Callaway Mavrik Drivers Review

Callaway Mavrik Drivers Review - Joel Tadman tests the new Callaway Mavrik and Mavrik Sub Zero drivers and delivers his opinion on the performance

Callaway Mavrik Drivers Review

Rogue was an underrated driver range and surpassing it was always going to be tricky for Callaway. Its replacement, Mavrik, has an updated Flash Face designed by a super computer (you can read more about the new technology here), so it promised a great deal... and delivered, to a degree.

It's worth noting that the new Rogue ST driver (opens in new tab)has now been launched in place of the Mavrik, bringing back the Rogue name from 2018.

Watch our full video review below:

We tested the standard and Sub Zero Mavrik drivers indoors on the Foresight Sports GCQuad launch monitor in 9° loft and the new Aldila Rogue 60x shaft, which is one of the stock options. We'll be sure to add in the performance of the Max driver to this review once we have tested it, as it's arrival was delayed.

On first inspection, the orange colour pops certainly catch your eye on the shelf. Some may say it cheapens the look, but it's certainly preferable to all black. At address they look modern with the carbon fibre weave pattern visible, a traditional shape without too many elements to distract you. The Sub Zero model is shorter from front to back while the standard is a little larger and the Max has the most stretched out look of all three.

The Mavrik drivers feel incredibly solid, like almost no energy is lost between the collision of club and ball, with a powerful thud sound we really enjoyed.

We were expecting the cyclone shape of the standard model to give us more clubhead speed compared to the Sub Zero, but that wasn’t the case. In fact, we swung the Mavrik Sub Zero driver nearly 2mph faster, perhaps due to the smaller size.

The Sub Zero, in its more forgiving weight setting with the heavier 14g weight at the rear, performed the best for us while also being playable on the course. While it didn’t quite give us the ball speed of the standard model, the lower spin helped us achieve carries that were four yards longer on average.

The standard model is unquestionably more forgiving and easier to hit straighter, was faster and more efficient off the face, and will benefit slower swing speeds or golfers that need more spin to maximize distance – it gave us 300 rpm more spin on average.

Out on the course, we were surprised at how easy it was to control direction with the Mavrik Sub Zero without losing out on distance. Distance with control is always a winning formula and this seemed to deliver it, especially on slight mishits. It can't save a really bad strike or swing, but it's certainly more user-friendly than Rogue.