I WAS standing on the range with the Tour guys from Callaway at the DP World Tour Championship and they soon starting talking about the new Callaway Big Bertha Epic driver that was set for launch in 2017. I tried to wrest more information out of them – or even take a few sneaky pictures of the club – but all the guys could tell me was that it was long.
Now, I hear that same line every time a manufacturer brings out the latest performance driver, and to be honest I’m getting tired of hearing the same thing. Callaway’s 816 Double Diamond was one of the longest drivers I’ve hit but the Centre of Gravity was forward making the face hot – but forgiveness wasn’t the best. I found the same with the TaylorMade M1.
Better than the fusion?
But the latest Fusion driver from Callaway is the best they’ve brought since the rebirth of the Great Big Bertha back in 2014. It’s up there with the Double Diamond on performance but also very forgiving across the face. So why bring out a new series of driver so soon? Well, until I can get my hands on one I can’t answer that question accurately, but we have managed to get a few leaked images off the internet. Whether the three models make it to production is another thing. I hope not, as, from my point of view, it would add further confusion to the driver market, for the sake of being over technical.
The Big Bertha Fusion managed to pair an aerospace-grade titanium Exo-Cage with ultra-light triaxial carbon crown and sole. The ‘fusion’ of these materials allowed Callaway engineers to position substantially more weight in the perimeter and far back from the face compared to their previous drivers, resulting in a dramatically higher level of forgiveness.
The Epic looks to be a blend of this Fusion Technology with perimeter weighting of the Great Big Bertha and the Gravity Core technology of the 816 Double Diamond. This will give the fitters more scope to play around with the weighting of the head to combat side or lateral ball spin, and at the same time factor in that fusion forgiveness.
Epic set to produce more ball speed!
I’m reading leaks that the Big Bertha Epic could add a further 5 mph in ball speed alone, which sounds like a remarkable achievement, but what I’d be interested to test is just how forgiving it is off the heel and toe? As 99.9% of us are more than likely going to spray the ball all over the face. I’m not after a driver that goes 300+ yards from the sweet spot, instead I want one that produces good results from my bad strikes.
The Epic could well become the club of 2017, but I hope Callaway delay the release a while longer as the Fusion for me is one of the best on the market at the moment.
