Here you go. Here are a few video reviews of the new Elyte driver. The reviewers in all cases did a pretty good job of showcasing what we did with the drivers, and highlighting what makes them special/ what they are supposed to do. All had their own personal biases (specifically on looks), and all three hit the Triple Diamond the longest.
A correction from the reviewers – Triple Diamond is not a spin killer or an Anti-Left/ Fade biased driver anymore. Just because the old ones were, doesn’t mean this one still is. A couple of the guys showed stats on spin between the three models, and it was +/- 100rpm between the three. In my estimation, that is not the definition of a spin killer.
Now, the funny part. So, what’s funny? Consumers. Love ’em, but sometimes they say things that they know absolutely nothing about. Unless you’re a tour player or a Callaway Staff Professional, virtually NO ONE has seen this driver, much less hit it. ANY comment about performance, what it does, etc. is completely baseless.
Here is the biggest thing from these reviews – the comments. I read them. All of them. With all due respect, most are ignorant. Haters are going to hate, and they can do it in public/private setting on a comments board, so take them with a grain of salt. They haven’t hit it or seen it, yet they have an opinion enough to comment about it. Cool. Got it.
BUT… YOU should read them too. WHY? BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE WILL SAY WHEN THEY COME TO TRY IT OUT. THIS is what people will study when they do their homework. At least early on. You should know what they see and read and be ready to answer. I did, here’s what I read, and here’s the information I’ll use to respond:
“It’s just a rebirth of Epic.” Yes. They both have green accents. Nicely done for noticing that. That is where the similarities end. All of the Epic Drivers had Jailbreak. This one does not. We stopped Jailbreak with Paradym, and didn’t use it in AI Smoke either. This driver is the opposite of those drivers as well. In the past (call it two generations), we have used the body to create forgiveness, and AI to create ball speed. We learned that we needed to flip this for improved performance. Elyte does this. Elyte uses the most aerodynamic body we can make (to make the head faster, and increase ball speed), then we use AI to make the most forgiving face we can make (to give the same ball speed all across the face). The result is the fastest driver we have ever made, AND the most forgiving driver we have ever made. Yes, even faster and more forgiving than Epic (haha), and last years Smoke.
“How can there be more ball speed than last years? How can they do it with the rules set like they are?” Or, my favorite: “The extra ball speed comes from the shaft”. Understand that we are a HEAD company, not a shaft company. We engineer new club heads, NOT new shafts. The shaft has very little to do with how far the ball goes. Yes, it can help hit the ball on the center, which can help keep ball speed the same. The shafts job is to not lose ball speed, the heads job is to increase performance. Afterall, tell me the last time you hit a good shot with the impact off the shaft?? THIS question is where you will earn your keep. LEARN how to answer it. YES. Ball speed is regulated at a certain club head speed. IF you can make the club head swing faster, ball speed will also increase. Elyte is about 1-1.5 mph faster than Smoke. This will yield about 1.5 -2.5 mph more ball speed than Smoke all other things being equal. This is 5-7.5 yards in distance if everything else stays the same. That’s how.
“This driver is not 10k”. Correct. That is by design. 10K drivers produce an inefficient transfer of energy to the golf ball. The higher the MOI, the harder it is to a) swing it faster, and b) get more ball speed. It’s just a fact of club head design. We also found that the difference in forgiveness between a 9400 MOI driver, a 9600 MOI driver, and a 10K driver was negligible. Why not make the head with a little less MOI, but allow it to be faster and with a better energy transfer? This will work better for almost everyone. In the past, there has been a tradeoff between forgiveness and fast. You want forgiving, the ball speeds are slower. You want faster, the heads are harder to hit. Elyte cracks the code and unlocks the relationship between fast and forgiving. We were able to make our fastest driver yet, AND our most forgiving driver yet – in the same models!! We did it with AI design, not 10K. This is ELYTE performance.
“I’ll wait until it’s $399 to buy it”, or “It’ll make the older ones $399”. Go ahead. Wait it out. You will look like Rip Van Winkle before that happens. Here’s the strategy. We sell out, we don’t close out. All of our drivers have a two-year life cycle. The Paradym driver from 2023, for example, was officially retired last week. How many of those have you sold lately? Most golf shops didn’t have them in stock at all in 2024 as they were cleaned out in the fall of 2023. We were sold out of those in April of 2024, so anything left in the field was picked over inventory. Smoke is on a promotion now at $499. We will sell through those by mid-spring as well. They will stay at the same price until they are sold out. With each passing day, head stock will become less and less available – meaning, at some point, a player will no longer be able to buy what he wants. Sooner or later, we will be sold out of those older ones, so all that will be left is picked over inventory on retailers shelves – or the new one. The longer you wait, the only option will be Elyte. If you wait years, the cycle will still be the same.
I clean you up for a reason each fall. For a few larger retailers, having multiple price points of Callaway drivers makes sense, but for most smaller golf shops, it does not. Elyte is coming!! Enjoy the excitement!!
Jim Yeager Golf 
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