GolfWRX launch report on 2024 Callaway Smoke Drivers Paradym AI — GolfWRX

Jan, 2024

What you need to know: Artificial intelligence early adopter Callaway’s 2024 Paradym Ai Smoke drivers feature the company’s most substantial implementation of AI yet. Engineers continue to leverage artificial intelligence to refine the face of each driver model (Paradym Ai Smoke Max, Paradym Ai Smoke Max D, Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond), this time, drilling down on real player data with a particular focus on delivering improved ball speed on off-center strikes everywhere on the club face. Callaway calls this “Ai Smart Face.” Additionally, in contrast to previous years, Callaway is bringing the launch of its lightweight option, Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast, in line with its family debut.

A view of the sole of the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max driver sole with the carbon fiber chassis featuring prominently.

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2024 Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke drivers: What’s new, key technology

Ai Smart Face: Drawing on the swing dynamics of thousands of real golfers, Callaway developed an all-new Ai Smart Face for each driver model. Swing speed, club delivery, and face orientation prior to impact were considered to create club faces catered to optimal launch and tighter dispersion.
Multiple sweet spots: Engineers targeted face design virtually everywhere across the face to leverage micro deflections for optimal spin on off-center shots struck anywhere on the face. This isn’t to say the “high toe” sweet spot produces a comparable result to a shot struck center face, but it’s an improved struck relative to the absence of the technology/previous face designs.
Refined carbon chassis: As with Paradym, Paradym Ai Smoke again features a carbon chassis to allow for discretionary weight distribution. This time, it’s 15 percent lighter and equipped with a titanium support structure. Additionally, Jailbreak is no longer present.

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke drivers: Additional model details

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max: Aimed at the widest swath of the fitting bell curve, Paradym Ai Smoke Max is the only driver in the lineup with an adjustable perimeter weight. According to the company, this allows up to 19 yards of shot shape adjustment.

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max D: For those needing help with slice correction, Max D features a stretched profile and rear weight for ease of launch.

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond: Triple Diamond, Callaway’s tour/better player option is the most compact and neutral-to-fade biased in the lineup, as would be expected. A 14-gram weight can be moved from front to back for spin reduction and to the rear for workability.

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast: Targeting players needing a little help in the swing speed department, Ai Smoke Max Fast is coupled with a lightweight shaft and grip. High MOI and easy to launch.

What Callaway says

Brian Williams vice president of Research & Development…

Regarding the company and artificial intelligence:

“It’s been a 15-year journey for us and it’s been an investment in both people and in infrastructure. So we’ve been building this system and this engine around how golf design works and how we use AI to predict what’s possible in terms of golf ball launch trajectory. And when we first started talking about AI in terms of face performance, we were really using it for ball speed. We were looking for COR benefits and when we used it for Epic Flash that was a single focus for us. Now we’re using it in a much more sophisticated way, so we’ve built a platform around it that allows us to put more sophisticated data in to ask Ai to solve for more sophisticated outputs and outcomes.”

On designing the new lineup:

“It might not surprise you, but golf club companies for years have been out there, modeling and designing golf clubs in a neutral static environment. We’re looking at how a face flexes on effectively a neutral or perfect swing. We design them that way we test them that way on robots and we wanted to really break away from that. So now what we’ve done is we’ve created a new way of designing and modeling to more closely reflect how golfers deliver the club.”

“What we’ve done is we’ve taken all this data from out there and we’ve categorized it, so we’ve gone out looked at fittings of players and we’ve grouped them together to come up with unique designs and inputs for each model that we produce. And that’s the Swing Code for these players. So the components of a Swing Code, we’re looking at the clubhead speed that it’s delivered in. We’re looking at impact locations, we look at path, angle of attack, we look at face angle relative to path, we look at dynamic loft and lie.”

Club Junkie’s take

Callaway’s new Paradym Ai Smoke drivers should be another big hit as they pack some new technology under the hood. The big story, as you have probably read already, is about the all-new Ai Smart Face that not only adds ball speed on off-center shots, but also helps correct the direction of those shots. This tech is called micro deflections and can help a shot struck low on the heel from going as far right as a traditional face. This will be an exciting thing to test out over the next few weeks. It is also exciting to see that after 50,000 face iterations that we have different faces for each driver. The face on the Triple Diamond is designed differently than the Max D because the players who use them are going to strike them differently.

Speaking of the Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond, I think most of us GolfWRX members will want to test out the neutral-to-fade bias that this head offers. You also get the ability to lower spin by moving the heavy weight on the sole forward. The Paradym Ai Smoke Max driver will be the “bread and butter” option that will give us the best combo of distance, spin, and forgiveness. I can see this model played on professional tours and all the way up to newer golfers or high handicap players. The added adjustable sliding weight will also make this head attractive to us tinkerers who want to dial in the driver to our swing. The Paradym Ai Smoke Max D driver will offer the most forgiveness out of all the models. The draw moniker will turn some people off, but for most players, it could be the best option. A rear weight helps add some launch and stability to the driver head which could make it one of the straightest we see this year. With all the options Callaway is giving us this year with the Paradym Ai Smoke drivers, there should be a model to fit your swing.