The island vibes in Maui tend to have a calming effect, but in the world of golf equipment, Maui set the stage for utter gear chaos in the first week of 2024.

With tons of new equipment on the horizon, I made the trek to the Kapulua Plantation Course for The Sentry to see what cool stuff I could find.

Here’s a rundown of everything new that I spotted this week.

Happy New Year!

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke drivers, fairways and utilities

We got our first look at the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke products on Tour this week, including four driver models (Triple Diamond, Triple Diamond Max, Triple Diamond S and Max), two fairway wood models (Triple Diamond and Max), and a Triple Diamond Utility club.

While many players were testing the new products, and will likely switch further down the road, we confirmed that Si Woo Kim, Xander Schauffele, and Adam Hadwin, at least, will be using a new Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond driver. Hadwin, in particular, has a glob of lead tape on the heel portion of his new head, as pictured above.

See all of the photos of Callaway’s new Ai Smoke products here

Callaway’s new Chrome Tour X golf balls

Sam Burns (Chrome Tour X), Akshay Bhatia (Chrome Tour), Hadwin (Chrome Tour X) and Schauffele are also expected to debut new golf balls this week from Callaway.

Hadwin spoke in-depth about the new golf ball and driver:

“I’m not the guy that knows technology, but [the Ai Smoke driver has] been very good.

“It’s been a very easy switch over from Paradym, but did take me a while to find a head during the fitting process. Usually, drivers have been kind of plug and play almost. Like just match up the model, and they’re pretty close. This one took a little bit to figure it out, but once we did, it’s been really good. The numbers have been great.

“I’m in the new golf ball, as well, so I would say I’m probably 1-2 mph faster, with the combination. I’m not sure whether it’s the head or the ball or both, but in comparison to older golf ball and Paradym head, probably a couple miles per hour faster.

“The feel has been great. The versatility, and the sound. I played a practice round with Patrick Rodgers, and he even commented on that, just the way that it sounds coming off. I’m very pleased with it.

“I’m in the Triple Diamond head, and the Chrome Tour X.

“[The golf ball is] new for this year, yeah. I think the biggest thing is they changed the name, they went from Chrome Soft to Chrome Tour, and then I think there’s a slightly different – I just know what it does. I don’t see a lot around the greens, the iron profiles been really good. The visuals, the trajectory, has all been very much the same. Spin rates. Driver’s actually almost slightly higher than the other ones so far, like 100 rpm higher. Launch window same. Like I said, ball speed has been a little bit quicker with the combination.

“I was just saying to my caddie, one thing that – again, this has been 18 holes total with it – but this has been the first real wind that we’ve played in, that I’ve played in with the golf ball, and what I have seen so far is potentially in some of the crosswinds, the mishits are still going as far as some of the more well struck shots. Maybe it’s holding its – not that it’s holding its line per se – but it’s flying through the air on the mishits maybe a little bit better.

“I think if I remember correctly, during the description, that’s part of what they did. The aerodynamics have changed slightly that in the air it shouldn’t take off on you. It kind of holds its line. It might be flying a little bit better through the wind.”

Collin Morikawa (finally) makes a driver switch

New in the bag this week for Morikawa is a TaylorMade Qi10 Max driver, and a TaylorMade Qi10 V-Steel 5-wood. On Tuesday, I spoke with Morikawa at length about the change from his longtime original SIM driver, which was one of the oldest driver models still active on the PGA TOUR prior to this switch:

“Yeah, I am [switching into the Qi10 Max driver this week]. I got a lot of crazy looks from the guys when I said I wanted the Max.

“Look, the TaylorMade guys have been amazing. They’ve obviously modified a bunch of heads, put in weights everywhere, try to match up the CG’s. The SIM has been amazing for me. It’s a shallower head, it’s not a deep head, or a long head from front to back. It’s pretty shallow compared to the new ones. That’s always something that I’ve liked.

“Even though this face is the same as all the other the ones – the QI10 LS version and the regular core version – visually it looks shallower because of how long the head is. So I had to get used to that, but they made me up a bunch of heads. I tried this one with a different shaft. I actually haven’t switched shafts in a long, long time. Actually since Harding Park – a week before Harding Park was FedEx St. Jude, I switched to the 60-gram Diamana D-Plus, which I played for awhile. So I haven’t switched since then. Switched to another profile of a Dimana, a little lighter of a version, and I’ve just been finding center.

“At the end of the day, the center ones are always gonna be good. When you’re on Trackman, you look at it, and it looks good, it’s great. But I really care about the misses, right. Where am I going to miss it on the face? Does it feel good one my misses?

“And it’s been great. I’ve been playing it for about a couple weeks, like 3-4 weeks almost since Bahamas, and it’s been really good. I’m excited to put it in play. This course, with the wind, even though there’s wide fairways, you need to be in the fairway to score.

“It’s a little spinnier than my SIM. My SIM was a little bit on the lower side. Look, for someone who doesn’t hit it that far, it’s obviously nice to opimtize it as much as you can: high launch, low spin. But, with this one, I’ve been able to play my different heights. So if it’s downwind and I need to be able to carry it, it covers. If it’s straight into the wind, I’m able to keep it low, and keep it flat and not spinny. If anything it’s still living on the higher side of the spin numbers. Maybe it’s spinning at, you know, if I get a spinny one, it’s spinning at 2500-2600 rpm, but the good ones, when I’m hitting it in the center, are phenomenal. They’re spinning at 2300 and staying in the air. But everything about it, it’s launching where I want when I look up; it’s doing what I want. So it’s very, very positive in that sense.

“Sound and feel is huge. I’ve got a lot of hot melt in this head. Look, the Max is made for someone that needs to get the ball up in the air, needs the spin, I have to explain to everyone that, ‘Look I have the amateur version.’  But no, I truly love it. And the feel with the hot melt and everything in it and back and forth, it’s just softened it up a little bit and the mishits have been great. I’m excited to put in play.”

Morikawa playing the “game improvement” Max model of the new Qi10 lineup is all the proof amateurs need that they should be getting fit, and testing all available models from a given driver company. Just saying!

See all of the in-hand photos of Morikawa’s driver and 5-wood here

Tom Kim and Cam Young debut new jaw-dropping Scotty Cameron prototypes

I covered this story in-depth over on PGATOUR.com, so if you’re looking for more information, I suggest heading over there. If all you want to see is the photos, I suggest scrolling below…

Tom Kim’s Scotty Cameron TourType GSS proto (with a new Scotty Cameron Xperimental Shaft by UST Mamiya)

Yeah. “Wow,” is right.

Cam Young’s Scotty Cameron T-5 Tour Only prototype

Hmm. That’s quite an intricate shaping differential from the stock T-5 heads, isn’t it? Very interesting.

Xander Schauffele’s updated 2024 WITB

Schauffele showed up to Hawai’i this week with a surprising amount of new equipment in the bag, including a new Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond driver, a Paradym Ai Smoke 3-wood, and new one-piece Callaway Apex TCB irons (…and a 10-wedge!).

I asked Schauffele about all the changes during his Wednesday press conference. Here’s his answer:

“Yeah, a new line of Paradym [Ai Smoke] woods came out. They’re kind of — I would call them siblings to the old line of Paradym. Same as the irons. The irons are still the TCBs. So again, it seems like a sibling. It feels like I’m looking down at the same iron. The construction’s just a one-piece versus sort of a two-piece head, so they sound a little bit more pure and solid.

“Then the golf ball is identical. I think they just stamped a new logo on it. So it seems like there’s a lot of new things in, but for the most part, I think that the woods are probably the biggest thing.”

See Xander’s full 2024 WITB here

Jordan Spieth switches to a full set of Titleist SM10 Vokey wedges

As you probably know by now, Spieth is especially particular when it comes to his wedge setup. I mean, he’s precise down the half of a degree on each wedge! So it shouldn’t go unnoticed that Spieth switched into not one, but four SM10 wedges during the first week of Titleist’s Tour validation process.

I spoke to Spieith about the wedge switches on Tuesday:

“I think the biggest difference is when you get to the gap wedge and pitching wedge on the full shots. I think the sweet spot’s been moved; it’s bigger and it’s moved a little to where any potential over-hook is almost eliminated, which is really nice. You can step up with a left pin and be pretty aggressive.

“Other than that, they look great. I’m pretty particular with my 60. It isn’t always an ‘SM,’ sometimes it’s a separate prototype version, but this time I’m right into the SM10. It looks really good to me. The biggest thing that [Vokey Tour rep Aaron Dill] told me was that as I start to hit those longer shots, they won’t produce the odd outliers that overturn to the left.”

For more on the SM10 wedges, click here, or head over to our GolfWRX.com forums to see more in-hand photos

Foresight’s new GC Quad Max launch monitors

Foresight officially unveiled its new GC Quad Max launch monitor units this week at The Sentry, with several Hawaiian-themed custom skins. Who knew launch monitors could look so cool?

We’ll have more information on the new units in the coming weeks as they prepare to hit retail in early February.

How’s that for a start to the New Year in the world of golf equipment?

For more gear photos from The Sentry, head over to our GolfWRX.com Forums!