Callaway Paradym Drivers - 2023 Forum Review

[azstu324]

7 hours ago, cksurfdude said:

 

@azstu324 - kinda related question if you happen to know: I've read somewhere that most but not all OEMs use the same torque setting (30 or 40 ft-lbs, I think it was?) but one or two others had a different setting..?

Honestly I don't know. I'm sure there's an industry max # out there somewhere. I'd imagine that each company set the lbs that they prefer which is usually a lot lower than the max. I've never known there to be any issues using 1 wrench vs the other. 

[azstu324]

Played 18 at Dobson Ranch. The same course where Garret from Good Good hit a kid with a line drive tee shot on #1 (no relevance whatsoever)

The good: not once did driver ever get me into trouble. Anything missed was dead straight and just off the fairway. Still shot an admirable score. 

Not so good: had trouble finding the center of the face. Seems like I had the same issues last round. I'm very visual in my approach to hitting driver, irons, putter, etc. Everything has to be symmetrical to my eye. The PXG is symmetrically round on the back side where the Paradym isn't. Don't get me wrong, it's a really nice shape that I have no issues with.. just much different from the 0311. Different enough that it's throwing me off? Who knows? Golf's a game of 100 excuses so this might be one of mine.. for now

Now more good to go with the bad.. Even when I wasn't hitting dead center for most of the round, most of what I was hitting still seemed to fly off the face, and straight (just not straight down the fairway), and still long. To end a round shooting 78 when I felt like my drive quality wasn't very good, isn't so bad. What this says to me is that even on a bad day with the driver, things aren't as bad as they could be and I'm still given plenty of chances to save my score on each hole. Every drive ended up with a very playable result. Very interesting . 

We're going up to Monterey California this weekend and I've been given the green light to play Poppy Hill which is one of the nicest courses I think I've ever played. Hopefully I'll have some time to get to a range and dial in the driver because that will really be a test of its performance.

I'll probably have to wait until we're back to get to a sim and really crunch some #'s. So far though, the Paradym is really putting up a strong fight. This is fun!

[Tarheelvolvo]

@azstu324 - I recently hit the Paradym TD at my local range and was impressed by the drop in spin and distance gains over my current gamer. However, that was with a Kai’li 70x shaft. So what led you to a Senior Flex with your higher SS? I’m about the same SS (115+) and have been fitted to X/Tour shafts so far. 

[azstu324]

40 minutes ago, Tarheelvolvo said:

@azstu324 - I recently hit the Paradym TD at my local range and was impressed by the drop in spin and distance gains over my current gamer. However, that was with a Kai’li 70x shaft. So what led you to a Senior Flex with your higher SS? I’m about the same SS (115+) and have been fitted to X/Tour shafts so far. 

Don't want to derail the thread but check this out for more info and you're welcome to ask as many questions over there as you'd like. It was a concept that I didn't necessarily invent.. but definitely threw a tub of gasoline on and got a ton of awesome activity

 

 

[cksurfdude]

ok one minor problem to report...

..with the driver's (the X version) elongated shape (front to back) none of my fun and colorful head covers fit on too well...

 

[StrokerAce]

Thinking hard about this... too much?

17 hours ago, cksurfdude said:

ok one minor problem to report...

..with the driver's elongated shape (front to back) none of my fun and colorful head covers fit on too well...

 

Agreed Chuck!

I even have a hard time getting the stock headcover back on.

[Javs]

1 hour ago, StrokerAce said:

Thinking hard about this... too much?

Agreed Chuck!

I even have a hard time getting the stock headcover back on.

I have that hat in the white/grey cammo. It’s a nice hat

[cksurfdude]

Another practice session .. another few high, nasty bombs (note that is on a *very* relative basis, folks!).

... think I'm starting to get the feel for my driver swing and starting to get the feel of this driver

Testing continues, but no (if you happen to be wondering) have not yet hit it side by side vs my PXG.

[sirchunksalot]

7 hours ago, StrokerAce said:

Thinking hard about this... too much?

Agreed Chuck!

I even have a hard time getting the stock headcover back on.

That hat is really sweet! I'd go for it. 

[russtopherb]

9 hours ago, StrokerAce said:

Thinking hard about this... too much?

Agreed Chuck!

I even have a hard time getting the stock headcover back on.

[azstu324]

1 hour ago, russtopherb said:

 

[StrokerAce]

big matchup in the league between the top 2 teams yesterday and leaned on my driver a few times.

felt good to stripe one on the first hole. DID NOT feel good to 3 putt though.

 

The match was tied on hole 6 and the fairway is 25 yards and my partner didn't hit a great shot so I was on the fence on whether to hit driver.
I decided to punch a low one that started left and come back to the right and ended up 100 yards away. Was really happy to see the ball flight on this one.

 

The match was over at this point (we won ) and as you can see from bluegolf below the fairway is only 17 yards wide here and 36 before you are OB. You need to carry the ball at least 240 to clear the fw bunker or land to the right of it. 

 

I missed my spot by about 3 yards to land right of the trap (  ) but thankfully I was able to get out and finish up with a par. The ball flight was a little low and I wonder if I bump the loft back up to 9 degrees I might have made it over the bunker. I'm going to play with that and see what difference it makes.

 

I made a couple changes to my swing and am really starting to get used to the Paradym and am pleased so far.

Was planning on a getting a round in on Monday but have a funeral  mid morning so might just end up at the range getting some numbers.

 

[Invader Zim 315]

22 minutes ago, StrokerAce said:

big matchup in the league between the top 2 teams yesterday and leaned on my driver a few times.

felt good to stripe one on the first hole. DID NOT feel good to 3 putt though.

 

The match was tied on hole 6 and the fairway is 25 yards and my partner didn't hit a great shot so I was on the fence on whether to hit driver.
I decided to punch a low one that started left and come back to the right and ended up 100 yards away. Was really happy to see the ball flight on this one.

 

The match was over at this point (we won ) and as you can see from bluegolf below the fairway is only 17 yards wide here and 36 before you are OB. You need to carry the ball at least 240 to clear the fw bunker or land to the right of it. 

 

I missed my spot by about 3 yards to land right of the trap (  ) but thankfully I was able to get out and finish up with a par. The ball flight was a little low and I wonder if I bump the loft back up to 9 degrees I might have made it over the bunker. I'm going to play with that and see what difference it makes.

 

I made a couple changes to my swing and am really starting to get used to the Paradym and am pleased so far.

Was planning on a getting a round in on Monday but have a funeral  mid morning so might just end up at the range getting some numbers.

 

289 on the first hole? That's a big ball!

I can't wait to get back out there tomorrow.  There'a a theory I've decided I'm going to try out and excited to see what happens.

[StrokerAce]

3 minutes ago, Invader Zim 315 said:

289 on the first hole? That's a big ball!

I can't wait to get back out there tomorrow.  There's a theory I've decided I'm going to try out and excited to see what happens.

Thanks... put the pressure on the other team right away.
Look forward to the results of your experiment!

[Invader Zim 315]

I've been thinking so much recently about my driver and the way I play the game.  I've always been a "smooth" swinger.  I don't try to bomb it, and before every round I watch Fred Couples swing to get in the vibe of "tempo". That being said, I hit my 3 wood really well and consistently ~250 off the tee.  That's usually plenty of distance.

So, here's the gameplan.  I'm going to keep my smooth swing swing for all clubs other than driver.  If I really need to be safe, I'm going to use 3 wood or 5 wood.  But for the big stick? It's time to let that dog eat.  I have between 36-54 holes planned for this weekend and the plan is, when I take the Paradym out of the bag, I'm really going to let it go.  I really want to test the forgiveness and distance limits of it.

Excited to come back with results.

[cksurfdude]

5 hours ago, Invader Zim 315 said:

Excited to come back with results.

Me too!!! 

[BNewton51]

When I got my Triple D, it came with the Kai Li shaft.  Originally hitting / fitting I thought the shaft was fine and could get the job done.  Got to the course and absolutely despised the shaft.  Launched far too low (limited my carry capabilities to the point that it hurt the overall scoring capabilities) and left me with sub-optimal spin.  

Well, a month later I got "a guy" (fellow MGSer that helps me out way to frequently with product) sent me a whole host of shafts.  Well, I can tell you right now with the Graphite Design shaft or the Mitsu Vanquish have made this thing a definite weapon!  My carry improved and the overall distance / dispersion numbers have drastically improved.  Callaway certainly knocked this driver out of the park in my opinion.  Made coming out of my Ping 425 way too easy!!

[Javs]

8 hours ago, Invader Zim 315 said:

I've been thinking so much recently about my driver and the way I play the game.  I've always been a "smooth" swinger.  I don't try to bomb it, and before every round I watch Fred Couples swing to get in the vibe of "tempo". That being said, I hit my 3 wood really well and consistently ~250 off the tee.  That's usually plenty of distance.

So, here's the gameplan.  I'm going to keep my smooth swing swing for all clubs other than driver.  If I really need to be safe, I'm going to use 3 wood or 5 wood.  But for the big stick? It's time to let that dog eat.  I have between 36-54 holes planned for this weekend and the plan is, when I take the Paradym out of the bag, I'm really going to let it go.  I really want to test the forgiveness and distance limits of it.

Excited to come back with results.

I like your plan. I swing 100 percent when hitting the driver. I believe MySpy had a video on if it was better to swing 80 percent or all out on the driver. All out won by a large margin for distance and accuracy. I have found the same results!

[cksurfdude]

Getting out for 9 this afternoon so hoping to have some good news to report! Range time earlier this past week, working on some adjustments to tee height and ball position .. plus my body alignment to my target line .. has me optimistic to see some continued progress hitting this club

[cksurfdude]

K in-between update: pretty good range warm-up .. if I can hit off the tee half as well .. it'll be a good day for me!

 

[Invader Zim 315]

Full report will be coming, but I played a Bryson style 18 (“bully ball” mentality) and wanted to tell you all that the Paradym got an awesome workout and it performed really, really well, including this shot on 18 (I will admit it’s about 20-30 feet downhill). Not to say I hit it anywhere close to Bryson distance, but hopefully you get what I mean. I just went out there and swung hard. 

This was also the first round the Paradym headcover didn’t make the trip. I did my best to keep it on, and it grew on me a little bit, but just not enough to stay on this club.

[GolfSpy BOS]

On 6/16/2023 at 10:01 AM, StrokerAce said:

Thanks... put the pressure on the other team right away.
Look forward to the results of your experiment!

That's a tough first tee shot too!  Narrow and Uphill!  Crushed it Jason! 

[azstu324]

Have 18 booked for tomorrow at Pacific Grove Golf Links. Then Bayonet on Friday. 

Wanted to get in a good range session this morning.. someone must have told them I was coming.. . Don't remember that being there when we lived here. 

[Invader Zim 315]

Should be tossing up my weekend summary this evening.

TL;DR - I like this driver.

[StrokerAce]

Quite the emotional weekend; had to take a break and step away for a bit. 

Getting ready to come back swingin like Rocky though!

Going to bump up the loft a degree from 8 to 9 and see how that changes things but so far I'm pleased. 

[Invader Zim 315]

16 minutes ago, StrokerAce said:

Quite the emotional weekend; had to take a break and step away for a bit. 

Getting ready to come back swingin like Rocky though!

Going to bump up the loft a degree from 8 to 9 and see how that changes things but so far I'm pleased. 

Sending you all the best Jason (and ready to see you hit some "Nasty Bombs" and "Hellacious Seeds" in the near future)

[StrokerAce]

1 minute ago, Invader Zim 315 said:

Sending you all the best Jason (and ready to see you hit some "Nasty Bombs" and "Hellacious Seeds" in the near future)

Thanks Ryan. 
Looking forward to "playin the tips" !! so I can see what this baby can do...

[Invader Zim 315]

Invader Zim Update – 06.20.2023

I managed to get home for Father’s Day and got in 3 rounds. It was an amazing weekend all around, but of course the Paradym test was a focus of mine all weekend.

If you might recall from my post last Friday, I chose to commit to swinging really hard this weekend. I’m usually a tempo focused player, but I wanted to push the Paradym hard.  Results were as follows:

 

Round One (6/17/23) – Bellevue C.C. (Father’s Day Tournament Best Ball)

We started on the 4th hole, shotgun start.  I forgot to calibrate my watch correctly to account for this, so unfortunately it didn’t capture my distances.

So I’m going to do a TL;DR (“Too Long, Didn’t Read”) summary version of this round. 

While nothing was off the planet, I struggled to control the driver a little bit at first.  But, this was only my second round with the driver and I expected growing pains.  I caught a groove towards the end of the round though, and by my estimation, my drive on my final hole, which barely caught the left rough and stopped on a dime with no rollout, carried 292.  It was clear that if I could groove the swing a little bit, the Paradym was going to perform.  Overall, not my best round but it was moreso my irons that let me down.  Shot 84, T5 for the tournament.

 

Round Two (6/18/23) – Bellevue C.C. (Father’s Day Round with Dad and Brother)

After not having my watch calibrated on Saturday, I made a point to collect good data on Sunday.  This course is pretty short and tight, and many holes simply don’t even allow for driver, but anywhere that I could take a risk and pull the big dog, I did. Here were my drives:

·         Hole 1: 291 – Fairway (par)
·         Hole 2: 302 – Hit a cart path ~5 feet left of the fairway.  I was safe in the left rough but my ball was not.  A good drive but probably would have been like 285-290 without the bounce (par)
·         Hole 4: 282 – Fairway (par)
·         Hole 5: 255 – Hit the top of a tree about 10-15 yards right of the fairway and came straight down, was aiming over there as there’s OB left, so I wasn’t mad (bogey)
·         Hole 10: 284 – Fairway (Double; hosel rocket with long iron) AHH
·         Hole 16: 307 – Right Adjacent Fairway.  This hole plays at least 30 yards downhill, so that miss right is easy to do.  The trouble is left so I was happy.  Wedge easily cleared trees and hit the green (par)
·         Hole 18: 310 – Fairway. Caveat, this hole also plays downhill about 30 yards (three putt bogey)

 

So, all in all, 4/7 fairways hit with the Paradym, with one missing by ~10 feet and two of them being what I call “Good Misses”.  All of them (outside of the tree ball) were 280+ yards.  This was a great driving day for my standards and I felt a LOT of confidence pulling the Paradym out of the bag.  I shot a 79, mainly due to a couple of really bad iron shots that left me in some ugly places with extremely difficult up and downs.  I also 4 putted 17 and 3 putted 18 after hitting GIRs (Tip o’ the cap to our old friend Donald Ross)

 

 

Round Three (6/19/23) – Drumlins West

I was really hoping to carry the good driving momentum into this Monday round at a short, Par 70 course that is, for the most part, pretty wide open.  Here’s the summary:

·         Hole 1: 273 – Fairway (birdie)
·         Hole 2: 276 – Right rough (bogey)
·         Hole 3: 188 – Fairway, but a cold top (scramble par) 
·         Hole 6: 155 – Tee box is in a tree lined chute, pushed it and it hit a branch and came down (double) 
·         Hole 8: 262 – Right rough.  Just a little push that didn’t miss by much, uphill tee shot (par)
·         Hole 9: 303 – First cut left, 70 yards out (birdie)
·         Hole 11: 283 – Fairway.  Pushed second shot right on par 5 (bogey)
·         Hole 13: 252 – OB right.  Lateral hazard (bogey)
·         Hole 14: 286 – Fairway (birdie)
·         Hole 16: 278 – Left rough (three putt bogey)
·         Hole 17: 275 – Fairway (par)

 

Slightly less impressive of a day driving, but ended with a 76 on the scorecard. My three bad drives came on 3, 6, and 13.  3 and 6 were kind of embarrassing, but I’m not scratch, it happens.  13 isn’t a driver hole (very short par 4 with a fairway that slopes into OB right if you go beyond 250). I tried to risk it for the sake of the test and looked to hit a tight draw into the left fairway/rough, and ended up fanning it right into the woods.  Overall though, I am pretty happy with 5/11 fairways with 4 of the 6 misses being perfectly fine, either just barely in the rough or first cut.

 

 

Overall Summary

I sort of fell in love with this driver this weekend.  The first day was hit-miss, but after that, the feel, the distance, the height and the forgiveness all came together.  I was so impressed by them all.  This thing felt so good and I was more than comfortable taking it out of the bag. 

Swinging hard, I didn’t hit every drive 300+ yards, but that’s fine.  This driver gave me the confidence to go at the ball and know it was going to both get out there a long way, and still be inside the ball park.  That’s a really nice combination. Yes, I cold topped 2 drives (user error) and fanned one right on a hole I shouldn’t have used driver, but otherwise I was very impressed.

If there’s a quote that encapsulates the way I felt about this weekend, it’s from my Dad: “I’ve seen you have some good days on the course, but I have never seen you hit a ball as high and far as you’ve hit it today.”

For the first time in a while, I’m looking forward pulling the driver (not 3 wood) out of the bag on the first tee next time I play.  More importantly, I’m looking forward to the next time I can get out there with my Dad.  Happy Belated Father’s Day to all our Dads out there.

 

P.S. I also just kind of had to plug the new bag/headcover..

 

[cksurfdude]

Play 

Well no 310 yd nasty bombs from this old guy, but - in my last 9 hole round I did hit the first two drives really, really well! (...after that I was over-thinking it and just trying too hard...)

#1 - smooth swing, nice contact, high draw going down the right side where I was aiming (to avoid the fairway bunker in the middle) .. got a dry turf assisted rollout to 240!

#2 - tee shot here has been a bugaboo for me, for no good reason other than the fairway is elevated maybe 12-15 feet so you can't see the landing area (still not a good reason) .. and I'm usually in the trees right .. or left... Hit a decent shot that ended up a bit left of center, about 222 yds (so pretty happy with that)

Other drives I made good contact but pushed or blocked it out to the right... (..if I could just straighten those out... - work in progress!)

---

Practice

More range time today and this time took along both an extra shaft to try plus my current driver (PXG Gen 5 0311XF with EvenFlow Blue CB).

The extra shaft is the UST Pro Force V2 HL .. that I'd put in the Bertha Mini I'd been using off the tee .. and really liked it so had gotten one for my previous Callaway driver.

Hit a bunch of shots with each and made a few quick notes; long story short...

-- the current test/review combo of X head + Kai'Li Blue is giving me the best ball flight, best dispersion and say 9/10 best distance!

Will run another comparison to the PXG in the near future to double-check today's results.

 

 

[cksurfdude]

13 minutes ago, Invader Zim 315 said:

Swinging hard, I didn’t hit every drive 300+ yards, but that’s fine.  This driver gave me the confidence to go at the ball and know it was going to both get out there a long way, and still be inside the ball park.  That’s a really nice combination.

Total awesomeness dude!! 

Great updates and great to read you've found something to help you out-drive Phil