CALLAWAY Slipper/Travel Mug Gift Set

Callaway has taken an interesting tack in its marketing. In addition to the clubs and balls that you might expect from a golf company, they also sell apparel, gloves, shoes, luggage, jewelry, watches (some are very nice looking), branded-laser finders, sunglasses, magnetic bracelets, tees, ball retrievers, coolers, cigar humidors, beach totes, practice gear, ladies handbags, and more.

So given that, its no surprise that you can get a Callaway branded travel coffee mug and slippers.

CALLAWAY FT-i Squareway Wood with Graphite Shaft

Squareway Wood. Cute name.

Callaway’s “Squareway” design is supposed to position more discretionary weight to the corners of the clubhead, raising the moment of inertia for straighter, more forgiving shots. The club has a stainless steel face, sole and body with a lightweight carbon crown, allowing even more weight repositioning than the shape alone would allow. Callaway engineers have also made the clubhead oversized, for even more stability and accuracy.

If you can get over the odd shape, this might just be the thing for your fairway wood woes.

Callaway Golf FT-i Drivers With I-MIX Technology

After TaylorMade pioneered the idea of changing the weighting of a golf clubs’ heads, it was only a matter of time before someone marketed clubs with interchangable shafts. Actually, though, it’s a tool that’s been available to clubmakers for years. Rather than have hundreds of club and shaft combinations pre-made for customers to try, clubmakers used threaded connectors that allowed them to quickly swap out pieces until the client found the desired mix.

Callaway’s entry into the interchangable shaft market is the I-MIX. With Callaway’s system, you can choose from 22 clubhead designs and 70 shafts for 1600 custom configurations. Wow.

It’s expensive, though. The head is $400, and the shafts run from $150 to $350 each. 

New for 2008 are Callaway’s FT Irons. Like the older Fusion models, these are hollow, with a thermoplastic urethane filler called Sensert, which is designed to decrease vibration and produce a solid feel. They have a Tunite cradle designed to move the weight to the perimeter and a titanium face for faster ball speeds.

What makes them different is a thinner topline and more narrow sole. This is supposed to make them more appealing to the mid and lower handicappers. I didn’t think that the Fusions—and especially the second edition --- had the volkswagen-on-a-stick look of most of Callaway’s game improvement clubs, but these are supposed to have an even more traditional look.

I liked the feel of the Fusions and am looking forward to trying a set of these.

Interestingly, this set comes in 4-AW.

You can get them at ”Golf Galaxy.”

A reader recently purchased a pack of Callaway HX 56 balls and noticed a set of mysterious bumps in the hexes. I know that these balls are supposed to have six DEEPER dimples as a part of the HX 56 redesign of last year. The bumps have to be a manufacturing mistake. The question, of course, is whether this is an isolated case. Could there have been a batch error that resulted in tens of thousands of these being distributed?

The reader writes:

I have been playing Callaway X20 tour Irons and switched to the HX tour 56 ball. The other day a friend asked to see one do to there different dimples. I reached into my bag a gave him one. I knew it was NEW because I had not put my initials on the ball yet. He noticed some bumps on the ball. I found approx. 5 different bumps of different sizes. These bumps would make the ball roll untrue. I contacted Callaway via email sent them pictures of the ball,and they want the ball. I told them they must have a issue with their quality control. I paid $40 for a dozen and this is the first time I have ever seen a ball like this. They asked for me to call them and they would give me a address to send the ball so they can test it. I called and was on hold for a long time and hung up. Gee not even a, we would like to send you some balls and then could you please send us this irregular ball. I have since sent them a email back asking for address and no reply. I am very surprised and bothered by the way they are treating this. I told them with the way they are treating me maybe I should go back to playing Titleist.

This isn’t a Callaway Bash. I make no secret of my admiration of their HX Hot ball. But you have to wonder ...