Golf
Today Equipment Special - Spring 2000
Callaway
Steelhead X-14 Irons and
Steelhead Plus Metalwoods
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They
may have got eclipsed by their own golf ball but Callaway
weren't going to miss the opportunity to launch their
latest clubs at the Orlando show. Not to be confused
with last Autumn's impressive Hawk Eye irons with
it's unusual metal matrix weighting, the X-14 is the
replacement for the X-12s, as played by Colin Montgomerie,
among others.
The
new Steelhead irons provide a more traditional look
and feel
than
any other clubs in the Callaway stable and the main
performance feature is not instantly obvious. But,
like the Hawk Eyes, the clubs boast 'variable face
thickness' which its creator, Big Bertha maestro Richard
Helmstetter, sees as the genuine landmark in golf
club technology.
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"It
allows us to design each club in the range to achieve the
specific performance goals of distance, trajectory, control
and sound," he says. "In the woods, we have made
the face area thickest in the elipitical area near the centre
of the face, and thinner toward the perimeter. In the irons,
we control the thickness from top-to-bottom and from head-to-toe,
again according to the required centre of gravity."
As
a result, golfers expect a more penetrating flight with
the woods and a higher launch angle in the irons, .
Once
again, Callaway lead a charmed life when it comes to securing
tour credibility. First, Jesper Parnevik notched up a US
victory last month - within days of putting them in the
bag - while Paul Azinger secured an emotional victory, at
the Sony Open, with a Steelhead Plus 3-wood helping him
to four rounds in the 60s. Ironically it was Azinger's victory
at the 1993 PGA Championship with a first generation Big
Bertha driver that gave Callaway its first major breakthrough.
Just
when steel woods were thought to have been usurped by titanium,
Callaway, of all people, remind us that it's never too late
to buckthe trend.
Prices:
X-14
irons: £666 (steel shafts) 3-Pitching wedge; £837 (graphite
shafts)
Steelhead
PlusWoods: Driver (6-12 degrees) and fairway woods (Nos.
2-11) £209 (graphite shaft), and £149 with steel shafts.
Contact:
0181 839 1011
