INTRODUCING: The New Callaway Elyte Driver Family

This will mark the fourth launch I’ve had the privilege of writing for Callaway Golf. As I went back into each launch piece, I noticed a few things that I found interesting. For starters, WE have leveled up each season in almost every category: speed, forgiveness, mis-hit playability, spin retention, technology breakthroughs, etc.

The second is the vast evolution of Callaway R&D vs. The Market. While most companies focus on the entire driver head, Callaway R&D went full tilt on the face. This is important because regardless of anything we have learned about the crown of the head, it’s the face and its reaction to contact that ultimately makes or breaks the club. Nailing down a “Smart-Face” frees up our R&D team to do whatever they want to the rest of the head. The point is they can take huge swings that most cannot.

Last, I noticed how I presented these stories to you, my gearheads. Yes, the marketing points are essential, but this year, I will walk you through EXACTLY what I’ve seen in testing and on tour and what I’d still like to discover—the gearhead perspective. Media outlets will provide you with all the marketing info; they all seem to present it similarly (which is fine). Today, I’ll give you my take.

The Insider story, so to speak.

Welcome to ELYTE

THE NAME

ELYTE (Ely-te) plays on the word ELITE with a nod to our founder, Ely Callaway, who, in my opinion, redefined metal wood technology and marketing.

THE LOOK

THE MODELS

ELYTE: Core model, FAST, Forgiving, Mid Spin (Neutral weighting), Mid Launch. You can make it an absolute LOW SPIN MONSTER by front-loading the weight. This driver is a good time.

Who? Alex Noren to a Twenty-Five Handicap.

ELYTE X: This is a max head with a heel-side CG, two weight ports, and an upright lie angle. Think draw-friendly, not anti-slice, although it will help that player just the same.

Who? Alex Noren to a Thirty Handicap.

ELYTE MAX FAST: Lightweight Max profile, lighter head, lighter shaft. Easy to launch, mid-spin.

Who? Anyone looking to swing it faster to help get the ball in the air with some pop. Think of my old man and his Saturday men’s game. That whole crew needs this driver.

ELYTE TRIPLE DIAMOND: Tour workhorse that has won The Grand Slam over the past 4 seasons on the PGA TOUR. I won’t put it in a spin or launch window because, in my opinion, it can live in all buckets, depending on your weight setup. Of the models, this one is the more fade bias, although it’s pretty neutral.

Who? This is a better player’s driver who, if properly fit, can benefit anyone from Xander to a ten handicap.

THE CORE TECHNOLOGY (In simple terms)

THE SHAPE: Let’s face it, we have been fast for years. So fast that we have prioritized spin retention and forgiveness for the better part of eight years. The OG Epic was a game-changer in that regard. Since then, it’s been about containing that speed and ensuring speed is an element reserved for the entire face, not just the middle. With ELYTE, we focused on the shape. How do we create speed knowing the face is hotter than a pistol?

With enhanced aerodynamic research and a rather substantial investment, Callaway R&D fine-tuned the shape of all the ELYTE heads, eliminating the excess fat across the head and making this driver SWING faster than anything we’ve done.

In testing, we achieved 1.3MPH extra on average. That’s movin’.

*Claim based on consumer testing of Callaway Elyte vs. Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max drivers, with an average gain of 1.8 yards.

What does that mean for you? MORE BALL SPEED. SIMPLE.

10X FACE

It’s AI. The computer has had another year to learn and continues to react in kind. YES, it’s 10X smarter with 10X more data points based on 10X the REAL GOLFER strike points. Does that mean 10X the performance? NO. That’s insane and not how this works. Remember that it’s still us, human beings, swinging these things, BUT you WILL experience even more quality out of the entire face, which is why we do all this.

For example, TOE HITS. I went out with an early prototype of ELYTE over the summer. The first on-course strike was a toe ball that should have started straight and dove into the ground (to be fair, Paradym and Smoke were pretty good here), but this particular shot started slightly right of center and FLOATED right. I have NEVER SEEN THAT. And it has stayed that way with every iteration I have tried. I can’t emphasize how crazy that is. In my experience, it defies all the rules of a golf club that I know.

In testing, the dispersion was 19% tighter VS Ai-Smoke

*Claim based on consumer testing of Callaway Elyte vs. Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max drivers

It is the same thing we saw with Xander and Akshay in testing—so much so that each player called it out and chuckled.

THAT’S A GREAT THING, FYI.

THERMO-FORGED CARBON (Non-TD heads)

Aerospace-grade carbon fiber enabled R&D to dial in the head shape (swing it faster) and save even more weight (CG efficiency and MOI) than Ai-Smoke.

The new carbon make-up is easier to mold and thus more efficiently shaped, which was critical to achieving a faster head shape. Shape changes have tradeoffs, and by using this new carbon, we were able to offset a shape change that would have otherwise raised our CG and spin.

ON TOUR (Xander and Akshay)

Kellen Watson (Callaway TOUR) on Xander

“It’s hard to improve on what he did with the driver in 2024, so any gains would need to be found in the nuance. The first win was HE LOVED THE LOOK; right at first glance, he bought in, which is huge. The biggest gain we saw was spin retention up and down the face, tightening his window from 2100-2800 RPMs to 2200 to 2600 RPMs. At Xanders level, trimming 300 RPMs of excess fat is HUGE.

The last cool bit was out of the heel and toe; the spin lived in a happy spot on both, and the start and finish lines could give him a massive advantage from an SG perspective. When you have a driver that gives you a heel ball that keeps the spin down, with a proper start and finish line AND the opposite out of the toe, you take shots that should find the rough that end up in the fairway.

That could mean a ton of cash when it’s all said and done.”

What Xander had to say…

“I had a great year driving the ball with Ai-Smoke, so honestly, I wasn’t looking for anything in particular. However, Elyte has actually dialed in my spin window even further up and down the face, and the look is…well…Elyte.“

Johnny Thompson (Callaway TOUR) on Akshay

“I’ve been working with Akshay for a while now, and although the kid loves to test new products, his mechanics are very specific and create a “thread the needle” scenario for fitting. In a sense, I’d consider him a hard person to change. His path across the bag (left-hand golfer) always works right, creating a pull-fade shot shape. The trick with him isn’t necessarily out of the middle but rather what happens when he overdoes it.

With past models, there was always a wipe left-to-left shot that would slide off the face and cause some issues in a crosswind; in addition, according to our analytics, his “foul ball” is a right-to-right pattern that, if cleaned up, gives him a huge uptick from an SG viewpoint. The data shows it is a few feet back towards the middle.

It’s hard to play how he likes knowing that shot is there; Rogue ST LS (His Gamer) didn’t do that very often. There are multiple reasons why (shape, CG, etc.), but it was a reality. Trust me, we tried. As we sit now, I believe he’s outgrown that head.

With ELYTE TD, we found a setup that mitigates that to almost nothing and puts him in a tight spin and dispersion window across the face. He has many shots with the driver, stock, fairway finder, rope hook, forearm send, etc. Elyte has elevated all of these options from a data perspective, and on course (HERO and Grant Thornton), it was clear that he was getting very comfortable.“

Interesting Stats VIA Callaway TOUR Analytics

With the driver, he gained approximately 0.22 shots per round, ranking him 65th.

The difference between a hit fairway and a missed fairway for Akshay is about 0.25 shots. The difference between a slight miss and a big miss (> 20 yards from the edge of the fairway) is 0.31 shots. While it’s not impossible to average one fairway more per round, it isn’t easy to do that over a year. But for comparison, if Akshay improved by a quarter of a shot with a driver, he’s looking at being ranked in the top 20.

What Akshay had to say…

“I LOVE testing new gear, but I’m also a hard switcher. Rogue ST LS was cemented in my bag for a while. Elyte was the first one in a while that allowed me to hit ALL the shots I see in my head with zero fear of surprises. I’m getting stronger going into 2025, and Elyte seems perfectly harmonious with all these changes. And I get to play a Triple Diamond this year…so…that makes the gearhead in me happy.”

My Personal Experience

I’ll create more content around the ELYTE family as we progress, but I want to share my experience since I first encountered the early iterations in August.

Biggest Surprise:

The Elyte is outrageous. I have never seen a driver with such different personalities, CG up versus CG back. In my testing, I went from really happy numbers in a stock setting to a ball speed monster with the weight front-loaded. We are talking about a 400RPM decrease in spin and a 4MPH increase in ball speed, all while maintaining launch and workability. This is head is NUTS.

My TOUR fittings netted the same result. Charles Howell saw the same exact thing, and after twenty swings, he turned and looked at me and said, “How is this possible?”

The thing that didn’t need to change:

Triple Diamond is what it’s always been and always should be, with the one cool feature being that IT’s NOW EASY TO TURN OVER!! Thank God!! In the past, I’ve always had to do something with the COG to make it draw, but for whatever reason, this ELYTE TD is very neutral compared to other models, and hitting a nice gentleman’s draw is EASY. The last time I had that was Epic Speed.

Overall:

I’ll put this in the context of US vs THEM. This year, I had the chance to test ELYTE One Vs One versus most of the competition. Lots of great stuff out there, but in my testing (myself and TOUR), Elyte has beaten them all in almost every aspect. Throw the shape and new materials to the side…it’s the Ai-Smart face that is the true X-Factor here. Speed and spin retention are things that the monitors will show us, but most importantly, it’s the ball and how it’s flying that catches all the eyeballs.

At the end of the day, that’s all that matters. All the talk, marketing hype, looks…the ball in the air is the judge. We are winning.

Where I landed and the numbers…(Chrome Tour X Ball, TrackMan, December 6th, 2024 at ECPC)

In the hit-and-talk video (which will be out soon), my numbers were nuts. I was getting 167-168MPH ball speed, 2300-2400RPM spin, and 295+ carry, which doesn’t make much sense by my math, but I’ll take it. I think the barometric settings must have been cranked up. Whatever, lol.

Elyte Standard (9@8.3, N/-1, 7GB, 12GF)
MCA Diamana BB 63TX (Straight In, 45.25 EOG, D3)

Ball Speed Avg: 164.1 (+1 MPH vs. AiS TD)
Launch: 11.9 (-1 vs. AiS TD)
Spin: 2397 RPM (+100RPM vs. AiS TD)
Carry: 284 yds (+2 yds vs. AiS TD)

Specs:

Elyte Standard

Elyte X

Elyte Triple Diamond

Elyte Max Fast

Product at Retail: January 24th

Happy Hunting

LFG

JDub