New Callaway X Fairway Woods

[shortgame85]

Has anyone had the opportunity to try the new Callaway X fairway woods? If so, would you mind sharring your impressions? Thanks.

[iacas]

Has anyone had the opportunity to try the new Callaway X fairway woods? If so, would you mind sharring your impressions? Thanks.

I haven't. We'd asked Callaway to get us some for review, but they had some other equipment they wanted us to review for some reason...

From what I've heard, they're nice... but that's all hearsay.

[GoingfortheGreen]

As a 22 handicap, I've had my fair of lousy fairway shots. Two months ago I bought the X 3 wood, and was happy with the results. I then added the 5. I have to say that the clubs are easy to hit, and I really like the shaft.

I've hesitated reaching for fairway woods from my bag when the situation arose, but I see my self playing more shots with the 3 and 5 wood now that I have the X. I am not a long hitter -- 3 wood maxes out at 205 for me (if I hit it perfect).

Overall impression - I like the clubs. They are an big improvement from my Adams woods.

[Everardo]

Has anyone had the opportunity to try the new Callaway X fairway woods? If so, would you mind sharring your impressions? Thanks.

I have a 15 degree X-Tour and love it! Performance wise, I'd say it rivals my R7 3-wood.

[Donald MacKenzie]

I've played 7-8 rounds with my X 3-wood, which I special-ordered with the Fujikura Tour Platform 26.3 shaft (which comes standard on the Tour version of the woods, like Everardo has). I've been very happy with it. Easy to hit off the deck, medium-high trajectory without ballooning. I've been able to hit both high cuts and low, running draws. I especially like it off the tee as a driving club on tight/short holes, or downwind. I nearly drove a 315-yard par-4 with it the first round I used the X 3-wood. The hole was playing downwind, and it was too tight for a driver. The X 3-wood got up in the wind and stayed up there forever, carrying about 285 and rolling another 10 yards.

I like the sound/feel, very similar to the Steelhead Plus I previously had in my bag. A solid "TING!" sound at impact, higher-pitched than Titleist/TaylorMade fairway woods but not brittle or loud like the MacGregor NVG woods.

The only thing I didn't like about the X 3-wood when I got it was that the face is a bit shallow, especially compared with my old Steelhead Plus. But it turns out that the face is nearly as deep, it's just longer from heel to toe, which creates the illusion that the head is shallow.

As for the sole design that's supposed to keep the face square at address, I guess I never had that problem to begin with, so I can't say much about that.

So my overall impression: These are some very good fairway woods. I didn't much like the Steelhead III fairway woods, and the Big Bertha woods that came out in 2004 were too shallow for me. The X series stands up to the fairway wood reputation Callaway earned 10 years ago.

[Donald MacKenzie]

OK, I got the ruler out. The X 3-wood and my Steelhead Plus strong 4-wood are the same face depth: 1.25". But the X is 3.25" from heel to toe, compared with just 3" for the SH+. So the X seeming to have a shallower face is just a function of actually having a longer face. FWIW.

[shortgame85]

Thank you, Donald and everyone who replied to my query about the X woods. I am interested in these, in part, because I have always read great things about the Steelhead woods, but I've only played with the Titanium Hawkeye VFT woods. While I like the VFT woods a lot, like a lot of guys, I'm always looking for something better. The seemingly shallower profile of the X woods interested me ( shallower than the larger VFT clubs ) because they appeared to be a little easier to strike off a tight fairway and just set up a little better to my eye. Thank you all, again for your informative replies.