Why I bought them: I recently upgraded my set of clubs from a set of Tommy Armour knock-offs to the new Callaway X-20's. My old set of clubs were a hand-me-down set that I used for about 5 years. They were cavity back and a decent set of clubs but I felt that I wasn't getting the best out of my equipment so I finally broke down and bought a new set. Boy am I glad. I will get into all of the technical, technological jargon later in this review but first I will write about what they did for me.
Over the past five years I have golfed a little bit more and more every year. Last year I got out for about 20-30 rounds. I have never taken lessons and have played sports most of my life so I am naturally an athlete. My golf game had steadily improved to the point where I would usually score in the low 90's sometimes high 80's. Don't stop reading since your scores are better or worse, mine get much better! This year I decided to take the game more seriously, not only to improve my scores but also to improve my wagering. After all most rounds of golf include a side wager. No true athlete tolerates losing or mediocracy. These were just a few of the reasons I decided to break the lock off of my wallet and buy a new set of clubs.
Shopping: At first I went to various golf stores including Edwin Watts, Dick's Sporting Goods, The Sport's Authority, and some smaller Golf Shops and Golf Course Pro Shops to try different clubs and compare prices. At first I leaned towards Ping because my brother uses them and has spoken highly of them but I didn't like their feel and it was tough to find one of their high end sets for under $1,000. Then I checked out the Taylor Made sets and just didn't like their look. Most of the Golf Pro's and Salesmen steered me to the Callaway X-20's. The bigger chain stores will let you try out the clubs in their store by either hitting into a net or into a high tech computer screen. I really got a feel for different brands and clubs this way and found the Callaway X-20's to be the best fit.
Then the real shopping began, I got on-line like most of you probably will and checked out different sites using a search engine like Google, and searching E-Bay and found much better prices on the internet superhighway. The price I was looking at in the retail stores was $700-$850 for the set of 3 iron through pitching wedge but online it was more like $550.
What they did for me: It took very little adjusting and practice to see immediate gains in my golf game with these new clubs. My short irons, PW, 9 iron, 8 iron, seemed just about the same as my old clubs, maybe I am hitting it a little higher now with my new ones but it was from the 7 iron on down to the 3 iron where I saw the biggest improvement. The sweet spot on these clubs is so much bigger than any other club I had hit before. The only comparison that comes to mind is like comparing a wooden and aluminum bat, they just don't compare! You actually don't have to hit it perfectly to have a nice shot. I have found myself concentrating more on my ball placement and approach then on swing mechanics and ball impact. The long irons really lift the ball well.
I am very confident now with every iron in my bag where as before I was more confident with my 5 iron then my 3 iron so I would use it sometimes when I should have been using a 3 iron and just swinging harder, bad move. Now I can take a nice swing with the 3 iron and get better results. I shaved about 12 strokes off my game within the first month in 10 rounds using these clubs! Now my scores are in the mid to high 70's and very low 80's. My approach shots to the green land much softer because I hit every iron higher. I am more accurate with these clubs too making the greens feel much larger from the fairway. I have found I am able to hit these irons higher therefore getting more distance out of them than I could with my old clubs. I swing pretty fast so I went with the steel shaft, uniflex shafts instead of graphites.
These clubs don't only perform, they look cool too. They have a very large cavity back on the head and I have found myself cleaning them after each shot because they look so darn good.
Callaway's Technology: Progressive Wall Reduction System: This means the Callaway engineers, what a sweet job, have lowered the center of gravity which apparently gives the club more feel. They lowered the center of gravity 6 percent more than last years model, the X-18's.
Extreme Notch Weighting: This distributes weight to the perimeter of the club head to create a high Moment of inertia for greater stability and forgiveness.
Undercut Channelling: They have a 360 Degree undercut channel which maximizes perimeter weight by moving the center of gravity lower and further back on the club head. This is what makes the sweet spot even larger then most clubs.
Variable Face Thickness: Callaway says this maximizes ball speed and perimeter weighting for more distance and forgiveness.
S2H2: This moves weight from the point where the shaft meets the clubhead to the perimeter of the head.
If you want to read more about these or see a picture go to the Callaway web site at www.callawaygolf.com or if you have any questions just ask. If you are interested in a set of clubs for a more advanced player, click on this: Callaway X-20 Tour Irons
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