Testers Announced! Callaway Ai-Smoke Drivers

[frazzman80]

Can’t wait to read the results and ride along with the testing! Congratulations all!

[KC Golf]

Big Congratulations to the Testers!  @TylorJudd as a Canadian tester, I’m sure you will hit some bombs with the Ai Smoke TD in BC!  Looking forward to the reviews!

[Golfspy_CG2]

10 hours ago, EasyPutter said:

Dreams do come true and thankful for the opportunity ‍

See Below

8 hours ago, Berg Ryman said:

Hi... it's me. Ready to have some fun

See Below Too

7 hours ago, StrokerAce said:

congrats gentlemen! looking forward to some smokin' drives out of you all.

See Below Also 

7 hours ago, cnosil said:

Can’t wait for Kingsmill to see the new drivers!
 

congrats testers 

No doubt there will be lots of Ai Smoke coming off that range in Kingsmill!   That's at least 3 of us that I know that will be gaming them, I may have a very special back up there as well.  Stay tuned for more 

[Paul Hedrick]

Congratulations Testers!  I am looking forward to reading you reviews of this club.

[SDunne]

Congrats  @Berg Ryman, @TylorJudd, @RickM71, @EasyPutter, @JAYER38 very interested in how this one looks in an average bag! Lots of hype when it first came out so keen to see what you think on it all. Enjoy!

[sirchunksalot]

This is making me look forward to Kingsmill even more and I don't think anyone mentioned we'll also have some of the Autoflex testers representing there, both will be cool to see in person. 

I've of the big things I'll be curious about with this test is it Callaway's claim of more ball speed and distance on bad strikes is true. I know you guys are going to center every strike, so could y'all make sure to hit some off the toe and heel for science?  

[unccross]

Congratulations to those chosen, look forward to seeing the reviews

[CFreddie]

Awesome group of testers - looking forward to this one!!!

[Fore67]

Congratulations Testers!

Have a great start to summer with your new Callaway babies!!

Jealous!

FORE!

Mike

[EasyPutter]

As informed forum followers know , tester announcements are now done after the testing pool is committed to the test and requirements are met to start moving forward to having the product ordered.  This test required a driver fitting as part of the agreement each tester accepted, as is fitting for something of this level.  (see what I did there?)

Details will assuredly be forthcoming but what happened at my driver fitting was  ...

...  just know that I cannot wait for "the unboxing," for "the initial impressions" and for "the real testing" to begin!!!!!!!!!!

[FallenSaber]

12 minutes ago, EasyPutter said:

As informed forum followers know , tester announcements are now done after the testing pool is committed to the test and requirements are met to start moving forward to having the product ordered.  This test required a driver fitting as part of the agreement each tester accepted, as is fitting for something of this level.  (see what I did there?)

Details will assuredly be forthcoming but what happened at my driver fitting was  ...

...  just know that I cannot wait for "the unboxing," for "the initial impressions" and for "the real testing" to begin!!!!!!!!!!

Great to hear! Can't wait for the unboxing and results!

[TJ Hall]

I am really curious to see if the testers see consistent distance and/or accuracy across the entire face.  My consistency with the driver is being all over the face!

[cnosil]

17 minutes ago, EasyPutter said:

As informed forum followers know , tester announcements are now done after the testing pool is committed to the test and requirements are met to start moving forward to having the product ordered.  This test required a driver fitting as part of the agreement each tester accepted, as is fitting for something of this level.  (see what I did there?)

Details will assuredly be forthcoming but what happened at my driver fitting was  ...

...  just know that I cannot wait for "the unboxing," for "the initial impressions" and for "the real testing" to begin!!!!!!!!!!

I am ready to see those 300 yard bombs at Kingsmill!

[TylorJudd]

Can’t wait to start this, the Paradym TD was quite revolutionary for me, and I have definitely gotten some serious yards out of it. I am doing two fittings for the AI smoke preparation, intro to come!

[Splatt]

Congrats golfers!!

I've heard nothing but good things about these range of drivers.

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

[rkj427]

1 hour ago, EasyPutter said:

As informed forum followers know , tester announcements are now done after the testing pool is committed to the test and requirements are met to start moving forward to having the product ordered.  This test required a driver fitting as part of the agreement each tester accepted, as is fitting for something of this level.  (see what I did there?)

Details will assuredly be forthcoming but what happened at my driver fitting was  ...

...  just know that I cannot wait for "the unboxing," for "the initial impressions" and for "the real testing" to begin!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the update Derek, as I knew you had a recent fitting and you mentioned that you were more than happy with the process and results in another thread here. 

Looking forward to reading all of the comments you have about the whole process, unboxing, and initial results before seeing it in action myself in May.   

[Jean D]

Congratulations to all the testers. Looking forward to reading your reviews on this one!

[Swood1994]

Congrats everyone, this will be a fun test to follow as a fellow OG paradym user!

[Berg Ryman]

2 hours ago, sirchunksalot said:

This is making me look forward to Kingsmill even more and I don't think anyone mentioned we'll also have some of the Autoflex testers representing there, both will be cool to see in person. 

I've of the big things I'll be curious about with this test is it Callaway's claim of more ball speed and distance on bad strikes is true. I know you guys are going to center every strike, so could y'all make sure to hit some off the toe and heel for science?  

Trust me, you'll learn quickly about that from a fitting post... I guarantee that

[Kenny B]

Congratulations testers!  Looking for some good reviews on this to see if I need to upgrade my Callaway Epic Max.

@EasyPutter  Bring it to Kingsmill and let me try it out; I think our swing speeds are similar… I’ll let you try the Autoflex Dream 7 shaft in it!!!!  

[JAYER38]

10 hours ago, TJ Hall said:

I am really curious to see if the testers see consistent distance and/or accuracy across the entire face.  My consistency with the driver is being all over the face!

Well from an average high handicap golfer I live high heel to center face so this will be a very interesting test to see if there claims can be backed up! Lots of Bushnell data incoming haha

[TJ Hall]

8 minutes ago, JAYER38 said:

Well from an average high handicap golfer I live high heel to center face so this will be a very interesting test to see if there claims can be backed up! Lots of Bushnell data incoming haha

Looking forward to it!

[Statuskuo02]

Congratulations Testers!  Excited to see the results

[Golfspy_CG2]

14 hours ago, TJ Hall said:

I am really curious to see if the testers see consistent distance and/or accuracy across the entire face.  My consistency with the driver is being all over the face!

I can tell you from my personal experience with both the AiSmoke Max D and the Ai Smoke TD, the forgiveness across the face is real.  My miss tends to be higher toe, and the amount I lose on it with either of these drivers is very minimal.l

12 hours ago, Kenny B said:

Congratulations testers!  Looking for some good reviews on this to see if I need to upgrade my Callaway Epic Max.

@EasyPutter  Bring it to Kingsmill and let me try it out; I think our swing speeds are similar… I’ll let you try the Autoflex Dream 7 shaft in it!!!!  

I will have some Callaway goodness and AF Goodness there to share with any fellow "moderate" swingers  

 

[TJ Hall]

1 hour ago, Golfspy_CG2 said:

I can tell you from my personal experience with both the AiSmoke Max D and the Ai Smoke TD, the forgiveness across the face is real.  My miss tends to be higher toe, and the amount I lose on it with either of these drivers is very minimal.

 

Good to hear it performs as advertised…hopefully the testers will see the same results!

[EasyPutter]

1 hour ago, Golfspy_CG2 said:

I can tell you from my personal experience with both the AiSmoke Max D and the Ai Smoke TD, the forgiveness across the face is real.  My miss tends to be higher toe, and the amount I lose on it with either of these drivers is very minimal.

11 minutes ago, TJ Hall said:

Good to hear it performs as advertised…hopefully the testers will see the same results!

What I will say is the fitting I had was my first ever touching the Ai Smoke Max D - first used my own driver to warm up for some "before" numbers and then the first set of hits with the Smoke and being an 

5 hours ago, JAYER38 said:

... average high handicap golfer I (too)  live high heel to center face

ball striking as shown by the pressure tape on the face of the driver and even making my own slight adjustment on address seemed to find that part of the club face even when setting up a half inch to inch in the direction that should have then been a center of face contact.  Mental thing I am sure but I am aware of it now so...

[ejgaudette]

Love to hear that things are getting rolling and that the fittings were in for folks. As a tester of the Epic Max LS a few years ago now it is always interesting to see where the next generations go

[Berg Ryman]

So, there apparently is a coding issue on the back end delaying some intros from going up, so we do apologize for that. In the meantime, what other questions or thoughts do you guys have? If you don't give us something, prepare to be bored by a random pop culture post with a reference that ties into the modernization of AI tech from Callaway.

[bens197]

19 minutes ago, Berg Ryman said:

So, there apparently is a coding issue on the back end delaying some intros from going up, so we do apologize for that. In the meantime, what other questions or thoughts do you guys have? If you don't give us something, prepare to be bored by a random pop culture post with a reference that ties into the modernization of AI tech from Callaway.

I know you’re familiar with your swing and recent hands on experiences with complete fittings. 
 

What’s your past experience with Callaway woods and are there any internal bias’ you have for the good or bad?

[Berg Ryman]

1 hour ago, bens197 said:

I know you’re familiar with your swing and recent hands on experiences with complete fittings. 
 

What’s your past experience with Callaway woods and are there any internal bias’ you have for the good or bad?

Ok, so first experience with Callaway woods was in the summer of 2005, when in a fitting for a new driver I was between the Nike SQ460 and the Callaway FT3 Fusion. I remember hitting the Fusion well, but just thought Sasquatch looked cooler and the numbers were so close, so that's what we went with at the time.

Fast forward to my law school days and I started working at Dick's Sporting Goods in Dewitt, NY with a gentleman by the name of Alan Savage as our PGA Pro. He had a deal with the guys at Callaway and due to that, we were part of Callaway VIP. I was always a bit concerned about ordering a ton of stuff at discount because I didn't want them checking to make sure I was utilizing things correctly. This was the Big Bertha Relaunch era in the mid 2010's, so I had fitting experience with the BB Alpha, which I liked (Gravity Core forever!) original XHot and X2Hot, all the way through to my leaving Dick's around the time of GBB Epic I believe, maybe I was there with Rogue, it's a bit of a blur.

So during that time I did the educational courses year on year to keep my fitting certificate status good and my discount active. The only club I ever ordered through the program was actually a fairway wood, the X2Hot in a strong 3 wood. I got it with the Aldila Tour Blue shaft an inch longer than standard to play it like a fairway finder driver alternative and until the shaft broke on me, I loved that club for that purpose.

Eventually I got the shaft replaced when I sent it back to Callaway but it was never the same. So I traded it along with some other clubs for the only other Callaway wood to make my bag, another fairway wood, the Epic Flash Sub Zero 3 wood. Up until my most recent fitting that was the club in the bag occupying the 3 wood spot. Again, an awesome fairway finder when needed and a solid part of the bag.

So Steve, I guess to answer your questions as to any thoughts and biases, I'd say this. I believe the marketing team does a great job of explaining to the consumer and the salespeople what the new tech is, how the new tech is better than what came before, and how to utilize it to help sell the product. I think from a performance standpoint Callaway is always at the bleeding edge of what is possible, but until more recently with Paradym and seemingly AI Smoke, the proof wasn't in the pudding as much as say Taylormade, Titleist, or Ping. I think you just have go back to the perception surveys to see that across the board.

So I am coming into this with the potential to be wowed, but also to know that at the end of the day, there just might not be a ton out there that doesn't come down to me and not the club. I expect a solid club, one that looks awesome, performs solid, and might be able to surprise. I expect to have a fun time learned about the tech more and experimenting with the widest part of the bell curve head and hopefully am able to really help those of us in the middle to find real truths about AI Smoke Max.