We put head to head the Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond driver up against the Ping G430 LST driver to assess how they compare in looks, feel, sound and performance.
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00:00Right, today I'm going to be looking at two of the titans of the low-spin driver market.
00:05I've got the Callaway Paradigm Triple Diamond up against the Ping G430 LST.
00:11Going to be looking at looks, feel, sound, performance, and coming up with an overall conclusion.
00:20Right, so I want to talk to you a little bit about the looks of these drivers. We all know
00:23it's important. We want to like what we're looking down on from an equipment point of view,
00:27and first thing must be said, they're both extremely premium looking drivers. Very different
00:33in their own ways, but both, as I said, really, really high quality premium looking drivers.
00:38I'm going to start with the Paradigm and talk a little bit about that. Down behind the ball,
00:42in particular, it's a little bit different to some of the others on the market. It's a 450cc head,
00:47so a little bit more compact than the more common 460cc heads, which gives it kind of a more
00:54traditional flavour in terms of shaping and size, but that's pretty much where the traditional element
01:00probably comes to an end. When you look down, it's super futuristic. You've got this deep blue
01:06carbon effects gloss towards the back of the club bed, moving forward into a matte grey
01:12sort of banner around the crown, which, yeah, I mean, it does give it a super futuristic element.
01:19From the sole, again, super premium. The graphics look fantastic. Carries through the deep blue theme,
01:26and we've got a nod to the low spin with our forward weight. I really love the graphics. I love the font.
01:34I think it is a super, super premium looking driver. You would not be disappointed at all with this.
01:40Moving on to the Ping, the G430 LS Tech here. Again, super futuristic. Down at the ball, it does look
01:49noticeably bigger than the Callaway Paradigm. This is 460 instead of the 450cc head. It does look a little
01:57bit bigger, which may inspire a bit more confidence behind the ball for a few. It's got the familiar
02:03Ping Turbulators on the top. Again, something they carried through from G425, but they've also
02:12sort of blended into the back now with a carbon finish much like the Callaway, much like the
02:16Paradigm Triple Diamond there towards the back with a nod to more futuristic materials. I love the framing
02:22of the contouring here on the back of the head, which you can really, when in behind the ball, gives you
02:27a really good concept of both where to line the ball up and where a suitable takeaway might be.
02:35Right, in terms of looks, really difficult. Both super premium, but for me, the G430 just takes it.
02:40Love the accent colors. Love the subtle topography on the back of the head.
02:44Fantastic looking driver. Ping takes it.
02:50Right, so now we're going to talk about one of the more subjective areas of the driver, but still one of
02:55the really important areas of any driver, the sound and the feel. These, from my testing already,
03:00I know have a very distinctly different sound, which I hope you pick up on camera. I'm going to start
03:06with the Paradigm driver here. I hope you can pick that up on the audio. It's a very deep, dull,
03:18thuddy sound, and it's very interesting. It's one that I haven't felt for a little while,
03:24but dull conjures up images of slow, and it certainly isn't slow. I'll show you the data on
03:31that, and it certainly isn't slow, but it is a very muted and deep sound compared to what I'm
03:37probably going to see with a ping in a moment, or I know I'm going to see with a ping in a moment.
03:41It's a lovely strike there. That one felt right out the screws, and you can really get good feedback.
03:52It's Paradigm in particular, I find very, very good for feedback in terms of letting you know
03:57exactly where you've hit it on the face, which is great. Reasonably forgiving, to be perfectly honest.
04:04Let's try a couple with the ping. Again, just that little bit more high-pitched than with the Paradigm.
04:13I mean, ping have done a great job. The G45, its predecessor, was a very tinny sounding driver.
04:19That was one of the few criticisms of an otherwise excellent driver, that the sound was just a little
04:26bit too high-pitched, and the audio wasn't great from it. Ping have done a really good job muting that,
04:30and it's comparable to pretty much everything else on the market now.
04:33It's just that the Paradigm is, again, like I said, just that little bit more muted.
04:41Both great feeling drivers, if I'm perfectly honest. Both very, very different, but
04:45yeah, from a feel point of view, you wouldn't be disappointed with either. You might have a
04:50preference in terms of whether you like to feel that sort of tinnier, high-pitched explosion,
04:55or you might in fact prefer that duller, more subdued, more subtle noise and feel. If so, Paradigm will be
05:02be the one for you. Right, for sound and feel, for me, Paradigm Triple Diamond just takes it. I love the
05:08muted, subtle sound that hides the aggressive ball speed that this club produces. Callaway takes it
05:15on this one. We're going to talk about performance now. I'm on the 18th tee here at the beautiful
05:24Northamptonshire County Golf Club, and I'm going to hit three away with each and just talk about
05:28a little bit about the performance and what I've found in my testing and in terms of the data we've
05:32collated. I'll pop the data on the screen in a little while so you can see the data that's been
05:36collected in the studios. I'm going to hit a couple away with each now and talk you through what I feel
05:41about both. I'm going to start with the ping. It's a slight heel strike, but started a fraction left,
05:51just cutting back nicely onto the left center of the fairway. Good. Nice flight window.
06:00Within five or six yards of the first one, beautiful window. The low spin is definitely doing
06:06the job there for me, which is great. A very strong ball flight there, so let's see what the Callaway's
06:11got to offer against that. Now, these are both set at the exact same loft. They're both at nine degree.
06:19Yeah, it was absolutely middled, so that was exactly what I was hoping for.
06:24Probably five yards of cut. Very, very similar in terms of window. Let's just compare that again
06:29with a couple of other strikes. Probably five or six yards left of center of the fairway.
06:37Cutting a little bit more than the ping this, but coming out of a really almost identical ball
06:42flight window, I would say. Probably a good time to pop up the data graphics here that I've taken
06:47previously. You'll see from the graphics, they're both coming out on very, very similar launch and
06:53spin windows, so around the 12-degree mark of launch and just under 2,500 revs of spin.
06:59But what you do find with the Paradigm, or what I found in testing, there is a little bit more ball
07:05speed, so my overall distance is a little bit greater with the Callaway Paradigm.
07:13But it's definitely there, and that's a really nice one to finish, eh?
07:17Right, well, I've come down to the fairway to see where those drives have ended up, and there is
07:20actually a little bit of a pattern I've noticed here. Marked up the ping balls, the ones I hit with
07:25the G430 LST with a P, and these are these three balls here. We've got this one in the left semi just
07:31there, and one in the center of the fairway, and one more over on the right-hand side. But
07:36interestingly, all three of the Callaway Paradigm Triple Diamond are just a little bit further up,
07:42probably only talking six or seven yards. Similar spread in terms of the width, in terms of the
07:46dispersion. But the additional ball speed I noticed during data testing is definitely coming to
07:52fruition when we see it out in a real-life course situation. There is that five or six yards. It's
07:57not huge, but it's not nothing. Right, so to conclude performance, for me, Paradigm just shades it. Both
08:05very similar in terms of flights, but the additional ball speed of the Paradigm is not something I can
08:09ignore. Paradigm wins this one. Right, time for the verdict, and this is a super tricky one because I like
08:15both of these drivers. Both super premium aesthetics and exceptional performance, and there's not much
08:20in it performance-wise. So overall for me, it was a 2-1 victory for the Paradigm Triple Diamond in this
08:26particular test. If you liked the video, please comment down below. I'd love to know which one you'd
08:31like to see, and if you'd like to purchase either of these drivers, have a look at the links below for
08:36the best deals in your region.