Different?: Old Golf Driver VS New Driver (30 Year Test)
Rick tries a 1991 Callaway Big Bertha driver & compares it to the 2023 Callaway Paradym! ▻Visit my website …
source
March 21, 2026
Headlines
"Harmony in Every Heartbeat
Rick tries a 1991 Callaway Big Bertha driver & compares it to the 2023 Callaway Paradym! ▻Visit my website …
source
Subscribe to H.I.T (my review channel) here: https://youtube.com/@HITGolfReviews?si=3LsBwDvFvmZCG3o8
I remember back in the day when i was still swinging a wooden driver and s0me guys i played against start8ng showing up wit the big bertha – they were bombing that thing – i think i was making $9 hr and could only watch in envy – i think my first modern driver was a “Titanium” off brand thing but i loved it for at least 5-6 years – now i have been playing a callaway maverick for the last 5 years – that club is so damn schweeet – every time i take it into 2nd swing golf to compare it to something newer, it still wins for feel, distance & consistency
Small percentage difference between persimmon drivers and new ones. The insanity of marketing is ridiculous. I honestly can't stand how ridiculous this video is, clubhead speed is everything in the shaft is shorter. Apparently the questionable golfer doesn't realize what physics is
i got a set of the big bertha from my faterh in law. the driver is tiny compare to modern day driver, a golf partner thought i was teeing off with wood. I just bought a few Callaway Elyte driver/woods though. They were on such big sales, I couldn't pass up.
I love and I will never never give up my Callaway Big Bertha 9° driver I can't hit none of the new drivers they could be 10 ft wide and 10 ft tall and I can't hit one of them that Big Bertha driver is the greatest
sounds about right, 30 years of the latest and greatest improvements every single year got us 20 yards…but they are easier to hit too.
My big bertha titanium is not the 454 model and I can't determine when it came out, or how many cc's. Its alot bigger than the one in the video tho. It only says –
Big Bertha
Titanium
9*
I have it
Great accuracy 😀
Rick you should either test a new driver in a old steel shaft or a old driver in a new graphite shaft and then compare them in the same specs. otherwise its not a fair test. i get it you want to show how far the developement have come in 32 years.. the only thing that have changed in golf clubs are.. longer shafts, stronger lofts and more tec in the irons, wedges with tons of bounce and taylormade grinds to suit different golfers.
you can test that paradym with a 5 wood shaft and then lets see. i reckon they will carry the same lenght.
I hit my persimmon 4 wood straight and 285 carry. I’m going back to wood man
I have the Big Bertha in my bag..love it.
I think the funniest thing yet is the club companies saying they used AI to design their clubs, than a year later they use AI to improve their clubs, some have used that for over 3 model years now. So AI is improving AI every time they use it? all Hype and bullshit to sell a club that is 100% no better than the last one OR AI has told them what needs to be done and they are just kind of using what AI tells them saving some slight moves for new product down the line. Just like going to 3 different club fitters and getting 3 different outcomes.
Is the used golf stores paying you? Be ause I couldn't hit a 300 yard drive til now and only with new equipment.If I use use my old driver it's 270 tops.
200 cc should’ve been the max. Shame on the USGA.
I just found my dads Big bertha in his bag, I remember how crazy that thing was when it came it. I'm excited to use it again
Callaway steelhead + with uniflex shaft was and still is a great club
I still have my Big Bertha Warbird. People say it sounds awful but I love the way it rips down the fairway
I think a new club gives a golfer confidence, they think the club is going to fix what they are searching for. Confidence is a huge component to how people play. This confidence fades and they are back to their old ways.
The Warbird in this competition was more like a 3 wood then a driver due to length.
But remember kids, distance means nothing if you're missing tons of fairways. Less dispersion and a consistent ball flight is far more important to get right. Fairways are golden.
I cant understand what you're saying.
$260 in 91 is pretty expensive when you think about drivers 15 years later (2005-06) were only $350 for a much more better technology and you got 460cc heads newly arrived on the market.
Include the fact you did the older driver second
Farthest drive I ever hit was 325 yards and it was with an old driver was such a inconsistent driver but when u hit it flush the ball went forever
Part of me wishes that golf tech would revert back to wooden woods, steel shafts, blade irons..
That huge club head on that new Calloway comes into my vision in my left eye on the backswing, very disruptive.
i still have that exact callaway in my bag. your making me feel old i remember being amazed how big it was!
I bag an s2h2 wood set and a 9.0 s2h2 big Bertha. They still hold up.
A while ago a friend of mine would always play the wooden drivers of his grandpa because he loved the feel of them. They went A MILE, he had crazy clubhead speed so he outdrove everyone by far. He hit absolute bombs. I was then curious and to see how his swing speed would do with a modern driver and forced him to hit a few with my TaylorMade M6. Not even 20 yards difference. Absolutely crazy.
if you do a little simplistic math, you find out that its all just due to the difference in clubhead speed, which is due to difference in length. even the spread is the same. bottom line, drivers didnt improve at all over the years, might as well get a 10 buck one from ebay lol
Staggering and has me wondering what if 30+ years ago, im now 55. I quit golf when kids came along and id cracked the face on my driver, which was only a later addition to the set. I played other sports so golf was just a fortnightly or monthly hit with team mates during summer. Id spent maybe $500 in total for my off the self set of Wilson clubs from K Mart including 3 and 5 wood i think it was, 3, 5, 7, 9 and SW. Then bought a whatever putter felt ok. All i could afford as an apprentice, and cricket as my main sport wasn't exactly cheap.
But id often hit that 3 wood 300m off the tee. Granted its in Australia and summer, so i imagine i was getting a bit more role than a sim. Never really though about a driver as people said they were hard to hit until some guy watched me tee off and was like, holy shit what did you just hit? I told him a 3 wood and he said 'son, go get yourself a driver asap'. Probably took me a year to getting around it but it helped, id hit the 300m+ way more regular. Now let me qualify all this, i sucked at golf. Hitting from the tee was easily the strongest part of my game. I could hit that 300m and then duff my short irons all the way to the green then be fairly average at putting. Not the worst, but would probably 3 put 3 or 4 times. Probably not unexpected for how little i played. Generally i get around the course in the 90s.
Anyway my driver was nowhere near as good as that Big Bertha, it probably cost as much as my entire set minus the bag and buggy. Would have loved to have hit the new ones with the strength and flexibility i had back then. And yeah i watching thinking of getting back into it now the kids are off living their own lives.
I have only ever gone to the driving range and am using a low cost not name brand set I bought in the 1990s.
I am really looking forward to eventually getting one of these big drivers to see if there is a difference.
Right now I would stink with every club.
I'll never forget getting my 10.5 ° big Bertha , I used to " borrow" my cousins 3 wood , oh those were the days
Sad that the older one is the type of driver I use 😂
Currently playing with The BIGGEST BERTHA Callaway driver 10 degree from my Grandpas bag, looks just like the one in the video just has red text on the bottom saying biggest bertha instead of big bertha
Playing in HS in the 2000’s I was using a hand me down big Bertha and it was amazing! I eventually went to the Cleveland hi-bore to get a bit more loft but still ran the big Bertha on some days depending on wind and conditions lol
What a great video, thanks for sharing the info 👍👍
these 2 are my literal 2 drivers.
I learned how to drive with my uncle's 1995 Great Big Bertha in 2007 lol. It was bigger than the original, but not as massive as the ones you see as today.