A Driver That Has A Completely New Face Technology Is Pretty Rare

Callaway R&D chief Alan Hocknell tells us about the Epic's design.

It has taken four years of R&D to bring “Jailbreak Technology” to market, in one of the most complicated driver heads ever made. Call away’s Senior Vice President, Research & Development, Alan Hocknell, talked us through the process...

How did Jailbreak come about?

It was a research and discovery thing. In the early stages, we witnessed something we’d never seen before. It was a phenomenon whereby utilising vertical rods in the head of a driver would potentially encourage the body and face to react very differently on impact with a golf ball. It was different from our other models of impact we had studied and we weren’t quite sure at the time what we were seeing. However, we are sufficiently resourced at Call away, and curious enough, to experiment further, mostly on computer, using a simulation tool.

This research led to some early prototypes that demonstrated a clear ball speed enhancement, while still adhering to the current CT rule, and it was at this stage our senior management team got involved. The next stage was to understand how we could manufacture this particular piece of technology in a driver head so that it survived impact with a ball. So it was a huge challenge.

When did you first witness the full performance?