Specs
Callaway continues to champion its popular metal woods with its new line of Big Bertha fairway woods. The Diablo series contains stainless steel construction, neutral or draw designs and the company's signature and trademarked S2H2 weighting. The 3- wood (16 degrees), 5-wood (18.5), 7-wood (21) and 9-wood (23) come stock with a mid-torque Callaway graphite shaft available in light, regular and stiff flex. Diablos are also available in a neutral-weighted strong 3-wood (13 degrees), strong 5-wood (15) and strong 7-wood (18).
Perks
Each club in the Diablo series produces long, fairly low trajectories and picks the ball off the turf very well. They are comfortable at impact on solid shots. Head weights are balanced nicely and tee shots are accurate and long, with the strong-3 being the best performer.
Sacrifices
Diablo draw-promoting designs can produce hooked shots on mis-hits and fast, hard swings. Much like the Big Bertha Warbird fairway woods of the past, the new breed might also prevent the average player from getting the ball up, especially off the fairway. Clubheads are on the small-side, which might limit confidence at setup for novice golfers.
Bottom Line
Callaway Big Bertha Diablo woods, for the novice to advanced player, are superb performers. But they fall slightly short in being true-game improvement clubs for the occasional golfer or weekend- warrior. Each club falls around the $150 to $200 price range (2009).
About The Author
Jim Hagerty is a freelance writer and journalist. In addition to the hundreds of Web-based articles to his credit, he's a staff writer for "The Rock River Times," where he covers arts and entertainment, outdoors and human interest news events. Hagerty holds a Bachelor of Science in public relations and journalism from Northern Michigan University in Marquette.
