Callaway X Tour Fairway Wood Review

Callaway golf has long been known for its long, forgiving drivers. They started the oversize driver rage in the early 90's with their original Big Bertha driver and have since seen over 10 new drivers come out since then. Over the years, Callaway has gone from simple hickory shafted wedges to some of the most technologically advanced golf equipment on the planet. Callaway has continued its dominance in the mid to high handicap market with its line of drivers, throw in their irons, wedges, and recent purchase of Top Flite and Odyssey Golf, new "players" equipment and a great line of Callaway branded golf balls and you have the makings of a monster that will now be in the forefront of golf technology and design for years to come.

The X Tour Fairway Woods are a great upgrade from the Big Bertha and SteelHead III, especially for the better player.

The X Tour Fairway Woods feature a slightly more compact head head, but with quite a bit of internal weighting for maximum forgiveness in a fairway wood. They borrowed their VFT Technology from previous designs as well. The VFT Technology stands for Variable Face Thickness, this allows the designers to make the areas of the face much hotter by being able to control the thickness of the entire face, giving the middle of the sweet spot more "pop" at impact while the perimeter of the face is kept a little thicker for added control on off center hits.

Callaway, like in their SteelHead series, incorporate a tungsten weight chip to lower the center of gravity, making it very easy to hit the new X Tour fairway woods off the deck and out of tough lies.

The X Tour fairway woods also features a Consistent Alignment Sole. This feature allows the club to sit perfectly flat on the ground each time it is placed behind the ball. The player will no longer have to worry about the club head rocking back and forth, opening or closing, lofting or de-lofting the club head before they swing. They S2H2, Callaways bore through design is also incorporated in the new woods, allowing for a shorter hosel, again giving the designers more weight to move around to the rear and perimeter of the club for more distance.

When I got a chance to hit this club, I was impressed, but a little disappointed in the ball flight. I tested the 15* with a stiff shaft. They took off very low and straight. The ball flight was surprising given the shallow face. Given it being a "tour" model, it features a little higher center of gravity and neutral weighting. I was able to work the ball very easily with this club, but as using it for getting over a long carry hazard, for get about it! It features a square club face and went wherever I told it to go! It looks great at address and the Consistent Alignment Sole really does its job. I only needed to set the club behind the ball, set up my stance and go. No extra fidgeting of the club head was needed to know it was aimed where I wanted it to go.

This fairway wood is still out there folks, and for around $99 on some Internet sites, it is defiantly a solid upgrade for a great price!