, the hybrids have larger faces than any other hybrid in the Callaway stable. There’s also an adjustable hosel for those players who want to fine tune their trajectory. While the club heads and faces are large, Callaway designed the soles with relief to limit turf interaction. That means all the benefits of a large club head, without the drag from a sole that’s too big.
As with the Big Bertha OS irons, the hybrid are also available in a lighter-weight option, which will appeal to golfers with slower club head speeds. They sell for $249.99 each, and come stock with True Temper’s Speed Step 80 (steel) and UST’s Recoil ES 460 (graphite) shafts.
See what GolfWRX Members are saying about the clubs in our forum.
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Equipment
Heavy Artillery: A look at drivers in play at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans
What are the driver and shaft combinations of the best golfers in the world? For gearheads, it’s an endlessly interesting question — even if we can only ever aspire to play LS heads and 7 TX shafts.
At this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, GolfWRX got in-hand looks at the driver setups of a wealth of players.
Check out some of the most interesting combos below, then head to the GolfWRX forums for the rest, as well as the rest of our galleries from New Orleans.
Rory McIlroy
Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (9 degrees @8.25)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
Grip: Golf Pride MCC
Alex Fitzpatrick
Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
Grip: Golf Pride MCC
Daniel Berger
Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees @9)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
Grip: Golf Pride Tour Wrap
Rasmus Hojgaard
Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Blue 60 TX
Grip: Golf Pride MCC
Alejandro Tosti
Driver: Srixon ZX5 Mk II LS (9.5 degrees @10.5)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS T1100 75 6.5
Grip: Golf Pride MCC Plus4
James Nicholas
Driver: Titleist TSR3 (8 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 7 X
Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet
Kevin Streelman
Driver: Titleist TSR3 (10 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 6 X
Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet
Sang-moon Bae
Driver: Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond (9+ @8)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 6 X
Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet
Russ Cochran
Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke (9 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD TP 6 X
Grip: Golf pride MCC Align
MJ Daffue
Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max (10.5 degrees @9.5)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Green RDX 65 TX
Grip: Golf Pride ZGrip Cord Align
Check our more photos from the Zurich Classic here.
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Whats in the Bag
Rasmus Højgaard WITB 2024 (April)
- Rasmus Højgaard what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic.
Driver: Callaway Ai Smoke Triple Diamond (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Blue 60 TX
3-wood: Callaway Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Prototype (16.5 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K White 80 TX
Utility: Callaway Apex UW (21 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei AV Raw White 85 TX
Irons: Callaway Apex Pro (3), Callaway X Forged (4-PW)
Shafts: KBS $-Taper 130
Wedges: Callaway Jaws Raw (52-10S, 56-10S, 60-06C)
Shafts: KBS Tour 130 X
Putter: Odyssey Ai One Milled Eight T DB
Grips: Golf Pride MCC
Check out more in-hand photos of Hojgaard in the forums.
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Whats in the Bag
Rory McIlroy WITB 2024 (April)
- Rory McIlroy what’s in the bag accurate as of the Zurich Classic.
Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (9 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8 X
5-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (18 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9 X
Irons: TaylorMade Proto (4), TaylorMade Rors Proto (5-9)
Shaft: Project X 7.0 (4-9)
Wedges: TaylorMade MG4 (46-09SB, 50-09SB, 54-11SB), Titleist Vokey Design WedgeWorks (58-K @59)
Shafts: Project X 6.5 (46-54), Project X 6.5 Wedge (60)
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour X3
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Pistol Tour
Ball: 2024 TaylorMade TP5x
Grips: Golf Pride MCC
Check out more in-hand photos of Rory McIlroy’s WITB in the forums.
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KK
Sep 8, 2016 at 7:13 pm
MOI looks insane. Gotta respect the function before form approach.
Art Williams
Sep 8, 2016 at 3:18 pm
I still play BB X12 irons with X14 Pro series wedges. All the new stuff by Callaway is like looking back to the future. The new Steelhead is nice, but this BB looks a bit clunky, even by X12 standards.
PR
Sep 8, 2016 at 6:42 pm
But the technology is miles ahead of what they had in the X12 or X14 or any time before the 360 face cup.
About the only one I would bring up is the original Fusion irons with the Ti face insert. That thing was butter.
Sado Mas Izzle
Sep 8, 2016 at 10:56 am
Stunning! So much fun!
Mark
Sep 7, 2016 at 4:09 pm
I have shovels in my garage that look more attractive.
Jon
Sep 7, 2016 at 10:32 am
Such seemingly great technology wrapped in insanely ugly irons! Why couldn’t Callaway tone down the nasty lettering/patterns on the back of the irons..
msmizzllee
Sep 7, 2016 at 9:02 am
enough already. $1300 a set for the average player (at best)?
George
Sep 7, 2016 at 8:18 am
Pretty ugly
Tom
Sep 7, 2016 at 11:17 am
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
BD57
Sep 7, 2016 at 9:33 pm
When you paint, do you look at the paint brush or what you’re painting?
if they paint a pretty scorecard, they’ll become beautiful quick enough.
peter collins
Sep 8, 2016 at 9:42 am
LOVE your comments