Callaway’s Epic Launch

Callaway Big Bertha Epic Driver
Callaway Big Bertha Epic Driver

Unless you’ve spent the last month buried in a bunker, you will be aware of Callaway’s newest drivers—the Great Big Bertha Epic and Great Big Bertha Epic Sub-Zero—which you will find in stores starting January 27th. The hype surrounding them has been more or less unprecedented.

Even with a marketing machine as slick and clever and productive as Callaway’s, it’s doubtful any product in the company’s history has received so much attention so long before its launch date.

The buildup has focused almost entirely on a new innovation that Callaway’s Senior Vice President of R&D Dr. Alan Hocknell calls a “breakthrough in driver engineering.” Of course, Callaway (and all its competitors) have made similar claims before, but the “Jailbreak Technology” that connects the Epic’s crown to the sole with two titanium bars really does promise significant performance benefits.

At impact, says Hocknell, a typical metalwood’s face flexes, and the crown bulges upward while the sole bulges downward. Energy, and thus ball speed, are lost. “The bars in the Epic inhibit this movement focusing more of the impact load on the face,” he adds. “That creates faster ball speed, and more distance.”

The idea for Jailbreak, says Scott Goryl, Callaway’s Director of Communications, was born out of development for the gravity core in the Big Bertha Alpha which appeared in fall 2014. “While developing the gravity core, R&D recognized something was happening with the dynamic between the sole, crown and face,” adds Goryl. “It took years of research to understand exactly what was happening and how to harness it with the right length, placement, weight, etc. of the Jailbreak bars in order to generate the greatest benefit to ball speed, and then of course how to manufacture it consistently.”

Naturally, as with any self-respecting modern driver, the Epic doesn’t offer you just the one notable innovation to help you hit the ball further and straighter, but several:

  • The head construction features Callaway’s titanium Exo-Cage which first appeared in last year’s Fusion driver. The crown and sole, meanwhile, are constructed with the company’s proprietary Triaxial Carbon which Hocknell describes as a ‘special grade of high-strength fibers’ that enabled Callaway to construct a crown weighing just 9.7g (lightest Callaway has ever made), and a 5.8g sole. “Forty-six per-cent of the body is Triaxial Carbon,” Hocknell says, “which allowed us to redistribute weight to increase forgiveness and decrease spin.”
  • The OptiFit adjustable hosel gives you eight-way adjustability for loft and lie angle – Draw and Neutral lie options, and +2 or -1 degree from the stated loft. A 17g sliding weight at the back of the sole allows up to 21 yards of shot-shape correction, according to Callaway.
  • The Speed Step on the crown, developed alongside Boeing during development of the XR driver that was introduced last January, is also present and was added using an innovative 3D printing process. “Speed Step improves airflow and the club’s aerodynamics,” says Hocknell. “That promotes even more power.”

The unique selling point though is the Jailbreak Tech. “If you are going to pin us down on the Epic’s top objective,” says Goryl, “it would be extra ball speed. That said, we of course focused on overall performance so that Jailbreak did not come at the expense of meaningful adjustability, considerable forgiveness, aerodynamic efficiency, etc.

”It’s a very promising package, and perhaps it isn’t surprising that on a Callaway podcast Monday morning, the Director of Digital Marketing, Randy Varela, said the volume of traffic to the company’s website last Friday, when the club was made available for preorder, had caused it to crash.

“We had triple the number of site visits than we did for our previous record day,” he claims. “I won’t specify the actual numbers, but at a marketing meeting last week Community Manager Tom Barnett gave us an over/under for the number of site visits he expected. I thought his number was way too aggressive. But we destroyed it.”

Daniel Berger, Callaway’s newest staff player, tweeted about the driver from Hawaii on January 4th saying briefly “New Epic Driver is ridiculous.” We’re pretty sure he meant it as a compliment.

SPECS:

Great Big Bertha Epic

Available in 9° (adjustable 8°-11°), 10.5° (9.5°-12.5°), and 13.5° (12.5°-15.5°)
Stock shafts:
40g: Mitsubishi Diamana (Green) M+
50g: Mitsubishi Diamana (Green) M+, Project X HZRDUS T800
60g: Fujikura Pro Green, Aldila Rogue M•AX
70g: Aldila Rogue M•AX
$500
Callawaygolf.com

Great Big Bertha Epic Sub-Zero

The Epic Sub Zero features the same Jailbreak Technology, Exo-Cage and Triaxial Carbon in the crown/sole as the Epic. But, rather than the sliding weight, the Sub-Zero has two interchangeable weights in the head (2g and 12g) to adjust spin-rate and launch angle. “Put the 12g up front to lower spin; in back for higher launch and higher MOI,” says Callaway which touts the Sub-Zero as a “powerful, low-spinning Tour-level driver that’s also incredibly forgiving.” Its high speed/low-spin characteristics will make it particularly appealing to Tour pros, adds the company, but its forgiveness and easy launch will make it attractive to a wide range of players.
Available in 9° (adjustable 8°-11°) and 10.5° (9.5°-12.5°)
Stock shafts:
50g: Project X HZRDUS T800
60g: Fujikura Pro Green 62, Aldila Rogue M•AX
70g: Aldila Rogue M•AX
$500
Callawaygolf.com

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