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What’s new? How much does it cost? And how does it perform? Jack Backhouse brings you the low down on Callaway’s Mavrik driver
How does the most forgiving driver in the Mavrik lineup perform? Find out in our Callaway Mavrik driver review.
Callaway Mavrik driver review: NCG Summary
NCG SUMMARY
The Mavrik driver has that classic Callaway and looks great behind the ball. It boasts great ball speed on strikes all across the face and still performs very competitively in the distance race.
The ball doesn’t feel like it’s springing off the face as quickly as other Callaway drivers and does spin more, but brilliant for players who are looking to keep the ball in play more with off-centre strikes.
PROS
Sits beautifully behind the ball
Has that can’t miss feel off the face
Sounds fantastic
CONS
Higher spin is not ideal for a player looking for all-out distance
Callaway Mavrik driver review: First impressions
The Mavrik driver looks superb behind the ball, exactly like you would expect from a Callaway driver. I really liked how the black gloss fades into carbon on the crown of the club and to me, the clubface felt big behind the ball which gives me the confidence to swing confidently at the ball.
The Callaway Mavrik driver does have some draw bias at address, but not enough to really notice and put you off if you are already a draw-biased player.
Callaway Mavrik driver review: NCG verdict
As soon as I put the club behind the ball I knew I was going to enjoy hitting the Callaway Mavrik driver. As someone who ‘relatively’ hits the ball a good distance, I tend to lean towards drivers that just help me get the ball in play as often as possible and reduce my misses. The theory being I can hit the driver as much as possible and get as far down every hole as I can without worrying about particularly wayward shots.
Immediately I saw a higher launching, slightly higher spinning shot which seemed to stay in the air forever, which might be down to the Triaxial carbon crown that is very light, allowing weight to be distributed differently around the head promoting increased forgiveness.
One of the standout data points that I collected on the Flightscope was how small the front-to-back dispersion of the driver was. Less than 10 yards between the furthest and best hit shot and the shortest and worst hit is quite remarkable for a driver. Callaway have put an FS2S titanium face on the Mavrik and combined with the Jailbreak bars Callaway give us a driver with fast ball speeds from pretty much any strike location on the face.
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A carry of 269.9 yards is really solid for me and further than my current gamer. I hit the 10.5-degree version of the Mavrrik driver which I could have possibly lofted down for more distance, but I loved the way the flight looked and felt at 10.5 so I just left it there. Callaway’s adjustable heads make it really easy to fine-tune the driver to your needs.
The spin on the Mavrik is higher than other models at 2931rpm. If you are only interested in optimising a driver for distance, this could be too high. The Mavrik driver does however maintain good spin on off-centre hits which allows the ball to still carry a good distance. On other drivers the spin on off-centre hits drops too low, drastically reducing carry and control of the ball.
I took the Callaway Mavrik driver out on the course to play with in my regular Sunday morning four ball and it performed really well. After a few shots with the Mavrik, you get a ‘can’t miss’ feeling which gave me the confidence to hit the driver on holes that normally I might not.
This driver definitely exceeded my expectations in performance compared to other ‘maximum forgiveness’ drivers. To be able to get great distance off the tee whilst still having all the benefits of a highly forgiving driver makes this a great tool that would suit pretty much anyone.
The larger profile head and higher spinning shots do mean that you lose some workability with the Mavrik, but for me being able to consistently carry the ball a long way from any kind of strike trumps that, and I highly recommend golfers consider this driver.
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