Callaway Golf revolutionized the golf industry when it introduced the Big Bertha driver, in the 1990′s. Now Callaway Golf is at it again, trying to raise the bar on driver performance with the Callaway FT-i Driver. Callway Golf engineers started from scratch when designing the FT-i Driver by asking the question, if they could make the perfect driver, what would it be? The result is the FT-i Driver that combines a radical shape, design, and technology. I set out over the past month to see if the FT-i driver really lives up to the hype and the results were quite amazing.
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- Callaway FT-i Driver Tapered Crown
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- Callaway FT-i Driver VFT Face
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- Callaway FT-i Driver Sole
Look and Feel
The FT-i Driver takes a very big step in combining materials and technology to build a driver that has a very unique square shape. The large rectangular square shape of the crown with its tapered design will make any golfer confident that you’ll hit a nice shot, plus the alignment arrow makes it a breeze to aim. I was very surprised at how light the Callaway FT-i Driver felt in my hands. When you first look at it, you think because of the square shape, it would weigh a lot. What the Callaway engineers did is utilize a Carbon Composite Body for the clubhead, which took over 10 years to perfect. The Carbon Composite Individual carbon fibers are combined and impregnated with epoxy resin is significantly lighter than titanium and allowed the engineers to move the weight of the club from areas where its used less where its needed most. Pair it with 45.75″ 58 gram Fujikura Speeder 586 Graphite Shaft and you have the makings of really lightweight driver. The face of the club features a nice large oval shape, that utilizes CT/VFT (Variable Face Thickness) titanium cup face for improved performance. The CT/VFT technology has different thicknesses of material on different places of the face of the club, to maximize ball speed and perimeter weighting for more distance and forgiveness. The center of the face of the club has a thicker central region where the sweet spot is located, and thinner material in the outer region of the club face.
Performance
The FT stands for Fusion Technology, and its not some cool sounding acronym that Callaway Marketing came up with to sell golf clubs. The Fusion Technology that is used in the FT-i Driver is aimed at making this the most accurate and forgiving driver on the market. Fusion products use multi-material construction in order to optimize performance. The first component of the Fusion Technology that’s featured in the FT-i Driver in Complete Inertial Design (CID). CID is used to move the weight of the club to the outer perimeters, which increases the MOI and makes the driver extremely forgiving on off-center hits. This translates into an extremely stable clubhead that resists twisting and provides more accurate shots. In my tests, I noticed that my drives were much straighter, even on the off-center hits and my shots traveled a lot further than usual. My playing companions were blown away at how far I could hit my shots with the FT-i Driver. I also noticed that the ball flight on my drives were consistently higher than usual, even on the miss-hits.
Another crucial component of CID is Center of Gravity (CG) location. By placing the CG in an optimal location in the clubhead is done for several reasons: 1) to optimize trajectory, which leads to greater distance; 2) to optimize the clubhead for a draw, neutral, or fade bias; 3) to optimize the clubhead for shot shaping by elite players. I found it was quite easy to play a draw or fade when hitting the FT-i Driver. As mentioned earlier the Callaway FT-i Driver has CT/VFT titanium cup face which help maximize ball speed and distance on your shots. I did notice that my drives were much longer when I hit the club in the sweet spot, than on the perimeter of the club. The reason for this is the variable thickness of the material used in the center of the clubface is thicker (2.5mm vs .5mm), which allows for more energy to be transferred from the clubface to the ball at impact. You’ll definitely will know when you hit the ball in the sweet spot by the sound it makes at impact, which sounds like a loud ping.
The final feature of the Callaway FT-i Driver is the OptiFit Weighting System, which enables golfers to choose three CG locations in most lofts (Draw, Neutral, and Fade. For example, if you leave your clubface open at impact, you would want to select the Draw weighting configuration which will help create corrective spin to your fade/slice and promote a draw. I tested the Neutral version, which allows you to shape your shots easily and provide an optimal trajectory. Overall I was quite pleased with Callaway FT-i Driver and would recommend it as a solid driver to have in your bag. Once you get past its unique shape you’ll be pleased with the results and how far you can crush your tee shots, even on off-center hits.
Callaway FT-i Driver retails for $399
