Sporting one of the most recognizable names in golf, the Big Bertha 460 is new this year from Callaway golf. Like so many of the clubs this year, this one is all about geometry. The shape is designed to create a 460cc clubhead with a shallower face, flatter crown. This, Callaway says, results in the highest moment of intertia ever for ones of its clubs. The stretched head design also lets Callaaway position the center of gravity deeper in the clubhead for optimum ball flight and forgiveness.

The club also incorporates Callaway’s “core technologies”, including VFT to maximize ball speed, and the classic Tru-Bore for improved feel and clubhead control.

It’s the Year of the Strangely Shaped Driver. Square, Triangular, Scoop Backed, ... clubmakers are looking for new ways to create stability and forgiveness.

From Callaway comes the FT-i Tour, a square driver which Callaway says is designd to be the straightest driver ever. The composite body and square shape, Callaway says, allows allows them to move weight to the extreme corners, producing a high moment of inertia (resistance to twisting). The square shape apparently is mroe than a gimmick. The shape apparently is designed to allow Callaway to stabilize both the horizontal and vertical axes.

Callway says that “the FT-i Driver also incorporates Callaway Golf’s proprietary OptiFit® Weighting System, which produces three center of gravity configurations—Draw, Neutral or Fade—and enables golfers to choose the configuration that best suits their individual game. It also boasts Callaway Golf’s largest, most robust CT/VFT titanium cup face, which is designed to the legal limit to dramatically increase ball speed, distance, forgiveness and stability for longer, straighter drives.”

It’ll be interesting to see how these new designs play when they all finally arrive. I’m looking forward to trying them.

Callaway’s first graphite body driver wasn’t particularly well received. I remember golfers who tried it tellime me that it felt and sounded funny. And in fairly short order, they were in the bargain bins at the local pro shops.

The new FT-5 Draw, on the other hand, was named an Editor’s Choice in the 2007 Golf Digest Hot List.

The key to this clubhead is the carbon composite material which—being much lighter than titanium—allows Callaway to redistribute fifty grams of weight to the perimeter. This is the holy grail of current clubhead design, as the weight helps to increase the Moment of Inertia (resistance to twisting). Twenty five grams located at the rear of the clubhead lowers the center of gravity to improve the trajectory.

The club also features Callaway’s Variable Face Thickness Technology, which helps to maximize the sweet spot. Callaway says that makes it the hottest clubface yet.

Callaway kicks off the new year with its new line of X-20 irons, which Callaway says “is a combination of the best features of previous generations of X-Pro Series Irons and X-Tour Irons wrapped into one great all around iron for better players.”

The club has quite a few game-improvement features, while avoiding the Volkswagen-On-A-Stick look that that has characterized some of Callaway’s past efforts.

In the game improvement column are a longer hosel, a 360 undercut channel and a notch weighting system, all fo which are designed to redistribute weight to the golden triangle of gold clubhead design: down, back and out. The idea, of course, is that weight directed toward the perimeter stabilizes the head through impact, while weight directed down and back improves the launch angle.

In the looks category, Callaway has catered more to the look better players prefer (and not so good players also), with a more narrow sole, shorter head and a thinner-looking topline. The thinner look is achieved with a beveled edge.

This is one I’d really like to try.

Callaway has been sort of a pioneer among the big manufacturers with its online retailing. It is the only one, to my knowledge, with an in-house “Pre-Owned” program, and now it’s about to unleash its own “new” clubs webstore at shop.callawaygolf.com.

Of course, opening its own retail store would unnecessarily anger the retailers that Callaway depends on to move its product, so the new site has a twist. You can actually order the clubs at the Calaway store, but fulfillment of the order comes from brick-and-mortar retailers.

Here’s how it works: When a consumer orders a product direct from Callaway, the software searches local participating retailers for one that has the desired product in stock. It presents the order to the retailer, and the retailer handles the shipping from her stock.’

Its not a bad idea, and it’s one in which everyone wins. If it works, it also could be a model for other large manufacturers in other industries and serve as the solution to the common complaint that the internet is putting the small retailer out of business.

Nearly 300 retailers apparently signed up for the plan, including giants GolfSmith and golf Galaxy, as well as smaller mom-and-pop stores.