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2007 Square Driver Vs 2023 Driver | Test And Review
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Apr 1, 2025
Retro Review video series is where we’ll go back through time and look at some iconic pieces of equipment to see if they still stack up against their modern day equivalents. First up is the Callaway Fusion FT-i driver, which caused quite a stir back in 2006 when it launched. When you take the headcover off, it soon becomes apparent why… It's square! We test it up against last year's Callaway Paradym driver to see how it compares and if there's still some merit to the concept today.
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0:00
Okay, welcome back to Golf Monthly and a new series that we're doing called Retro Review
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Well, we're going to be taking some game-changing equipment from its time, some iconic stuff
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and comparing it to its modern counterparts. We've partnered up with Golf Club for Cash
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one of the leading retailers of pre-loved equipment, and they've supplied us with some
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absolute gems to test. So if you want to check those guys out, look in the description below
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Without further ado, let's get straight into it. Okay, so first up, we've got an absolute classic
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and it is the Callaway F-Fusion FTI driver. Now, this was released in 2006
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and at a retail price back then of £400. We've picked it up for the bargain price of £63.99
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Now, first off, the elephant in the room, you might have noticed, it's square
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Now, that might put a few people off. I actually quite like the visual. I like the straight lines. They do a lot for me in terms of alignment
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and I actually really enjoy that. Now, this was in the bag of players
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like Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els at the time. He's actually a really popular driver on tour
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Now, the tech story behind this is a super high MOI. So they put a lot of weight back to create a really stable driver on mishits
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So really, really forgiving. But as a high-speed player, generally higher MOI drives, I can spin a bit more
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So I can get a little bit excessive spin. So it'll be interesting to see how that pans out in the testing
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To explain the MOI a little bit, I always like the ogy, if I tried to push you over and you were just stood like this
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it's going to be fairly easy for me. If all of a sudden you put a foot back and you've got more weight and stability back
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you're going to be more stable and more difficult to push over. So that's the principle behind the FTI
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I'm going to head to the range, get a few away and get some initial impressions. Okay, so we've come down to the range now at the Oxfisher Golf Club
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and it's probably a good time to introduce what we're comparing the FTI to. So we've got the standard Callaway Paradigm
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When you put them down beside one another, the contrast in looks is pretty stark
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Obviously the FTI is square so there a huge difference straightaway but also the face is quite onset from the hosel the hosel goes in quite a long way behind the face which is quite an interesting look So yeah two very very different looking drives I going to hit a couple away now
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to start to get an idea of the feel and the sound from the FTI
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so first of all acoustically pretty pretty audible there it's a very loud
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noise that comes off the face I hope that was picked up on screen because that is a very very loud sound and it did feel quite almost like a hollow quality to it quite
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yeah it's quite unique so let's have another go. yeah I really hope you can pick that up on the audio because it is pretty
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offensive we've got a few people on the range here I hope I'm not disturbing their practice with that noise so yeah let's compare and contrast
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the paradigm so it should be a very different feel. Yeah, it's just a completely different gravy in terms of feel
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Much more muted, a much deeper sensation off the face. It's really, really very different
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So I think it feels a lot more sophisticated than its older counterpart. But it'll be interesting to see how the performance goes
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So probably at this point, it's a good time to pop up some data on the screen
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and have a little chat about what we saw when testing the two. So as you'll probably see here, FDI had a significant amount more spin
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which is probably to do with the MOI, the increased MOI on the club head weight back
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increasing that spin, increasing the stability and reducing curvature, which also alludes to why it's probably a little bit tighter in dispersion
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As you can see from the paradigm, ball speed up, spin down, so I was getting a lot more carry distance and total distance out of it
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But yeah, some interesting numbers to compare there. Let's see how it goes on the course. Okay, so I'm going to start with the FTI and then the 10th hour was a little dogleg right
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longish par four. so I'm just gonna hit a couple away, take some data and see where we are Little fade started left side cutting back just gonna make the fairway
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Quite floaty. Now these balls are marked with an F so I can check where they end up
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down the fairway. Well hopefully the fairway. Very similar to the first one, could be on top of it in fact
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Again, seeing a fair bit of spin. Let's go again
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Just a touch further left than the other two, so we're going to stay in the left semi
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Really similar flight window. Okay, so let's hit a couple of way now with the paradigm and see how that compares
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It's worth noting that there is a slightly stiffer shaft in this. This is extra stiff as opposed to the stiff in the FTI
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We're very similar in loft. This is 9 and that's 9.5, but worth noting those differences
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So let's see how it goes. A little out the heel
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Just started straight, cutting onto the right edge of the fairway, that one. a little bit more fade than the FTI. Let's go again
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Okay, that's pretty comparable line-wise to the ones I hit with FTI. Again, just down the left half
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of the fairway there. Certainly lower in spin. It was a bit more of a penetrating ball flight
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Let's try the last one. Similar to the first one there, a little bit of an overfade, started straight, just going to the right edge of the fairway
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So it'll be interesting to see where those are distance wise. Okay so we come down the hole to actually see where those shots have ended up now And I already taken a look at the data and there were some interesting points probably most notably we had ball speed spin and carry distance and I get onto that in just a moment but firstly if you can see here
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I've got quite a nice tight grouping with the FTI, I've got two on the bank and one just probably
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five or six yards further right up the fairway. A really nice tight grouping but what I did notice
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is with the additional spin that the FTI was creating curvature was minimal so that's great
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if you are trying to hit a straight shot, I was setting up for a cut here. So if you are thinking
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of going to a higher MOI driver or a square driver like FTI, you might want to start sort of
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reconsidering some start lines and where to set the ball out because they started great exactly
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where I was aiming, but didn't deviate as much as I would hope. When you go over to the paradigm
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moving up the hole here, I've got two in the fairway over there on the far corner
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So they actually cut with the shape of the hole like I wanted to. It had a little bit less back
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spin which helps you facilitate a little bit more curvature it stops it sort of allows the spin axis
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to be altered more and when you've got a lot of spin with fti that spin axis is more difficult to
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manipulate and more difficult to shape the ball so that's worth thinking about i've got a further
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paradigm that's just a bit over that hill so there's more ball speed on paradigm we're talking
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up to yeah like i said five miles an hour with some of the shots which has translated to about
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a 10 yard difference in in overall distance so something worth noting there but yeah if you are
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looking for a straight hitting machine FTI seems to be doing a really good job for me. Okay so the Callaway Fusion FTI what did we find? Well if you're looking
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for distance there is more available from a more modern equivalent in the paradigm that we tested for example but if you're playing a shorter tighter
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golf course and you're on a budget we've got a real fairway finding machine here
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loads of spin loads of MOI and plenty of safety to keep it in play so in that
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sense it really does stack up against its modern day counterpart for $63.99
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it's a real bargain in the right circumstances so check out the
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description below go and have a look at golf clubs for cash some other best pre-loved equipment and that's it from me from the Oxfordshire Golf Club see you
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next time
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