The ability to gain any height and distance from the fairway can be difficult for a lot of golfers. So having something perfectly designed for those struggles could really help. The Callaway Elyte Hybrid is the perfect mixture of forgiveness and high towering distance.
Callaway are well known for their reliable metalwoods, with lots of tour players choosing to using them in the bags solely because of how easy they are to pick up off the fairway.
So let’s see how the Callaway Elyte fares during our testing…
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Who Is It Aimed At?
There are two models of hybrids in the Elyte lineup: the Elyte & Elyte X.
Both the models have their similarities offering both forgiveness and distance, the main difference being the Elyte X is slightly more draw biased. But both clubs offer adjustable weighting and loft to optimise your ball flight.
If you’re somebody who doesn’t necessarily struggle with slicing the ball then I would suggest sticking with the standard Elyte featured in this review.
The Tech
This year Callaway have made their most adjustable hybrid ever, featuring adjustable heel-toe weights to allow golfers to customise their ball flight. Golfers have the choice to choose between 13g tungsten and 3g aluminium weights either on the heel-toe or toe-heel to toggle between a neutral or more draw biased shot shape.
The brand’s latest Optifit 4 adjustable hosel offers seven unique loft and lie combinations allowing you to find perfect gapping between clubs. Optifit 4 allows golfers to change their loft up to two degrees flat if they desire.
Callaway claim the new weighting system combined with the Optifit 4 hosel system provides up to 13 yards of shot shape adjustability.
The new Ai 10X face claims to help optimise launch and tighten players’ dispersion on mis-hits. The brand claim that this year’s face delivers 10x more control points than last year’s Ai Smart Face.
Callaway Elyte Hybrid Review
Looks and Feel
After recently testing out the Elyte fairway woods I was pleased to see straight away that Callaway hadn’t used the same carbon style two step crown and stuck with the traditional matte black look. Personally I think this is a much more sleek look in comparison and something I prefer.
On the sole I noticed that there’s a hint of green with two weights both on the heel and toe side.
Callaway seem to have stuck with the more glossy finish design compared to the fairway wood, which definitely looks more premium and more compact.
Around the skirts of the sole you can see Callaway’s branding with the big ‘Elyte’ logo in the front, alongside more hints of green. This colour pallete and branding definitely reminded me of the Callaway Epic flash range from a few years back.
Looking down from address, there’s a slight bit of offset but nothing too drastic. The club has a really pleasant and classic oval shape which it think works really nicely with the matte black finish. In comparison to the Epic Flash’s gloss finish crown I think this looks very smart.
On the heel side you can also see that Callaway have added their ‘Elyte’ logo polishing the hybrid up nicely.
Performance
To test the Callaway Elyte Hybrid properly we headed to HUKD to get some numbers and then headed out onto the golf course to see how it matched up.
First couple of shots weren’t great strikes, but even so I could instantly tell how forgiving and fast this club was. I usually hit my own Ping G410 17 degree 2-hybrid around 230 yards, so to see 223 yards from a neck strike to start with was impressive. Bear in mind this hybrid is only 19 degrees, showing its potential in distance.
Centred strikes were extremely impressive, seeing ball speeds climbing close to 150mph with 238 yards of carry. One thing I did notice too, these numbers were spinning quite high, so to see large carry numbers from a club that’s spinning a lot in the air tells me with a few adjustments I could get even more distance if I wanted it.
Smash factors were also very positive too, with some reaching its near maximum of 1.49, showcasing how forgiving the new Ai10x face is. Funnily enough these readings were actually more impressive with the hybrid than either of the fairway woods.
On Course
On the course I wanted to see how well this performed off the tee, fairway and semi rough. As expected the results were impressive. Off the tee I noticed straight away the noise was very satisfying, matched by a medium height ball flight.
I was able to hit a couple of different shapes too as I know some people hit their hybrids differently (hitting like an iron or fairway wood). Both methods were effective, I prefer to hit my hybrids more like a fairway wood and clip it off the top of the turf and saw some great results doing this.
From the fairway and rough I found the Elyte Hybrid really easy to pick up off the turf and even from the rough I did appreciate that this had a bit of extra backspin. The ball flight seemed to stay in the air for longer from the rough without dipping too much in flight. Sometimes out of the rough there’s not enough spin to keep the ball in the air long enough. However this setup may not be ideal for windy conditions.
Callaway Elyte Hybrid Verdict
The Callaway Elyte hybrid was exceptional, and even more impressive than the actual fairway woods I found. I think the classic look down at address made me fall in love with the club more. Plus it sounds great and offered some seriously good carry numbers.
What I would say is maybe have a think what kind of club you’re looking for, as this hybrid is quite hot off the face. Do you need to fill that gap? Or do you want to replace your 3 wood/5 wood? Are you wanting this to be more useful in the rough or from a tee?
If you need to fill a gap, go for a higher lofted club – loft is your friend coming into greens from distance. However if you’re looking for distance off the tee and replace your fairways then go for a lower lofted option.
Either way there’s plenty of loft options to choose from and you can even change the loft depending on the conditions that you’re playing in!
Would I Use It?
Absolutely, great looking hybrid that sounds and feels great with some impressive numbers too!
