u/R4DCU

I’ve been playing around 2 months now, fully committed to learning as I bought a full set of Callaway XR clubs, booked in for some lessons and I’ve had a membership down the range practicing on their 9 hole course.

I started getting pretty comfy on that course and my last few rounds of 9 I came away at only 6 shots over and an average put of 2 per hole.

I’ve done a few other local courses that are 9 holes and more challenging but as we had the day off today we attempted my first 18.

What a bloodbath the first few holes were, I lost a ball on my first drive and then it took me a few holes to recover, I say a few - 6! It wasn’t until the back 9 I started to enjoy myself and I found it really hard to mentally recover from hitting duff shots with people around, I know damn right I can drive and hit my irons but they were awful today!

It took every fibre of my being not to boomerang my driver on the first few holes 🙈

As a plus, my putting was alright and my wedges weren’t too bad. My swing thoughts had totally left me and my whole body felt out of sync.

The tee boxes were bumpy as hell as even though I could get my feet level I couldn’t find anywhere good to put the ball to get a decent swing off… every green was a different speed and bumpy as hell in places - a lot is probably because of how dry it is at the moment and trying to maintain the course - there was very little variation in the way each section of the hole looked from the fairway to the green 😂

How does everyone deal with the rollercoaster that is the mental side of the game? Most importantly, the overwhelming feeling of a new and unknown course, people around you?

I thought I’d leave a mini review as there isn’t really too much detail out there beyond people saying these are nice to play with, so hopefully this helps someone considering a set.

Spec: 4i to W, plus 45°, 50°, 54° and 58° wedges. KBS Tour 95 shafts, stiff, +1”.

Grips: The grips look the part and generally seem decent, although the alignment line isn’t as pronounced as it should be once installed. They’re also fractionally narrower than I’d expect from a midsize grip - compared to others I have. A couple of extra wraps of tape should probably sort that out.

Shafts: The shafts feel alright. Compared with other clubs I’ve handled, I’d say they’re as expected. They feel possibly a little lighter than I was expecting from a Tour 95, although that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Faces/grooves: The club faces look and feel nice. The grooves are good and the face itself is smooth, with nothing immediately obvious that would make you question the quality from a playing perspective. The lie and loft all look good to the eye.

Cavity backs: This is probably where there’s the biggest room for improvement. From a distance they definitely look the part, but the cavity backs don’t quite have the same level of detail or finish as the originals. That’s probably to be expected, particularly with an open cavity design. The G430-style heads seem to be a good example of how difficult some of these designs are to replicate convincingly.

I had a good experience dealing with the supplier, very responsive. I received QC pics before they were shipped, and delivery to the UK was fairly quick at roughly 14 days. Everything was packaged well and arrived without any issues.

I don’t think I’m likely to actually put these into play, if I’m honest, but that’s more down to personal preference than there being anything particularly wrong with them. They could be useful for a friend looking to get into golf without the huge initial outlay.

If I were to order again, I’d probably be more inclined towards a closed-back design.