We have a couple of these in our demo cart so I thought I'd give them a whirl. Hit the 9.5 Neutral with a R flex NVS shaft.
Nice and solid and set up nice behind the ball. It had a good sound to it, not dead like a CB4. Heal and toe shots went fairly straight but not to the extent that the R7 TP does.
The one thing I noticed and did not like--- since the very first Big Berthas and even before that all Callaway drivers had that look to them. You just knew it was a Callaway. This one looks different. maybe that little arrow missing. The head seems to have too much depth from the face to the back edge as well.
Ok my pro shop had their demo days yesterday with the Callaway Rep. and launch monitor there. I have been looking forward to the day all month because I was anxious to see what all the hype was about. I have never really liked the composite drivers, they just don't have that sound like my 454 does and I never got the distance.
Anyway here is my review;
I took a 10* 55 NVS R Draw against my 10* NVS 65 R. I hit 10 balls with each driver. I found the FT-3 to be very straight. If anything I was a bit to the left of center (my normal is a push). I was very impressed with the FT-3 and didn't really even notice the sound because I was so happy with the ball flight. I hit the FT-3 an average of 22 yards further. I couldn't believe it. I am sure that it has to do with the fact that I push some of my 454 shots and the FT-3 was straight. The ball flight on the FT-3 was high. Higher than my 454.
I ended up ordering a 9* Draw with the NVS 55 R shaft. I never thought I would trade my 454, espescially for a composite driver. If you get a chance to hit this club I recommend it. Callaway has a winner here.
I finally got the FT-3 via FedEx today. 8.5 Tour with NV 65 Stiff. Went out to hit some balls and walked 18 at a local course.
So far I am liking the club, alot easier to hit than my 7.5 975D, feels like I didn't need to put in as much effort into hitting the ball. :tup:
When I catch it fairly good it would go about 15-20 yards further than the 975D and slight mis-hits would go about same distance as 975D. On hole 13 I hit a 328 yards drive (408 yards hole and I had 80 yards left), the next hole 14 I hit it 326 yard (396 yards and I had 70 yards), and it didn't even feel like I caught it completely pured. Rest of the holes I was all over the place so I didn't keep track of distance. (w00t)
I like the sound of the club, I don't really understand what's the big deal that people make of it. Different and unique, something different from the typical PING! or KANG! for a change.
What I don't like about the club is the shaft, Aldila NV 65 Stiff. The shaft was too weak for me :mad:, I was all over the place today left and right, I felt alot of movement with the clubhead during the downswing compared to the 975D with Grafalloy Prolite. It also launched alot higher compared to the 975D, although it didn't balloon and it seemed to spin alot less (I noticed more roll after landing versus the 975D), I still feel it launches too high for me.
purchased 9.5 tour = not longest driver ever hit but certainly feels safe =
Quote:
Originally Posted by CKGuY914
I finally got the FT-3 via FedEx today. 8.5 Tour with NV 65 Stiff. Went out to hit some balls and walked 18 at a local course.
So far I am liking the club, alot easier to hit than my 7.5 975D, feels like I didn't need to put in as much effort into hitting the ball. :tup:
When I catch it fairly good it would go about 15-20 yards further than the 975D and slight mis-hits would go about same distance as 975D. On hole 13 I hit a 328 yards drive (408 yards hole and I had 80 yards left), the next hole 14 I hit it 326 yard (396 yards and I had 70 yards), and it didn't even feel like I caught it completely pured. Rest of the holes I was all over the place so I didn't keep track of distance. (w00t)
I like the sound of the club, I don't really understand what's the big deal that people make of it. Different and unique, something different from the typical PING! or KANG! for a change.
What I don't like about the club is the shaft, Aldila NV 65 Stiff. The shaft was too weak for me :mad:, I was all over the place today left and right, I felt alot of movement with the clubhead during the downswing compared to the 975D with Grafalloy Prolite. It also launched alot higher compared to the 975D, although it didn't balloon and it seemed to spin alot less (I noticed more roll after landing versus the 975D), I still feel it launches too high for me.
Very nice driver. Not any longer than any other I've played. I think the Cleveland Launcher Comp is the best driver on the market right now. As always, make sure you get fit for the proper shaft in any driver you play.
My nephew (19 years old) is a scratch golfer and is the most finicky person I know when it comes to golf equipment but he swears by this club... and he hits it a TON too!!!
I was organizing my bag and clubs the other night and realized I had more FT-3 drivers then any other so it MUST be my favorite!
Seriously, I have tried and own quite a few current drivers on the market including both of the Clevelands, SQ, G2, J33R, 454 and R7 TP. I hit them all pretty consistently and close to the same distance when I hit them solid. I am however consistently longer with my speeder shafted FT-3 and the trajectory is much more controllable. I also noticed on the launch monitor that my ball speed was higher with the FT-3 than with the other sticks with the same ss. That tells me the face is plenty hot by comparison. Hot and forgiving...very nice. It is quite difficult to put a bad swing on this stick as with cup face design, pretty much the entire face is usable. My mishits are much better than with the other sticks as far as distance and direction. Although the Opti-fit system won't completely alter your shot shape alone it will enhance any natural tendancy. I now hit a straight to slight draw off the tee with my draw biased FT-3 Tour. I have taken the right side of the course off the tee out of play. THAT is entirely new to me. I remember reading somewhere Phil was talking about how he could not hook the ball with this driver even when he tried and I thought it was propaganda. I have found the same to be true for me to fade or slice the ball now and I'm playing a Tour version with a slightly open face. I have to really hold on or purposefully block a tee shot for this to go right. Most of my bad swings with the others are simply not getting back to the ball with the clubface closed and that leads to a huge, high slice. That shot just isn't possible for me with this stick. I, like any golfer, am always looking for extra yards which is why I tried all of the others as well. The problem was since the other clubheads are so light to get the clubface closed I had to really release my hands hard at impact to square them up and hit them straight. As a result when I went back to my FT-3 because I was always a little longer with it I would start hooking it. Now that I've convinced myself and have seen the numbers on the monitor I believe I have settled on the best driver...the FT-3.
Alot has been made about the sound of the FT-3. I can tell you that if you have the ss and make solid contact it sounds nice and it is loud. More importantly, the results are very satisfying. I get a lot of comments on the course and on the range about how well and how far I hit my driver and this one is just exceptional. I have a couple of other speeder shafted drivers, but this clubhead just seems to work better with that shaft.
I like the fact that a lot of others don't seem to get the best results with it. Just makes my swing look that much better that I can and do get the results I'm getting with the FT-3. More touring pros than you think on each of the major tours are playing this stick, some aren't even Cally staffers.
Best driver I've ever hit. More forgiving on mishits and very long. The optifit system seems to help with moving the ball a little too. Very solid feeling at impact due to cup face design. Basically you can't miss with this one.
Interesting it has been used to win 3 of the last 5 majors on the tour and almost all of the Cally touring pros are using this over the X 460 which has already received a lot of praise.
Optifit system seems to be working for Phil too. Two drivers!! Schweeet!
With the stock NVS shaft in the regular model, yes the flight was as high as the Cleveland Comp and Ti 460 which are designed for that trajectory. I'm a high ss, high ball hitter so I don't need any help getting heoght on my tee shots. The Tour version has a slightly heavier NVS shaft and a higher CG via internal weighting and the ball flight is slightly lower but only slightly.
After demoing several different shafts, I found the 757 speeder to be PERFECT for me with this clubhead. Semi-high boring trajectory and good rollout afterward. LM had me pegged at 270+ carry and 290-300 with roll and I have found that pretty accurate on course. The bias weighting )draw, neutral, fade) does impact your ball flight but won't turn a slice into a draw. It will help some but it has helped me turn the ball over that little but and I cannot make my draw biased FT-3 go right at all. Nice to take one side of the course out of play. It is a cannon too! If you have the ss (105+) you can make this club sound good.
i used this club before....i did find it to be easier to hit straight...but i really didnt use it alot and enough to givea full review on..i borrowed from a friend.
I love the FT-3! After using the wrong shaft(NVS regular) and now being launch monitor fitted, I'm using the NV stiff shaft and hit the ball a ton! The trajectory is great and now I get good rollout. On mishits it doesn't go far offline except for the occasional bad slice when I'm swinging way too hard.
I like the fact that the club tells you whether you hit the sweet-spot or not by how it sounds at impact.
July 10th, 2005, 05:14 PM
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