Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Drivers — Review

Some things are just hard to explain. For example, the enduring popularity of the Michael Bublè Christmas album. The segment of the population with a fanatical hatred of coriander. Teenagers in general.

After testing a pair of new Ai Smoke drivers from Callaway I’d add another entry to the list: luscious, high-launching ball flights emanating from just nine degrees of driver loft. Even harder to explain was the fact it the Triple Diamond model that I found most impressive. And considering my preconceived ideas of the TD, arriving at such a conclusion truly was hard to explain.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

From the top, the Paradym Ai Smoke driver looks edgy. Where the carbon crown meets the titanium Ai Smart face there’s a definite likeness to Kylo Ren’s mask, immediately boosting the driver’s appeal among golf-playing Star Wars fans (there are more than you’d think).

The Ai Smoke’s modern styling and shaping is carried through to the bottom of the driver. To the highly trained eye of an aesthete like myself, the mottled grey-and-white sole looked like the dried-out skin of a long-deceased whale shark. However, I’m pretty sure Callaway intended it to seem like wisps of smoke. As in Ai Smoke. Nevertheless, it does look better than last year’s Paradym.

The driver’s dusky appearance connects with the Ai Smoke branding, which I do declare is the coolest of any 2024 release. I almost can’t wait to see Callaway staffer Kiradech Aphibarnrat teeing up his new Ai Smoke driver blanketed by one of his legendary vape clouds (although I’m not suggesting smoking or vaping is cool — stay away from the lung heaters, kids).

It was difficult to distinguish between the Max and Triple Diamond models at address, the only obvious difference the nonappearance of Callaway’s alignment chevron on the slightly more compact Triple Diamond’s crown. Meanwhile, the sliding weight track dominates the landscape on the Max’s sole but it’s a totally different setup to last year’s Paradym. Sitting flush against the sole rather than positioned upright along the rear edge, the new configuration did feel like it was lifted directly from Callaway’s Epic Flash driver. By comparison the Triple Diamond’s sole was much cleaner, featuring a weight port at the front and rear.

Forged into the carbon sole of both drivers was a shape that looked like the tail section of a fighter jet, or the winged keel of Australia II. It was the kind of random detail that only artificial intelligence could design. But it seemed to work.

HOW IT PERFORMED

If I had a dollar for every “high-launching ball flight” I’ve read in breathless media releases for new drivers, I’d probably have enough gold coins to buy Tasmania, or at least afford to live in Sydney for a couple of months.

There is a bit of a disconnect between reading a driver’s “high-launching” claims and actually witnessing it in person out on a golf course. But after seeing the Paradym Ai Smoke driver in action I did feel a little guilty for being so sceptical. In fact, it was a major head spin when I realised the Ai Smoke’s “effortlessly high-launching ball flights” were indeed a real thing.

I presumed the Max model of the new Paradym Ai Smoke driver would be the most likely to launch high, its hefty, adjustable rear weight almost big enough to anchor a small vessel securely in a stiff onshore breeze. And, as any golf nerd will tell you, mass shifted low and rearward in the club head is a tried-and-tested method of producing a high launch off the tee. 

The Max launched incredibly easily for a driver with nine degrees of loft and it was a satisfyingly high ball flight — it didn’t balloon off the face or reach its peak height too early. I was hitting a slight fade but shifting the adjustable weight from neutral slightly closer to the draw slot corrected it for a pretty, arrow-straight ball flight.

But better things were yet to come.

To be honest, I considered side-stepping the Ai Smoke Triple Diamond because I assumed it would produce a blizzard of low burners off the tee box with not nearly enough spin. It was made for the pros who swung much faster than I did. At least that’s what I thought. The Ai Smoke Triple Diamond was, in fact, shockingly long and high launching. For me, the TD was longer than the Max at a like-for-like nine degrees of loft. But for a compact driver, it felt balanced and dealt with off-centre strikes remarkably well, especially on the toe side.

The Triple Diamond’s spin rate didn’t drop off as much as I expected when impact was off centre and the ball flight didn’t seem to curve as much either, which was fine with me. As a player’s driver, it may result in diminished workability. But I reckon the high launch and extra distance that the Ai Smoke Triple Diamond delivered for my game would be adequate compensation for most players.

THE FINAL WORD

A major curiosity I had with the performance of the Ai Smoke Triple Diamond driver was its effectiveness of heel and toe strikes and the impressive high launch.

Turns out Callaway’s supercomputer had a lot to do with it. It sifted through the data of roughly 250,000 golfers (captured in club fittings) to decide where to place individual pockets of performance on the face, aka the spots on the face where golfers hit the ball most frequently.

Callaway call these pockets “micro deflections” which sounds like what my teenage son does whenever I offer him well-meaning life advice. Without those hot spots being specifically marked on the face, I couldn’t really tell when a micro deflection was being activated. But judging by off-centre strike performance overall, A.I. had clearly done its homework.

The weird thing is the Ai Smoke driver line-up, like the Paradym before it, features a forged carbon chassis. But that carbon chassis in the Ai Smoke now includes titanium, the very material the carbon was supposed to replace, which does seem a bit like ordering a vegan burger with extra bacon.

Ignoring the circular logic, the move allowed Callaway to save weight because the stronger titanium enabled Callaway to use thinner carbon fibre throughout the frame. That redistributed weight probably explains the beautiful, high-launching ball flights I experienced with both the Ai Smoke Max and Triple Diamond.

Getting a driver just right is hard, which is why Callaway have another two Ai Smoke drivers in the range: the draw-biased Max D and lightweight Max Fast. But for me, the Max was good, the Triple Diamond was better. And that should  explain it.

THE VERDICT

Written by Jamie Martin Jamie Martin is currently locked in a battle to keep his handicap hovering around the mid-single digits. Despite his obvious short-game shortcomings, Jamie enjoys playing and writing about every aspect of golf and is often seen making practice swings in a mirror.