We are here again with new Drivers to sort through…to be honest, I was really getting close to my Paradym and was beginning to see some fun stuff out of that monster, but nonetheless, like anything, life goes on.
It’s now the day of Ai-Smoke and Callaway’s newest take on speed and forgiveness, and even I, who works inside the machine, was questioning how in the hell they were going to improve on something so complete.
Well…they did.
Here is everything you need to know.
But alas, it’s testing time to see what one of these hammers will make it into the bag. In the video, Ai-Smoke Max was the narrow winner over Triple Diamond, BUT we did more testing last month, and the results and reasoning for picking what I did were quite interesting.
I’ll explain…
The test was conducted at Indian Ridge CC in Palm Desert using GC Quad and Chrome Tour X golf balls. The weather was calm, 74 degrees with very little wind to speak of…it was perfect.
Hit 20 shots with each head (Ten stock, five draws, five cuts) and threw out the worst five.
All drivers were 9-degree heads that spec’d out to D4 w/ a Fujikura Ventus Black 5X shaft (Tipped .5, 45.5 EOG)
Ai-Smoke Max: 9@8.3 (Set to N/-1 w/ back weight center)
Results:
Ball Speed AVG 166.8MPH
Launch AVG: 12.1
Spin AVG Stock: 2398RPM
Spin AVG Draw: 2241RPM
Spin AVG Cut: 2651RPM
Notes: Hit 19 out of 20 PERFECTLY with one miss that floated high right. I hit this head out of the middle a bunch for whatever reason. It’s very easy to turn over and relatively simple to cut, although I had to work for it, and it’s a cut that falls right from the center, not a Rahm left starter, which, with my move, I am not sure is even possible, lol.
Ai-Smoke Triple Diamond: 9@9.1 (Set to N/S w/ 12GB, 4GF) (Thomas Detrys driver pictured)
Results:
Ball Speed AVG 168.1MPH
Launch AVG: 12.4
Spin AVG Stock: 2412RPM
Spin AVG Draw: 2087RPM
Spin AVG Cut: 2576RPM
Notes: This was a weird test, in all honesty. I hit 16 of the 20 perfectly, and my long ones were 13 yards further than Max. I had no issue hitting it straight; draws took some work and fades were ridiculously easy. The four misses, however, got me thinking; all four low heels that stayed online decently and retained ball speed, but the launch was down to 8-9 degrees, which resulted in a noticeable loss of carry that, on the course, could be a problem for me. The point is the good ones were immaculate, but the misses were good but not GREAT. However, I did hit TD a good bit further than Max overall, so that has a ton of value.
Ai-Smoke Max D: 9@8.1 (Set to N/-1 w/ 12GB) (Alex Norens driver pictured)
Results:
Ball Speed AVG 167.2MPH
Launch AVG: 13.9
Spin AVG Stock: 2291RPM
Spin AVG Draw: 2381RPM
Spin AVG Cut: 2876RPM
Notes: If all you wanna do is hit draws…this is a machine. For me, anything else is a no-go. I hit 13 of the 20 solidly, but there were more than 1/2 out of my hand. But I’ll dissect that a bit. My first 2 stock shots went dead left. I then compensated by aiming a touch right of center and proceeded to hit ten in a row that were flawless. Cutting this thing (for me) is like trying to hit it straight…a no-go also. All of them left and outta my hand. The key here is PICKING a shot. For the guys that use this head on TOUR its a pull cut with a left path and the face one to two degrees open. My path on a good swing is three up and one out. No pull cuts for this guy so its either a draw or nothing.
The Gamer:
Although the slightly slowest of the bunch, the Ai-Smoke Max offers QUALITY across all spectrums. YES, TD could be tweaked to fix that miss but at what cost somewhere else? I’d rather keep the quailty I get from the Max head and just get stronger OR play with the weighting a hair to see if I can cheat some speed or knock down spin to make up the difference.
To be fair to the TD it was 2MPH faster than Max but the spin was down overall and those monster balls I got out of it were all draws. Stock shots 1 v 1, the Max was simply better for me. I did tweak the final result a hair putting a flat cog in, moving the weight to the heel and going to D/-1…my start line got better and stock shots started a hair further left which is a good thing.
Happy Hunting
LFG
JDub
