New Callaway FT5 Driver!!

[golfunit]

A month ago or so a Callaway Rep came for a demo day at my local club. I went out to hit some clubs out of curiosity, mostly. I had been hitting lots of drivers here and there, but hadn't been impressed.

I asked to hit the FT 5, and wasn't really impressed with it. It had the Fuji E-150 stiff shaft (standard) in it. The Rep said, "wait a minute, try this one". He had a system where he could just take the shaft out and replace it with another one right on the spot. He put in an Aldila NV 65 stiff for me.

Wow, the drives were awesome, nice trajectory, and LONG. It seemed to be a good 20 yards longer than my Taylor Made R7 Quad.

Now the bad news, that driver would cost me $420 at the pro shop. I thought I'd look on eBay for a while. I finally pulled the string on a $250 BIN practically new 10 degree draw bias FT 5. It has a Fujikura Speeder 652 Stiff shaft. The specs seemed similar to the Aldila I had tried.

I just got it yesterday and went to the driving range, along with my old driver as a comparison. Yep, significantly longer, and more consistent hits. A buddy came by and we went out for a quick round. I honestly was about 20 yards further on every hole, and driving it really well. (Around 275-280 for me).

I guess my advice would be, run out and get one of these babies.

I would also say, try various shafts until you find one that speaks to you. I personally couldn't believe what a difference that makes. My swing speed is in the 105-110 range for a driver. I think the standard shafts, even the stiffs, are designed for slightly slower speeds, and are usually low kick point to help people get the drive more airborne. I would love to try my new shaft in my old driver just as a comparison, but certainly don't want to spend the bucks for doing that.

In the meantime, I highly recommend this driver, and I've been a Taylor Made guy for years. I tried out the various Burner and R7 models, but none of them seemed to fit my swing.

[UprisingPure]

Thanks for the post! I just bought my dad an FT-5 for $200 last week and it works great compared to his old Hippo Driver.

[GOLFSALOT00]

the ft-5 is the only driver i would take over of my g10 to bad they are so expensive

ps.congrats on the new driver:)

[Clubchucker]

Yeah I'd have to agree with the comments about the FT-5. I got a GREAT deal on mine, thanks to a friend. He bought it new at Golf Galaxy (in regular shaft...which was wrong for him from the get go) and after about 2 months decided he didn't like it. We were at an outing together and they had a Cobra driver that he was interested in (silent auction), and he said if he won it I could have the FT-5 for whatever the winning bid was, since I'd always hit it better than him anyway (and he's about a 4 handicap). Deal...it was a very exclusive outing (which cost $2,500 per team) and there wasn't that many people there. Ended up as him being the only bidder, so I got a 2 month old FT-5 for $185.

Recently, after some swing changes I did exactly what he should have done....I took it to a local club fitter to be reshafted to a stiff shaft. I ended up getting the Fujikura E360 shaft put in and it cost me like $80. Wow...what a difference. Picked up big time yards and no more "ballooning" of my tee shots.

And by the way...I'm also a bit (former) TaylorMade guy...I thnk my last 4 drivers had all been TaylorMades. But they make fine clubs also-just depends on the player, their likes and what works for them.

[Dent]

I loved the Ft-3!!! Tried it at a demo day, the sound was music to my ears.

[srjorion]

I love my FT-5! I demoed it along with the Burner and there was no question which I needed after that. My drives are definitely longer.

[Doublepar]

I've tried other drivers but I can't find anything to kick my FT-5 out of the bag.