I noticed a gain in distance with a very straight flight that didn’t want to go left (my dreaded miss) at all. The Speed seriously captured me and might be a chance at removing the MAVRIK from its position. The flight was great and I can see it suiting so many golfers, and is closest to the original Epic of the two. The MAX was so easy to hit, and looking down it gave a real confidence boost. Whereas shifting the weight towards the toe didn’t create a fade but a straight flight.īoth these new models really impressed me. With a bit of draw bias in its most neutral setting for me, moving the weight to the heel really got the ball moving left.

The adjustability of the MAX model was also a positive.

The flight was a little higher, and turned over more easily, and I felt I could swing with freedom without fear of a really big miss. Not far behind in the distance stakes, the Epic MAX was a forgiveness machine.

In fact, if anything my mis-hits were penalised less with the Epic Speed. The Speed managed to get past my driver, albeit not by a massive margin, but any distance gain is a bonus, particularly given there was no loss of forgiveness. When it came to more detailed performance testing both drivers proved their worth. In these areas, I was also impressed by the Epic MAX, which has a bigger footprint at address and is a little louder. Off the face the feel was almost the same, the Epic Speed a nice muted, powerful sound that maybe felt fractionally hotter off the face. The Speed is slightly less rounded, part of its more aerodynamic design to my mind, but not hugely different. Both are about as traditional as modern drivers can look, while I appreciated the slightly toned down graphics on the crown of the Epic Speed. The Epic Speed immediately identified itself as my kind of driver, although when compared to my MAVRIK Sub Zero on just feel, flight and looks it wasn’t as if I was throwing old faithful away instantly.Īt address my “older” driver and the Speed were remarkably similar. And finally, the proceeding MAVRIK Sub Zero has maintained a spot in my bag for the past year. Alan Hocknell, one of Callaway’s top R&D people to talk about the range. HOW THEY PERFORMED: Testing equipment is always exciting, but these drivers had me extremely keen to get to the range and course for a number of reasons.įirstly, the original Epic driver was an absolute favourite. Upon first swings I was similarly able to discern slight differences in flight and feel that made it clear the Speed was likely more my sort of club, but both were impressive to say the least. The Epic Speed looking like my sort of the driver, while the MAX looked flatter, wider and more forgiving at address. MODELS PLAYED:Callaway Epic Speed with 9˚ loft, fitted with Mitsubishi Chemical MMT 70 shaft and Callaway Epic MAX with 9˚ loft, with Project X HZRDUS Smoke iM10 70 shaft.įIRST IMPRESSIONS: Having anticipated it might be hard to split these two, I was instantly taken with cosmetic differences out of the box. I am enjoying the unfolding of history, even if it's a bit accelerated.TESTED BY: Jimmy Emanuel, Golf Australia Deputy Editor. I'm playing as Frederick Barbarosa and am in turn 161 (200 BC) Have just moved into first place in terms of score. The first game I played was as Dido on Prince level and won it by a religious victory on turn 150 (780 AD)

Kinda wanted to give me a running start at the higher (for me anyway) difficulties. I've been away from the game for about a year and was a bit rusty, so in the last game I played, I bumped the difficulty down 2 levels. If I'm too far ahead of the 'reality' time line, I should probably play the next game at a higher difficulty. One benchmark I've always used as to how I'm doing in Civ games, is to compare where I am technologically to my own rough understanding of history. Playing longer games gave me that extra time. When I first started playing I found it took me a while to catch up to the advantages given by the game to the AI. I've been playing since Civilization came on 1.44MB diskettes

Epic speed