Tag: 2024 best drivers

XXio releases 13 family of woods and irons

Xxio 13 drivers, fairway woods, hybrids and irons are designed to maximize carry distance and forgiveness.

Being a part of Dunlop Sports gives the design team that works on Xxio woods and irons a major advantage, because it can cherry-pick technologies and ideas that prove to be successful at Srixon and Cleveland, Xxio’s sister brands.

And Xxio has that advantage while maintaining a focus on a particular segment of the golf market. Instead of making clubs for the masses or major-winners such as Brooks Koepka, Shane Lowry and Hideki Matsuyama, Xxio concentrates on lightweight gear that can help moderate-speed players gain distance and hit shots higher.

So you will not see the new Xxio 13 driver, fairway woods, hybrids or irons at PGA Tour events in 2024, because they were made specifically for recreational golfers who struggle to generate speed and fail to make center-face contact consistently.

Here’s what you need to know about the new Xxio 13 woods and irons, which should be in stores starting Jan. 26.

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max, Triple Diamond, Max D, Max Fast drivers

Studying thousands of shots from real golfers helped Callaway design the Paradym Ai Smoke drivers

Gear: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max, Paradym Ai Smoke Max D, Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond, Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast drivers
Price: $599.99 with Project X Cypher 2.0 shaft, Project X Denali Black shaft or Mitsubishi Tensei AV Blue shaft and Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 grip
Specs: Forged titanium face and chassis with carbon fiber crown, carbon fiber sole and adjustable hosels for most of the models
Available: Feb. 2, but available via pre-order NOW

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Who They’re For: Golfers who want more ball speed and forgiveness on mis-hit drives.

The Skinny: After studying hundreds of thousands of shots, Callaway designers used artificial intelligence to create different faces for each of the four Paradym Ai Smoke drivers so they are optimized to enhance distance and protect ball speed. 

The Deep Dive: Callaway purchased its first supercomputer in 2009, back when A.I. stood for Allen Iverson and no one had ever heard of ChatGPT. By 2016, engineers were using it to study impact dynamics, develop prototype iron faces and more. In 2019 the Epic Flash driver was released with a hitting area designed using artificial intelligence. More woods and irons followed, but there was a shortcoming with the data used by the computers in developing those clubs: It was collected with the help of swing robots, and robots don’t play golf. 

So Callaway captured swing data on more than 250,000 real players’ swings and collected over a million data points to create a dataset the supercomputers could use to develop the Paradym Ai Smoke Max, Ai Smoke Max D, Ai Smoke Triple Diamond and Ai Smoke Max Fast drivers.

By instructing the supercomputers to study how real golfers of various abilities swing and hit the ball, then directing the system to create faces that maximize performance for fast-swinging players, golfers who tend to slice the ball, slower-swinging players and golfers who need extra forgiveness, Callaway developed different faces that are optimized for various players in the four Paradym Ai Smoke drivers.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke drivers” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/DKdZP5″]

Each has a unique series of thick and thin areas in different places, creating what Callaway refers to as microdeflections, and they act like tiny sweet spots. The result is enhanced face performance for specific players.

Callaway said that thanks to the microdeflections and customized faces, the standard Paradym Ai Smoke Max is 12 yards longer on mishits in the toe, 11 yards longer in the heel and 9 yards longer on shots hit high in the middle of the face over last season’s Paradym.

Like last season’s Paradym drivers, the Paradym Ai Smoke drivers feature a forged fiber crown that wraps around the toe and heel areas and forms the sole, removing significant weight from the middle of the head. Most of the models also come with adjustable hosels that allows players and fitters to increase or decrease the loft by as many as 1.5 degrees and make the lie angle flatter or more upright.

The Paradym Ai Smoke Max likely will fit the broadest number of players and is the only Smoke driver with a sliding weight in the back of the head. The 14-gram weight allows golfers and fitters to shift the center of gravity to create a draw or fade bias. The Smoke Max also has a weight behind the leading edge in the sole, allowing fitters to increase or decrease the club’s swing weight. It is available in 9-degree, 10.5-degree and 12-degree versions.

The Paradym Ai Smoke Max D comes in the same lofts but lacks the moveable weight found in the standard Smoke Max. However, this club has a significant draw bias to help golfers who tend to swing from out to in and hit the ball with an open face. The Paradym Ai Smoke Max D can’t cure a slice, but its center of gravity location can decrease the severity of the shot’s curvature, resulting in straighter shots that fly farther.

The Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond has a forward weight and a back weight in the sole and comes in 8-degree, 9-degree and 10.5-degree heads. With the heavier weight forward, it has the most forward center of gravity in the A.I. Smoke family, resulting in shots with the lowest spin and launch angle. This likely will be the most popular Paradym A.I. Smoke driver on the PGA Tour.

Finally, the Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast, which replaces the Paradym Star driver, only comes in 10.5-degree and 12-degree versions. It has been made for slower-swinging golfers who need to maximize carry distance and spin to increase overall distance. It comes standard with lighter components, such as a 40-gram Mitsubishi Tensei Silver shaft and Winn Dri-Tac Lite grip. To save weight from the upper portion of the head, Callaway opted to design the Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast driver with a bonded hosel instead of an adjustable hosel.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max driver” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/rQNqZj”]

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max D driver” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/zNm5L0″]

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond driver” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/R5dNvX”]

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast driver” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/NkyvOq”]

Check out the following images of the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke drivers.

 

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke drivers added to USGA Conforming Driver List

Callaway’s new drivers for 2024 have hit the USGA Conforming Driver Head list.

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Early Monday morning, as 2024 was being ushered in across the United States, Callaway’s newest drivers were being added to the United States Golf Association’s List of Conforming Driver Heads. That means the USGA has tested the heads to ensure they meet equipment standards and comply with the Rules of Golf. Once added to the list, a driver head can be used by anyone in a competitive round or official event like this week’s PGA Tour event, The Sentry at the Kapalua Resort in Hawaii.

Callaway has not made any official announcement about the Paradym Ai Smoke drivers yet, and there are 11 versions of the Paradym A.I. Smoke drivers now on the list, so some are almost assuredly going to be Tour-only models. However, based on the photos displayed on the USGA’s website, the descriptions and notes of the of the clubs and technologies Callaway has used in the past, we can make some educated guesses about the Paradym Ai Smoke family.

  • Forged Carbon. Callaway has been making drivers with carbon fiber crowns and sole panels for years, and in 2023’s Paradym drivers, the brand created a 360-degree forged carbon chassis that wrapped the material completely around the center of the head. Forged Carbon is printed on the sole of each driver, so it appears the Paradym Ai Smoke will have a similar construction.
  • Ai SMART FACE. We can’t see this in the USGA photos, but it is noted in the description of each club that on the face are the words “Ai Smart Face.” A few weeks ago, Odyssey, Callaway’s putter arm, released the Ai ONE and Ai ONE Milled putters, and in those clubs, Ai standards for artificial intelligence. Callaway has used artificial intelligence to help its designers create driver faces for years, so this could mean there is a new or updated face technology in the Paradym Ai Smoke drivers.
  • Triple Diamond = Low Spin. Starting several years ago, Callaway designated its low-spin drivers with Sub-Zero, but recently the company has used three diamonds or the Triple Diamond designation to signify that a product has been made for fast-swinging, elite golfers. Among the drivers now on the conforming list are the Triple Diamond, Triple Diamond +, Triple Diamond S and Triple Diamond Max. All of them except the Triple Diamond + appear to have two moveable weights, one forward and another back weight in the sole. In the past, this two-weight system has allowed players and fitters to be able to increase or decrease the spin rate and launch angle by swapping a heavy and a lightweight in the ports.
  • Max = standard. There is no club simply labeled Paradym Ai Smoke, each of the new offerings on the USGA list is labeled with an extra name, so it stands to reason that Max is the base model. We can clearly see a sliding weight in the back of the Max driver that should allow players and fitters to create a draw or a fade bias. The weight in the front of the sole is a different shape, so it won’t be swappable with the weight in the track. It is likely there to help fitters adjust the swing weight of the club.
  • Max D = Draw. This club lacks the sliding weight in the back of the head that the Max has, but any time brands put a D on the end of a club’s name, it means draw. This driver has likely been designed to help golfers who slice.
  • Max Fast. If the standard Max is a base model and the Max D has a draw bias for golfers who slice, the Max Fast is probably for slower-swinging players. Why do we think that? In the USGA notes it states that this club is offered in 9.5, 10.5, 11.5 and 12-degree options. Those higher lofts will not be practical for faster-swinging golfers, but players who struggle to generate speed often choose high-lofted drivers to maximize carry distance. Like the other Paradym Ai Smoke drivers, the Max Fast has an adjustable hosel and unless it is different than other Callaway hosel systems, it will allow players to increase the loft by up to 2 degrees so that a 12-degree head can play with as much as 14 degrees of loft!

Here are several close-up looks at the different Paradym Ai Smoke drivers.

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