Here’s why PGA TOUR players are switching to Callaway’s new Paradym Ai Smoke driver

Callaway’s new family of Paradym Ai Smoke drivers hit the USGA Conforming List on Monday at the start of the year, and a slew of PGA TOUR players are already preparing to put them in play at The Sentry, for the first PGA TOUR event of the 2024 FedExCup season.

Four different Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke drivers were available for PGA TOUR players to test on the range Tuesday at the Plantation Course at Kapalua, including a Triple Diamond (a compact, low-spin head profile), a Triple Diamond Max (a slightly bigger model), a Triple Diamond S (a slightly smaller model), and a Max head, which boasts a large head profile and a sliding weight in the rear portion of the head. While the models have slight differences in appearance and shape, each of the heads is equipped with Callaway’s new Ai Smart Face designs and lightweight carbon crown.

Callaway crafts its Paradym Ai Smoke driver faces using a combination of data from thousands of driver swings from both pros and amateurs, prior feedback from Tour players, and the company’s Artificial Intelligence systems.

With multiple models at the ready – each of which is optimized for speed and forgiveness – Callaway PGA TOUR Rep and player fitter Kellen Watson says it’s been a “joyous occasion” whilst fitting PGA TOUR players into new Paradym Ai Smoke drivers. That’s because each of the head models is creating consistently fast speeds across their faces, and tighter spin rate windows.

“At the end of November, I went down to The Grove and fit [Xander Schauffele], and his spin rates were probably 30 percent tighter, shot-to-shot-to-shot, compared to the Paradym," Watson told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday in Hawaii. "And the Paradym wasn’t bad, either. Forgiveness has a different meaning for these guys compared to consumers, right? When PGA TOUR players miss the center of the face – and it’s not very often – they miss by a millimeter or two. So, for them, it’s more about tightening the disparity in spin rate from shot to shot. These faces are faster everywhere, but we want the spin rates to be within a 200-300 rpm window, and I think that’s what we’re seeing based on feedback and working with each player.”

While Schauffele has been known in the past to gravitate toward the company’s low-spin and compact Triple Diamond model heads, Watson noted that Schauffele was especially intrigued by the Triple Diamond Max head, which has a slightly larger profile. Typically, driver heads with a larger footprint help golfers by offering higher launch and more spin, despite sacrificing a bit of speed on center strikes. However, Watson isn’t finding that to be the case in this family of Paradym Ai Smoke drivers.

“The Triple Diamond itself will probably be the majority model when it comes to Tour usage, but there’s a couple guys that have done some work with our Max version, which is our sliding-weight version, with one weight in the front,” Watson said. “Harry Hall and Alex Noren, for example, both really liked it. They really liked the speed on this Max version versus what they saw last year. The speed just crept up since the last few iterations, which is huge, because usually what you see with the bigger driver and bigger footprint is you see higher launch, you see more spin, and you see a little less ball speed out of it, but maintaining or even gaining ball speed compared to what they’ve seen in the past is quite huge…my guess is that there will be four models in play on the PGA TOUR this year.”

Ultimately, Schauffele chose to go with a Triple Diamond 10.5-degree head.

To Watson’s point, Callaway staffer Adam Hadwin remarked on the increasing difficulty in finding his preferred driver model, compared to new driver families in previous years.

“It’s been a very easy switch over from Paradym, but it did take me a while to find the right head during the fitting process,” Hadwin said. “Usually, drivers have been kind of plug and play almost. Like just match up the model, and they’re pretty close. This one took a little bit to figure it out, but once we did, it’s been really good. The numbers have been great.”

When everything is equally fast, finding the right model becomes more difficult, and becomes more about preference instead of necessity.

Hadwin, who is also switching into Callaway’s new Chrome Tour X golf ball this week, says he’s picked up about 2 mph of ball speed with his new Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond driver, and he especially noted the pleasing sound of the new head.

“I’m in the new golf ball, as well, so I would say I’m probably 1-2 mph faster, with the combination,” Hadwin said. “I’m not sure whether it’s the head or the ball or both, but in comparison to the older golf ball and Paradym head, I’m probably a couple of miles per hour faster. The feel has been great. The versatility, and the sound. I played a practice round with Patrick Rodgers, and he even commented on that, just the way that it sounds coming off. I’m very pleased with it.”

Coinciding with the Tour launch of Callaway’s Paradym AI Smoke products, Callaway also officially released its lineup of Paradym AI Smoke products to retail on Wednesday, as well as its new Chrome Tour and Tour X golf balls.