Callaway Ai-Smoke Drivers: 2024 Forum Review

[TylorJudd]

On 6/8/2024 at 6:30 PM, arodrig29 said:

Great stuff so far guys, quick question. I currently play the Rogue ST Max and while it’s very stable, it’s not the longest club in the world. I was wondering if any of the testers putting the triple diamond through its paces considers it stable and accurate? I know that the MGS testing showed it as such but wondering what you guys think? 

I tried the Rogue ST TD, before I went into the Paradym TD. That in itself was a huge difference, now from Paradym to Ai Smoke, even bigger difference from Rogue. 
Like Rick said, high toe is crazy stable. Biggest difference I’ve seen between Paradym and Ai Smoke. 
 

I don’t experience the loss of distance off the heel though. The Ai Face is not just marketing fluff. Found shaft more important with Ai Smoke than I did Paradym though

[ILMgolfnut]

Just got an email for pre-order of the Ai Smoke TI 340 Mini Driver. I smell another test coming...

[TylorJudd]

21 hours ago, ILMgolfnut said:

Just got an email for pre-order of the Ai Smoke TI 340 Mini Driver. I smell another test coming...

I think those are going to be a huge hit

[Berg Ryman]

Data dump either late tonight or tomorrow. Good sets, a lot of interesting thoughts, ready for a final review.

[ILMgolfnut]

On 6/12/2024 at 9:09 AM, TylorJudd said:

I think those are going to be a huge hit

I stopped by Golf Galaxy this afternoon to see if they had the Mini yet. They don't. He said they'll get them when Callaway starts shipping those pre-orders. Which, by the way, are sold out.

[JAYER38]

Was gathering some data at the range yesterday with the BLP and the battery decided to crap out on me about 7mins into the session so that sucks. Hoping the battery recalibrate fixes it so I can get this last bit of data for the final review.

I still just want to say WOW. I think everyone who has read this thread sees how this is going to go!

[Shrek74]

19 hours ago, ILMgolfnut said:

I stopped by Golf Galaxy this afternoon to see if they had the Mini yet. They don't. He said they'll get them when Callaway starts shipping those pre-orders. Which, by the way, are sold out.

I got my pre-order, thanks to the 2x trade-in bonus. I basically got the Ti340 and 2 gloves for the cost of tax.

[Berg Ryman]

Alright, hope you guys are all ready for a data dump with decent pictures. This data capture set our or local Golf Galaxy was part ball experiment, part head to head, part thought experiment. First, a thanks to the boys in Dewitt for having this opportunity and for letting my sweaty body take about 50 drives over a little over an hour. And thanks to by body for not giving in for that time.

LOFT TEST

Alright, the first thing I wanted to get an idea of was whether or not we needed to switch up anything as far as the Dual Cog setup. As an aside, I do believe Callaway had basically perfected the adaptor for woods, it's by far the easiest to explain in sales, and is just makes actual an acute sense. It's perfect and I can't think of any improvement unless they were to add a third cog for more fine-tuning.

So for this test we used my current ball, the "Berg Ryman" Bridgestone for those in the know from Kingsmill, the 2022 Bridgestone B-XS. For this set of data we took ten shots with each setting, dropping the two best and the 3 worst to reach a nice meaty middle. The question here was as to loft. I've moved the driver weight back more into a neutral setting after what I saw at Kingsmill and that's likely where it will be for my final round this weekend. So the question was keeping it at 12* or going down to 11*

First, the averages at 12*

 

 

Now, the same setup at 11*

 

So, looking at the them side by side, you'd be hard pressed to see the difference between them. I personally could game it at either space. I think I'm going to play an actual round this week at 11* to see if there's any actual difference between them. I'm more concerned about the miss here, which, as some will tell you from Kingsmill, is a high spinning high launching floater which goes nowhere. I think I'm more susceptible to those at 12* then 11*, although then we're taking about a slightly open face against a square one. Hence the want to get it out on the course.

 

BALL SELECTION

Ok, next step was to see if going to a different ball would actually be beneficial to try and cut the spin number out of that driver. If you look at Ping's optimization chart with a roughly -2 AOA, I need a launch in the 12-13 degree neighborhood, but a spin of roughly 2800-2900. Here's the chart I'm using for reference, which I know I think everyone had seen before.

Now, it stands to reason that everyone knows the B-XS is the spiniest ball in the Bridgestone Lineup, famously made that way for one Mr. Eldrick Woods. For a lower spin guy like myself, it's awesome of irons and wedges, but with a 12* driver can lead to higher spin. The MGS Ball Test had it in a set environment off a 10.5 degree driver around 2950 at near my swing speed. So, I brought with me a sleeve of Pro V1X, a ball that creates enough spin off the clubs I need it from, but should spin slightly less than B-XS off the driver. I also used the stores Titleist AVX to try a lower spinning option

First, the Pro V1X, my old ball

Then the AVX

And again, as reminder, the B-XS

So, a conclusion is drawn here for me. The B-XS isn't as high spinning on average across the set of shots as I thought. Also, there may be really be gains for me off the driver in the lower compression market of tour balls as it relates to spin, so balls like Maxfli S, AVX, Chrome Soft, Tour Response could be in play for the bag. However, it also may lead me to the opposite end of the spectrum because I'm seemingly with this driver a decent fit for Left Dash, which would be interesting and more as to what I'm used teel from a feel/performance standpoint on the irons and wedges. Lastly, I could conceivably stick it out with Bridgestone until we run them out. A lot of thoughts here and shows the importance of just not agreeing with what we're told the ball does from the manufacture some times.

HEAD 2 HEAD

Ok, we now get to the final showdown, the AI Smoke against the current champ, the Titleist TSR2. Now, there are differences here as far as set up. The AI Smoke is set at 11 degrees, draw setting in the cog and weight slightly shaded into draw in the head. The Titleist TSR is 10 degrees, set in the standard position A1, same way I was fit for it at Club Champion. We're back to using the B-XS Here's the showdown everyone was waiting for. 10 shots, drop the two best and three worst.

Again, the AI smoke at 11*

And now, the TSR

 

On the surface, it appears a no contest, TSR is longer, spins less, and produces a much better Smash ratio than my AI Smoke. Now, the Smash may come down the fact the the TSR is swing weighted at D7 and the Smoke around D3, but I think this shows better than anything else here not to be seduced by the Trackman numbers and what happens in the bay in a fitting or a data comparison.

Now, I'd concede the TSR goes further and creates more ball speed at a lower swing speed, but you have to ask yourself are those playable numbers in relationship to the shots, and this goes to my main thesis of the Callaway AI Smoke. Even if it isn't the longest driver for me, it's the most playable driver for me. The carry numbers due to a more reasonable and less random launch dwarf the TSR by nearly 10 yards. The TSR makes up the difference with run and rollout, but a driver that's more condition dependent isn't a driver I think you can feel good about bagging for the sake of confidence. Say you roll into rough, you're shorter and more frustrated than you are with Smoke. It's why we play golf on the course, not on the simulator.

But Berg, I hear you say, what about lofting up your TSR to 11ish degrees, best of both world right? Well, I did try that, and here's what I hated about it almost immediately. As we know, when we loft up a driver or any wood, it closes the face, however small or big. My worse miss with the TSR is a dunk hook. I just can't look at the head pointing left without that effecting my path. I know it's stupid, but visually it brings so many bad ideas in to the head. Also, for the slight launch advantage, there actually wasn't much difference in the number carry wise or total wise, maybe moving into the 210 range, but not where we were with the AI Smoke at high 210's at average.

TAKEWAYS BEFORE THE FINAL REVIEW

Look, I think you can gather my thoughts from my posts in the thread about where I am with the AI Smoke at this point. I do think I need to find the right ball to further unlock it, and I'm uncertain if that's a softer ball or the super firm low spinning range. I will say though, @JohnSmalls knows how much I like my rocks and I may have hit my Pink Nitro on the sim just to see... it's an interesting one for sure. The biggest advantage I think the AI Smoke offers to folks is the playability of the head. If you get fit into the right head for what you need, and considering there's now 6 of them counting the two that came out during the test, you should really enjoy what you get out of them.

I look forward to getting in one final round this weekend to try some different stuff, and look forward to putting together a solid final review for y'all, perhaps even for a surprise for you guys as well... always keep you guessing.

Edited June 14 by Berg Ryman

[RickM71]

8 minutes ago, Berg Ryman said:

Alright, hope you guys are all ready for a data dump with decent pictures. This data capture set our or local Golf Galaxy was part ball experiment, part head to head, part thought experiment. First, a thanks to the boys in Dewitt for having this opportunity and for letting my sweaty body take about 50 drives over a little over an hour. And thanks to by body for not giving in for that time.

LOFT TEST

Alright, the first thing I wanted to get an idea of was whether or not we needed to switch up anything as far as the Dual Cog setup. As an aside, I do believe Callaway had basically perfected the adaptor for woods, it's by far the easiest to explain in sales, and is just makes actual an acute sense. It's perfect and I can't think of any improvement unless they were to add a third cog for more fine-tuning.

So for this test we used my current ball, the "Berg Ryman" Bridgestone for those in the know from Kingsmill, the 2022 Bridgestone B-XS. For this set of data we took ten shots with each setting, dropping the two best and the 3 worst to reach a nice meaty middle. The question here was as to loft. I've moved the driver weight back more into a neutral setting after what I saw at Kingsmill and that's likely where it will be for my final round this weekend. So the question was keeping it at 12* or going down to 11*

First, the averages at 12*

 

 

Now, the same setup at 11*

 

So, looking at the them side by side, you'd be hard pressed to see the difference between them. I personally could game it at either space. I think I'm going to play an actual round this week at 11* to see if there's any actual difference between them. I'm more concerned about the miss here, which, as some will tell you from Kingsmill, is a high spinning high launching floater which goes nowhere. I think I'm more susceptible to those at 12* then 11*, although then we're taking about a slightly open face against a square one. Hence the want to get it out on the course.

 

BALL SELECTION

Ok, next step was to see if going to a different ball would actually be beneficial to try and cut the spin number out of that driver. If you look at Ping's optimization chart with a roughly -2 AOA, I need a launch in the 12-13 degree neighborhood, but a spin of roughly 2800-2900. Here's the chart I'm using for reference, which I know I think everyone had seen before.

 

Now, it stands to reason that everyone knows the B-XS is the spiniest ball in the Bridgestone Lineup, famously made that way for one Mr. Eldrick Woods. For a lower spin guy like myself, it's awesome of irons and wedges, but with a 12* driver can lead to higher spin. The MGS Ball Test had it in a set environment off a 10.5 degree driver around 2950 at near my swing speed. So, I brought with me a sleeve of Pro V1X, a ball that creates enough spin off the clubs I need it from, but should spin slightly less than B-XS off the driver. I also used the stores Titleist AVX to try a lower spinning option

First, the Pro V1X, my old ball

Then the AVX

And again, as reminder, the B-XS

So, a conclusion is drawn here for me. The B-XS isn't as high spinning on average across the set of shots as I thought. Also, there may be really be gains for me off the driver in the lower compression market of tour balls as it relates to spin, so balls like Maxfli S, AVX, Chrome Soft, Tour Response could be in play for the bag. However, it also may lead me to the opposite end of the spectrum because I'm seemingly with this driver a decent fit for Left Dash, which would be interesting and more as to what I'm used teel from a feel/performance standpoint on the irons and wedges. Lastly, I could conceivably stick it out with Bridgestone until we run them out. A lot of thoughts here and shows the importance of just not agreeing with what we're told the ball does from the manufacture some times.

HEAD 2 HEAD

Ok, we now get to the final showdown, the AI Smoke against the current champ, the Titleist TSR2. Now, there are differences here as far as set up. The AI Smoke is set at 11 degrees, draw setting in the cog and weight slightly shaded into draw in the head. The Titleist TSR is 10 degrees, set in the standard position A1, same way I was fit for it at Club Champion. We're back to using the B-XS Here's the showdown everyone was waiting for. 10 shots, drop the two best and three worst.

Again, the AI smoke at 11*

And now, the TSR

 

On the surface, it appears a no contest, TSR is longer, spins less, and produces a much better Smash ratio than my AI Smoke. Now, the Smash may come down the fact the the TSR is swing weighted at D7 and the Smoke around D3, but I think this shows better than anything else here not to be seduced by the Trackman numbers and what happens in the bay in a fitting or a data comparison.

Now, I'd concede the TSR goes further and creates more ball speed at a lower swing speed, but you have to ask yourself are those playable numbers in relationship to the shots, and this goes to my main thesis of the Callaway AI Smoke. Even if it isn't the longest driver for me, it's the most playable driver for me. The carry numbers due to a more reasonable and less random launch dwarf the TSR by nearly 10 yards. The TSR makes up the difference with run and rollout, but a driver that's more condition dependent isn't a driver I think you can feel good about bagging for the sake of confidence. Say you roll into rough, you're shorter and more frustrated than you are with Smoke. It's why we play golf on the course, not on the simulator.

TAKEWAYS BEFORE THE FINAL REVIEW

Look, I think you can gather my thoughts from my posts in the thread about where I am with the AI Smoke at this point. I do think I need to find the right ball to further unlock it, and I'm uncertain if that's a softer ball or the super firm low spinning range. I will say though, @JohnSmalls knows how much I like my rocks and I may have hit my Pink Nitro on the sim just to see... it's an interesting one for sure. The biggest advantage I think the AI Smoke offers to folks is the playability of the head. If you get fit into the right head for what you need, and considering there's now 6 of them counting the two that came out during the test, you should really enjoy what you get out of them.

I look forward to getting in one final round this weekend to try some different stuff, and look forward to putting together a solid final review for y'all, perhaps even for a surprise for you guys as well... always keep you guessing.

I'm curious how accurate the Trackman spin numbers are when you are indoors not using an RCT ball. Your spin number is in italics which means they calculated an estimate rather than measured the actual spin. I don't know how Trackman calculates spin, but it could potentially be very misleading if not accurate. I've heard people claim Trackman estimates are good, but I'm a skeptic by nature. 

I love the information you collected here. Nicely done. 

[Rob Person]

Wow!  Great data results

[MattWillGolf]

5 hours ago, Berg Ryman said:

Alright, hope you guys are all ready for a data dump with decent pictures. This data capture set our or local Golf Galaxy was part ball experiment, part head to head, part thought experiment. First, a thanks to the boys in Dewitt for having this opportunity and for letting my sweaty body take about 50 drives over a little over an hour. And thanks to by body for not giving in for that time.

LOFT TEST

Alright, the first thing I wanted to get an idea of was whether or not we needed to switch up anything as far as the Dual Cog setup. As an aside, I do believe Callaway had basically perfected the adaptor for woods, it's by far the easiest to explain in sales, and is just makes actual an acute sense. It's perfect and I can't think of any improvement unless they were to add a third cog for more fine-tuning.

So for this test we used my current ball, the "Berg Ryman" Bridgestone for those in the know from Kingsmill, the 2022 Bridgestone B-XS. For this set of data we took ten shots with each setting, dropping the two best and the 3 worst to reach a nice meaty middle. The question here was as to loft. I've moved the driver weight back more into a neutral setting after what I saw at Kingsmill and that's likely where it will be for my final round this weekend. So the question was keeping it at 12* or going down to 11*

First, the averages at 12*

 

 

Now, the same setup at 11*

 

So, looking at the them side by side, you'd be hard pressed to see the difference between them. I personally could game it at either space. I think I'm going to play an actual round this week at 11* to see if there's any actual difference between them. I'm more concerned about the miss here, which, as some will tell you from Kingsmill, is a high spinning high launching floater which goes nowhere. I think I'm more susceptible to those at 12* then 11*, although then we're taking about a slightly open face against a square one. Hence the want to get it out on the course.

 

BALL SELECTION

Ok, next step was to see if going to a different ball would actually be beneficial to try and cut the spin number out of that driver. If you look at Ping's optimization chart with a roughly -2 AOA, I need a launch in the 12-13 degree neighborhood, but a spin of roughly 2800-2900. Here's the chart I'm using for reference, which I know I think everyone had seen before.

Now, it stands to reason that everyone knows the B-XS is the spiniest ball in the Bridgestone Lineup, famously made that way for one Mr. Eldrick Woods. For a lower spin guy like myself, it's awesome of irons and wedges, but with a 12* driver can lead to higher spin. The MGS Ball Test had it in a set environment off a 10.5 degree driver around 2950 at near my swing speed. So, I brought with me a sleeve of Pro V1X, a ball that creates enough spin off the clubs I need it from, but should spin slightly less than B-XS off the driver. I also used the stores Titleist AVX to try a lower spinning option

First, the Pro V1X, my old ball

Then the AVX

And again, as reminder, the B-XS

So, a conclusion is drawn here for me. The B-XS isn't as high spinning on average across the set of shots as I thought. Also, there may be really be gains for me off the driver in the lower compression market of tour balls as it relates to spin, so balls like Maxfli S, AVX, Chrome Soft, Tour Response could be in play for the bag. However, it also may lead me to the opposite end of the spectrum because I'm seemingly with this driver a decent fit for Left Dash, which would be interesting and more as to what I'm used teel from a feel/performance standpoint on the irons and wedges. Lastly, I could conceivably stick it out with Bridgestone until we run them out. A lot of thoughts here and shows the importance of just not agreeing with what we're told the ball does from the manufacture some times.

HEAD 2 HEAD

Ok, we now get to the final showdown, the AI Smoke against the current champ, the Titleist TSR2. Now, there are differences here as far as set up. The AI Smoke is set at 11 degrees, draw setting in the cog and weight slightly shaded into draw in the head. The Titleist TSR is 10 degrees, set in the standard position A1, same way I was fit for it at Club Champion. We're back to using the B-XS Here's the showdown everyone was waiting for. 10 shots, drop the two best and three worst.

Again, the AI smoke at 11*

And now, the TSR

 

On the surface, it appears a no contest, TSR is longer, spins less, and produces a much better Smash ratio than my AI Smoke. Now, the Smash may come down the fact the the TSR is swing weighted at D7 and the Smoke around D3, but I think this shows better than anything else here not to be seduced by the Trackman numbers and what happens in the bay in a fitting or a data comparison.

Now, I'd concede the TSR goes further and creates more ball speed at a lower swing speed, but you have to ask yourself are those playable numbers in relationship to the shots, and this goes to my main thesis of the Callaway AI Smoke. Even if it isn't the longest driver for me, it's the most playable driver for me. The carry numbers due to a more reasonable and less random launch dwarf the TSR by nearly 10 yards. The TSR makes up the difference with run and rollout, but a driver that's more condition dependent isn't a driver I think you can feel good about bagging for the sake of confidence. Say you roll into rough, you're shorter and more frustrated than you are with Smoke. It's why we play golf on the course, not on the simulator.

But Berg, I hear you say, what about lofting up your TSR to 11ish degrees, best of both world right? Well, I did try that, and here's what I hated about it almost immediately. As we know, when we loft up a driver or any wood, it closes the face, however small or big. My worse miss with the TSR is a dunk hook. I just can't look at the head pointing left without that effecting my path. I know it's stupid, but visually it brings so many bad ideas in to the head. Also, for the slight launch advantage, there actually wasn't much difference in the number carry wise or total wise, maybe moving into the 210 range, but not where we were with the AI Smoke at high 210's at average.

TAKEWAYS BEFORE THE FINAL REVIEW

Look, I think you can gather my thoughts from my posts in the thread about where I am with the AI Smoke at this point. I do think I need to find the right ball to further unlock it, and I'm uncertain if that's a softer ball or the super firm low spinning range. I will say though, @JohnSmalls knows how much I like my rocks and I may have hit my Pink Nitro on the sim just to see... it's an interesting one for sure. The biggest advantage I think the AI Smoke offers to folks is the playability of the head. If you get fit into the right head for what you need, and considering there's now 6 of them counting the two that came out during the test, you should really enjoy what you get out of them.

I look forward to getting in one final round this weekend to try some different stuff, and look forward to putting together a solid final review for y'all, perhaps even for a surprise for you guys as well... always keep you guessing.

Great write up. The detail was great. Have you tried Ballnamic to fine tune your ball search? I only ask as they ran a $25 off special (Code: FLASH25) today so I gave it a try. 

[William P]

7 minutes ago, MattWillGolf said:

Great write up. The detail was great. Have you tried Ballnamic to fine tune your ball search? I only ask as they ran a $25 off special (Code: FLASH25) today so I gave it a try. 

What did Ballnamic recommend you play vs what you now play?

[Berg Ryman]

17 minutes ago, MattWillGolf said:

Great write up. The detail was great. Have you tried Ballnamic to fine tune your ball search? I only ask as they ran a $25 off special (Code: FLASH25) today so I gave it a try. 

Trust me Matt, I've run through 10 ballnamic fittings in the past. It's what got me to BXS now, and what is likely going to put me into Tour S, Left Dash or Chrome Tour going forward

[RickM71]

1 hour ago, MattWillGolf said:

Great write up. The detail was great. Have you tried Ballnamic to fine tune your ball search? I only ask as they ran a $25 off special (Code: FLASH25) today so I gave it a try. 

Your sharing the code was just what I needed to sign up.  For me, the top 5 choices all seem pretty close, with #5 being my preferred ball of a ProV1.  Suggestions in order where: Callaway Chrome Tour, Bridgestone Tour B X, LA Golf ball, and Srixon Z Star XV.  

Added: 

I just realized I could enter my launch monitor numbers to get more precise results.  My hitting bay swing isn't the same as my course swing, but nonetheless, my launch monitor numbers gave me the following ball recommendations in order:  Bridgestone Tour B X, LA Golf ball, Callaway Chrome Tour, ProV1x, and 5th is still ProV1.  

Edited June 15 by RickM71
Added results with launch monitor numbers

[Berg Ryman]

Update after two holes with the Maxfli Tour S, friendship might be ending with BXS, Tour S might be my new best friend. First hole 256 uphill, second 268 downhill

[bens197]

47 minutes ago, Berg Ryman said:

Update after two holes with the Maxfli Tour S, friendship might be ending with BXS, Tour S might be my new best friend. First hole 256 uphill, second 268 downhill

Not surprised to see a Maxfli perform so well. Awesome stuff Ryan. 

[Berg Ryman]

1 hour ago, Berg Ryman said:

Update after two holes with the Maxfli Tour S, friendship might be ending with BXS, Tour S might be my new best friend. First hole 256 uphill, second 268 downhill

Update after 9, even par through it. Drives of 258, 268, 250, 251, 271, 242, and 247. Just hit one 256 on my tenth hole. If I was putting better I'd be 3 under through 10

[russtopherb]

2 hours ago, Berg Ryman said:

Update after two holes with the Maxfli Tour S, friendship might be ending with BXS, Tour S might be my new best friend. First hole 256 uphill, second 268 downhill

Looks like that's great off the driver vs the BXS, hopefully it's as good around the greens as well.

[TJ Hall]

1 hour ago, Berg Ryman said:

Update after 9, even par through it. Drives of 258, 268, 250, 251, 271, 242, and 247. Just hit one 256 on my tenth hole. If I was putting better I'd be 3 under through 10

Awesome play!

[Berg Ryman]

So, here's the score card from my 75. Played the Back (which was my first 9) with the Tour S, The front with B-XS. I'm not trying to turn this into a ball review, but I think I found something here. Although Iooking at this, I made a 5 on 18, not a 4 since I lipped it out. My mistake.

Edited June 16 by Berg Ryman

[TylorJudd]

On 6/14/2024 at 1:43 PM, Berg Ryman said:

Alright, hope you guys are all ready for a data dump with decent pictures. This data capture set our or local Golf Galaxy was part ball experiment, part head to head, part thought experiment. First, a thanks to the boys in Dewitt for having this opportunity and for letting my sweaty body take about 50 drives over a little over an hour. And thanks to by body for not giving in for that time.

LOFT TEST

Alright, the first thing I wanted to get an idea of was whether or not we needed to switch up anything as far as the Dual Cog setup. As an aside, I do believe Callaway had basically perfected the adaptor for woods, it's by far the easiest to explain in sales, and is just makes actual an acute sense. It's perfect and I can't think of any improvement unless they were to add a third cog for more fine-tuning.

So for this test we used my current ball, the "Berg Ryman" Bridgestone for those in the know from Kingsmill, the 2022 Bridgestone B-XS. For this set of data we took ten shots with each setting, dropping the two best and the 3 worst to reach a nice meaty middle. The question here was as to loft. I've moved the driver weight back more into a neutral setting after what I saw at Kingsmill and that's likely where it will be for my final round this weekend. So the question was keeping it at 12* or going down to 11*

First, the averages at 12*

 

 

Now, the same setup at 11*

 

So, looking at the them side by side, you'd be hard pressed to see the difference between them. I personally could game it at either space. I think I'm going to play an actual round this week at 11* to see if there's any actual difference between them. I'm more concerned about the miss here, which, as some will tell you from Kingsmill, is a high spinning high launching floater which goes nowhere. I think I'm more susceptible to those at 12* then 11*, although then we're taking about a slightly open face against a square one. Hence the want to get it out on the course.

 

BALL SELECTION

Ok, next step was to see if going to a different ball would actually be beneficial to try and cut the spin number out of that driver. If you look at Ping's optimization chart with a roughly -2 AOA, I need a launch in the 12-13 degree neighborhood, but a spin of roughly 2800-2900. Here's the chart I'm using for reference, which I know I think everyone had seen before.

Now, it stands to reason that everyone knows the B-XS is the spiniest ball in the Bridgestone Lineup, famously made that way for one Mr. Eldrick Woods. For a lower spin guy like myself, it's awesome of irons and wedges, but with a 12* driver can lead to higher spin. The MGS Ball Test had it in a set environment off a 10.5 degree driver around 2950 at near my swing speed. So, I brought with me a sleeve of Pro V1X, a ball that creates enough spin off the clubs I need it from, but should spin slightly less than B-XS off the driver. I also used the stores Titleist AVX to try a lower spinning option

First, the Pro V1X, my old ball

Then the AVX

And again, as reminder, the B-XS

So, a conclusion is drawn here for me. The B-XS isn't as high spinning on average across the set of shots as I thought. Also, there may be really be gains for me off the driver in the lower compression market of tour balls as it relates to spin, so balls like Maxfli S, AVX, Chrome Soft, Tour Response could be in play for the bag. However, it also may lead me to the opposite end of the spectrum because I'm seemingly with this driver a decent fit for Left Dash, which would be interesting and more as to what I'm used teel from a feel/performance standpoint on the irons and wedges. Lastly, I could conceivably stick it out with Bridgestone until we run them out. A lot of thoughts here and shows the importance of just not agreeing with what we're told the ball does from the manufacture some times.

HEAD 2 HEAD

Ok, we now get to the final showdown, the AI Smoke against the current champ, the Titleist TSR2. Now, there are differences here as far as set up. The AI Smoke is set at 11 degrees, draw setting in the cog and weight slightly shaded into draw in the head. The Titleist TSR is 10 degrees, set in the standard position A1, same way I was fit for it at Club Champion. We're back to using the B-XS Here's the showdown everyone was waiting for. 10 shots, drop the two best and three worst.

Again, the AI smoke at 11*

And now, the TSR

 

On the surface, it appears a no contest, TSR is longer, spins less, and produces a much better Smash ratio than my AI Smoke. Now, the Smash may come down the fact the the TSR is swing weighted at D7 and the Smoke around D3, but I think this shows better than anything else here not to be seduced by the Trackman numbers and what happens in the bay in a fitting or a data comparison.

Now, I'd concede the TSR goes further and creates more ball speed at a lower swing speed, but you have to ask yourself are those playable numbers in relationship to the shots, and this goes to my main thesis of the Callaway AI Smoke. Even if it isn't the longest driver for me, it's the most playable driver for me. The carry numbers due to a more reasonable and less random launch dwarf the TSR by nearly 10 yards. The TSR makes up the difference with run and rollout, but a driver that's more condition dependent isn't a driver I think you can feel good about bagging for the sake of confidence. Say you roll into rough, you're shorter and more frustrated than you are with Smoke. It's why we play golf on the course, not on the simulator.

But Berg, I hear you say, what about lofting up your TSR to 11ish degrees, best of both world right? Well, I did try that, and here's what I hated about it almost immediately. As we know, when we loft up a driver or any wood, it closes the face, however small or big. My worse miss with the TSR is a dunk hook. I just can't look at the head pointing left without that effecting my path. I know it's stupid, but visually it brings so many bad ideas in to the head. Also, for the slight launch advantage, there actually wasn't much difference in the number carry wise or total wise, maybe moving into the 210 range, but not where we were with the AI Smoke at high 210's at average.

TAKEWAYS BEFORE THE FINAL REVIEW

Look, I think you can gather my thoughts from my posts in the thread about where I am with the AI Smoke at this point. I do think I need to find the right ball to further unlock it, and I'm uncertain if that's a softer ball or the super firm low spinning range. I will say though, @JohnSmalls knows how much I like my rocks and I may have hit my Pink Nitro on the sim just to see... it's an interesting one for sure. The biggest advantage I think the AI Smoke offers to folks is the playability of the head. If you get fit into the right head for what you need, and considering there's now 6 of them counting the two that came out during the test, you should really enjoy what you get out of them.

I look forward to getting in one final round this weekend to try some different stuff, and look forward to putting together a solid final review for y'all, perhaps even for a surprise for you guys as well... always keep you guessing.

DAMN! The review is on page one massive amount of info, thank you for that

[Berg Ryman]

Hey everyone,

Final review for me is going up on Wednesday. I'm trial engaged the next two days so I'll be the straggler. Check out everyone else's on Page 1 though. A lot of time and information for you guys there!

[EasyPutter]

My review is up for a good read (cup of coffee/can of beer/some other beverage) and if pictures are better than words just keep going to the Conclusion for the "Cliff Notes" version.

Derek / EasyPutter

[JAYER38]

52 minutes ago, EasyPutter said:

My review is up for a good read (cup of coffee/can of beer/some other beverage) and if pictures are better than words just keep going to the Conclusion for the "Cliff Notes" version.

Derek / EasyPutter

If you sit down to read Derek's you better bring 2 beverages because I just posted mine as well! Hope everyone enjoys these as I know we all worked hard on them...

 

[EasyPutter]

12 minutes ago, JAYER38 said:

If you sit down to read Derek's you better bring 2 beverages because I just posted mine as well! Hope everyone enjoys these as I know we all worked hard on them...

Yeah it is NOT a competition or anything but both of the Max D reviews are up first 

Just saying... 

Yep, we are there 

[cnosil]

On 4/22/2024 at 4:12 AM, EasyPutter said:

It was also on the morning we played Plantation Course that Chris Nosil @cnosil pointed out my grip on the club would be better with an easy to do and remember tip, akin to Adam Scott’s routine, and trying it I experienced an immediate effect on the effective range of all the clubs in the bag.  

I am really glad to hear that the grip tweak is providing benefit.  

[Berg Ryman]

To hold everyone over until tomorrow when the written version comes online, enjoy playing the 3rd hole at @MattWillGolf's home course with me as I discuss the Paradym AI Smoke Max.

 

Edited June 19 by Berg Ryman

[sirchunksalot]

14 minutes ago, Berg Ryman said:

To hold everyone over until tomorrow when the written version comes online, enjoy playing the 3rd hole at @MattWillGolf's home course with me as I discuss the Paradym AI Smoke Max.

 

Great stuff Ryan! Having seen you personally hit the A.I. Smoke driver, I can attest it's a good fit for you. I will say I was hoping to see you rip a 3 wood on your second shot on the par 5 there. I know it wasn't feasible with the water there, but a guy's got to have dreams. 

[Berg Ryman]

58 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

Great stuff Ryan! Having seen you personally hit the A.I. Smoke driver, I can attest it's a good fit for you. I will say I was hoping to see you rip a 3 wood on your second shot on the par 5 there. I know it wasn't feasible with the water there, but a guy's got to have dreams. 

You will be happy to know I hit one 3 wood, it was off the first tee to cut a dogleg around a bunker. Had 150 in taking the direct line on a 450 yard par 5. Long live the Stealth 3 wood 

Also, finished the round at +2, putted well, drove it well, struck it good in spots. Feels good to play ske solid golf.

Edited June 20 by Berg Ryman

[rkj427]

Great work on the video and golf game Ryan!

One question, and I probably should have asked it at Kingsmill.

On the Callaway clubs when you change the loft or lie settings on the adjuster, does the shaft rotate like it does on the Titleist models?

Meaning, if I have it all at standard settings with logo down, does the shaft or grip rotate if it is moved to a different loft or lie setting?