In what I would call the first actual FULL field event of the year, the Waste Management Phoenix Open has the feel, vibe and electricity of a Major Championship. It’s only early February, and with Jon Rahm on a serious heater and his #1 target back stateside it has all the makings of a potential showdown come Sunday. I was told by a person that has worked the event for the last ten years that the event will generate $250M for local charities. Sort of begs the question, why isn’t every tournament modeled after this one?
From a Tour Truck perspective the week was what I would call mildly busy. The Paradym requests are still coming in from all corners of the field and fairway woods are now getting built at a very steady pace.
Having a non-staffer win with Paradym driver and 3-wood at the At&t obviously helps the cause.
We are now five events in since its debut and it has given our performance team enough time to look at Paradym from a 35,000-foot view. It’s fair to say that we can make our first of maybe four evaluations like this and what we know is encouraging but not at all surprising…we knew it was good when we all first saw it last summer.
How and why is this happening?
I asked Callaway Performance Rep Kellen Watson for his initial thoughts up to this point on Paradym. From what he has seen it comes down to three main factors
- Performance downrange IE dispersion: With the head stability across the models, what our players are seeing is a tighter circle downrange which is a product of performance across the face. When your mishits fly like a center punch hit, your percentage of quality shots go up substantially. One non-staffer told Kellen and I that he was having trouble feeling mishits because they all flew like he flushed them…that’s music to R&Ds ears.
- Versatility: Paradym has been an optimal performer in regard to shot shaping. The draws hold their spin with the proper start lines, and the cuts stay in a mid to low-spin pocket, which is unique in modern drivers. There is typically a trade-off, but with Paradym, there isn’t. This is also true for mishits; the dips and spikes are a thing of the past which further hammers home point #1.
- Dialing it in is much easier: With Paradyms 360 Carbon Chassis and the 20+G of weight savings, it allows Reps like a Kellen a TON of runway to dial in a driver. Giving that much discretionary weight to a rep like Kellen is like giving an F1 crew a car with wheels that don’t wear out; it’s not a fair fight.
All of that hard work and a seriously special product result in numbers like this…at some point I’ll do a breakdown of one head vs. the other, still early in the game to see the nuances of TD VS STD Tour VS S although TD dominates across the staff bags. As you can see, there were only three non-TD heads in play this week. The non-staff conversion numbers are INSANE VS previous years. I could explain how challenging it is to get Non-Staffers in any driver but I won’t, know that to get anywhere from 6-10 in play week after week is a commentary on just how good Paradym is.
Paradym By The Numbers
Total Callaway Drivers in Play: 26
Total Paradym: 22
Non-Staff Paradym in Play: 4
Staff Usage: 94% (16/17)
Most used Paradym model: Triple Diamond 19 Total
In regards to the Jon Rahm 3-wood shaft swap, he did put the GD AD DI 8X in play this week; if you missed the Tour Gallery from Monday, here is the just of what happened:
Jon Rahm did some 3-wood modifications this week. His Paradym HL was going too far. At times he was getting close to 180 ball speed , and when he turns it over, the overall distance sat way too close to his driver. In that case, the first thing Performance Rep Kellen Watson will do is create some spin. If you look at the build sheets, #1 (Left) has the same GD DI 8x Rahm plays in his 5-wood. That profile spins a bit more than the Aldila Tour Green Rahm has had in for over a decade, and sheet #2 (Right) has the same Aldila, but it’s tipped .5 less than Rahm’s normal spec. Both instances could achieve the extra 300-400 RPMs of spin he was looking for.
As of Thursday, the DI is in the bag, and the other 3-woods are on their way to Riviera with the truck.
Enjoy the rest of the Report/Gallery.
We are going to win another one this week, FYI…
Next week we are at the Genesis Invitational (Riviera Golf Club in Pacific Palisades, Ca), and in addition we have an awesome fitting video with Steph Curry that I’m jacked up to show you all!
WMO, The Superbowl…wild weekend coming.
Rahm by 2 and Cheifs by 10
LFG
JDub