I’m a Titleist guy. I admit it. I’ve gone to counseling and it’s not helped. I’ve undergone shock treatments, withstood bribes, and watched Tiger Woods win major after major with “inferior equipment” following his move away from Titleist to Nike. I even saw Phil Mickelson shoot 59 after switching from Titleist. Still, I’m a Titleist guy.
But at the core, I’m a golfer, and one who plays fairly well. The line that separates “good enough” equipment from “perfect” equipment is a blurry one. I’m always looking for a bit of an advantage, and the Callaway Big Bertha 454 has gotten some rave reviews. Though Phil and Annika are playing the next Callaway driver (the recently introduced FT-3), the 454 promises to be an everyman’s driver – good technology that doesn’t require the ability to shoot 59 to handle it.
Big Hitters
Though the Callaway Big Bertha 454 may have been used by David Mobley to drive a golf ball 377 yards to win the 2004 Re/MAX World Long Drive Championships, when I say “big” hitters I’m referring to the clubhead size and not the distance the ball travels. The Big Bertha 454 measures (shock! gasp!) 454 cubic centimeters, only six shy of the 460cc limit imposed by the USGA. It features Callaway’s “S2H2” (Short Straight Hollow Hosel) – a technology that’s since been adopted and modified by others (such as the Titleist 983 and 905 drivers, and even the fairway metals like the 980F and the 904F) – with Tru-Bore technology. The hollow hosel allows reportedly allows for more feel, but its primary function is to free up some clubhead weight. The 454’s ultra-thin titanium face also frees up some weight, and Callaway engineers position the available weight around the clubhead to increase stability and moment of inertia.
Callaway has long led the charge to bigger drivers. The original Big Bertha driver, now about ten years old, was much bigger than the persimmon and steel drivers available from the competitors, and the 454 – though not the biggest – is certainly up there.
Looks and Setup
I’m not the biggest fan of today’s “VW Beetle on a stick” drivers, and the Callaway 454 looked like a titanium balloon at the end of the shaft when I first started looked at it. Combined with the short (i.e. nearly indistinguishable) hosel, the look may be quite startling to those not used to it.
The 454 does shift from typical Callaway fare in one regard: the finish is a sleek, modern fleckled dark grey. The crown is adorned with a single Callaway chevron (<) that acts as an alignment aid. The clubhead, unlike many of today’s longer, larger drivers sits surprisingly square to the ground without waving its toe around in the air.
The clubface is cleanly grooved with a smooth, groove-free hitting area. Combined with the chevron on the top of the club, the smooth area aids in alignment. The clubface sits square with visible bulge and roll. From the front, the clubface looks a bit like someone blew a bunch of air into the shaft and inflated the clubhead like a balloon. It bulges out everywhere, but the hitting area dominates the front-on view, inspiring confidence. “It’s tough to whiff 454cc,” said one of my playing partners.
The grip is typical Callaway fare – a non-corded grip with Callaway markings and swooping grooves. It felt comfortable, though I prefer a softer, corded grip.
Tee the ball higher for the Callaway Big Bertha 454 than you would with a smaller driver – this driver has a big face and hits the ball low!
Performance
Big Berthas have long been famous for “playing high.” If you liked a 9° driver by any other manufacturer you often had to move to an 8° or even a 7° Callaway driver produce shots with a similar trajectory. This is decidedly not so with the 454 – this is one heckuva low-ball driver. This thing hits the ball too low for my taste at its stated loft.
I currently play a Titleist 905S with a YS-6+ stiff shaft. It’s a whippier shaft than some of the others available, but the long, bore-through hosel on the 905 makes the shaft play a bit stiffer than in other clubs. I first tried the 454 with a stock stiff RCH shaft and 9 degrees of loft. I teed the ball higher, due to the 454’s larger clubhead, and put the ball a tad forward in the stance. I couldn’t hit anything but low bullets with a small cut. My misses were simply bigger low cuts.
Next, I borrowed a friend’s 454 with a YS-6 and 10 degrees of loft. The cut remained – I never did get the 454 to turn the ball over – but the ball flew on a normal trajectory. Callaway naturally has a large variety of shafts for custom fitting, and I encourage anyone considering a Big Bertha 454 to start with a higher loft and a lower-kickpoint shaft than they may first suspect.
Though the 454 is fairly forgiving, I did find that my mis-hits didn’t travel as far as they would with my 905S. They travelled straighter, but lost about 10-15 yards. Solid hits produced a similar ball flight and yardage as my 905S with a bit less curve – the 454 was more accurate all around than my 905S. Mishits may not travel as far, but the worst I could do with even a moderate swing with the 454 was a 20-yard cut off the heel. Plus, with the Callaway in my bag, I was never further away than spitting distance from the fairway.
The Big Bertha 454 isn’t what I would call a player’s club. It may be too forgiving, as contact anywhere on the face produces a very similar feeling and sound. It’s very difficult to tell whether you’ve hit the ball a half inch low, towards the heel, towards the toe, high, or some combination of those. This is a great thing for those looking for game improvement from their drivers, but silly fools like me who would rather be told where they mishit the shot should look elsewhere. This driver is a lot more Ping Eye 2 than Titleist 670, if you get my drift.
The only difference between a shot hit dead center and one hit off-center – besides the 20-25 yards you give up by mishitting this club – was the sound. Mis-hits had a very loud pinging noise, and solid hits had an even louder ping sound. It’s pretty obnoxious to someone who’s used to the solid “thwack” of a 905, but the “ping” is pretty standard these days – lots of the big-headed drivers make a high-pitched noise when struck properly.
The Callaway Big Bertha 454 is a sexy looking club from this angle. Gone are the days of the clear-coated silver clubs. Here – hopefully to stay – is a smart combination of dark grey, silver, and magenta. It looks hot!
Conclusion
At $299, the Callaway Big Bertha 454 out-performs nearly all other drivers in its class. (Then again, the sub-$300 driver class is becoming increasingly small.) It’s loud, it’s large, and it’s a tad obnoxious. It’s also one of the most forgiving drivers on the market today, though that comes at the expense of 10-15 yards. This isn’t a player’s driver – they’ll want to look at the FT-3 or at another company’s drivers – but the Callaway Big Bertha 454 is a great “everyman’s” driver.
Just one final reminder: get fitted. The driver loves to hit the ball low, unlike every other Callaway driver to date, and you may be surprised at how high a loft and how low a shaft kickpoint you need to get this baby airborn. When you do, rest assured that you’ll probably be close to the fairway. And hey, put a good swing on it and you may find yourself 378 yards out, looking back at David Mobley and chuckling.
Photo Credits: First image © Callaway Golf. All others © 2005 Erik J. Barzeski/The Sand Trap. All rights reserved.
That’s funny, I hit the thing really high…
I have the 454 with a prolaunch blue 65 and have found that it is too (tip?) stiff. I now think that the bore thru is the reason. I am sure they tried to allow for that somehow but the same shaft in a non-bore thru head would obviously have different specs. I can hit the 454 high or low but it feels like I am swinging a refrigerator. My clubhead speed suffers. I am currently using a BB2 with a 44 inch stock callaway stiff(firm) shaft because the shortness of the shaft tightens it to somewhere between a stiff and an x shaft. I am having trouble trying to find a shaft for the 454, any suggestions?
And I thought it was just me who couldn’t hit the ball high with this driver. My old GBBII has a much better trajectory. I’m currently on the lookout for an FT-3 as a replacement
I’ve been playing the GBB 454 with an Aldila NV-65S shaft for the last 8 months or so. I agree it’s a good “everyman” driver, maybe not for the “player”. I’ve used it to “learn” my driver swing and am now confident enough to try other low handicap drivers. I typically hit dead center on the club face 8 out of 10 times and typically net about 260 on average (sorry, not 300 like most golf forum hackers seem to claim, let’s get real). My swing speed is about 105-110 so if I’m square at impact sometimes I’ll get 10-20 yds more. Anyway, I hit a HIGH, straight ball so I’ve been thinking about trying the Titleist 905S with a high kick shaft for a “more penetrating flight” as we like to say. In the meantime I’ll probably reshaft the 454 with lower launch shaft and see if it makes a difference. Overall, the 454 I think is built to sell to the weekender, but better players can play it, too, just don’t expect it to perform like a Titleist.
Everyman’s club? Like there’s something wrong with that? I play a G5, and I hit it well–235 to 250–and smack dab in the middle of the fairway about half the time, and very seldom in never-never land. Recently I was practicing at the range and the wind was blowing and gusting about 25 mph straight on. (I like to practice hitting into the wind.) And the G5 was hitting at about 210-220. Another hitter on the range was watching me and asked me if I wanted to hit his GBB 454 (9 degrees with the red, firm RCH shaft) and he would hit my G5. I hit about half a large bucket with it: 230-240, pro trajectory and straight as an arrow. (He hit my G5, and loved it and was hitting it dead straight at about 210-220). I tried toe hits and heel hits and I closed the face and opened the face and I hit it high on the face and low on the face, all of which gave predictable results. And I differ with those who say you can’t tell if you hit it on the toe or heel as opposed to the “sweet” spot. The club tells you immediately where it is being hit. And in addition, I would note that I did not once experience the problems the reviewer who likes Titleists experienced except when I hit it low towards the bottom of the club, i.e., just a whiff away from a skull job. GBB 454 and I got a couple of more large buckets and whanged away. He now owns my G5 and I now own his 454. Does that mean I didn’t like my G5 or that he didn’t like his 454? No. It just means that I hit the 454 better than I hit the G5 and he hit the G5 better than he hit the 454. P.S. I tried a 460 before I tried the 454, and didn’t really like it as well as the G5. So who knows. Maybe people and golf clubs are like eharmony: if they match up right, then they’re happy.
competly agree with you, the club definitly tells you where its been hit, maybe the titelist lover has just gotten so used to his beloved titelists he just couldnt understand what the club is telling him
yah, this guy must have been hitting the club wrong. i know for a fact that when i began using this club i had a tendency to hit it low as well but after using it for about a year now i found that i get it high up into the air.
for the last couple of years iv been playing with only a 3 wood in the bag, (wilson staff). this was mainly because i could hit the thing a mile, was comfortable with the club and had become used to not using a driver in general! after deciding recently to buy myself a new driver it seemed right to choose callaway, this is mainly because i feel callaway have always offered greater forgiveness for the improving golfer, i currently have a handicap of twelve and am looking to improve my game off the tee by hitting more faiways (aren’t we all!)..in general im a straight, high hitter, but sometimes with a slight fade.. the decision was made to buy the BB 454 Ti (stock firm staff & 9degrees of loft). after using this club a couple of times on the driving range, i had feared the worse, my shots were still fading (if not more!) so consistency was a problem, however after time practicing the benefits of this club seemed to show, now im hitting the ball effortlessly 270 and straight too. it just takes time to get used to, maybe its the weight? last week i had almost drove the green on a short par 4 which was 309yrds! this club is a beauty, id advise any improving golfer to get one, it looks great, it sounds great, it goes VERY far!! unbelievable club, i havnt used my old 3 wood once in the 3 weeks iv had the 454! best callaway driver ever!
I have been using the 454 10 degree (RCH65w firm) for about a year now (switched from my original Big Bertha 9 degree from ’90 and I still play my 845s from ’92, they still work great). Some college buddies and I still play a 72 hole marathon once per year. My one friend had this driver, I hit his all weekend, he hated me for it because I was hitting it better than he was. Ultimately I bought one for myself.
I hit this club extremely high. When I swtiched, I increased the carry on my drives from 250 to 260. I definitely don’t get as much ball movement on a heel or toe strike, which is nice since I like to play the driver straight most. I know exactly where the ball hits the club face at impact. I can put a nice little draw on this club when needed. I am actually in the market for an 8 degree version as the “moon balls” are costing me some role and distance, especially on the windy days (though a nice brisk gail at my back doesn’t bother me so much on the par 5s). I am hoping I get to a 270 carry and some roll out of the 8 degree.
I have a GBB 454 and hit it longer than any driver I have ever hit. I have tried a FT-3 and FT 5 and the new Ping G 10 . It is a firm shaft and 9 degrees. It is very easy to hit and gives me great feedback. In fact, I am trying to find a new club that is comparable and can’t find one. Does anyone know which shaft would be comparable to the calaway firm flex?
“This guy” has a handicap of <3.0. I doubt he was hitting the club wrong.