Our Callaway X Hot Driver Review - Great Golf Deals.com Blog

When you think of the brand Callaway what's the first thing that normally comes to mind?  If you're like most people probably the word "Big Bertha" comes to mind first - their iconic metal wood which revolutionized the metal driver and fairway wood market back in the early 90s'.

The introduction of the Big Bertha launched Callaway Golf to the forefront of golf equipment technology and established them as a leader in metal woods category.

Unfortunately for Callaway, for the past decade, it has lost it's way and for a number of years has had a hard time breaking through the crowded driver/metal woods market which it dominated in the 90's and early 2000s.

That is until now. With new leadership and a new aggressive attitude and marketing campaign Callaway is back and back "Big Time" with its new 2013 offerings.  But an aggressive attitude and marketing campaign will only take you so far - you still need the product to perform and boy does the Callaway X Hot driver perform!

The new Callaway X Hot Driver is the product that will appeal to most of the market as it is targeted at golfers at all levels ( form mid-handicappers to single-digit players).  But by no means is this a one driver fits all product.  Callaway has also come out with a X Hot Pro model targeted at golfers with more advanced skills and faster swing speeds.

The Callaway X Hot Driver is a speed demon with many of the technical features designed to increase club head speed while at the same time provide forgiveness on off-center miss-hits.  The driver checks in at 46 inches which is a half an inch to an inch longer than standard.  It has a 460cc head and speed-frame face is made of titanium that is thinner around the perimeter and thicker in the center which optimizes the sweet spot and decrease the amount of distance loss on off-center hits.

LOOKS:
Callaway has decided to go in a different direction and eschew the popular "white" clubhead look and has equipped the X Hot driver with what can best be described as a matte-gunmetal finish.  The color gives this driver a futuristic look while maintaining a traditional look and feel.  The gunmetal finish against the black club face looks great and does not have that "look at me and my new driver" look.

The club head design can be summed up in one word; "classic".  The head of the X-Hot is a nice and evenly rounded shape without any of the triangle look you see with many heads out there. There is no doubt that it is a 460cc driver, yet it is in a subdued style that doesn’t seem all that large to your eye. Obviously the finish plays a role in this though as well. All in all, this is a driver that presents a clean and classic shape.


ADJUSTABILITY:
The X Hot driver uses Callaway's OptiFit technology which was the same as used in the 2012 RAZR Fit driver.  What's great about this feature is that it is by far the easiest to adjust and you do not a Phd  in club physics to make the proper adjustments for your game.  The X Hot driver is designed to have a square face angle in its neutral setting. Setting the face angle to the open (O) position on the Opti-Fit Hosel will open the face to 2.5 degrees and subtract 1 degree of loft. A change to the closed (C) setting will set the face 1.5-degrees closed and increase loft 1 degree.  Each adjustment made a noticeable change in the ball flight as the OptiFit technology was more than fancy name for a new technology.

Also because it uses the same OptiFit technology in all the Callaway Drivers you can easily swap shafts between different drivers without having to purchase a special adapter.

Sure there are other drivers that offer more ajustability, almost to the point where it is overkill but with the X Hot sometimes more really isn't better.

FORGIVENESS:
The X Hot driver is the most forgiving driver in the Callaway lineup.  The 460cc head is the largest allowed by USGA specifications but what really makes this driver more forgiving is the Speed-Frame face technology and interior weighting technology.

The speed-frame face is made of titanium that is thinner around the perimeter and thicker in the center which optimizes the sweet spot and decrease the amount of distance loss on off-center hits.

Additionally, the X-Hot line has interior weighting that is meant to promote a draw, as most average golfers struggle with slicing the ball right. The good thing about this is that Callaway has not altered the look of the driver to achieve this. Instead they altered the interior weighting to keep the head-shape clean and attractive. Additionally, Callaway’s research led them to see that as more loft is needed in a driver then typically more draw bias is needed as well, so as the lofts increase in the X-Hot, so too does that interior weighting.

DISTANCE:
Face it, the main reason we all buy new drivers is to get more distance.  We may not want to admit it but being the shortest driver in your weekly foursome is not fun and it sure would be great to be able to get to a par 5 in two sometimes.

The Callaway X Hot Driver excels in this area.  At 300 grams, the X Hot driver is the lightest driver Callaway has ever put out.  Paired with the 46 inch lightweight Project X shaft, thin titanium speed-frame face and innovative internal weighting the driver can get it out there with the best of them.  Callaway's marketing campaign claims you can gain 13 extra yards with this driver and that is on the conservative side.  Now granted my driver is currently 4 years old but I was seeing 20 yards gained but more importantly my miss-hits were not penalized with lost distance as much as my older driver.

OVERALL:
Although it's still only early May and a lot of the golf season is still ahead of us I feel confident right now that the Callaway X Hot Driver will be on my top 3 drivers list for 2013 at the end of the season.  If you are looking for a driver that can bomb it out there with the best of them but also still provide the technology and adjustability to make  it forgiving on miss-hits then this is driver you're looking for.  Callaway's X Hot Driver is a product that will move Callaway back into the forefront of innovative, high-performance metal woods.  It's a position that they once had and are now on there way back to obtaining.


The X-Hot driver comes with an MSRP of $299.99 but you can get it for less at Great Golf Deals.com