It is arguably one of the most popular golf infomercials ever. From one of the most recognized faces in the history of golf gear.
That's right; Jack Hamm was screaming "POWWWW!!!" all the way to the bank when he released the famous Hammer X driver.
Jack Hamm supposedly has hit a golf ball a 1/4 mile, has a club head speed of 162 mph, holds 6-World Records and is the father of the big headed driver. Quite a resume. We should add genius marketer to the list. His commercials which boasted "revolutionary" technology like a sword-shaped shaft, a "Zero CC" design and many others promised golfers what they all were so desperate to hear. Distance and lots of it. The Hammer X driver promised to add a whopping 50 yards on all your tee shots. Damn. Could it be true? I have to buy it to see.
What sounds like a joke now, actually sold a lot of drivers. So many that Jack launched product after product in the dark hours between 1AM-4AM on a golf channel near you. Hell, I am willing to bet many of you reading this right now still have one sitting in the garage as a reminder what not to do at 4 AM with a gallon of Rocky Road and a cold one in your lap.
So, of course we did everything in our power to track this guy down. The only intel we could get is that he has apparently gone full covert recluse status, but is still in Denver.
That didn't stop us though, we decided to put the club to the test once and for all.
INFOMERCIAL:
If you need a refresher on just what the Hammer X can do for your game, have a look below:
ZERO CC's?
We've all seen the gimmicky infomercials - some catchy music, an aggressively upbeat guy with a visor and haircut straight from the 70's making a TON of unrealistic claims.
It's about time someone took this driver and put it to the test. If I can add 50 yards to my tee shot for only $100, that new Callaway Epic I just got fit for is going straight back to the store.
HOW WE TESTED
- Two drivers were tested head to head to head (2016 Taylormade M1 and The Hammer X).
- Both were tested at 10.5° (M1 weights in the neutral position).
- Seven golfers with handicaps ranging from 0-15 and driver swing speeds between 90 and 115 mph participated in this test.
- Each tester hit 12-14 shots for each club from every set (frequently rotating between clubs).
- Gross mishits were eliminated and are not included in the shot counts.
- Remaining outliers were identified using Median Absolute Deviation (both distance and offline), and dropped before calculation of the final averages.
- All testers hit Bridgestone B330-RX Golf Balls.
- Ball Data was recorded using a Foresight GC2 Launch Monitor.
THE DATA
TaylorMade M1 2016
|
Distance
|
246.3 yds |
|
Accuracy
|
19.54 yds |
|
Spin
|
2768 rpm |
|
Launch
|
16.38 deg |
|
Ball Speed
|
141.48 mph |
Hammer X
|
Distance
|
221.02 yds |
|
Accuracy
|
23.78 yds |
|
Spin
|
2219 rpm |
|
Launch
|
16.97 deg |
|
Ball Speed
|
130.13 mph |
CRACKING THE CLAIM
I'm going to be brutally honest - I'm surprised the Hammer X traveled on average over 220 yards. With a E8.6 SwingWeight measured on the Auditor Digital Swing Weight Scale, it feels like you're swinging a 46-inch pitching wedge.
While it does make a cool "whoosh" sound through the hitting area, the 2016 Taylormade M1 bested the Hammer in almost every category:
- The2016 Taylormade M1 launched over 10 MPH Faster than the Hammer. So much for the Power Core.
- The increased ball speed from the M1 led to an average carry advantage of over 25 Yards Longer over The Hammer.
- Spin rates on the Hammer X were marginally lower than the M1, and the data suggests roll distances do not vary dramatically.
- It is interesting the note the average clubhead speed for the Hammer X was a full 5 MPH slower on average. The sword-shaped shaft fails to cut through the air with greater efficiency.
Hammer X vs M1 2016
| Club | Ball Speed | Launch | Spin | Peak Height | Offline | Carry | Total Yards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TaylorMade M1 2016 | 141.48 | 16.38 | 2768 | 37.3 | 19.54 | 233.00 | 246.30 |
| Hammer X | 130.13 | 16.97 | 2219 | 29.7 | 23.78 | 207.35 | 221.02 |
FOR REAL OR PHONY?
The data speaks for itself.
Not only did the Hammer X fail to live up to a single claim made in the infomercial, it actually performed significantly worse than a mainstream competitor.
With clubhead speed, ball speed, carry...hell, every launch parameter being measurably worse than the M1, it goes without saying that your $100 is at least $95 more than you should spend on the Hammer X.
chris b
2 months agoI’m glad to know that this was all crap!
Every time I see this infomercial I crack up though …. POW!
OTT Golfer
2 months agoNo crown and no ball skid marks!!! Of course the inverted club face helps too.
J.B.
2 months agoThe Hammer X was a real thing? I thought that YouTube clip was a lampoon of golf infomercials. Hilarious!
dang3rtown
2 months agoJust did some Jack Hamm research, aka, hammsearch.
First, LA Times article from 97′ http://articles.latimes.com/1997/sep/28/sports/sp-37036
But, the real gem is his twitter page which may be both the best and worst twitter account I have ever read. It’s a like the Iron Sheik was a long drive douchebag.
@JackHammerHamm
Matthew Person
3 months agoLove it. I think Phil playing the Hammer X this weekend.
Tony
3 months agoI had the same issue I bought this driver online (the new 2017 version) and it actually lost distance at first! I called the company they asked me how high i was teeing it up. I said I tee it up as high as I would any driver… moderate… They said in order for this driver to work due to the inverted face you need to tee it over the face by at least an inch… the higher the better! I did that. It actually worked it went 15 yards further than my Callaway epic! It instantly felt more solid! Kind of stupid if you ask me that you have to tee it so high but hey it worked. Its no doubt the longest driver ive ever hit. When I used it as it was intended!
Michael Leung
3 months agoI’ve waited so long for this review.
Rob
3 months agoIt worked for me. Key is you have to tee it higher than normal because of the inverted face. When I tee it the same height s my taylormade it went no where. When I teed it an inch over the head it went 50 yards further than my Taylormade! You have to use the tool properly for it to work. Hope that helps!
Jason Williams
3 months agoJack Hamm isn’t in hiding. He changed his name and now owns PXG.
POWWWW!!!!
Liam Garrett
3 months agoTrue story….I literally found one broke in half in a trash can at the golf course.
Have to admit I did take it a put a shaft in it and yes I did scream boom when I hit it!!!
Sean Supple
3 months agoHaha… In the wise words of TK, I did NOT see that one coming! Who’d have thought this golf club was a total piece of garbage?!
Alex Christiansen
3 months agoGood write up. i’m sending it to my Dad, since I was just making fun of him when I found one of these in his garage. Just wondering, why do you choose the Bridgestone balls for your testing? (over any others?)
John Christiansen
3 months agoThat is not the same hammer I have. Mine is a solid black head and oblong shaft. You got 4.5 red tees and I didn’t hit it very well. But my wise ass son Alex, criticized me for buying it. I’m 70 yo and have bought 3 full sets of clubs in my life. Alex is 41 and buys multiple sets of clubs every year. He has never played a full season with the same set of clubs and he’s going to criticize me?
Craig Connolly
3 months agoI found an original version for sale in the used bin at my local store…15 bucks…had to snap it up just to say I have one…lol. Yelling pow after each tee shot really does provide more distance too…fyi! Lol
Tom Thornbury
3 months agoIf Chuck Norris played golf he would use this driver
Alex T
2 months agoIf Chuck Norris played golf he wouldn’t use any driver. He hits his putter 600 yards. Into the wind.
Uhit
3 months agowonder if it is USGA conforming…
…and if it is, why was the back plate of the Triton a problem?
Jimmy Ingram
3 months agoLast year our foursome let an elderly gentleman play through that had one of these. He ended up letting all four of us tee one up with it. I didn’t think it felt half bad. Hit it within 10 yards of my TM. Those infomercials were way over the top but fairly representative of tv marketing in that era. And don’t forget the predecessor to the Hammer X, the Air Hammer.
Zack Webb
3 months agoIt only took 16 years of changes in technology to out perform the hammer x!
Roy Skidmore
3 months agoShocking
MyGolf Spy
3 months agoWe are on it! “As Seen On TV”Reviews
Joe M Bracamonte
3 months agoHas Hank Haney or Michael Breed called to contest your results?
Jackie Santopietro
3 months agoHammer X Driver 10 Degree Right Handed Xtreme Xfactor Aerospeed Shaft 46″
$25.00
0 bids
$34.50
Buy It Now
View Details
Xtreme Xfactor Aerospeed Graphite Shaft. Hammer X Driver. Right Handed. 10 Degree. Winn Dri Tac Standard Grip in Very Good Condition.
Condition: Used
Time left: 1d 1h 26m
Item location: Florida
Sold by: sacman75 (8348)
FTWPhil
3 months agoRegripped lol
Chad Mardesen
3 months agoIf only the Hammer had vertical grooves.
cksurfdude
3 months agoLOL’ing!
Seriously…. Good one!!!
Dave Horton
3 months agoHamm is in seclusion because he is a conman! Advertisers think golfers are moron’s! And they are right! I have seen Bruce Fleisher tell everyone that the Q link necklace will make you a better golfer just by putting it around your neck! P Azinger said the same thing about a shirt he was selling.
Even the guy who wrote this ad, calls Hamn’s ad popular! It’s not POPULAR!!! I think Hamn pays for everyone! The club sucks and Hamn is a shister!!
David Poimboeuf
3 months agopowwwwwwww!
Larry McIntire
3 months agoI tried one of Hamm’s drivers a year ago. When I hit a ball it felt like I was hitting a wall of cement. Terrible club. Interestingly , I returned the club — after months of telephone calls and badgering, I finally did get a refund.
Joel Spaans
3 months agoPOW!!!
John Duval
3 months agoYour test is flawed! It only works if you yell “BOOOOM!” When you hit it.
Harold W
3 months agoNow this guy I know well. Yes he was long off the tee. But he never entered any long drive contest at all.
Years ago he got into it with Bob Toski at the golf show. He was trying to cut Toski down in a very loud way. So all could hear.
I didn’t think Hamm made any club that was approved by the USGA.
He wanted a club that I designed, but could not make it right.
All of his clubs came from someone else.
The first club to come out he got from an older man(the guy that put Velcro on golf gloves) screwed him to wall and caused another fight at golf show. Much more
William Frogge
3 months agoDid you yell POWWW with each shot?
Tom Smith
3 months agoIf no one shouted ‘BOOM’ or ‘POW’ after each shot with the Hammer then it wasn’t a fair test..
Judd Golden
3 months agoNo surprise, an infomercial overpromises…BTW Jack is around, a friend just rented his house in Steamboat Springs Colorado Ben Manley
MyGolf Spy
3 months agoPlease put us in touch!
Marc
2 months agoA customer of mine bought the Hammer X and has spoken on a number of occasions directly to Jack. Even has his number lol
MyGolfSpy
2 months agoCan you put us in touch?
Tony V
3 months agoI sweat this guy was next to me at Tilden Park in Berkeley on Saturday…looked just like him. He made these weird deep breathing noises before he attacked the ball…but he was hitting a few off the net which would probably be a 260-265 carry. He wasn’t using the hammer though
Berniez40
3 months agoNEXT WEEK:
The Alien Wedge vs. Titleist Vokey
Chi Chi
3 months agoHa ha….I still have an Alien SW (not in the bag), and although it’s not very versatile, it has the widest box grooves of all-time! Spins the ball better than anything out there. And it’s the absolute BEST for soft, fluffy sand.
Frank
3 months agolol I got an orbit a clone of the alien sitting at home
Gordon
3 months agoI wrapped my Alien wedge around a tree more then a decade ago….
My buddy kept the head as souvenir for years! Hahaha
I also had an Alien driving iron 18* graphite shaft… that same friend played it for YEARS until it broke on a swing.
Derek
3 months agoChipped in from the bunker with the alien on the first day, so there’s that
Steve S
3 months agoI hit one of these my friend owned. My 2007 Burner went 20 yards farther, so the arguments about new tech are bunk along with the shaft argument. This thing was a scam from the get go. Luckily my buddy only paid $5 at a garage for his.
Rich
3 months agoThe golf informercial said golf magazine
Tested jack’s swing speed at 162
Is that correct?
Ball speed should be about 221
That’s 400+
But the average amateur swings 90 mph
Ball speed 130
221 distance is right
So are these claims false advertising?
Getting 50 yards more seems unlikely.
I was tested for s driver using flight scope
My swing speed tap out at 95-100(best)
Ball speed 130 -140
Result: 209 carry, 224 average
Hit one ball 250 total
Not so easy indoors
You feel you have to swing out of your shoes
Not the way golf is played
Swing easy , hit hard
Rich
Frogge
3 months agoDid you yell POWWW at impact? If not the test is not accurate.
Robert Dwyer
3 months agoOld P.T. Barnum strikes again, Yes my dear there is a sucker born every minute !
TopPakRAT
3 months agoThe Hammer has an unconditional return policy. It also has one of the highest consumer complaint numbers of any info commercial ever made. The BBB rating is an F. No wonder the HAMMER is hiding in the mountains of Colorado.
Swingie
3 months agoOK your claims here are bunk, this is the first time you guys have failed us in testing parameters.
You need to….no HAVE TO compare driver contemporaries from that Era, not brand new technology not available to sensei hammer and and his fleet of engineering techs.
Sorry just not fair. You also have to activate the power core screaming POW!!! To reach yardage claims, everyone knows that testing properly will yield best results.
It’s well know too that the major oems forced hamm to be on at those hours for fear of his revolutionary products and that 3 hour window wade all he was allowed to sell in (1am to 4am). Dam biased Golf industry.
Jack hamm and Chuck Norris had a driver contest that ended in a draw. Look it up
J-Full
3 months agoI totally agree that the testing parameters are biased. Not fair to compare 2016 tech to this old tech. I’m surprised and disappointed MGS didn’t consider this.
Mark Hill
3 months agoOnly a complete idiot, with absolutely ZERO understanding of physics, would have expected the results to have been any different.
Firstly there’s a reason why convertibles are slower than hard tops. Its called wind resistance.
Secondly, the Hammer would have tge trampoline effect of a concrete floor.
Thirdly, the shaft is the engine room and that ‘sword’ shaft is about as flexible as Frankenstein’s monster.
I could go on, but….
As they say, a fool and his money is soon parted…. especially an angler or golfer…. lol
Andy
3 months agoWould love to see you perform a comparative test of the
GX-7 X-Metal Golf Club
Mur
3 months agoI second that Andy, please MGS, test it for us.
Jackie Santopietro
3 months agoI just received the GX-7 X Metal for my Bday. Really waiting for 70 plus degrees to really test it but it is not a bad club. I pulled my 3/4 metal out of my bag and I replaced it with the GX-7. It does hit it nice and high and I can hit it off the deck albeit never fun off the spring mud. It seems to go a bit farther than my 3/4 metal and is easy enough to hit. If you struggle with your driver it may be worth a shot. The big bonus so far, about 15 yards longer than the 3/4 metal when my ball is sitting off the ground in the rough.
Doug Quagliaroli
3 months agoIt would be more current to test his new putter. The claims made in the infomercial are incredible.
mcavoy
3 months agoE8.6 Swingweight? Hahahahaha!
The Club Nut
3 months agothe “SLEDGE” Hammer.
Scott Romines
3 months agoyou only needed one golfer to perform this test, I call BS
Matthew Dawson
3 months agoBoooooooommmmmm!!!!!!!
Jimmy Ingram
3 months agoHe was busy retrieving his balatas from the other side of that mountain range.
Michael Hansen
3 months agoheheeheee
Jun Nakiri
3 months agowould changing the shaft male the swing weight similar to the modern drivers? I thought it was interesting that the spin rate was lower than M1. If Hammer driver can be swung faster….that is my question.
Jun Nakiri
3 months agoOK….Hammer head is too heavy is what I understand. How heavy is it actually? Heavy head can produce more energy. E=MC2 and that can mean linger drive. For a guy whoes hwad speed is 162 mph, the results might be different.
I thought the result was impressive. Well, it miserably failed to prove what it claims it can do.
Steve S
3 months agoE=mc squared huh? So you can swing this at the speed of light? Must have REALLY good fast twitch muscles.
Andrew Smith
3 months agoIt’s not a fair test unless the testers yelled after each drive like in the commercial….
Dave S
3 months agoGood review, but one issue…
The Hammer X came out sometime in 2012 or before (can’t find a precise date with a cursory google search)… to make this a fair test, you should have used the top driver from the year it was released. Just like we’d expect the M1 to best the R11, we’d expect most 2016 clubs to best 2012 clubs. I’m sure the Hammer X would still lose, but this fight was fixed from the start.
MyGolfSpy
3 months agoIf a driver can hit it over mountains and go 473 yards it should be able to beat a driver from 2097.
Mat Davis
3 months agoThis is the funniest MGS reply ever
Yohan
3 months agoEveryone knows mountains will be mile hills by 2097 thanks to the mole people uprising of 2041.
Dan Mann
3 months agoYou are internetz champion of day with comment
Swingie
3 months agoOK. This reply is simple and succinctly accurate. Unfortunately you are correct, if it can hit over a mountain it technically was light years ahead of its time, re-validating this test. As many testers and myself have noted tho, if boom or pow! Were not loudly exclaimed during hitting test is still intrinsically flawed.
Dave S
2 months agoLMFAO! I submit.
Brian Rood
2 months agoGlad I never purchased one! Haha