There’s nothing like the adrenaline rush of opting for a fairway wood from long distance and executing it perfectly, watching the ball fly high and straight. The Callaway Elyte Triple Diamond gave me immediate feedback that this club was going to fly a long way!
Callaway are well known for the reliability of their metalwoods. You only have to look at how long Henrik Stenson has been using his for to know that. He trusted their fairway woods so much that he barely ever touched his driver.
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Who Is It Aimed At?
There are three different models of fairway woods in this lineup: the standard Elyte, the Elyte X and this one in particular is the Triple Diamond.
This is designed to be the lowest spinning model in the lineup, offering better ball strikers a low penetrating flight for ultimate distance.
Whether you’re a golfer who is looking for a 3 wood that will maximise distance coming into par 5s or if you struggle to control your driver, then this could be a valid option to consider.
The Tech
This year Callaway have added a new step sole for more efficient turf interaction & improved centre face contact. They claim that this helps minimise drag and skidding in different weather conditions for more solid contact.
They have also added a tungsten speed wave to ensure faster ball speeds off the bottom of the face. This is a suspended 35g tungsten weight that’s positioned low and forward to promote faster ball speeds. This is important as lots of golfers tend to struggle with strikes low on the face, especially off the ground.
Callaway claim that their new Ai 10X face helps optimise launch and tighten players dispersion on mis-hits, so lets hope this lives up to the expectation.
Callaway Elyte Triple Diamond Fairway Wood Review
Looks and Feel
If I’m being totally honest this could be the best looking 3 wood at address that I’ve seen in a very long time. Having used Ping fairway woods for over 10 years this was a real delight to look at.
The head is quite small and traditional looking, with a glossy finish on top unlike the other two models in the range that are matte finish. The Triple Diamond doesn’t feature any kind of alignment on the top of the head, but does have a notch that I think frames the ball nicely at address.
At address the Triple Diamond does feature very minimal offset, something that I definitely look for when selecting a new club throughout my bag.
From picking the club out the bag, I honestly thought is this the old Callaway Epic Flash with the green and black colourways.
Being honest I don’t particularly like the design of the sole in the Elyte, compared to other fairways I’ve tested this year. From a design point of view I don’t think it stands out as much as last year’s Paradym Ai Smoke.
Performance
Having tested Callaway woods over the years, I’ve always found that these clubs come out the wood works firing! They go LONG.
I took all three models up to Hukd Golf to test them out on the latest Trackman Ai technology. After collecting the data I took them onto the course a few days later at Denton golf club.
Typically a low spinning fairway wood should be right up my street, so I was really excited to see how far this club would go.
My first shot carried 254 yards, absolutely nailed and my instant reaction was here-we-go.
Unfortunately what followed was not quite as consistent…
The second shot was pretty much the same swing, flush but maybe 2-3mm out the toe. The ball flight however decided to veer 40 yards left, only carrying 240 yards.
The third shot was a carbon copy again and the same thing happens. After checking the club data there was no difference between the three shots other than 3mm of strike.
Trackman Data
On the first strike the smash factor was 1.46, shots two and three were 1.42/1.43. This equates to around 6mph difference in ball speed and 15-20 yards difference in carry distance.
The launch angle was very consistent throughout all the shots, all within a degree. However the spin rate dramatically changed on those slightly off-centre hits.
Shot four was purposely hit out the heel to see how forgiving it was out the heel. The ball speed dropped almost 20mph and carried 214 yards. That’s a 40 yard difference from the first shot I hit!
Shots five and six were solid strikes, if anything a hair off the toe and although my distance was up, these shots were starting left and going left.
After collecting the data I decided to wait a few days to see whether this was just how I was swinging on the day, and its fair to say I much preferred the way this performed on the golf course. Seeing a gorgeous low penetrating flight was really handy into wind.
I hit a few shots from different lies and its fair to say this is a low spinning beast. Sometimes the low spin was that drastic that coming downwind it was running through the greens and over the back.
Callaway Elyte Triple Diamond Fairway Wood Verdict
As you could probably guess, this club probably won’t be on my birthday present list, but I did really enjoy testing it out on the course. It’s a much smaller profile compared to some of the modern fairway wood designs, which is nice to see for a change.
Did it fill me with any confidence? No, however it did give me a boost thinking I could hit this thing seriously far even into the wind.
Would I Use It?
If I was messing about for 9 holes, absolutely. But in reality I struggle to control the club. It felt like the difference between good and bad shots was too high for me.
Even though Callaway claim that the new Ai 10x face is more forgiving, it still has a long way to go in that aspect compared to other LST models I’ve tested. Let’s hope I get on with the other models in the Elyte range.
