Gear: Callaway Paradym AI Smoke hybrids Price $279.99 with Project X Cypher or Mitsubishi Tensei Blue White Shafts and Winn Dri-Tac2.0 grip
Specifications: Face and body made of forged stainless steel with carbon fiber crown, and adjustable hosel
Available: Feb. 2
For Whom: Long-iron golfers looking for more distance, height and height.
The Skinny: A.I. offers three models to accommodate golfers of different swing speeds. The Smoke hybrids have been designed to be long and forgiving off the tee or from the ground, while still being long when you make consistent contact.
Todd Hamilton, who won the 2004 British Open at Royal Troon twenty years ago by using a hybrid from the fairways to the greens in a creative way. He showed that even the best golfers could benefit from hybrids’ distance, forgiveness and versatility.
Even top-10 players don’t give hybrid clubs a second look. The clubs have become so popular among recreational golfers, that many game-improvement sets start with a 4-iron or 5-iron. Manufacturers know golfers with scores in the 80s,90s, and above don’t want to struggle with long irons.
Callaway’s new Paradym Ai smoke hybrids combine forgiving shapes, distance-enhancing surfaces and multi-material compositions to offer players with different swing speeds a wider range of options when it comes long-iron substitutes.
The Paradym Ai smoke hybrids have a larger head and are more like miniature fairwaywoods. The size and shape of the hybrids are designed to comfort golfers with a mid- or higher handicap.
The hybrids have faces that were designed with artificial intelligence, just like the Paradym Ai smoke drivers and fairwaywoods. Supercomputers studied thousands of golf swings from players of all abilities to create faces that could improve performance and consistency. The outer side of the faces is plain, but the inner face has ridges, valleys, and wave-like patterns. Computers created different patterns of faces for the three Paradym AI Smoke hybrids, because each was designed with a different type of player in mind.
Callaway’s designers added a boomerang-shaped tungsten weight to the sole behind the leading edge. It is called a Speed Cartridge by the company, and it helps to pull the center gravity forward. This should result in a more powerful launch and less spin. For most golfers this translates into greater distance.
Each hybrid comes with a two-cog OptiFit hosel, which can be adjusted to increase or decrease loft up to 2 degrees. The hosel can also be used to adjust the lie angle.
The standard Paradym AiSmoke hybrids will satisfy golfers who can hit their 7 iron 150 yards or further. They will be available in 3-, 4- and 5-iron replacements.
The Paradym AA Smoke hybrids are best suited to players who can hit a 7 iron between 135-150 yards. These hybrids are made with faces that produce more lift, with a higher apex. HL stands high launch. The Paradym Ai smoke HL hybrids are available as 3-iron to 8-iron replacement.
Callaway offers the Paradym Ai smoke Max Fast hybrids for golfers that need to generate clubhead speed, and who are hitting their 7-iron at less than 135 yard distances. The clubs are available in a range of 4-iron to 8-irons and feature a lighter grip and shaft so that golfers can move faster.
Here are some images of Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke hybrids.
