NEWS
Hahn Shoots 62 To Finish T4
In just his second start as a Callaway staffer, James Hahn fired a bogey-free final round 62 to finish T4 at the Humana Challenge. The 31-year-old used an X Hot Pro Driver (8.5°) to average over 300 yards per drive in Palm Springs, and that distance helped him play the par-5s in 16-under for the week.
Hahn took to this driver immediately during a testing session at the Sony Open, where our Tour reps squared the face angle to precisely where his eyes wanted it, and his ball flight during the test was perfect.
Hahn is now averaging 304.6 yards per drive this season. He’s also made the cut in both his starts and shot 70 or better in six of his eight rounds with an X Hot Pro Driver in the bag.
Meanwhile, Brian Stuard posted a 62 during the third round and went on to finish T-10. Stuard used an X Hot Pro Driver (9.5), RAZR Fit Xtreme 3-wood and an Odyssey Metal-X #7 Putter to earn his second straight top-10 finish.
Mickelson Plays New Versa Putter In Season Debut
Phil Mickelson sported a new Versa #9 White Putter (72° lie, 2° loft) as he got his season underway at the Humana Challenge. The four-time major winner first tried the putter during a Company photo shoot late last year and really took to the model in his own backyard.
“It’s the same model that I have, but it’s got white, black contrast as opposed to lines,” Mickelson said. “And I didn’t think much of it until I was putting at night and just started to make everything in my yard.
“And it kind of dawned on me that I wasn’t looking at the line and getting so line conscious at the ball I was more worried about kind of rolling the putt and I just knew where I was aimed instinctively from the contrast on the putter and I thought, gosh, this might, this actually might have something to it.”
When asked if there are lines on the top, Phil said, “No, just white, black, contrast, yeah. And having those big blocks it’s pretty easy to see where it is aimed, you know?” The man knows a thing or two about putters, that’s for sure.
Odyssey Wins On European Tour
Odyssey dominated in putter usage and a White Ice Sabertooth model took home a big win at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. 40.5% of the field carried an Odyssey gamer, including Callaway/Odyssey staffer Branden Grace.
Grace carded a final round 65 to finish in fifth place and posted his second straight top-10. The European Tour star now sits in sixth place on the Race to Dubai standings. Did we mention he won five times around the world last year? The guy’s been on fire for over a year now.
NOTES
Gainey Works In A New X Hot Pro 3-Wood
Callaway Reps built Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey a new X Hot 3-wood last week that immediately went into his bag. The reps bent the lie angle to 61° and gave him .5° more loft for a 14.5° final loft. With this configuration, Gainey was immediately able to play the draw he was looking for and loved the distance he was getting.
Gonzales Adds Loft To His Driver
Andres Gonzales (aka “Half Man. Half Amazing.”) tested an X Hot Pro Driver (10.5°) against the 9.5° model he used at the Sony Open. He wanted more loft so he could feel more on top of the ball at impact and release his right side harder. The 10.5° driver worked perfectly and the ball carried about 5-7 yards farther on the range with a very penetrating flight. Gonzales put the higher lofted model in play and then continued to post more hilarious tweets on his twitter account.
Harry Wins Second Round Of Pro Picks (Sort Of)
After a tough first round of Callaway Pro Picks, our SVP of Marketing Harry Arnett applied a reverse jinx and “predicted” that he wouldn’t win the lottery, his Atlanta Falcons would lose the NFC Championship Game and a Callaway staffer wouldn’t win the Humana Challenge. Then his Falcons squandered an early 17-0 lead to San Francisco (which was okay with Odyssey Global Director and diehard Niners fan Chris Koske), a Callaway staffer didn’t win in Palm Springs and to our knowledge Harry hasn’t cashed in a winning lotto ticket.
So if you’re keeping score at home, Harry went three for three on his picks. Whether he’s happy about it or not is different story, but in any case he clinched the win with three dead-on predictions.
ANECDOTES
Callaway News Coming From The PGA Show
Our Marketing Zoo Crew Team is out in full force this week at the PGA Show in Orlando. It’s going to be one heck of a week, and our guys will be posting updates on the blog as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages with all the latest news and photos.
We can’t wait to show you all the great stuff we have going on at The Show. And of course, we’re all fired up for the release of X Hot Drivers, Fairway Woods, Hybrids and Irons on Friday! We’ve got A LOT to look forward to in the next few days!
