Callaway’s Big Bertha brand is synonymous with forgiving golf clubs. The Carlsbad-based company is bringing the name back once again to introduce their new line of ultra-forgiving, slice-reducing clubs, including the 2020 Callaway Big Bertha B-21 driver, fairway woods, and hybrids.

“You can’t argue with physics.” That was the tagline used the last time Callaway reintroduced the Big Bertha name to golfers, and the company remains absolutely right—it’s hard to argue against physics.

What’s also hard to argue is that, for the vast majority of recreational golfers, the most common miss is a high spinning shot to the right (for right-handed golfers) AKA  “a slice.” The ball flight is created by a glancing blow to the ball, which increases spin and spin axis, causing shots to veer offline.

If you fall into this category of frustrated golfer tired of yelling at your driver and fairway woods to “get down!” and “land soft!” then the new B-21 line from Callaway could be your ticket to reducing spin, reducing your slice miss, and shooting lower scores—or at least finding the fairway more often.

What is also very interesting with this release is the timing, because right now in recreational golf history, we are seeing an influx of new golfers not seen since the late ’90s. New golfers generally struggle with a slice miss, and as mentioned off the top, the name “Big Bertha” is well known to even casual golfers as forgiving. Regardless of whether you are just getting into golf or have been struggling with that banana ball for a while, the Big Bertha is here to help.

2020 Callaway Big Bertha B-21 Driver

Callaway is throwing everything its engineers know about drivers into making the Big Bertha B-21 a spin-killing, slice-reducing machine by pairing a more low and forward center of gravity (CG) with draw-biased internal weighting—along with many more of its proprietary technologies.

The other part of the B-21’s story is its MOI and ability to match a high-MOI forgiving design with a lower forward CG. When combined, it helps engineers generate spin robustness (a term we will continue to hear more about), which is a golf club’s ability to create more consistent numbers and smaller standard deviation from optimal conditions. It’s a much more specific way to say “we are building a big sweet spot”—and bigger it is.

One of the biggest keys to the B-21’s design is the face—it’s HUGE! It puts more surface area higher in the toe and lower in the heel, which is exactly where golfers who come over the top and create slice conditions mishit shots. Callaway conducted a test with golfers that had an average handicap over 17. In fact, 17 was the minimum handicap to be involved in the testing process and the B-21 dropped the average participant’s spin by close to 600 RPMs from their standard drivers.

This kind of spin reduction helps in aiding straighter shots, because as spin drops, so does the effect of a tilted spin axis. An easy way to understand the concept is that as an airplane turns it “banks” into the turn; you see it lean towards the direction it wants to move. A golf ball does the exact same thing when traveling through the air, and when you pair more axis tilt with more spin, you have shots that curve further offline—that is what the B-21 driver is designed to reduce.

Other key technologies included

• Callaway’s Patented “Jail Break” technology to stiffen the frame of the driver and help boost ball speeds.
• All-new, artificial intelligence-created Flash Face SS21 to better optimize the new larger face shape for the intended golfer.
• T2C Triaxial Carbon Crown to save weight from the crown of the driver’s head and help in lowering the CG.

We’ve done a lot of talking about the head, but there is one last part to building a club that helps reduce spin and hit straighter shots: the shaft! For the Big Bertha B-21 Callaway is bringing back another component of the historic brand—the RCH shaft. This is an in-house designed profile with a higher balance point to help make it easier for golfers to square the clubhead.

We have seen this with a number of OEMs when it comes to building clubs as “total systems” designed to work in conjunction from grip to head. Yes, fitting is still important, and there could be potential gains from various shaft profiles, but the BB-21 is targeted towards the biggest part of the golfing bell curve with the stock RCH shaft (available in 45, 55, and 65-gram offerings).

Specs pricing, and availability

The Callaway Big Bertha B-21 Driver will be available in lofts of 9, 10.5, and 12.5 degrees in both right and left-handed and will be in stores starting September 10th. It will be priced at $499.99

Callaway B-21 Fairway Woods

“Drum roll, please! Now, introducing…for the very first time…Callaway fairway woods…with offset!”

This is truly a big deal, because beyond the center of gravity shifting and lie angle adjusting, adding offset to woods is one of the easiest ways to help golfers reduce a slice, and until now the biggest players in the fairway wood market has completely stayed away from adding it as an option in its lineups. Of all the OEMs, the only one to consistently offer an offset option is Cobra (I know this segment well as my dad has been playing offset woods for more than a decade, and any time a new line comes out the first question I get is “anything with offset?”)

When looking at the intended target golfers for Big Bertha B-21, fairway woods becomes a very important part of the set because they are used often and mostly from the fairway to approach greens. Since hitting fairway woods from the fairway is also one of the most challenging things for a lot of golfers, the designers at Callaway have put every tool they can into these clubs to make them as easy to elevate and confidence-inspiring as they possibly could.

The key design feature to make the B-21 fairway woods easy to hit from tighter lies is how designers have lowered the leading edge to get more face closer to the ground and below the ball. Now, speaking of the face, each head has been optimized with Flash Face SS21 and individually designed for the loft to create maximum ball speeds based on algorithms given to the AI from impact testing of golfers. I know that seems like a lot to take in, but what it really means is Callway knows where you are most likely to mis-hit shots and taken that into account when designing these clubs.

Other technology features include

• Callaway’s Patented “Jail Break” technology to stiffen the frame of the fairway wood and help boost ball speeds at the center and around the face.
• T2C Triaxial Carbon Crown to save weight from the crown of each fairway head and help in lowering the CG.

Just like with the B-21 driver, the stock Callaway RCH shaft has been specifically designed to work for the fairway woods and will be available in 45, 55, 65, and 75-gram offerings to allow golfers to progressively matching their shafts through their set.

This makes the Callaway Big Bertha B-21 fairway woods the most forgiving, slice-reducing fairway woods Callaway has ever made.

Specs pricing, and availability

The Callaway Big Bertha B-21 fairway woods will be available in a 3-wood (15 degrees), 5-wood (18-degrees), 7-wood (21-degrees), both right- and left-handed with a 9-wood (24 degrees) available in right-hand only, on starting September 10th.  They will be priced at $299.99 each.

Callaway B-21 Hybrids

This brings us to what could be the most valuable part of the line for regular golfers who struggle with long to mid-iron approach shots—Big Bertha B-21 Hybrids. These are a combination of everything Callaway has learned from previous game-improvement hybrid designs mixed with their most recent Super Hybrid. The B-21’s pack a major punch, all the way down to an available 8-iron hybrid.

They have more offset to fall in line with the new B-21 irons to help build combo sets and maintain a look as the set transitions from irons, and that’s just what you can see. Inside is a combination of technology and materials built to offer the maximum amount of forgiveness available.

The most important technology brought over from the Super Hybrid is the MIM (metal injection molded) tungsten weights strategically placed at the heel and toe of each club and optimized for loft and head weight. This puts upwards of 70 grams or more than 30 percent of the club heads total mass (depending on the loft) around the perimeter to boost MOI and raise launch. Raising launch also means shots that land with a steeper angle of descent, equalling greater stopping power.

Similar to other clubs in the new Big Bertha B-21 line, the hybrids and have:

• Callaway’s Patented “Jail Break” technology to stiffen the frame of the hybrids sole to crown and help boost ball speeds around the entire face.
• All-new, Flash Face SS21 created with the help of artificial intelligence to optimize each loft in the hybrid series for ball speed and launch.
• T2C Triaxial Carbon Crown to save weight from the top of each hybrid to lower the CG and help golfers hit higher-launching, easier-to-stop shots.

The end result is a set of hybrids that can help any golfer in need of more launch and more distance, and the ability to properly gap from their longest iron to their highest-lofted fairway wood without having to sacrifice any forgiveness or ball speed along the way.

Specs, pricing, and availability

The Callaway Big Bertha B-21 hybrids will be available from 3-hybrid all the way to 8-hybrid, in both right and left-handed starting September 10th. The stock shaft with be the Callaway RCH 65-gram hybrid.

They will be priced at $249.99 each.