50 Words or Less
Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond fairway wood creates tremendous ball speed with lower launch and spin. Impressive face technology. Sacrifices some consistency for workability – a good trade for the better player.
Introduction
Regular readers know that I constantly talk about the importance of club fitting. I rarely give a direct answer to those asking for club recommendations. But for the last couple years, if you asked me what fairway woods will produce the fastest ball speed across the biggest portion of the face, I could give you a simple answer: Callaway. The Callaway Paradym fairway woods [review HERE] left Matt Meeker “ecstatic,” so I was eager to see how the new Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond fairway wood performs for the player seeking high speed with lower spin.
Looks
At address, the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond fairway wood is just below average in size with a round, symmetrical shape. The face is fairly deep, making it an appealing choice off the tee. There’s a thick band of matte grey in front of a mostly carbon fiber crown. It sits slightly open in the neutral setting, and there is no alignment aid.
In the bag, the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond fairway wood stands apart from the rest of the line. The sole is a “plain” dark grey where the other Ai Smoke FWs have the Forged Carbon across the sole. In terms of branding, Callaway stuck to the modern playbook with “Paradym Ai Smoke” sized tastefully across the middle and “Callaway” and the club designation pushed to the toe and heel.
Comparing the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond fairway wood (above, left) to the Paradym Ai Smoke Max FW [review HERE], there’s surprisingly little difference in size and shape. Callaway lists the Triple Diamond as “Compact” and the Max as “Modern,” and perhaps the differences are greater at other lofts, but there’s only 1 cc difference between them in the 3W. The Triple Diamond is a little tighter from heel to toe, but I’d have a hard time telling them apart if they weren’t side by side. There is a more noticeable difference in face height – the Triple Diamond is about 1/8″ taller.
Sound & Feel
My first swing with the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond fairway wood put the ball perfectly on the center of the face, producing a satisfying sound that I liken to a snare drum. It’s medium in volume, a mid-pitch, metallic “pop.” Small misses produce a more high pitched, prototypical fairway wood sound. Big misses create a dull “thud” that’s quite disappointing in comparison.
The feel of the Ai Smoke Triple Diamond FW is quick and punchy. Like the sound, the feel loses its snap when you miss badly. Regardless of the quality of the strike, it’s easy to feel the exact location of impact.
Performance
With the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond fairway wood, the tech talk has been dialed down to put the focus on what this club does for the golfer. The only fancy term is Ai Smart Face, a design that definitely deserves its own moniker. On center, this club is as fast as any fairway wood I’ve tested. What’s more impressive is how it retains speed off center. Especially for a players club, the amount of speed it puts into mishits feels unfair. You need to get to the edges of the face to see the ball speed dip substantially.
Like the Paradym Triple Diamond fairway wood [review HERE], the Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond pushes more weight low and forward to produce lower spin. This is done with a weight screw and a steel sole. Callaway rates the launch as “Penetrating” and the spin as “Lowest,” and I’d agree with them on both counts. As a lower launching player, most of my good strikes were launched in the single digits with low spin. Even when I hit a flare right, the ball flight was quite strong.
Despite being a players club, I found the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond fairway wood fairly friendly. A big part of that comes from the face technology. Additionally, though the face is on the tall side, the full face scoring lines make it appear shorter to my eye and inviting to hit off the turf. Though it doesn’t want to launch the ball high, good strikes find a consistent trajectory.
While the Triple Diamond does sacrifice some forgiveness compared to the Max, the benefit is more workability. High level ball strikers will be able to curve this in both directions with ease and even hit higher flying shots. One final note: the adjustable hosel seen in these photos is only available in the 15 degree 3W. The 18 and 20 degree models have a traditional fixed hosel.
Conclusion
The Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond fairway wood does a great job offering the latest in face technology alongside the control and trajectory that better players prefer. Whether off the tee or turf, this club is built to produce piercing, high speed golf shots.
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Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Fairway Wood
Price & Specs
He founded Plugged In Golf in 2013 with the goal of helping all golfers play better and enjoy the game more.
Matt lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.
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3 Comments
Matt,
I’ve seen in tour pictures there is a triple diamond max version on tour. Have you heard if Callaway plans to release it to the public like they just did with the triple diamond max driver?
Brad,
I don’t have any inside info on that, but I would suspect that if it’s successful with the driver, we’ll see them do the same with the FW.
Best,
Matt
I’ve had this club in my bag for few months now. Your review here again is spot on. I came off from Paradym fairway wood which I loved. When testing this club against the Paradym at the time I didn’t see tremendous gains in distance, marginal at best but the feel is what swayed me over I just couldn’t resist the difference. No alignment aid on my 3 wood didn’t bother me either. When the shot comes to pull this club out of my bag I love it. I now even use it off the tee when in the past I would use Driver. I even use this club for that tough punch out shot in the rough to bring it up the fairway. It’s great.