We were just starting to put together the list of clubs we wanted to test in 2012 when Callaway kicked off a media frenzy of sorts by releasing their “Performance Over Paint” campaign on the same day TaylorMade released their fers Ping K15 (interesting coincidence, right?). Following on the heals of that, Callaway’s marketing people released an ad showing a diablo octane driver standing out above a see of fers TaylorMade R11 with the caption “The Diablo Octane’s diet now includes sheep”. While we certainly appreciate the humor, especially from an industry in which it’s largely lacking, what really caught our attention was Callaway’s claim that their Diablo Octane is 6 yards longer than fers TaylorMade R11.
We try and shy away as much as possible from rehashing the marketing literature related to every club we test, but in the case of callaway diablo octane, there are a couple of details we find noteworthy. The Callaway Diablo Octane Tour, which is a direct replacement for the FT-9 is built largely from what Callaway calls “Forged Composite”. Feel free to read the details of Forged Composite for yourself, but the key talking points are that the “game changing new clubhead material” (Callaway’s words, not mine), is lighter and stronger than titanium. Callaway also indicates that the new material allows for more precise manufacturing tolerances, the end result of which is a head that is 6 grams lighter, and 43% more aerodynamic than the FT-9. As I’m sure you’ve probably guessed, all of this leads to higher impact speeds and bigger distance.