As someone who fluctuates between lofted fairway woods, hybrids and driving irons over the course of the season, I’m always thrilled when a new model that could potentially fit straight into my bag gets released. When last year's Paradym hybrid was launched, I was instantly impressed with the performance on offer, but the larger, more forgiving head was something that I couldn’t quite get on board with. That said, I was eager to see how the new Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke hybrid would compare not just from a looks standpoint but whether it could match the performance shown by its predecessor?
Well let's start with the aesthetics. Callaway has moved away from the gloss black crown used on last year's models and has returned to the matte black crown that we saw on the Rogue ST hybrids. The head profile itself has been designed a little larger to inspire confidence and provide the user friendliness to compete with the most forgiving hybrids. These hybrids don’t feature the crushed carbon as seen on the likes of the Ai Smoke driver and fairway, but instead possess a steel finish to the sole, similar to that of the Ai Smoke Triple Diamond fairway wood.
The sole camber has been designed to become more pronounced leading to better turf interaction -something I noticed when testing the Ai Smoke hybrid on the course and hitting from fairways into par 5s. The club sat flush to the turf and even glided through the first cut of rough spectacularly when called upon.
The Speed Cartridge we saw in the Paradym hybrid remains in the Paradym Ai Smoke hybrid and certainly plays its role in producing fast ball speeds with lower spin rates. I was averaging a carry distance of 228 yards and spin rates dropped as low as 2300rpm at times - a little too low for my liking. While I loved how this hybrid performed off the fairway and from the tee with its penetrating ball flight, I did notice a slight lack of launch and spin when coming from the rough, although this is probably accentuated by the current wet and wintery conditions! It is also adjustable for loft, so you can add more height to your trajectory if you want to quite easily.
The Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke really separated itself from the previous years model when it came to forgiveness though. I struck countless shots when testing both out the heel and the toe and saw remarkably consistent ball flights and spin patterns when doing so. Shots hit out the heel that I would normally see climb into the wind, stayed relatively straight and with the same piercing ball flight I came accustomed to when hitting this club out of the center.
This is testament to the new Ai Smart Face implemented into the whole Ai Smoke family. Thousands of shots have been collected and fed into the Callaway ‘super computer’ which has generated an Ai designed face with numerous sweet spots, so miss-hits perform extremely similarly to that of a good strike. This reduces not only dispersion front-to-back, but also laterally.
The Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke hybrid was as close to faultless as I've experienced to be honest. As always with all of the best golf clubs, it’s a question of personal preference in regards to how the club looks and feels. While I preferred the look of the matte finish on the crown and I think this makes the club look as good as the best golf hybrids on the market, others may prefer the gloss effect found on other models.
The Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Hybrid will be available to purchase from January 26th and will retail at $279/£299.
