Taylormade v Callaway: who’s winning the driver battle so far?
This January, like every year, two manufacturing giants went head to head with their respective driver launches for 2022. For Taylormade, it was Stealth and for Callaway, it was Rogue ST. Whether one performs demonstrably better than the other remains to be seen, but which one generated the most excitement and why?
Our initial view is that Taylormade captured the interest of more people when Stealth was unveiled. For starters, it has a completely new name and it features an eye-catching and intriguing technology – the red carbon face. Callaway’s aim was to produce something more elegant, and while it has achieved this with Rogue ST, it perhaps doesn’t have the ‘wow’ factor. I think the A.I. tech story, while absolutely valid, is a difficult one to sell to the golfer who can see and touch the new tech on Stealth.
Callaway fired shots on Twitter recently by posting an image of the Big Bertha C4 driver from over 20 years ago, which was clearly a pop at Taylormade’s supposedly groundbreaking technology. While it is worth remembering the technology has been done by Callaway before, you can’t help but wonder if this low blow plays into Taylormade’s hands. Make no mistake, both these drivers look to be two of the best ever made, but it seems like Stealth has got the audience’s juices flowing a little more vigorously.