One of the many benefits of using the Golf Laboratories swing robot to analyse the latest equipment is its ability to sift through the marketing speak and unearth some contrarian takes.
The latest example is Callaway’s Elyte Triple Diamond driver. In many cases, golfers swinging the club at or slower than 95 miles per hour (153 kilometres per hour) wouldn’t benefit from the forward centre of gravity and lower launch and spin characteristics a low-spin driver provides.
You generally need to be able to move the club with some speed to reap the benefits.
However, there are exceptions to every rule.
During recent nine-point testing with the swing robot at 95mph, Elyte Triple Diamond stood out as one of the fastest and most consistent drivers for golfers who move the club around that speed, which is considered an average amateur swing speed. It’s the closest thing we’ve seen to a driver cheat code from Callaway in some time.
Here’s a peek at several metrics that stood out during robotic testing.
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This histogram chart tracks all 54 shots we hit on the Golf Laboratories swing robot across 9 strike locations on each Elyte driver face. The tighter the bar plots, the more consistent the carry distances. You’d expect to see numbers like this from a standard or max head, but not the low-spin offering.
Not only are the spin rates impressive for a low-spin model, they’re noticeably tighter and more consistent than Elyte and Elyte X, two drivers Callaway designed with more built-in forgiveness.
If these numbers seem like a nothing-burger, just remember Ai Smoke Triple Diamond and Paradym Triple Diamond had high-low spin ranges of 1,500 and 1,600rpm. This one is just 700rpm. You simply don’t see that level of consistency. And we’re not just talking about low-spin drivers.
This is the kind of spin consistency that all golfers can use.
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Here’s the good news: Elyte TD (turquoise) recorded more shots at 235 yards (215 metres) than any other Callaway driver in the past three years. So it has the speed part covered.
Even better? If your common miss is high toe, the distance dipped by just 4.5 yards, meaning you won’t see much drop off when you miss – and you will miss.
The only driver in the same carry distance ballpark as Elyte Triple Diamond was Elyte X (royal blue). The X is also worth consideration if you struggle with a slice.
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The dispersion data follows the spin and carry distance numbers we saw from Elyte TD. They’re consistent and an improvement from Ai Smoke Triple Diamond with a slight fade bias that differs from the draw bias we saw in the previous two years with Ai Smoke and Paradym.
It’s worth pointing out that all three Elyte models we tested at 95mph had a fade bias, so consider that during testing.
These three metrics confirm your game might be good enough for the low-spin TD driver seen on tour. That might not have been the case in the past, but it’s a reality with this year’s product cycle.
