When you love golf and are lucky enough to work for a golf equipment company, it’s impossible not to have a lot of interest in the products that are in development, whether it’s a metalwood, iron, putter or ball. The new Great Big Bertha driver intrigued me from day one for a couple of reasons.
First, the sliding weight Adjustable Perimeter Weighting track is back and it’s 25 percent larger and is more draw capable. (The 2014 Big Bertha with the sliding weight was my favorite driver because it was so easy to adjust and so forgiving. That driver was a fairway finder.)
Second, this driver has same type of aerodynamics as the V-Series (my current gamer). A GBB with more forgiveness than the 2014 Bertha with the speed of V-Series? Sign me up!
22 Yards Left Behind? Now You’re Getting Personal Doc
I was also fascinated with the concept of Leave No Yard Behind, which inspired GBB’s design. I remember discussing the testing with Alan (Doc) Hocknell, our Senior VP of Research and Development.
In the biggest Callaway test of its kind, we learned that a huge percentage of golfers don’t hit their drives as far as their clubhead speed says they should because their launch conditions are inferior, they don’t hit the ball in the middle of the clubface often, they have too much sidespin, or some combination of these flaws.
I’m a perfect example of “leaving yards behind” on the tee box. Based on my 98-100 mph swing speed, I should be averaging 265 yards off the tee, but in reality only averaging 243 yards according to the Arccos shot-tracking technology I’ve been using the past few months. So there could be 20 yards of distance out there for me. With that in mind, I made it a point to get fit for the GBB as soon as I could.
My Fitting
My appointment at the Callaway Performance Center, here at Callaway HQ in Carlsbad, was with Ross Stewart, a highly experienced Fitting Specialist and all-around good guy. He started by listing all relevant stats regarding my gamer:
Big Bertha V-Series
Loft: 9°
OptiFit Hosel setting: stated loft / draw
Shaft: Mitsubishi Fubuki Z Stiff / 50 grams
Length: 45.5”
Average ball speed: 138 mph
Launch angle: 15.3°
Spin-rate: 2870
Decent launch conditions, Ross acknowledged, yet there was room for improvement and yards to be gained. “Let’s get to work,” he said.
Shaft Flex and Weight Class
I’ve used a stiff flex for a long time, so we started out with that and determined that still made the most sense for my game. From there, the GBB fitting was different from any other I’d experienced because we started testing different shaft weights.
Long distance comes in part from consistently solid contact, Ross explained, and solid contact comes from club control. There’s been a trend toward lighter and lighter drivers, but what you gain in clubhead speed you often lose in club control. We had to find the right balance.
Sure enough, after experimenting with several shafts of differing weights, I got the best combination of swing speed and smash factor from a Fujikura Speeder Evolution Tour Spec 665 S-flex, which is 15 grams heavier than my current shaft.
“You’ve already gained yardage and we haven’t even started working on launch conditions yet,” Ross said. [Editor’s Note: This is one reason why we offer 19 no up-charge premium shafts in four weight classes.]
Loft and Backspin
Next came loft. Ross thought my launch angle was a little too high and that my spin rate could be reduced. Using our OptiFit technology, he took me down a degree from 9 to 8. That single, simple change lowered my launch angle and scrubbed off some spin to increase my roll, the combination of which gave me more yardage.
I've been waiting my whole life for this moment...
Been working on my swing...can you tell?
Any closer and it would be right in the middle of the clubface.
We decided to de-loft the driver from 9-degrees to 8-degrees, which took all of 5 seconds.
Ross had front row seats to the stripeshow.
That's me pointing out how good my spin rate is.
(Ed. Note: Hover over the photos for captions (which were not written by the author of this article.)
Adjustable Perimeter Weight (APW) – A Tinkerer’s Dream
Now for the real fun: using the Adjustable Perimeter Weight to affect sidespin. Overall, I’m pretty straight off the tee with a preference for a draw and the added yardage that comes with it. My miss, however, is a fade and sometimes a big push.
Ross set the APW weight, which weighs 10.5 grams, in the draw position — at the end of the APW track near the heel. He also set the OptiFit hosel to the draw setting. The results were remarkable. I averaged 27 rpm of draw sidespin, enough to produce the slight draw that I prefer, without the risk of a big hook into the trees.
Yardage Gain Epiphany!
When my GBB fitting was done and the numbers added up, the results blew me away. My launch conditions went from 15° / 2,900 rpm (spin-rate) to 13° / 2,400 rpm. Sidespin was drastically reduced to 27 rpm.
And the 65-gram shaft increased my smash factor to 97 percent, contributing to ball-speed increase of nearly 5 mph! The upshot? I gained of 6 yards in carry distance and a total increase of 12 yards! And this is in comparison to the V-Series, which I was just fit into last Fall.
Don’t take my word for it as somebody who works for Callaway. Take my word for it as a golf nut who’s always looking for more yards, more fun and lower scores.
The new Great Big Bertha, correctly fit to your swing, can help you turn the potential yardage you’ve been leaving behind on the tee into real yardage down the fairway. Don’t leave any behind.
The proof is in the fitting…
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Other Custom Fitting Content You Should Check Out:
– 6 Revelations From My Callaway Fitting Experience
- [Interactive] Fact or Fiction: The Truth About Getting Fit
- [Video] Tour Pros on Why You Should Get Custom Fit