Callaway Quantum drivers: What you need to know
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The five different Callaway Quantum drivers may look like the most complex array of offerings for a new driver family, but it’s the three-piece face design that heralds a complexity that easily is the most ambitious in the company’s four-decade history. The three parts include an ultra-thin, variable thickness titanium face, an anti-ballistic polymer mesh bonding material and a sheet of strong carbon composite that provides tension that allows the titanium to be thinner, stronger and more flexible than in a standard one-piece design. The range includes a high-forgiveness, broad-service model (Max), a high-launching draw bias model (Max D), two low-spin options for faster swings (Triple Diamond and the more forgiving Triple Diamond Max) and a lightweight version targeting moderate speed players (Max Fast).
PRICE: $650 (Max, Max D); $700 (Triple Diamond, Triple Diamond Max, Max Fast). At retail Feb. 13.
3 Cool Things
1. Three-part harmony. According to the engineers at Callaway, the titanium faces on drivers have reached a literal breaking point. The ubiquitous metal in driver faces for the last three decades, titanium on its own, no matter what space-age alloy employed or what heat-treatment processing it goes through, is maxed out, Callaway’s team believes. They felt especially strongly about those shortcomings given how it designs faces in the modern era. By employing artificial intelligence to create amorphously variable thickness profiles, those subtle but distinct variations create both more speed but also dial in spin performance. But advancements require a greater range of thicknesses in those faces than titanium alone was providing.
Enter the three-part faces on this year’s Quantum drivers, which combine a thinner titanium and a backing layer of carbon composite joined to each other by a polymer mesh material that combines strength and flexibility. That material was tested out previously in drivers being used by long drive competitors to make thin titanium faces more durable. The so-called super-polymer was developed as an anti-ballistic coating for military applications.
Thinking of a driver face as a three-piece system borrows a little from the multilayer construction of golf balls, said Evan Gibbs, Callaway’s director of research and development for woods.
“We know a multi-piece construction golf ball is superior to a one or two-piece golf ball because we have a lot more control over how that golf ball compresses by utilizing all these layers,” he said. “That's really what we're doing here in the driver face. This gives us a lot more control. For one, it gives us a lot more strength in the face because the titanium is now backed by this polymesh and carbon. It also lets us go thinner in the titanium, but it also gives us more control over the amount of deflection, the rate of deflection, and allows us to do some things in our [face thickness] optimization that weren't possible in a single material.”
In the Quantum drivers, this construction allows for a greater range of thicknesses to create all sorts of different microdeflections across the face that Callaway’s engineers use to optimize not only ball speed but spin as well. With the titanium portion of the faces now getting as much as 14 percent thinner, those overall designs can be better tailored to match the impact tendencies for each player type modeled for each of the Quantum family’s five versions. Those thickness designs, what Callaway engineers call “topology,” are derived from AI analysis of tens of thousands of swing simulation data points, the most extensive upgrade of a process first introduced with the Epic Flash drivers, as well as the Paradym Ai Smoke models.
“The polymesh is really what’s unlocked this construction,” Gibbs said. “It basically adds a lot of strength without adding stiffness, so the titanium component of the face is significantly thinner than we've been in the past. It's much more resilient than a traditional epoxy, which tends to be very brittle and not very flexible.”
The three-part design is building on the strength of the carbon composite to fortify the titanium’s ability to bend under compression, but those two materials can’t simply be glued together. The polymesh allows the two materials to work together at the height of each’s strength.
“At impact, there's two sets of forces that are in play,” Gibbs said. “The front of the face is under compression, and the back of the face is under tension. Titanium, while it's strong in both compression and tension, carbon fiber is very weak in compression and it's very strong in tension. That’s why we really wanted to focus on using carbon fiber on the back of the face, because that's where its strength is. The tensile forces on the back of the face are where the composite material really shines, and we get it away from where it's weakest, which is in compression.”
2. The weighting game. All five models benefit from extensive use of carbon composite in their frames, as well, freeing up mass to create opportunities in interchangeable sole weights or dedicated internal weighting to achieve a specific ball flight. That includes the almost full carbon composite crown and sole (“360 Carbon Chassis”) on the Triple Diamond, Triple Diamond Max and Max Fast models. While the Max D model uses heel-biased internal weighting to further fight a slice, the Max, Triple Diamond and Triple Diamond Max versions incorporate a sleeker 10-gram weight in the rear perimeter. On the Max, that setup affords a neutral or draw position, while on the Triple Diamond versions, the weight works in neutral or fade positions. The weight features a 9-gram polyurethane tungsten slug on one side (plus one gram for the housing framing that weight) that can be placed on the draw, fade or neutral side depending on the model.
“We're not trying to transform each model from one extreme user type to the other, and we're not trying to claim like ‘Wow, we moved the shot shape 20 yards,” he said, suggesting the tweaks result in 8-10 yards of flight adjustment. “We're focusing on meaningful ball flights that are fitting tools within each model to give yourself two different distinct shot shapes. That's why we have five driver models.”
The weight structure’s positioning also is built to be more flush with the sole for more aerodynamic efficiency compared to last year’s Elyte models.
3. Fivesome. The five models introduced at once make for Callaway’s largest family of drivers.
Max: It features the deepest center of gravity in the Quantum family to maximize stability on off-center hits and yield higher launch, with a neutral center of gravity. It includes the rear adjustable weight with neutral and draw settings. 9, 10.5, 12 degrees (with an eight-way adjustable hosel)
Max D: It’s built with more heel-biased internal weighting for the company’s most draw-biased driver option. Its larger frame and lower center of gravity promote easier, higher launch. A slightly more upright lie angle compared to the stock Max model also aids in the fight against a slice. 10.5, 12 degrees (with an eight-way adjustable hosel)
Max Fast: Its lighter total weight, fueled by a lightweight carbon composite construction that covers the crown and sole, provides more potential velocity for those players with moderate swing speeds. A 40-gram ultralight shaft makes it easier for average golfers to boost their swing speed and elevate their launch angle. 10.5, 12 degrees (with an eight-way adjustable hosel)
Triple Diamond: This more compact shape (450 cc) targets better players with faster swing speeds who are looking for lower spin and a flatter trajectory. Its nearly full carbon composite body frees up mass for a lower, forward center of gravity, also making room for the adjustable rear perimeter weight in neutral or fade settings. 8, 9, 10.5 degrees (with an eight-way adjustable hosel)
Triple Diamond Max: Built for players who demand the low-spin performance of the company’s Triple Diamond drivers but need an extra bit of forgiveness from this model’s full-sized shape. The larger size still features a spin-killing lower center of gravity thanks to the lightweight carbon composite structure that forms the crown and sole. 9, 10.5 degrees (with an eight-way adjustable hosel)