00:00Okay, welcome back to Golf Monthly and a new series that we're doing called Retro Review,
00:04where we're going to be taking some game-changing equipment from its time, some iconic stuff,
00:08and comparing it to its modern counterparts. We've partnered up with Golf Club for Cash,
00:13one of the leading retailers of pre-loved equipment, and they've supplied us with some
00:17absolute gems to test. So if you want to check those guys out, look in the description below.
00:21Without further ado, let's get straight into it. Okay, so first up, we've got an absolute classic,
00:26and it is the Callaway F-Fusion FTI Driver. Now, this was released in 2006, and it had a retail
00:34price back then of £400. We've picked it up for the bargain price of £63.99. Now, first off,
00:42the elephant in the room, you might have noticed, it's square. Now, that might put a few people off.
00:46I actually quite like the visual. I like the straight lines. They do a lot for me in terms of
00:49alignment, and I actually really enjoy that. Now, this was in the bag of players like Phil Mickelson,
00:54Ernie Els at the time, so he was actually a really popular driver on tour. Now, the tech story behind
01:00this is a super high MOI, so they put a lot of weight back to create a really stable driver
01:06on
01:06mishits, so really, really forgiving. But as a high-speed player, generally higher MOI drivers,
01:11I can spin a bit more, so I can get a little bit of excessive spin, so it'll be interesting
01:15to see
01:16how that pans out in the testing. To explain the MOI a little bit, I always like the analogy,
01:20if I tried to push you over, and you were just stood like this, it's going to be fairly easy
01:25for me. If all of a sudden you put a foot back, and you've got more weight and stability back,
01:29you're going to be more stable and more difficult to push over. So that's the principle behind the FTI.
01:33I'm going to head to the range, get a few away, and get some initial impressions.
01:49Okay, so we've come down to the range now at the Oxfisher Golf Club, and it's probably a good time
01:53to introduce what we're pairing the FTI to. So we've got the standard Callaway Paradigm. When you
01:58put them down beside one another, the contrast in looks is pretty stark. Obviously, the FTI is square,
02:05so there's a huge difference straight away, but also the face is quite onset from the hosel. The
02:09hosel goes in quite a long way behind the face, which is quite an interesting look. So yeah, two very,
02:14very different looking drives. I'm going to hit a couple away now to start to get an idea of the
02:18feel and the sound from the FTI.
02:30So first of all, acoustically, pretty, pretty audible there. It's a very loud noise that comes off the
02:37face. I hope that was picked up on screen because that is a very, very loud sound, and it did
02:42feel
02:42quite, almost like a hollow quality to it. Quite, yeah, it's quite unique. So let's have another go.
02:53Yeah, I really hope you can pick that up on the audio because it is pretty offensive. We've got a
02:57few people on the range here. I hope I'm not disturbing their practice with that noise. So
03:01yeah, let's compare and contrast the paradigm. So it should be a very different feel.
03:15So yeah, that's just a completely different gravy in terms of feel, much more muted,
03:20a much deeper sensation off the face. It's really, really very different. So I think it feels a lot
03:26more sophisticated than its older counterpart, but it'll be interesting to see how the performance goes.
03:30So probably at this point, it's a good time to pop up some data on the screen and have a
03:35little chat
03:36about what we saw when testing the two. So as you'll probably see here, FTI had a significant
03:41amount more spin, which is probably to do with the MOI, the increased MOI on the club head weight back,
03:47increasing that spin, increasing the stability and reducing curvature, which also alludes to why it's
03:52probably a little bit tighter in dispersion. As you can see from the paradigm, ball speed up, spin down,
03:58so I was getting a lot more carry distance and total distance out of it. But yeah,
04:02some interesting numbers to compare there. Let's see how it goes on the course.
04:05Okay, so I'm going to start with the FTI and then the 10th hour is a little dogleg right,
04:09longish par four. So I'm just going to get a couple away, take some data and see where we are.
04:20Little fade, started left side, cutting back, just going to make the fairway,
04:26quite floaty. Now these balls are marked with an F so I can check where they end up down the
04:31fairway,
04:32or hopefully the fairway.
04:42Very similar to the first one, could be on top of it in fact. Again, seeing a fair bit of
04:47spin.
04:49Let's go again. Just a touch further left than the other two, so we're going to stay in the left
05:04semi,
05:05but really similar flight window. Okay, so let's hit a couple away now with the paradigm and see how
05:10that compares. It's worth noting that there is a slightly stiffer shaft in this. This is extra stiff,
05:14as opposed to the stiff in the FTI, and we're very similar in loft. This is 9 and that's 9
05:19.5,
05:19but worth noting those differences. So let's see how it goes.
05:30A little out the heel, just started straight, cutting onto the right edge of the fairway, that one.
05:35A little bit more fade than the FTI. Let's go again.
05:50Okay, that's pretty comparable line-wise to the ones I hit with FTI. Again, just down the left
05:55half of the fairway there. Certainly lowering spin, it was a bit more of a penetrating ball flight.
06:03Let's try the last one.
06:11Similar to the first one there, a little bit of an overfade, started straight, just going to the right
06:16edge of the fairway, so it'll be interesting to see where those are distance-wise. Okay, so we've come
06:21down the hole to actually see where those shots have ended up now, and I've already taken a look
06:24at the data, and there were some interesting points. Probably most notably, we had ball speed,
06:29spin, and carry distance, and I'll get onto that in just a moment, but firstly, if you can see here,
06:34I've got quite a nice, tight grouping with the FTI. I've got two on the bank, and one just probably
06:38five or six yards further right up the fairway. A really nice, tight grouping, but what I did notice
06:43is with the additional spin that the FTI was creating, curvature was minimal, so that's great
06:48if you are trying to hit a straight shot. I was setting up for a cut here, so if you
06:52are thinking of
06:53going to a higher MOI driver or a square driver like FTI, you might want to start reconsidering
06:59some start lines and where to set the ball out, because they started great exactly where I was
07:03aiming, but didn't deviate as much as I would hope. When you go over to the Paradigm, moving up the
07:08hole here, I've got two in the fairway over there on the far corner, so they actually cut with the
07:12shape
07:12of the hole like I wanted to. It had a little bit less backspin, which helps you facilitate a little
07:17bit more curvature. It stops, it sort of allows the spin axis to be altered more than when you've got
07:22a lot of spin with FTI. That spin axis is more difficult to manipulate and more difficult to
07:27shape the ball, so that's worth thinking about. I've got a further Paradigm that's just a bit over
07:31that hill. There's more ball speed on Paradigm. We're talking up to, like I said, five miles an
07:37hour with some of the shots, which has translated to about a 10-yard difference in overall distance,
07:42so something worth noting there. If you are looking for a straight hitting machine,
07:47FTI seems to be doing a really good job for me.
07:49Okay, so the Callaway Fusion FTI, what did we find? Well, if you're looking for distance,
07:54there is more available from a more modern equivalent in the Paradigm that we tested,
07:58for example. But if you're playing a shorter, tighter golf course and you're on a budget,
08:02we've got a real fairway finding machine here. Loads of spin, loads of MOI, and plenty of safety to
08:07keep it in play. So in that sense, it really does stack up against its modern-day counterpart.
08:11For £63.99, it's a real bargain in the right circumstances. So check out the description below,
08:17go and have a look at Golf Clubs for Cash with some other best pre-loved equipment.
08:21And that's it from me from the Oxfordshire Golf Club. See you next time.
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