Have you ever wanted to play golf with Justin Timberlake? If your answer is, YES! You’re in luck, because Callaway Golf and Justin Timberlake have teamed up for this amazing contest.

The contest, called “Tee Off with Diablo Octane and Justin Timberlake,” will unfold during the lead-up to Father’s Day and celebrates the strong relationships that develop on the golf course. Timberlake was first introduced to the game by his dad, Paul Harless, on the Mirimichi course that they now own together.  Over the years, playing together and enjoying time on the golf course has strengthened the bond between them.  Callaway’s contest encourages fans to share an emotional and entertaining story that describes how the game of golf has brought them closer to someone in their life.

The grand prize winner and guest will meet and have a range session with Justin Timberlake. In addition, they will be custom fit for full sets of premium Callaway clubs at Mirimichi’s Callaway Performance and Learning Center before enjoying a round at the world class facility’s Championship Course.

How to Enter
To enter the contest, fans need to enter a written submission on Callaway’s Facebook page of up to 100 words by June 19, 2011, the contest’s closing date. Uploaded photographs are optional with submissions.

In July, Callaway will announce 25 finalists and the grand prize winner will then be chosen by popular vote on Facebook. All 25 finalists will be awarded a new Callaway Diablo Octane Driver, the first club made with a groundbreaking ultra lightweight material called Forged Composite™ that Callaway co-developed with Automobili Lamborghini.

For more contest details and complete entry and residency requirements, participants should check the official rules before entering. No purchase is necessary, but some entry restrictions do apply. Entrants must be over 18 to enter.

www.facebook.com/callaway

Have you ever wondered what Phil Mickelson is like off the course? What Phil’s fondest memories of the golf? Why Mickelson golf’s left handed? His relationship with his caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay? This great little video on Phil Mickelson shot by Callaway Golf answers these questions and more.

“You’ve got to challenge yourself and not be afraid of failure.” – Phil Mickelson

www.callawaygolf.com

Did you ever want to see what happens when you dip a pair of golf shoes in acid? Or cut them in half with tools like a guillotine, circular saw, liquid nitrogen, water jet, and samurai sword? If you are remotely curious, you are in luck because adidas Golf has launched a microsite called “Making the Cut,” that tells the story behind how adidas Golf created the lowest golf shoe in golf.

[View with PicLens]

Comparing their latest footwear with competitive footwear in the industry, the site educates the consumer about advanced THiNTech low-profile technology with charts, videos from their footwear team and professional athletes.

The “R.I.P The Competition” section features an entertaining way to cut their competitor shoes with an array of unique tools including a guillotine, circular saw, liquid nitrogen and water jet cutter. The concept is very similar to the very popular Blendtec, Will it Blend series of videos on the web.

In the Technical Lowdown section, you can view a comprehensive chart that breakdowns of how much lower the entire line of adidas Golf shoes compare against the shoes cut in half from their competitors. How useful this information is to consumer, I’m not really sure, but it’s entertaining to watch golf shoes get ripped in half.

Which “R.I.P.” The Competition video is your favorite? Mine is a toss up between liquid nitrogen and acid.

www.adidasgolf.com/makingthecut

Ernie Els 2010 Arnold Palmer Invitational-Image Los Angeles Times Sports Blog

March is turning out to be a great month for Callaway Golf’s Ernie Els, as the “Big Easy” recorded is second PGA Tour victory of the year with his win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Coming off a four-shot victory in the World Golf Championship at Doral two weeks ago, Els closed with a 1-under 71 at Bay Hill to win for the 18th time in his PGA Tour career and made it consecutive wins for the first time since 2003.

It should be interesting to see if Els can carry over the momentum into the Masters next week and make a run for the green jacket.

Ernie Els setup at the 2010 Arnold Palmer Invitational:

• Callaway FT Tour Driver
• Callaway Tour i(s) Golf Ball
• Callaway X Prototype Irons
• Callaway X-Forged Wedges
• Callaway Tour 15-degree X Fairway Wood
• Callaway X 5-wood
• Odyssey White Ice #5 Putter.

www.callawaygolf.com

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.

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

As a golfer, I’m always looking for the perfect golf ball, one that will give me that extra distance on every shot, without sacrificing the control and feel I like having around the green. The Callaway Tour iX is aimed at golfers looking for Maximum Tour distance with soft feel and superior greenside control. Over the past three weeks I’ve been testing the Callaway Tour iX golf ball and the results are what you come to expect from a premium golf ball.

Callaway Tour iX Golf Ball

Off the Tee

In my tests I compared the Callaway Tour iX to a Titleist Pro V1 golf ball. The Callaway Tour iX is a 4-piece dual core construction golf ball that utilizes inertia technology to deliver breakthrough tour distance. The engineers at Callaway first created a ball that has a Tungsten-Infused Outer Core – meaning the ball’s high-density outer core moves weight away from the center of the ball for increased Moment of Inertia (MOI) resulting in reduced driver spin for increased distance. I have a tendency to produce a lot of sidespin on my drives and I noticed that my drives were much straighter as a result of the high MOI. The amount of carry I had off the tee was comparable to a Pro V1, but not as much as I got with the Nike One Platinum. What Callaway did with the Tour iX, is construct the ball with a dual core and firmer mantle layer, which also provides distance off the tee while still offering spin around the green. The soft inner core provides low spin off the driver for great distance while the firmer outer core provides high driver speed and high chip-shot spin around the green. In my tests the firm outer core provided great feel and control with my irons from the fairway and on those short par 3′s. The final component of the four piece Tour ix,  is the soft urethane cover that gives the ball its superior feel and short-game spin. I immediately noticed the soft, yet firm feel of the Tour iX golf ball the first time I hit the ball and the nice sound it produced when I hit it with my irons and wedges. I knew right then, this ball could give my Bridgestone Tour B330-S a run for the money in the feel department.

Short Game

In and around the green the Callaway Tour iX preformed quite well at putting, providing a nice feel on my putts, and good roll on the green. This is attributed to the to the soft Thermoset urethane cover, which also gives the ball a unique texture. When it came to pitch shots and chips, the soft urethane cover provided the right amount of feel you would want from a premium golf ball comparable to a Pro V1. My pitch and chip shots had unbelievable feel and  good control around the green, which I loved. Some of my chips and pitches would roll a little more, rather than come to a complete stop when hitting the green . I would have liked a little more spin, like I get from my Bridgestone Tour B330-S golf balls, but the Callaway Tour iX still did a nice job.

Is this the perfect golf ball? No, but the Callaway Tour iX does comes close to being my favorite golf ball in terms of feel and reduced driver spin.

Key Features of the Callaway Tour iX

• Tailored for the player who wants to get more distance on every shot.

• Tungsten-infused outer core redistributes weight away from the center to reduce spin for breakthrough distance.

• 4-piece dual core construction provides better feel and higher ball speeds for maximum carry.

• Superior feel and short-game spin for excellent greenside control.

Callaway Tour iX Golf Balls Retails for $44.99