First is the weight, this club because of the titanium head, lightweight shaft and fixed center of gravity is light. Simply put it just doesn’t sound like it is going to launch as far (even though it sometimes does!) The sound is disappointing when compared to the Epic Flash or the Rogue but it is not ear piercing or dull. Large forgiving titanium clubhead in a gray/black look. Overall, it’s not hard to see why this club made Golf’s Digest’s Hot List Gold for 2013.This Driver has the look of all the modern drivers. I’m always good with having some alignment help on top of a club that needs to hit the fairway! On the flip side, I do like the gray finish and racing stripe on top along with the alignment mark. I’m really surprised at how quickly the bottom of the head looked old and worn with a few swings hitting it off the deck on soft turf. The paint job on the bottom of the club is just not made to last. If I have a knock on the driver, it’s a knock I have on quite a few current drivers, fairyway woods and hybrids. The more I’ve trusted it and released it through impact, I’ve hit it out there distance-wise with any driver I’ve tried. As I got used to the different feel, I started to trust this driver which meant I was able to hit it where I was looking and my misses tended to be very findable. This ‘Speed Frame Face’ is hot– the ball really jumps off of it which gives it good distance from off-center hits. Additionally, the X Hot is weighted with a slight draw bias. To be fair, the driver did take a few rounds for me to get used to primarily because it has a lighter head than I’ve been using (a D3 swing weight at 460cc’s compared to D4), along with a Project X stiff shaft, at 46 inches (which is touch longer than I have been using). For this review, I tested the 9.5 degree head with it adjusted to the open setting to have a touch less loft but play with it square at address. One quick screw on the bottom of the head with a standard club wrench will make the setup of the driver up open or closed and with a degree less or more loft. It’s also got one simple add-on: an adjustable head. However, after trying the Callaway X Hot Driver, I have to say, Callaway is back in the driver business! This is an all-titanium head that feels and sounds the way I expected a Callaway driver to feel and play. Moreover, the other models seemed lackluster as well which led to nearly a decade of me not playing Callaway drivers. The fact is, I was disappointed with the performance and just couldn’t get used to the swing weight, sound or feel of the composite drivers. Or is it? I have to admit, after using Callaway drivers for years, I had found that I was just not very happy with many of their models.

Callaway x hot driver versus m1