Callaway Rogue - Driver
Sometime ago, a crocodile was found on I think hole 6 of Orchid Country Club basking in the sun on a rocky patch. You should not be surprised as all waterways lead to the sea so salt water crocodiles could find their way in. It probably also depends on the distance from the sea and the food source available. Sungei Buloh and the Kranji areas should have more crocodiles and Lower Seletar Reservoir that straddles between OCC and Seletar Country Club is just next to the sea from the other side of Yishun Ave 1. Crocodiles can easily crawl over. So do not take for granted especially around and near the water as besides crocs there are also snakes.
In fact, alligators, buaya and crocodiles are all over the golf courses. They are also known as ABC. Very good golfers who won't give you stroke and others who asks for a lot of strokes. These are equally deadly. In order to keep these ABC at bay or to even compete with younger golfers, skills and experience are not enough. But we do not have the luxury of time to train like Tiger that is why what he achieved by winning the Masters was so amazing considering his marital troubles and serious injuries. Now he has tied Sam Snead's record of 82 Tour wins. We will occasionally need to upgrade or select some very potent equipment just to keep up.
Every piece of your golf equipment is important. Drive for show and putt for dough they say and the irons are the bread and butter. The woods and hybrids gives you options but the driver is the one that you start with from the very first hit and for every other par 4s and 5s. As the longest club it is also supposed to be the hardest to use and yet when on song, it inspires your game for the day. So on an off day with backside itching, I decided to take my previous Graphite Design Tour AD-DI custom shaft from an older driver to have it fixed to my Ping G400 Max. Although the original Japanese version Alta 55 CB (stiff) shaft is a very good one, at 55g it felt a little light. The Tour AD-DI in hand is 63g but SR flex meaning Stiff/Regular - Regular with a stiff tip.
Shaft Perspective
The shaft is very important. They use to say it is the engine of the golf club. In the past, the focus was largely on the flex. Too much flex and the ball balloons with too much backspin and too heavy and it goes too low and often to the right. The right flex is still important but if you are not sure go for more flex than less. Then they made lighter shafts as lighter shafts automatically translate to a faster swing speed. Now I want to tell you that shaft weight is of paramount importance. I found 55g a little bit too light. Maybe in another 3-5 years it could be perfect for me. The shaft weight is now recognised to be of paramount importance. It is getting lighter and with creating less spin.
It is here that I felt that fitting the Graphite Design Tour AD-DI shaft at 63g with SR flex to the Ping G400 Max driver head will be giving me a driver with epic proportion and enormous potential. After-market custom shaft definitely have tight tolerances. I shall share with you on all things shaft at another opportunity at a blog near you. If you invite me to golf now, I can perhaps show you a thing or two on how good it is. Right now, the Ping G400 Max driver is the most forgiving driver on the planet. It is measurable and proven at least for 2018 and some parts of 2019. This is followed very closely by the G400 and the Callaway Rogue. Here is why and just take a look at the driver MOI of a few top models I could find (Moment Of Inertia).
DRIVER MOI
It is here that I felt that fitting the Graphite Design Tour AD-DI shaft at 63g with SR flex to the Ping G400 Max driver head will be giving me a driver with epic proportion and enormous potential. After-market custom shaft definitely have tight tolerances. I shall share with you on all things shaft at another opportunity at a blog near you. If you invite me to golf now, I can perhaps show you a thing or two on how good it is. Right now, the Ping G400 Max driver is the most forgiving driver on the planet. It is measurable and proven at least for 2018 and some parts of 2019. This is followed very closely by the G400 and the Callaway Rogue. Here is why and just take a look at the driver MOI of a few top models I could find (Moment Of Inertia).
DRIVER MOI
Driver MOI MOI (IYY-Toe to Heel) MOI (IXX-Top to Bottom) Total
Ping G400 Max 5574 4121 9695
Ping G400 5149 3714 8863
Callaway Rogue 5166 3587 8753
TaylorMade M4 5114 3515 8629
TaylorMade M3 4839 3374 8213
Look at the total MOI and you could easily see that the Ping G400 Max with total MOI of 9695 is the world's most forgiving golf driver. Ping also have the second most forgiving driver with the previous G400 at 8,863 followed by the Callaway Rogue at 8,753 and so on. If you were to split them up by measuring their axis Ping with their G400 Max still takes the crown of forgiveness with Toe-to-Heel at 5,574 and Top-to-Bottom at 4,121. USGA rules cap MOI of YY axis (Toe/Heel) at 5,900 g-cm2 so you can see G400 Max has the highest. However, interestingly, the USGA does not have a Top/Bottom (XX) MOI cap. Top/Bottom has an important role in consistency of spin. It is also interesting to note that the Callaway Rogue is actually the second most forgiving driver just for Toe/Heel MOI alone at 5,166.
Callaway Rogue
Callaway has been a massive success as the world's largest maker of golf clubs. It had great success when they first introduced the Big Bertha driver which was founded on the principles of getting a ball airborne quickly and with more distance. That was the legacy of the late founder Ely Reeves Callaway. Once, he was in battle with the USGA on his ERC II driver (where ERC was his initials) which was a thin faced that does not conformed to limits of USGA testing procedures. He was a strong advocate of having two sets of rules - one for professionals and the other for amateurs and social golfers. Callaway was a distant cousin of the legendary golfer Bobby Jones who founded the Masters and Augusta National Golf Club. Prior to the Big Bertha, the most shunned, most feared and most hated club to use was the driver. By making a driver much easier to hit, he took the fear out of it and revolutionized the golf world. His slogans for his products were that they should be "demonstrably superior and pleasingly different". "We want to make it better. If we don't someone else will". Ely Callaway also believes that golf is about the occasional good shot for social golfers, therefore only friendly and forgiving equipment could do this job.
Before this release, Callaway launched the very successful "Epic" driver and series of clubs where sales have been er...well...epic. Then sometime in 2018 they released the "Rogue". If the Epic is go good, how can the Rogue be better? "Jailbreak" technology and X-Face VFT face technology to promote high ball speed. Reinventing the driver? They supercharged the successful Great Big Bertha Epic to create this new monster. They said the Rogue driver produces 2 mph faster ball speed than the already fast ball speed of the Epic. They then enhanced the revolutionary Jailbreak Technology. Jailbreak is basically two vertical titanium hour-glass shaped bars that straddle across the face from the crown to the sole to strengthen them (those two bars were previously straight) so they saved 25% of discretionary weight so they could use it to make an even thinner face increase ball speed even on off-centre hits and promotes consistently high ball speed meaning distance. There is no more sliding track with a weight which saved 15% of weight over the Epic and created more forgiveness equal to some 16% tighter shot dispersion. They also teamed up with Boeing to create an aero crown. A 10% bigger head still within 460cc with a 600 points increase in MOI performance.
Some said that if the previous Epic was a sports sedan then the Rogue is a monster truck.
Looking at this crown it is not just aesthetic. Jailbreak Technology improved on the previous model by shaving off 25% of weight from two stiffening vertical bars and reshaped them as hourglass form. This is to assist golfers to attain longer distance even on off-centre hits. They examined and analysed more than 100 locations of impact to find where are the least and most stressed and created Variable Face Thickness (VFT). Tri-axial crown comes in 65% lighter than titanium so that weight can be used in the outer edges and perimiter to make it even more forgiving. They even let you see the carbon fibre on the back portion of the crown and it looks sexy. Wonder if they will one day build a see through driver like they do in watches.
I like the "teal" colour. Teal is a deep blue-green colour described as a rejuvenating and revitalizing colour.
Many have agreed and claimed this to be the longest driver released in 2018 and will still be among the longest in 2019. My take is that the jailbreak technology works. It feels kind of incredible on the face and it gives power across the face. You need to get used to it as the crown is elongated. It probably gives you the best mixed combination of distance and forgiveness.
The feel is difficult to described perhaps due to the use of material. It is somewhat muted but very soft to me and it springs off in a great hurry. It is quiet and soft yet flew a great distance. A "wow!" kind of feel. You can forget about all the technical jargon but for this one you can actually feel the ball speed.
I fitted it to the after-market customised Graphite Design Nano-Reloaded shaft which is an equivalent of that same Graphite Design Tour AD-DI.
I took the first few shots on the golf course and I instantly knew this has to be on of the longest drivers on the market in 2019 as even those that were not pured from the sweet spot went a distance with rather good dispersion to keep you in play on the short grass. So can you imagine what it could do when you dialled it in.
It felt a little lighter from what I used to play partly because of the shaft I custom-fitted it to as I have been lightening up all gears and the head looks different to what I am used to but once you get a feel of it with full confidence seeing how straight and far your shots go, you would not be bothered by anything else would you?
When you add a very high level of forgiveness to it, I think it is very hard to find a driver with such a potent combination of speed and power, distance and forgiveness. It could be the longest and best driver out there. No more ice cream. I have been to places now I have never been to before. This is Coca Cola - The Real Thing!
It is so good I could forget about all the technical jargon and the fact is that it just works extremely well. So good because what they say works and so good that I am surely going forth to explore the same Callaway Rogue Fairway Wood and the Hybrid in the family. You will be glad to have this beauty and the beast behind you. This is a monster like Liverpool FC. Callaway will be very successful indeed. Fear not the weapon but the hands that wield it. If you are in the market for a new driver, make sure you consider this. It is cheaper than the later Epic Flash and the newest Callaway Mavrik.
Golf as in life, play as it lies.
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