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Callaway Epic Flash Star line: Light and launchable

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Imagine being given one job as a design team…

Make it light, use all available technology, make it look really good, and make it fast.

This is the Callaway Epic Flash Star.

This new Callaway Epic Flash Star line includes a driver, fairway woods, hybrids, and a set of forged irons—because forged can be fast too, like really fast. This lineup, which is an update to the original Callaway Epic Star line, is introducing improvements across the board and sets a new level of performance in the premium lightweight equipment category.

When it comes to designing ultra lightweight clubs, there are some serious design challenges because you are limited by the amount of mass you can use move around based on the final target total weight. Even with these challenges Callaway engineers along with component partners have produced a set of clubs that incorporate every available piece of technology, including Flash Face and Jailbreak, to help slower swing speed golfers get back more distance from everywhere. I know it often sounds silly but stats prove that for every club less a player hits into a green, the likelihood of making a lower number goes up. This is why golfers in need of more speed will benefit from a set that allows them to hit those shorter clubs more often.

Epic Flash Star Driver

50 grams.

Thats the difference in total weight between the new Star and the standard Epic Flash Driver. Thats MASSIVE! 50 grams is 22-25 percent the mass of a traditional driver head on its own and when talking about the whole package thats a mass reduction of just under 16 percent ( 15.8 percent to be precise ). Engineers work tirelessly to shave three grams here and four grams there when it comes to club design being able to get 50g out of what is already the lightest club in the bag is astonishing. A lot of that weight reduction comes from the removal of the adjustable hosel making the Epic Flash Star the only driver in the Callaway lineup with a non adjustable hosel. No hosel adjustability means offering more loft options, which include a 10.5, 12, and now a 13.5 degrees (perfect for those golfers who have a difficulty getting the ball into the air).

As I have said before, a club is only as good as the sum of its parts, and there is no ignoring the fact that thanks to UST Mamiya, the Epic Flash Star is equipped with a 30-gram shaft: the Attas Speed—yeah you read that right 30 grams! The Attus Speed, until now, has been a product available exclusively in Japan (a golf market know for not turning an eye to premium performing products when they offer a tangible benefit), and is now available in North America.

Don’t think for a second that they are stopping at the shaft either: The club will also feature a Golf Pride 30g JLoo grip. All of this combines together to help slower swing speed players deliver the head back to the ball as fast as they can, with more consistency. All this adds up to a driver that has the potential to deliver some major gains.

Retail price will be $699.99

Epic Flash Star Fairway Woods and Hybrids

Much like the Star driver, the fairway woods incorporate proven technologies, including Jailbreak, Flash Face, and Face Cup—the same tech that has been making Callaway fairways woods some of the longest available dating back to the XR (remember how fast those were compared to everything else?). To give you a refresher on what the Face Cup does, it uses variable face thickness built into the forged 455 Carpenter steel face to promote fast ball speed on all shots especially mishits.  It does this by having the thinnest parts act like a hinge that’s activated the face and gives you all the “spring” you need (within the legal limit).

More weight is repositioned to create greater forgiveness and lower the COG thanks to a new T2C triaxial carbon crown and fixed hosel.

Since this is a full line launch the other similarities include a 40-gram ATTAS Speed shaft and choice of JL00 or J200 (42g) grip. Availability includes  3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 models which is a big expansion versus the original Start line which only went up the the 21-degree 7-wood. Considering the player demographic for these clubs, the 9 and 11s are going to be very popular.

Retail price is $399.99

Epic Flash Star Forged Irons

Meant to be launched!

The Epic Star irons are an ultra-premium forged iron designed for pure acoustics, feel, and explosive distance. Using what Callaway is calling an infinite black finish, every detail was carefully thought out in an effort to help golfers in need of distance get every technological advantage they can.

Just like with the standard Epic Flash, Callaway is using a suspended tungsten core for greater control over launch and spin while High-COR Faces with 360 Face Cup Technology maximize distance off the center and off of mishits. To also help with distance the lofts of the Flash irons are stronger BUT…thanks to the optimized CG locations (ala suspended tungsten ), and super hot faces, the peak heights are less affected.

Just like with the rest of the Star Line, the greatest design advantage they offer beyond the clubhead is the incredibly lightweight total club weight to help players in need of speed maximum their ability and in the end create great swing speed. Thanks to the UST ATTUS Speed ultra-premium iron shaft coming in at only 40 and 50 grams respectively (depending on set configuration and fitting), along with the same Golf Pride 30g JLoo grip used in the rest of the set—players should expect to see at least a whole club gained in distance.

The Epic Star Forged irons are available from 5-iron to sand wedge with a retail price of $325 per club.

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Ryan Barath is a club-fitter & master club builder with more than 17 years of experience working with golfers of all skill levels, including PGA Tour players. He is the former Build Shop Manager & Social Media Coordinator for Modern Golf. He now works independently from his home shop and is a member of advisory panels to a select number of golf equipment manufacturers. You can find Ryan on Twitter and Instagram where he's always willing to chat golf, and share his passion for club building, course architecture and wedge grinding.

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Equipment

Cobra launches 3D-printed LIMIT3D irons

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Cobra released its first commercially available 3D-printed steel putter in 2020. Now, the company is bringing its first 3D-printed irons to retail with new LIMIT3D irons, which Cobra’s vice president of product architecture, Jose Miraflor, calls “the most significant technological advancement to happen to the category in the past 20 years” and “a look into the future of golf club design and performance.”

Cobra leveraged the expertise of computational design software firm nTop to create an ambitious design: a compact players blade that offers similar forgiveness as a larger, game-improvement style club and forged iron feel.

Speaking on the partnership, Mike Yagley, Vice President of Innovation & AI, Cobra Golf said, “nTop’s computational design tools integrated with 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, allowed us to create an incredible new design that looks and feels like a forged blade but performs like a larger, game-improvement iron. No one has done this before, and we’re excited to introduce these unique irons to the world.”

As Cobra explains, more forgiving irons are traditionally larger and sacrifice feel. Due to the limitations of casting and forging, creating a more compact, better-feeling iron that still delivers forgiveness was only possible with 3D printing. The resulting profile of Cobra’s LIMIT3D irons is smaller than Cobra’s King Tour irons.

LIMIT3D irons are 3D printed for 316L stainless steel with an internal lattice structure, which allowed engineers to position 33 percent of the iron’s overall weight to the exterior for greater MOI. 100 grams of tungsten is positioned in the heel and toe of each clubhead for low CG for ease of launch and high MOI for greater forgiveness.

Additionally, using nTop’s design software and additive manufacturing allowed for a substantially faster prototyping process, which enabled engineers to test more designs and mass placements for a superior finished product.

Cobra LIMIT3D irons: Pricing, specs, availability

  • 350 individually numbered sets available in the U.S. and Canada (500 sets total worldwide)
  • Available for custom order June 7
  • Price: $3,000
  • Set: 4-PW, RH only
  • Full range of aftermarket shafts, grips

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Equipment

Coolest thing for sale in the GolfWRX Classifieds (5/14/24): Mizuno Pro 241 Azalea Edition irons

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At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals that all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.

It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.

Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, there is a listing for a set of Mizuno Pro 241 Azalea Edition irons.

From the seller: (@ayc25): “Brand new in box / plastic. 4-PW. Custom shaft bands, grips, ferrules. Dynamic Gold S200 Tour Issue. NO TRADES. Ships next day UPS Ground from Northern Virginia. $1695 shipped or best offer.”

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link: Mizuno Pro 241 Azalea Edition irons

This is the most impressive current listing from the GolfWRX BST, and if you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum you can check them out here: GolfWRX BST Rules

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Whats in the Bag

Michael Block WITB 2024 (May)

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  • Michael Block what’s in the bag accurate as of the PGA Championship.

Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 “Dot” (9 degrees @7.5)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 Tour (15 degrees @14.25)
Shaft: 2024 Fujikura Ventus Blue 7 X

5-wood: TaylorMade M5 (19 degrees @17)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Orange 70 TX

Irons: TaylorMade Stealth UDI (4), TaylorMade Proto (5-9)
Shafts: Graphite Design Tour AD DI Hybrid 85 X (4), Project X 6.5 (5-9)

Wedges: TaylorMade Milled Grind 4 (46-09SB, 60 [unconfirmed]), TaylorMade Milled Grind 2 (52-09S, 56)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Odyssey White Hot 2-Ball

Grips: Golf Pride MCC

See the rest of Michael Block’s WITB in the forums.

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