TaylorMade R11S Driver

If you watched the Northern Trust Open this past weekend, you could not have missed the TaylorMade tour staff sporting hats emblazoned with large hearts, signifying their love for the new TaylorMade R11 S driver. The company also bought up enormous amounts of television ad time promoting the big dog.

Kudos to the staff for sucking it up and donning the toppers.

All that aside, I think Taylormade has a right to be proud of all the technology its stuffed into the R11 S. Billing it as “the most adjustable driver in golf,” TaylorMade has devised means of allowing players to create 80! different lauch settings.

This adjustable thing has come a long way in a short time. I remember the excitement just a few years ago when a club allowed you to swap out a couple of weights to increase draw or face bias.

With this driver, a five way adjustable sole plate allows a face angle that’s independent of the loft sleeve setting. You can generate neutral, slightly open, open, slightly closed and closed. The Flight Control Technology allows players to adjust the loft up and down, with eight choices ranging from 3° of lie and 3° loft/6° face angle. This can create up to 60 yards of differing sideways movement, and up to 1500 rpm of launch condition change.

And finally, the movable weight technology is still around.

This may frankly be the last driver you ever need to buy. As your game changes, so too will this stick.

TaylorMade’s press release follows.

TaylorMade Men’s Ghost Manta Center Putter

“We like to call Ghost Manta a ‘high-performance mallet’ because it’s so easy to aim at address, so stable and forgiving at impact and delivers such a smooth roll off the face.” - Brett Wahl, TaylorMade Senior Director - Iron, Wedge and Putter R&D

There’s something almost cute about this TaylorMade Ghost Manta putter, with its white finish, simple lines and soft curves. But that soft look hides a variety of interesting ideas.

The white finish is by this time a pretty established notion. A couple of years ago, a study determined that the contrast of the white against turf makes aiming easier. That’s been a part of much of TaylorMade’s recent lineups: white putters, white drivers and white fairway woods (thus far, no white irons).

To stabilize the putter, there’s a pair of 50-gram tungsten stabilizing weights and a user adjustable weight in the center. These are hidden in the sole to prevent distraction. The 35 inch putter weights 370 grams. By way of comparison, the Heavy Putter weighs in at 450 - 550 grams and a standard blade putter often between 320 and 350 grams. 

The face of the putter is TaylorMade’s Pure Roll design, constructed of Surlyn (as with golf ball covers) for a soft feel.

Press release follows:

TaylorMade RocketBallz Driver

I’m not entirely sure about the name of this new TaylorMade line. RocketBallz to me sounds a bit like one of those Japanese television cartoons my boys watch. I have visions of characters with odd eyes, spiky technicolor hair and jumpsuits affecting bizarre poses and shouting things like: “Behold the Power of ... ROCKETBALLZ!”

Name aside, this driver has the usual TaylorMade cornucopia of technology. It’s got “Flight Control Technology,” which allows players to adjust the loft and face angle.  A lightweight shaft and grip promotes faster swing speed for more distance and the speed-enhancing head aerodynamics promotes faster head speed for more distance. And the venerable Inverted Cone Clubface Technology promotes more speed and distance on off-center hits. Visually, you’ve got the white crown and black face, which TaylorMade says makes alignment easy and eliminates glare on top.

I think they ought to do the driver in spiky flames of orange, yellow and blue.

“Behold the Power of ... ROCKETBALLZ!”

With the R11 S driver, TaylorMade continues its drive toward the ultimate in club adaptability. Players can adjust the loft up or down as much as one and a half degrees with Flight Control Technology, the face to five different angles (plus or minus three degrees) with the Adjustable Sole Plate, and use movable weights to shift the center of gravity toward the heel or toe.

It’s also got some other non-movable features in the 460cc titanium head: Thick-Thin Crown design lowers that center of gravity and Inverted Cone Technology (ICT) to promote more ball speed on off-center hits.  The R11 driver also has the striking white crown and black face that TaylorMade says improves alignment and reduces glare.

Intriguing.

You can get it at Golfsmith Golf & Tennis—Best Selection. Best Brands. Best Prices. Guaranteed.

TaylorMade has released three new sets of forged irons. Each is supposed to incorporate various design features to improve performance.

From their looks alone ... wow. The TCB (Tour Preferred Cavityback) looks like the one for me. Maybe TM will send me a set to try ...

The full press release is below

TAYLORMADE Burner 2.0 Iron Set 4-PW with Steel Shafts

It seems that TaylorMade has taken a page from the software playbook and now is numbering its irons. I like the scheme. Next year’s marginal or cosmetic upgrade can be called Burner 2.1, and when an entirely new technology is introduced, they can be called Burner 3.0.

The 2.0 version has individually geared irons, with each engineered for a specific job. All feature a multi-functional sole that lowers the center of gravity and reduces turf-drag to make it easy to launch shots high and long, while the inverted cone in each clubface is strategically sized and shaped center of gravity location in each head is precision-placed to optimize long-, middle- and short-iron flight. A high-coefficient of restitution faces promote fast ball speed for long distance in the long-irons.

TAYLORMADE Burner SuperLaunch Iron Set 3-PW with Steel Shafts

Designed to be TaylorMade’s most forgiving set ever, the SuperLaunch Irons have a number of technologies to help the high handicapper. First, there’s the extra large cavities for “massive perimeter weighting.” This is supposed to result in better results on off-center hits—in other words, on every shot attempted by your average high handicapper. A large offset is supposed to help to square the face more easily at impact. And a low center of gravity should help players to get the ball up into the air. TaylorMade also has built in a wide bevelled sole to help get the ball cleanly up.

There’s a lot in these clubs.