I Tested 5 Callaway Drivers From £45 Up To £538 (Shock Result!)

Today we're at the stunning Stoke Park Golf Club where we're going to be looking through the five

generations of Callaway drivers. We're going to be looking from £45 with the FT5 all the way up

to the newest Callaway Quantum Triple Diamond Max at £538 and we're going to work out is there

massive performance gains to be had by purchasing the newest equipment on the market. For this video

we have teamed up with Golf Clubs for Cash, the UK's leading retailer when it comes to second-hand

golf equipment. The website itself is really easy to navigate. It's a breeze finding the right

condition, loft, shaft flex and specs that you need. Let's get into the video

First up is the Callaway FT5 at £44.95. Yes, under £50. That is actually less than you can

purchase a dozen premium balls for nowadays which is absolutely insane. Now it's safe to say looks

and technology has come on quite a long way since this driver was released back 19 years ago now in

2007. It's got a very triangular head with a very very square leading edge and yeah I'm interested

to hit some get some data and see just what this driver has to offer still

blimey that was loud I mean let's have a look at the data that we picked up here I'll flash it up

on the screen that's from my Foresight GC3 launch monitor we've got 161 ball speed and 279 yards

a carry so that's still really really solid from a golf club that came out 19 years ago

it does have that really high kind of composite tink to it when it took off off the face which I'm not such a fan of I prefer that duller sound but

for just over £44 there's some serious value to be had and beginner golfers

could do a lot worse than putting one of these in the back. Right we have jumped up a price bracket now to £149 where I have the Callaway Rogue Sub-Zero

Now this was a real game changer for Callaway when it came out around 2018

this features their jailbreak technology here and it does have the forward weight here to bring the

CG placement forward and reduce a bit of spin so this should be pretty hot we've moved on 11 years

so let's see what this technology has to offer wow it's absolutely incredible how different this driver actually feels and largely down to that

jailbreak technology producing those faster ball speeds across the face, but also this kind of addition

of this carbon crown here really helped dampen the acoustics. It sounded much more muted than the FT5 and I saw a considerable pop kind of through the air producing a much higher flight with less spin so I definitely noticed some distance gains there

these ones I mean according to my data here on the GC3 it was only about 281 yards so it's minimal

gains it's only a couple of yards here and there but the spin actually dropped to around the 2300

mark as you could see slightly less than the FT5 so we gained a bit of yardage but you know

that was a hundred pounds more give or take so um you have to weigh up these things whether

you know that slight distance gain is worth it for a little more money

okay we have now entered the what i would call the modern era of this challenge here i have the

callaway paradigm triple diamond now these were a real revelation that came out you know callaway

talk about this paradigm shift in distance and technology through this forged carbon kind of

crown here so we've got this carbon all the way across the top a banner strip here with this carbon

that just kind of flows across the sole there as well again we've got jailbreak technology

used through artificial intelligence and a fairly hefty 14 gram weight further forward to once again

give us that forward cg lower spin down behind the ball i think this club actually you know it's

we've shrunk in size compared to the rogue um it's a much more compact head obviously this is

the triple diamond model so it's designed to do that but so was the sub zero so let's hit a few

with this and see how we get on wow that was a seriously impressive performance here from the paradigm and myself may i say so

that's the best i've driven the ball in a long time maybe i need to actually invest in one of

these and that's where i think the second hand market really shines is the fact that you can get

some equipment that really isn't that old and the technology is still pretty new

The performance is so good, but you're picking these up for an absolute bargain. For £246

I saw about 164 mile per hour ball speed and 287 yards of carry. So we're really seeing the

kind of speed jump as well as the carry, especially from the original FT5. Now

obviously we are paying a bit more for that and that's up to you whether you need to, or you're willing to pay a bit more for a bit more yardage but I was pretty impressed with that. I

would hesitate to say this would roll out a bit further as well. It seemed to come out in a slightly

lower window so we're carrying it further, probably going to see a bit more run out so our total

yardage gains are probably pretty significant but let's see what the AI Smoke has to offer

Okay we have jumped up a year to 2024 and at £335 we have the Callaway Paradigm AI Smoke

Now we still got this forged carbon design which I think looks really really cool and especially when the sun shines although we don get much of it here in the UK unfortunately but this crushed carbon looks absolutely insane We actually got a new face design here this is where Callaway introduced their AI smart face

using their supercomputer so they process thousands of shots hit to determine where golfers are

actually hitting the ball out the face believe it or not it's not the middle all the time so there

are actually multiple sweet spots across this face to basically enhance ball speed and maintain

consistency regardless of your strike location. I put this driver in play when it first came out

and absolutely loved it so let's see what numbers we get out of the launch monitor

Well some pretty consistent numbers there which I was hoping I would see out of this with the new

smart face design i kind of hit it a bit all over the place where it felt like out the face there

but i absolutely love the ball flight i saw really consistent trajectory really consistent spin

numbers as well and impressive speed and distance so around 165 mile per hour ball speed and a 288

yard carry so we're only about a mile up and a yard further than the original paradigm but

the consistency I saw out of the ball flight was what really impressed me. Now you may have noticed

and it threw me off at first as well that this one has this massive jumbo max grip on it which

is kind of one of the quirks I guess of shopping second-hand golf equipment. You are purchasing

essentially whatever shaft and whatever grip whoever had loved this golf club already had put

on it to suit their game so obviously be careful of that. This isn't something that I would

necessarily buy or if I did buy it because of the shaft and the head makeup I would probably get

this grip ripped off and I'd put a new grip on there but it is something to consider some people

may like it and it is a good experiment you can you know potentially try some new things that you

may not have done otherwise so check them out but let's move on to the newest in the Callaway lineup

that is the Quantum Max Triple Diamond. Okay finally we are here in 2026, this is the Callaway

Quantum Triple Diamond Max. Now there is carbon everywhere, AI everything and we've got this new

face design here which kind of has this layering system of titanium and carbon and polymer so you

get this really kind of, well you're supposed to get this really hot ball flight. You also get this

cool weight track system here on the back where you can slot the weight between neutral or fade

bias depending on your preference as well as obviously an adjustable hosel to change lie and

loft it's a really really cool looking head I like the fact that they've actually almost digressed

back to what the looks of the AI smoke were over the Elite the Elite triple diamond had this kind of just black gloss crown I like the fact you can now see this gloss carbon again on the crown I think it stands out and the banner strip on the front is really easy to align the ball Right let see what buys us

wow that is absolutely incredible that is the highest ball speed i have seen in a while 168

mile per hour i saw around 296 yards of carry which is considerably more than well a couple

yards more than the last model but you know we're talking 15 yards or so more than the original ft5

we tested here today it's pretty incredible but it's a lot of money it looks great and it is by

far the best performing driver out here. I saw the ball kind of go up and it just wanted to keep

going, not wanting to come down. Nice high towering ball flight. But in the world of golf we need to

talk about diminishing returns. Okay so I'm going to pop up the data here next to me. Feel free to

pause that and have a look at your own leisure but I'm going to run you through the data while I've

got it in front of me here. Let's just look at those numbers. So the Callaway FT5 actually gives

you over six yards per pound which is by far the best out of the five drivers that i tested today

the quantum while being the longest gives you just 0.55 yards per pound which is you know it's a

pretty substantial difference between that and the ft5 obviously we then you know as i've talked

about earlier mentioned how it does look much nicer it feels much nicer and the acoustics are

far more bearable than the ft5 but these are all things that you need to consider you are paying a

massive premium but that is for 17 years of technology and aesthetics that have gone into

this design of the Quantum Triple Diamond Max so again it's something that you do need to think

about but ultimately you still have to love the look of your club and while there is performance

to be had out of the FT5 like I've just proven there and beginners could definitely benefit from

that I do think the sweet spot would be somewhere in between around the Paradigm and the AI Smoke

that was when I saw that kind of jump up in ball speed and distance without really breaking the

bank. So a couple years old product and it's still very good performance. So what have we learned

Well the second hand market is an absolute goldmine. Whether you're after a 45 pound bargain or a 500

pound powerhouse there is definitely value to be had and golf clubs for cash make it really easy

to upgrade your bag without emptying your bank account. If you've enjoyed this video make sure

you hit the like button down below as well as subscribing so you don't miss any future videos

from Golf Monthly but from me here at the beautiful Stoke Park I'm in a rush because I'm going to

jump on my laptop and see if I can find a matching three-wood to that Callaway FT5