Let The Alpha Dog Eat

 

 

Golf club manufacturers continue to provide annual equipment upgrades that do everything but proficiently swing the club for you. 

Callaway is no different and continues to push the envelope with technology seemingly influenced by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Its recently launched (appropriate verb) Big Bertha Alpha 815 driver arrives with a plethora of features that allow golfers to individually tweak and personalize the club. Make an adjustment here to accentuate your swing strengths; modify it a little bit there to smooth over areas in need of improvement.

The soul of this newest Callaway driver lies in the heart of its sole. A “Gravity Core” rod, the approximate size of  a AAA battery, screws into the bottom center of the Alpha 815 driver to adjust the center of gravity higher or lower. One end of the rod has 10.5 grams of heavier tungsten; place that end on the bottom for a more forgiving lower center of gravity, which reduces spin by 300 rpm and translates into additional distance. Flip the rod to its lighter nylon end weighing 1.5 grams for a higher center of gravity and the feel of a more middle spin driver.    

That is far from the Big Bertha Alpha 815’s fine-tuning abilities, however. Spin, shot shape and trajectory can be additionally managed with 1- and 7-gram heel and toe weights.

And there’s more. An adjustable hosel allows golfers to configure the club from among a combination of eight different loft and lie angles. Lofts include 9-, 10.5- and 12-degree. For industrious tinkerers, the driver can conceivably be tweaked from hole to hole for a neutral, draw or fade bias for straightaway, dogleg left and dogleg right holes. 

The titanium clubface of the Big Bertha Alpha 815’s has been lightened and reinforced with ribs on the crown and sole to reduce weight and create superior strength and stability. For the benefit of acronym aficionados (anyone?), Callaway refers to its rib motion technology as R•MOTO. 

Numerous options also exist in the choice of 13 lightweight graphite shafts, all equally priced. The primary “stock” shaft is the 53-gram Fujikura Speeder Motore 565 but additional selections are available from Aldila, Fubuki, Fujikura, Grafallow, Matrix and Mitsubishi.

The Big Bertha Alpha 815 was released in November 2014 as part of Callaway’s three-pronged strategy to design drivers to fit an array of golfers. The prior released V Series is a lightweight driver created for golfers needing faster clubhead speed, translating to increased ball speed and distance. The Big Bertha Alpha 815 provides maximum forgiveness and adjustability. The Big Bertha Alpha 815 Double Black Diamond, released concurrently with the Alpha 815, provides very low spin and is designed for low-handicap golfers.

Golfers often refer to “letting the big dog eat” when pulling the driver from their bag. Callaway’s new highly adjustable and forgiving drivers up the ante by allowing the more formidable Alpha dog its turn to feast.