The Callaway Golf Company is one of golf”s best known brand names. Renowned for their groundbreaking technology, Callaway manufactures the full spectrum of golf clubs, from drivers to putters. The company also makes premium golf balls and has it’s name on clothing, footwear and accessories. Callaway Golf are also the owners of the brand names of Ben Hogan and Top Flite and also manufacture putters in the Odyssey range.
The company came to the fore in golf by making clubs for amateur golfers that were easy and forgiving to play. Fame followed after it had success among the professional ranks, and many top class players now endorse the brand, Phil Mickelson and Rocco Mediate being two of the modern day players who have had success playing the Callaway range.
Callaway is probably best known for it’s Big Bertha range of drivers, the golf industry’s first stainless steel and wide bodied wood, which launched the company to iconic status with amateur and pro golfers alike. This driver alone would put Callaway Golf at the forefront of all golfers minds as they saw Bertha to be the club that would help them to long and straight drives.
Former Burlington Industries Textile president, Ely Callaway, formed the company in 1982. Mr Callaway, a very successful businessman, was enjoying a brief spell of retirement after selling his winery when he decided to add golf club maker to his resume. Never one who liked to be idle, he was playing a lot of golf while looking for a fresh challenge when he came across a wooden pitching wedge in a golf shop in Palm Springs. Although this shaft was different, the club reminded him of the old hickory clubs he had played with as a child. This shaft had been hollowed out and filled with a steel core for consistency and strength. So intrigued was Ely Callaway with this club, he decided to buy a half share of Hickory Stick USA and re-branded it as Callaway Hickory Stick USA.
Well known for thinking big, Ely Callaway was true to form when forming and growing his golf company. The company are still at the forefront of the development and manufacture of advanced golf clubs and equipment, including it’s range of two and three piece golf balls. Callaway’s Fusion FT-3 driver had adjustable internal weighting options, which allowed the ordinary golfer to set the club to their personal specifications to help enhance a draw or a fade.
Phil Mickelson continues to play and endorse the Callaway brand, having won USGA Tour and Major championships with these clubs. Annika Sorenstam has also used and endorsed Callaway Golf equipment for the whole of her professional career. During that time she became the only woman golfer to shoot 59 in a competition, and used the FT-3 driver in 2006 to claim her 10th Major championship win.
From humble beginnings, Callaway Golf has reached the top in the industry. Today, their FT and Diablo range of drivers, along with the Diablo and the game improvement X-series irons continue to lead the field. And it looks like Callaway will be at the top of the tree for a while to come.
CARLSBAD, Calif., Dec. 7, 2011 — /PRNewswire/ – Callaway Golf Company (NYSE: ELY) today announced the February 17th worldwide availability of its much-anticipated RAZR Fit™ Driver and RAZR Fit™ Fairway Woods. Building on 29 years of clubmaking excellence, Callaway’s much-anticipated RAZR Fit line of woods represents the Company’s most advanced products to date. By combining the performance benefits gained from several proprietary technologies with an easy-to-understand, adjustable hosel—plus moveable weights to promote draw or neutral ball flight—Callaway is empowering players around the world to dial in their game with RAZR Fit. Marking a new standard in performance customization, RAZR Fit’s straightforward adjustability delivers optimum performance and real results for every golf swing.
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“We are particularly proud of the RAZR Fit products because of the performance gains we have achieved for golfers while adding the benefits of adjustability,” said Dr. Alan Hocknell, Sr. Vice President of Research & Development, Callaway Golf. “Callaway is not just entering the adjustability race with the introduction of RAZR Fit, we are taking the pole position. The adjustable features and other proprietary technologies allow golfers to play a more meaningful role than ever before in their journey to optimized performance.”
The RAZR Fit Driver and RAZR Fit Fairway Woods both feature Callaway’s renowned OptiFit® adjustability system—designed for easy use and noticeable changes in trajectory for each of the settings. The system allows golfers to adjust the club’s face angle to three address positions: Open, Square and Closed. This adjustment is controlled within the “cog,” a rotatable element of the hosel that changes the angle of the shaft axis relative to the head. Rotating the cog enables golfers to choose a preferred look at address while also minimizing a slice or hook generated by the club’s delivery to the ball. Because the shaft does not rotate with the cog, shaft graphics and grip reminders remain consistent to the player’s eye when they adjust the face angle. In the driverhead, OptiFit weights (12 grams and 2 grams) are included in the clubhead’s sole and are also adjustable, allowing golfers to shift the center of gravity to promote a perceivable draw or neutral ball flight.
Since 2004, Callaway has led the industry in multi-material clubhead construction, advancing club design in capacities such as mass property optimization and aerodynamic shaping. Now, with the introduction of RAZR Fit, the Company furthers its heritage in innovation by uniting multi-material design with the fundamental benefits of adjustability for every golfer’s swing.
Specifically, the crown of the RAZR Fit Driver is comprised of Forged Composite™, an advanced carbon composite material that Callaway developed over several years in partnership with Automobili Lamborghini. Lighter, stronger, more precise than titanium (the material used in more than 90% of the current drivers in the market), Forged Composite allows Callaway engineers to save crucial weight and precisely control the thickness of the crown. These benefits give the RAZR Fit Driver a lower center of gravity, making it more forgiving on off-center hits.
Callaway’s RAZR Fit Driver also incorporates a proprietary innovation in aerodynamic shaping called Streamlined Surface Technology, which addresses the complex variations in aerodynamic flow during a driver’s entire downswing—from transition through impact. More than four years in the making, Streamlined Surface Technology has reduced RAZR Fit’s energy loss due to drag by 14% (relative to its predecessor, the RAZR Hawk™ Driver), despite the addition of an adjustable hosel. This contributes to increased ball speed at impact, a critical element of driving distance. This aerodynamics technology is accompanied by the debut of the Company’s new Speed Frame™ Face Technology, which combines hyperbolic shaping of the clubface with precision thickness control to offer a larger sweet spot. This new technology optimizes stress distribution and increases ball speeds across the face. Callaway engineers were also able to save weight by implementing this new face technology.
The RAZR Fit Driver comes standard with a 45.5″ Aldila® RIP’d™ NV shaft and a premium Golf Pride® New Decade Multi Compound grip. Already in the bags of Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Alvaro Quiros and other tour professionals around the world, the RAZR Fit Driver will be available for all golfers for the new product introduction price of $399 (U.S.).
RAZR Fit Fairway Woods
Like the RAZR Fit Driver, the RAZR Fit Fairway Woods feature three address positions—Open, Square and Closed. They will be available in a 3-Wood (15°) and a 5-Wood (18°), and allow players to adjust based on their preferred look at address and to minimize tendencies to hook or slice the ball. Callaway’s staff of Tour players helped inspire the club design, which features a traditional shape in a compact head size, as well as a shallow face with a low leading edge.
The Company’s engineers have also applied aggressive Variable Face™ Thickness Technology® to precisely shape the face thickness in each fairway wood, increasing the sweet spot to promote consistent trajectories and hotter ball speeds. RAZR Fit Fairway Woods will be available at the new product introduction price of $249 (U.S.).
“The RAZR Fit Fairway Wood was designed for players seeking the ultimate in performance and optimization,” said Hocknell. “Whether a golfer is advancing the ball in a fairway or getting out of trouble, RAZR Fit Fairway Woods will inspire the confidence to hit great shots.”
For specific information regarding the RAZR Fit line of woods, please visit callawaygolf.com/RAZRFit. High-resolution images of all products are available for immediate download via the Media Center portion of Callaway Golf’s website: callawaygolf.com/MediaCenter
About Callaway Golf
Through an unwavering commitment to innovation, Callaway Golf Company (NYSE:ELY) creates products and services designed to make every golfer a better golfer. Callaway Golf Company manufactures and sells golf clubs and golf balls, and sells golf apparel, footwear and accessories, under the Callaway Golf®, Odyssey®, Top-Flite®, and Ben Hogan® brands in more than 110 countries worldwide. For more information please visit callawaygolf.com or shop.callawaygolf.com.
