Callaway’s all-new 2025 line of clubs includes a subtle tribute to its founder, Ely Callaway, It’s right there in the name: Elyte. It’s a fitting moniker when you consider the company’s tour staff includes the likes of Xander Schauffele, Jon Rahm and our own Tom McKibbin. Callaway also is bringing back a green colour scheme with Elyte, a nod to some of its most successful drivers, which also featured the colour, think Epic green.
The new Elyte drivers feature a combination of enhanced aerodynamics from better shaping and a hotter face increases ball speed by up to 2.1 mph compared to last year’s Paradym Ai Smoke driver. For most golfers, that translates to 5 to 8 more yards of distance. Callaway also said the Elyte has a 19-percent tighter dispersion, so shots should fly straighter. Elyte drivers share those key technologies, and each comes standard with Callaway’s OptiFit hosel that allows golfers and fitters to change the club’s loft and lie angle, but each Elyte driver is designed with different players in mind.
Callaway is sticking with its customary three-model driver head lineup in Europe with a mini also expected soon.
Elyte (9, 10.5, 12 degrees): The standard Elyte driver has a 460-cc head with three weight ports in the back, allowing players and fitters to move a 13-gram weight to create either a draw or fade bias. When the weight is in the middle port, it maximises the moment of inertia for added stability. This blend of speed, adjustability and forgiveness makes this driver ideal for the broadest range of golfers.
Elyte X (9, 10.5, 12 degrees): This 460-cc driver has the same shape as the standard Elyte but features two weight ports in the sole, one in the centre and the other in the heel. Moving the 13-gram weight to the heel creates a larger draw bias for golfers who struggle with a slice, while placing it in the center location boosts stability. In the draw setting, this club creates more right-to-left shaping than last season’s AI Smoke Max D driver.
Elyte Triple Diamond (8, 9, 10.5 degrees): This 445-cc driver is designed for accomplished golfers with fast swings who generate excessive spin. While the other Elyte drivers have a titanium sole, the Triple Diamond features a 360-degree carbon fibre chassis paired with adjustable weight screws for additional spin control. This will be the favoured model of most Tour players and visually is a more traditional pear shape with a unique gloss finish on the carbon crown.
Below are the 3 key things you need to know about the tech featured in the Callaway Elyte drivers.
1. New crown material
To help get the CGs of the Elyte family lower to increase launch, Callaway is using a new material it calls Thermoforged carbon for the crown of the driver. The advantage is that, previously, carbon crowns needed to be sanded and polished manually after coming out of the mould to meet manufacturing tolerances. Now, with the Thermoforged material, the crowns require no further processing, ensuring consistency throughout the line.
The new crowns actually were so effective in testing that Callaway has removed the 360 carbon chassis from all but the Triple Diamond driver as the results with the standard models were better without it.
2. The next phase of Ai
Artificial Intelligence has been a staple of Callaway’s lineup for over a decade at this stage, and the Elyte line is no exception. With the introduction of Ai Smart Face in the Paradym Ai Smoke line last year, Callaway was able to control 1,500 points across the face to create variable face thicknesses optimised for different swing types.
But they openly admit that didn’t have full control over the face last year. There was still some manual blending through simulation. And the Callaway team gathered more data, wrote more thousands of lines of code, took more swing speeds from players. With Elyte’s new Ai10x Face, Callaway says it has 10 times the number of control points to shape the face. The company also has full control over the face for the first time, which helps its engineers cater to individual golfer’s swing types.
3. 3D printing leads to speed and forgiveness
While Callaway hasn’t yet 3D-printed a driver, the technology was used to help create the shapes for the new Elyte drivers. Typical driver design resulted in just three or four prototypes being manufactured and tested before making a few changes to get it ready for launch.
With the use of 3D printing, Callaway was able to print nearly 75 nylon models that were actually testable on a robot. From there, they were able to create a shape for the new driver that offered a larger footprint for more forgiveness but also refined aerodynamics to make it faster. The 3D-printed prototypes helped Callaway designers create both a faster through improved aerodynamics and a more forgiving driver thanks to a larger footprint.
Price and availability
All of the Callaway Elyte drivers and fairway woods go on pre-sale and select Callaway custom fit on Friday, Jan. 17th and available in all Callaway stockists on Jan 31st.
Elyte and Elyte X drivers will have an RRP of €699, with the Elyte Triple Diamond available for €749
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