Tiger Or The Field? Canadians Offer Their Thoughts; TaylorMade Chief Goes Undercover For CBS

To listen to all the Tiger-talk going on since Tiger Woods had his breakthrough win at Bay Hill just over a week ago, it sounds like many people have already fitted Woods for his green jacket, even before the ceremonial tee shot takes place.

There was a time when a commonly-asked question going into a major was “Tiger or the rest of the field?” After all the challenges faced by Woods the past two-and-a-half years, how will you answer that question now?

A group of well-known names from Canadian golf are evenly split on that subject. Read more

Off To Orlando

Depending on when you read this, I could be 30,000 feet over North Carolina or Georgia on my way to the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando.

It’s been a tradition for years and while the show has changed dramatically since I first started going, one thing that doesn’t change is a crazy schedule. Read more

RocketBallz Fairways And Rescues Designed For Distance

Increased ball speed is the main objective of the new RocketBallz fairway woods and Rescues from TaylorMade.

“The RocketBallz fairway woods and Rescues represent a game-changing breakthrough in performance comparable to few products in the history of our industry,” said Sean Toulon, executive vice president of TaylorMade.

 

“To hold a RocketBallz metalwood in your hands is to possess confidence, power, speed and distance potential that will regularly and, quite literally, redefine the long game for golfers,” he added.

 

RocketBallz fairway woods and Rescues were developed with a high-strength 455 steel face plate welded to a cast body.

 

Also incorporated was improved sole geometry and a Speed Pocket to improve overall head and face flexibility and a slightly deeper face with a further-forward centre of gravity than traditional designs.

 

With its increased face size, low centre of gravity lcoation, lightweight shaft and grip, TaylorMade is going for increased distance, as much as 17 yards for highly-skilled players.

 

The flat white crown colour and black PVD face provide contrast for easier alignment at address, while eliminating glare and hot spots common in gloss finishes.

 

Also offered is a RocketBallz Tour fairway wood with similar shape and face size, but slightly smaller address profile, more open face angle and toe-weighted centre of gravity with a heavier, stiffer shaft compared to the stock shaft in standard RocketBallz fairways.

 

Standard and Tour models are also available in the RocketBallz Rescues.

 

The standard model incorporates a lightweight shaft and grip for increased swing speed. The clubface is large and deep with the centre of gravity low and forward, made possible through TaylorMade’s Ultra-Thin Wall casting process and Thick-Thin crown design.

 

The RocketBallz Tour Rescue has a comparatively smaller address appearance, a slightly open face angle, toe-weighted centre of gravity and a heavier, stiffer shaft.

 

The overall weight of the standard RocketBallz Rescue is less than 350 grams.

 

The RocketBallz fairways and Rescues come in a variety of shaft flexes and lofts.

TaylorMade R11S Fairways Have Added Adjustability

TaylorMade has introduced the new adjustable R11S and R11S TP fairway woods.

Similar to the new R11S driver, the fairway woods are classically shaped with Adjustable Sole Plate Techology (ASP) and a more versatile Flight Control Technology (FCT) sleeve for added adjustability.

Those two features combine to offer 24 different settings for performance and/or distance.

“It’s never been easier to tune performance in a fairway wood than with the new R11S,” said TaylorMade executive vice president Sean Toulon.

“We’re confident that more golfers than ever before will unlock significant performance gains through a proper fitting and a few clicks of the wrench,” he added.

The FCT sleeve allows the golfer to make an adjustment range of three degrees of lie and three degrees loft/six degrees face angle. This process is done on tour with the player having the hosel manually bent to optimize correct launch angle.

With a torque wrench, golfers can complete a similar process. The RS11S fairways provide up to 54 yards of horizontal trajectory adjustment and three degrees and 1500 rpm of launch condition change.

The ASP technology provides the ability to change face angle independently in three settings from the face angle setting. It allows the decoupling of loft and face angle by using a sole plate that can be adjusted for plus/minus two degrees of face angle change.

This change can be used to further accentuate a face angle or counter a negative face angle due to sleeve adjustment.

R11S fairways also employ pull-face construction to create a thin, light, fast clubface to promote high ball speed. The crown and walls are made using an Ultra-Thin Wall (UTW) casting process to reach 0.6 mm at the thinnest point.

The thin crown weighs less and that weight is used to move centre of gravity forward to increase ball speed by reducing dynamic loft and to create better launch conditions.

The face depth of the R11S fairways is 36 mm to provide a combination of face area, confidence and playability off turf for the user.

The flat, white crown makes the R11S fairways appear slightly larger (two percent), while the black PVD face provides contrast for consistent alignment.

R11S fairways are standard length and come equipped with the Aldila RIP Phenom 70 shaft that weighs 70 grams and has a medium-firm tip profile.  The shaft is available in four flexes.

The R11S TP shaft is a RIP Phenom 80 that comes in three flexes. The grip is a TM FCT. Lofts available include 14, 15.5, 17, 19 and 22 degrees.

Facing Up To Distance with TaylorMade RocketBallz Irons

The new RocketBallz irons from TaylorMade have a large, thin clubface designed to be strong and stiff at the perimeter and thin at the inner edge to allow the face to flex freely like a trampoline.

 

RocketBallz irons also incorporate TaylorMade’s Inverted Cone clubface technology to expand the portion of the face that delivers high ball speed and promote more distance on off-centre hits.

 

“Without a doubt, the new RocketBallz iron will be an improvement over any other iron in a golfer’s bag,” said Sean Toulon, executive vice president of TaylorMade Golf.

 

“From a technology perspective, we have done the unthinkable. We brought in metalwood engineers to help create irons with faces that behave like drivers, sending the ball easily high and far, almost as if it was bounced off a trampoline,” he said.

 

“These technological advancements will be visible to the golfer upon first contact with the ball,” said Toulon.

 

Every RBZ iron head, from three through lob wedge features a progressive length and spec package that has been coordinated to ensure proper trajectory and distance gaps throughout the set.

 

The three through five irons have a new, hollow clubhead construction like many of the company’s line of metalwoods. The hollow head construction allows engineers to create the 455 carpenter’s steel clubface with a lower and centred centre of gravity location for more energy transfer at impact.

 

Lowering the centre of gravity also allowed engineers to strengthen the loft for a more penetrating ball flight.

 

The improved CG location is made possible in the three to six irons by thinning areas of the sole, top line and back wall, then repositioning the saved weight to the back wall and heel to shift the CG lower and more towards the centre.

 

Key to the accuracy of RocketBallz irons is the new Toe-Bar feature, positioned in the upper toe, and the new design of the Inverted Cone. Together they stiffen the toe area of the clubface, so that when the face flexes, it directs the ball straight forward.

 

“We’ve worked extensively to advance fast-faced iron performance and feel like we’re well ahead of our competitors in this category,” said Brett Wahl, TaylorMade’s senior director of iron, wedge and putter research and development.

 

“We’ve learned that high COR is most useful when on top of high speed, you can also control the face flexion to send the ball on an accurate flight line. With that in mind, we’re very pleased with what we’ve achieved with the RocketBallz iron,” he added.

 

RocketBallz clubheads are progressively shaped with smaller, compact short irons, deep undercut-cavity middle irons and large, hollow long irons. All feature TaylorMade’s Multi-Functional Sole, while the sand wedge, attack wedge and lob wedge incorporate the company’s ATV sole.

 

A new vibration and sound control system in three iron through pitching wedge is designed to dampen unwanted vibration, using a new Japanese urethane layer that’s soft and pliable and works in conjunction with the badge system to absorb vibration.

 

Every RocketBallz iron is engineered with an added cavity chamber in the heel at the point of hosel-to-face transition, making the heads easier to bend to allow the company to offer them in four degrees upright, four degrees flat and plus-or-minus two degrees in loft.

 

The necessity for the above was discovered during prototyping as the hard 455 steel used for the clubheads makes bending difficult.

 

RocketBallz irons are available in three iron through lob wedge in right-handed and left-handed, with no left-handed lob wedge available. Steel and graphite shafts are available as are women’s RocketBallz irons in five iron through sand wedge with a gra

Meet The TaylorMade RocketBallz

TaylorMade has introduced the RocketBallz (RBZ) driver franchise, designed to combine speed, adjustability and two clubhead options, RocketBallz and RocketBallz Tour, to appeal to a wide range of players.

“We’re setting a new standard in the driver category as speed, adjustability and tour-validated performance have never been so affordable,” said executive vice president Sean Toulon.

Key to the RBZ drivers is the incorporation of TaylorMade’s Flight Control Technology (FCT), which is packaged into a modern, aerodynamically-shaped clubhead, with a lightweight 50-gram shaft.

With FCT, the golfer can adjust the performance angles (face angle, loft and lie) of the RBZ driver to one of eight settings with the FCT sleeve. These settings allow a range of launch conditions designed to provide 60 yards of side-to-side trajectory adjustment.

RBZ drivers are being offered in RocketBallz and RocketBallz Tour models. The RocketBallz has a larger appearance at address with a standard face height, while the RocketBallz Tour is mid-sized at address with a deeper face.

Both models are traditionally shaped and feature improved aerodynamics through TaylorMade’s Ultra-Thin Wall (UTW) casting process and Thick-Thin crown design.

The RBZ driver’s high-MOI titanium head also features TaylorMade’s Inverted Cone Technology (ICT) milled directly into the back of the clubface to enlarge the portion of the face that delivers high COR to improve performance on mis-hits.

The RBZ, like all new TaylorMade drivers, have a white crown and black PVD face for contrast against the ground for easier alignment and aim.

Its combination of lightweight shaft and grip results in an overall club weight of less than 300 grams. The length of the shaft is 46 inches.

The RBZ is offered in 9.5, 10.5 degree and HL (HIgh Launch) lofts, while the RBZ Tour is available in nine and 10-degree lofts.

The standard RBZ SuperFast Matrix Ozik XCON 5 shaft comes in four flexes, while the RBZ Tour has a Matrix Ozik XCon 6 55-gram shaft in three flexes with the option of 25 additional shaft choices.

TaylorMade Introduces R11S

TaylorMade is calling its new R11S driver the most adjustable driver in golf.

The all-white 460 c.c. driver features a Flight Control (FCT) sleeve and a new five-way Adjustable Sole Plate (ASP) to allow the golfer to find individual address set-up.

Combined with Movable Weight Technology (MWT), the R11S can be tuned for 80 separate launch settings.

“It’s the realization of every ounce of innovation, adjustability and performance we could package in a bigger, more aerodynamic, white clubhead,” said Sean Toulon, TaylorMade’s executive vice president.

“It would have been easy for our product creation team to rest on the laurels of the original R11 driver, the most successful product we’ve ever created,” he said.

“Instead, we’re delivering golfers yet another significant advancement in adjustability and performance and, with proper fitting, we know golfers of all skill levels will be longer and straighter off the tee,” said Toulon.

Similar to the original R11, the new R11S has a flat white crown and black PVD face for improve alignment and accuracy.

The R11S driver’s modern, classical clubhead shape is also intended to suit the eye of skilled players, while also providing forgiveness and confidence for higher handicaps.

The head has a contemporary, slightly more triangular appearance and is designed to provide higher moment of inertia and deeper, further forward centre of gravity position.

ASP technology complements Flight Control, a technology first used in the R9 family of drivers, When FCT is employed alone, the loft and face angle is coupled by the sleeve system.

Adjustable Sole Plate technology allows for the decoupling of loft and face angle by using a sole plate to adjust the face angle independent of loft sleeve setting. The five face angles made possible through ASP include neutral, slightly open, open, slightly closed and closed.

ASP is characterized by a raised, five-pointed plate on the sole that is roughly the diameter of a quarter. Changing its position is achieved by loosening the screw that holds it to the sole, rotating the ASP, then re-tightening the screw.

Combined with FCT, ASP offers 40 combinations of loft and face angle.

FCT allows golfers to change the orientation of the driver head with the shaft to adjust loft up or down.

Movable Weight Technology was first introduced in 2004 in the r7 quad driver to give golfers that ability to move discretionary weight to different areas of the clubhouse and shift centre of gravity location to promote changes in trajectory.

Two widely spaced weight ports deliver four millimetres of centre of gravity change from heel to toe to promote up to 20 yards of side-to-side trajectory bias.

Together, MWT, FCT and ASP allow for 80 launch condition combinations. The R11S also incorporates Inverted Cone clubface technology to expand the COR zone, or the portion of the clubface that delivers maximum ball speed.

The R11S measures 45.75 inches and is equipped with an Aldila Phenom 60 shaft in four flexes. It weights 60 grams and features a medium-firm tip profile. Lofts available are nine, 10.5 and 12 degrees in right-handed and nine and 10.5 degrees in left-handed.

The R11S TP comes with an Aldila RIP Phenom shaft in three flexes, with 25 additional TP shaft options also available. Lofts include nine and 10.5 in right-handed and left-handed.