Rogue week comes to a close today. Callaway’s signature (so far) product release has been, dare we say, understated – at least compared to last year’s Epic launch.
The Rogue family is being rounded out with three sets of irons as well as two hybrid options – all replacing the nearly 18-month old Steelhead XR family. You’re probably expecting Standard and Pro models of the Rogue hybrid, seeing as how the Steelheads came in standard and Pro. But as we learned with Tuesday’s fairway wood release, Callaway’s doesn’t mind throwing you a curveball.
Honey, I Shrunk The Jailbreak
As with the Rogue fairway, THE story for the new Rogue hybrids is Jailbreak – two stainless steel bars that connect the crown to the sole. The idea is to boost ball speed by reducing body deflection thereby focusing more force back to the face. Callaway says that while shoehorning Jailbreak into a fairway was a challenge, fitting it into a hybrid was akin to the Manhattan Project.
“The difficulty with the hybrid is really how small it is on the inside, and how the face shape is different from a fairway wood,” says Alan Hocknell, Callaway’s VP of R&D. “As we went through analysis we could that the face shape was causing us to distort the Jailbreak position slight one side or the other. We could see sensitivity to the ball speed advantage depending on where the bars went.” – Alan Hocknell, Callaway Golf
On top of that, actually making the head was no picnic, requiring intricate investment cast molding of both the head and the slender (3MM in diameter) steel bars.
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As with the fairway woods, the Rogue hybrids feature Callaway’s 360 Face Cup face in conjunction with Jailbreak to create greater ball speeds and, by extension, distance.
“Jailbreak makes the head stiffer in the vertical direction,” says Hocknell. “We can then experiment with making the face a lot thinner, and the radius, the edge of the face, a lot thinner as well. Doing that we can make the face more energetic while not exceeding any CT limitations.”
As with irons, the idea is to make the face hotter over a larger area. Center hits are center hits, and that’s always where the CT is highest on any club. But if you boost the CT in all parts of the face, you’ll lose less distance on miss-hits. It may not be of much benefit to Sergio, but for the likes of you and me it may mean the difference between reaching a Par 5 in two or landing in the front bunker.
“In many ways, it’s similar to the Rogue driver,” says Hocknell. “We’ve got a face that’s thinner and more energetic. There’s more energy constrained into the direction of impact, which ends up in the ball in the form of ball speed, and that’s because there’s less loss by the head vibrating vertically.”
Rogue’s face is made from Carpenter 455 stainless steel, and the head features Callaway’s Internal Standing Wave – extra weight that is uniquely placed in each loft to optimize launch and promote easy launch.
Like the outgoing Steelhead hybrids and the new Rogue fairways, the Rogues hybrids are not adjustable.
Rogue X Hybrid
As we said, there are two Rogue hybrid models. The standard Rogue hybrid fits into the Game Improvement category – it’s slightly larger than Callaway’s Apex hybrid - while the new Rogue X hybrid matches the oversized Rogue X irons.
Rogue X as a family can be considered a mainstream iteration of Callaway’s premium-priced Epic Star line – a lightweight, distance maximizer for slower swing speed players, or really anyone who simply wants to bomb the hell out of it.
The Rogue X hybrid has a larger chassis compared to the standard Rogue, and has plenty in common with the Rogue irons: stronger lofts, lighter heads and longer shaft configurations. In addition, the Rogue X will be available all the way up to an 8-hybrid, which will allow you to put together as easy to launch set as you want.
And not for nothing, Callaway is also extending the standard Rogue hybrid line to include a 6 hybrid.
Specs, Price and, Availability
As we learned Tuesday, the Rogue fairway woods have the potential to rival RocketBallz as a game-changer. Can Jailbreak add similar pop to the Rogue hybrids? We’ll have to wait until MyGolfSpy’s Most Wanted to find out for sure, but it bears the question – what do you want from your hybrid?
If it’s long iron replacement, set makeup becomes critical for proper gapping as you work towards the long end of the bag. If you use hybrids because you find them easier to hit than fairway woods, then raw distance is more your thing. It’s all a matter of how these buggers fit into your set, and where.
The Standard Rogue hybrid retails for $249.99, with the Aldila Synergy 60 Hybrid shaft stock, along with a Lamkin grip.
The Rogue X also retails for $249.99, with the same stock shaft and grip.
Both will be available for pre-sale tomorrow and will hit the stores February 9th.
For more information, visit CallawayGolf.com.
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