Highly Anticipated Products from Titleist, Callaway Hitting Shops

Titleist and Callaway officially unveiled their new drivers the past week, so we’re happy to talk about them.

Bag DropTwo of the season’s most anticipated new drivers are finally on their way to golf shops. Callaway’s new X460 driver has shipped and is available across the country, while Titleist has finally officially removed the “prototype” designation from the Pro Titanium 905R driver.

Let’s take a look at these new drivers, and other goodies that are hitting the shops just as the northern part of the U.S. starts getting ready for the start of the golf (and shopping) season.

Titleist

It goes without saying that Titleist’s 905R isn’t exactly a surprise, even if the company only officially announced its existence this past week. Photos of prototype versions of the driver in the bags of tour professionals have been floating around the Internet since late last summer, and Titleist fans have been waiting for the chance to move up to a 460cc driver.

Titleist 905R ExplodedThe wait is over, or at least it will be when the 905R ships on March 15. The 905R will join the 905T and 905S – last year’s 400cc drivers – in Titleist’s lineup. That makes sense, since the 905R shares many design tenets with its smaller 905 counterparts. It features a pear-shaped head design with a square face and a relatively shallow face area – more like the 905T than the 905S in terms of shape. The head is cast titanium with a beta titanium face insert, an aluminum hosel, and a multi-material sole plug that tunes the acoustics and the center of gravity. Increasing the head size to 460cc increases the 905R’s maximum ball speed impact area (you can call it the sweet spot) by 35 percent, according to Titleist.

The 905R has already become the most-played 460cc all-titanium driver on the PGA Tour, with Arron Oberholser using the club to win at Pebble Beach a few weeks back. It ships with a suggested retail price of $500, though the street price is likely to be $429. The driver is available in 7.5, 8.5, 9.5, 10.5 and 11.5-degree models. Stock shafts include the Aldila NV 65, Graphite Design YS-6+, Titleist Speeder by Fujikura and the UST Proforce VS 75, though other options are available through custom orders. And the 905S and 905T just became great values, as their prices have dropped to $249 at many golf shops.

Titleist also unveiled its new forged iron lineup for 2006, which includes the 695MB, 695CB and 775.CB irons. We’ll take a closer look at these clubs in next week’s Bag Drop.

Callaway

Meanwhile, Callaway announced this week that the X460 drivers – standard and Tour versions – have shipped to golf shops. Over the past few years, Callaway’s flagship driver product has been a multimaterial design featuring carbon composite material, including the current FT-3 driver. But there are some golfers who prefer the sound and feel of titanium, and the X460 has been built with them in mind.

Callaway X460The $299 X460 becomes the middle option in the three-tiered Callaway driver lineup, with the FT-3 on the top at $399 and the Big Bertha 454 driver now selling at $249. As we’ve previously reported, the X460 is a 460cc driver with Variable Face Thickness (VFT) technology and a unique concave sole that helps square the clubhead at address. I had a chance to play nine holes with the driver a little more than a month ago, and I was very impressed with the performance and feel of the X460. The hitting area of the X460 is actually larger than the FT-3, despite the fact that the two drivers are the same overall size.

The X460 standard driver comes with a proprietary Fujikura 64 graphite shaft in lofts of 9, 10, 11 and 15 degrees – each of which is set up 2° closed. The X460 Tour drivers come in 8.5, 9.5 and 10.5 degrees with the Fujikura Tour Platform 26.3 shaft and a square face angle. Other shaft options are also available.

Callaway has also shipped the new “improved” versions of the HX Tour and HX Tour 56 golf balls. Both have received whiter, more durable urethane covers. The HX Tour has also been upgraded with the same Reaction Injection Molding (RIM) technology that the HX Tour 56 launched with last year. This patented process is extremely precise, and creates the six deeper HEX dimples that HX Tour 56 users will recognize.

The HX Tour remains the firmer-feeling option of the two balls, with the HX Tour 56 feeling softer and spinning more on wedge shots. I played with the improved HX Tour ball in January, and was surprised at how much it spun on short-game shots. Both versions of the HX Tour balls are in shops now with a street price of $39.99. And they’re out on tour, as well. Kirk Triplett was rocking it improved-HX Tour-style when he threw a little weekend 64-63 at the field of the Chrysler Classic to earn a PGA Tour win opposite the World Match Play.

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