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Callaway Big Bertha 3 Wood Member Review


Jondagcl

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Heres my first review on MyGolfSpy, so go easy on me if it doesn't look as polished as most of the reviews you may be accustomed to seeing on here. When you see the pictures you'll see I tried to get cute with it like you guys do and take it from cool angles. I'm not too sure they came out all that great but I'm going to go ahead and blame my phone on that and not my horrible photography skills.

IMG_4694.jpg

 

Backstory

As I've evaluated my game and my desire to get better and get into a solid single digit handicap, I've been looking for a 3 wood for probably a year and half. My prior 3 wood an Adams Speedline LP 13 * with a Reg Flex Matrix Radix shaft served me ok for a pretty long time. It was one of the clubs that you have that when you hit it well its the best 3 wood you've ever hit, but frequently you do not hit it well and the end result is in big trouble. It was a club that I could (not on purpose) go +/- almost 30-35 yards.

 

Clubs I considered to replace it

I'm going to be super honest here, I almost completely dumped using a 3-wood and was going to go to the lowest lofted hybrid I could find and was just hitting a ton of those. I don't have trouble hitting the center of the club face (here is my new Big Bertha, you can see I'm all over the middle, maybe a little high but all over the middle of this thing) IMG_4689.jpgIMG_4690.jpg

and I don't have a janky swing. So I was previously disenchanted that with what I felt was a pretty decent effort not getting me what I wanted out of a 3-wood. So much of my time was spend on this quest for a club that was a little more forgiving but gave me a good chance at a green from over 215-220 out - who really cares about this anyway. Moving on.

 

The Big Bertha 3-wood

So fast forward, I do end up with 2 new hybrids (you can look at my signature if you care to know what I ended up with) and this 3 wood that is adjustable. I liked the fact that if I wanted to I could go down to 14* and if I wanted to be honest with my skills set it at 16* (even 17*) if I wanted to. So I get it, order it 1/2 shorter with the R flex shaft and take it to the range out here in Long Beach CA.

 

I go to one that has grass, don't even take one swing with it, crank it down to 14* and hit some great shots with it. I'm enjoying it, I'm getting some good distance out of it. Trajectory is probably 25% lower than what I am accustomed to. I'm not firing off stingers, just lower trajectory shots that stay up for an unexpected amount of time with the trajectory I have.

 

I go and I play a full round with it - I'm like the distance but I'm cutting it a little too much, and the ball flight (now that I'm on the actual course) is a bit lower than ideal. So I go back to the lab and play with it some more and end up with it set at +1 and D. Oh, BONUS! you can play with the settings on this all day long and your grip stays in place. Not like my driver where anytime I mess with it I have to redo the grip to make it straight again. Super annoying. I've played 3 more full rounds with it at +1 and D and I am thrilled. IMG_4691.jpg

 

Its super consistent with distance, some of my less than perfect shots don't end up 35 yards shorter or way more off line than my perfect shots. Even at at +1 setting (so its 16* at +1) I'm still getting a lower trajectory than with my 13* Adams which I don't know how to explain and more distance.

 

Overall

I'm pretty pumped about this 3-wood. 3-woods are not really a club you get fired up about because you don't use it all the time. But I'm finding myself teeing off with it more often, and hitting it in scenarios where I feel I have a chance of hitting the green. Maybe I have a weird way of looking at a 3-wood. But almost as much as I want to hit it far, I want it to not get me in trouble. With a club you can hit off the deck and get 225+ yards out of it there is definitely the chance of trouble for me - and I'm hitting it where I want and it's been keeping me out of trouble. So if you are looking for a little more forgiveness, a lot of adjustability and a great sounding club (its got a nice sound to it) then check this thing out.

IMG_4688.jpg

 

Feel free to ask me anything I left out, or if you've hit this club what you think.

Edited the shaft on the Adams.

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I tried the 3 Deep last year and it was a great club but I did not really need it because it was too long for a 3 wood. Other than the deeper faced, lower lofted 3 woods, I pretty much hit them all the same. When I hit them correctly the ball is gone. If I miss it a little, it is a lot shorter. Not a lot of trouble, just short. Do you feel that the shaft had anything to do with the results or does the head just seem to be that much more forgiving?

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Nice review. Be curious to hear how you feel about it after you've gamed it for a while. Not that this has anything to do with performance, but I think the BB clubs look great! I play a RAZR Fit 3W and love it: really think Callaway know what they're doing in this area.

PING i20 8.5*, TFC707D (S)
Callaway RAZR Fit 15*, neutral setting, stock shaft (S)
PING i20 20*, TFC707H (S)
Adams Pro a12 23*, Matrix Ozik Altus (S)
PING i20 5-PW, TT DG S300, 1.5* flat (purple dot)
SCOR 50*,54*,58*, Genius 12 KBS Tour (S), 1.5* flat, -1/4"
STX xForm 3, 35"
 

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SMRT - I edited the shaft on the Adams in my initial post. It came with the Matrix Radix shaft. I have both clubs at 42.5, both regular flex (which we all know means very little and the actual stiffness can vary).

 

One of the things I struggled with on the Adams was that at times I felt like I lost the club in my swing. I don't know how much lighter the Adams is vs. the BB overall, but that was my main problem. I used to have the Speedline driver too with the same shaft and it was a similar issue. I also felt like the shaft never loaded for me. The low profile wasn't my favorite it looked sort of squished but that's not a huge deal.

 

The BB I feel like I can swing a little more freely, the shaft loads up and connects really nicely. I don't have a really technical way of explaining this, but I feel I can swing easier and get a better result. The head itself sets up a little nicer at address. It is taller so I don't feel I have to make a special swing to connect. How much more forgiving is it, I don't really know how I'd fairly assess that. I can say shots I don't feel I put a great swing on end up online and with minimal distance loss. It rewards a great shot and doesn't penalize a less than ideal shot.

 

SeeRed - I'd like to have a few more rounds under my belt with it as well. I'd like to check in again once I have about 10 or so rounds played and give some more feedback. So far though I'd agree with you Callaway knows what they are doing with these.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Between when I wrote my initial review and now I have played 9 additional rounds with the Big Bertha 3 wood.  I think its a fair time to update on how its treated me and give an updated review.

 

I've played a variety of courses

 

- my local courses that are in not so good shape with super wide fairways 

- a local country club with very tight fairways

-2 courses in Palm Springs (one a very modern resort style course, the other an older very narrow course)

- and 3 times in Cancun at what I felt was a rather challenging course (I shot 2 92's and an 80.  Mostly because I couldn't hold the greens, and I had a series of bad days with my traditionally automatic driver)

 

The theme that I can put together with this 3 wood is that my mishits continue to be acceptable, and my good shots much better than with my previous 3 wood.  I'm getting more reliable distance and tighter dispersion.  Even with the occasional off the toe shot I'm getting an acceptable result.

 

The only ding that I would give the club (and probably many 3 woods) is that if you are off the fairway on a course that has slightly longer than average rough I don't feel like this club cuts through the thicker stuff all that well.  You may counter with "you shouldn't be playing that club from that lie anyway" but we all know that if you are 230 out have a clear shot you are going for it.

 

An area where it excels is right off the deck on tighter lies.  This has historically been an issue for me since I can hit these thin.  I haven't thinned many off of some of the tightest lies I've encountered.  The way it sets up makes you feel pretty confident over these shots.

 

I'm excited to see how it does in the 3-wood club test, if I had to bet on a club performing well for a lot of the guys on here I'd put some money on this one.

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Thanks for the review. Obviously we have similar swing speeds and like about everyone I hate my 3 wood. I'm currently looking although that looking is taking a back seat to the iron search

 

I will take what you are saying here under advisement. It's really appreciated. We appear to be among the few that will own up to playing R flexes. :)

Taylor Made Stealth 2 10.5 Diamana S plus 60  Aldila  R flex   - 42.25 inches 

SMT 4 wood bassara R flex, four wood head, 3 wood shaft

Ping G410 7, 9 wood  Alta 65 R flex

Srixon ZX5 MK II  5-GW - UST recoil Dart 65 R flex

India 52,56 (60 pending)  UST recoil 75's R flex  

Evon roll ER 5 32 inches

It's our offseason so auditioning candidates - looking for that right mix of low spin long, more spin around the greens - TBD   

 

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Glad the review helped!  I have no shame in playing an R flex shaft anymore.  When I was fitted for the Wishon Irons a million years ago (I truthfully don't remember when I bought those, I don't even think Wishon sells the 770's anymore), the fitter said I was right in-between the CPM range for the Regular and the Stiff shaft. I'd be lying if I didn't say I wanted the stiff shaft just for the sake of having it, but no matter which shaft we tried, I kept going back to a regular flex.  I've done this at a ton of golf stores too, same thing.  The guy in whatever bay I'm in will say, "let's try a stiff shaft and see what happens.  I think you can benefit from it."  I always try a ton of shaft combinations and end up with an R flex again.

 

Good luck on the iron search, lots of great options out there!

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