TaylorMade Tour Notes

[Tony Covey MGS]

I get these sort of tour notes from a few different companies. Most of the time I don't do much with them, but I decided to post this TaylorMade one for a couple of reasons. 

 

1. There's a bit of buzz around the SLDR Mini Driver. What is it? A driver replacement? A fairway replacement? 

TaylorMade sheds some light on that, and also suggests more lofts are on the way.

 

2. Our guys who visited the Kingdom mention that TaylorMade is aware of the issues with their current line of putters (and by issues, I mean they're ugly). Justin Rose put a new "SLDR inspired" Spider Blade in play this week. TaylorMade isn't opposed to making a one-off putter (Paula Creamer's is a one-off design), but I think you're going to see the not-uglys...or at least less-uglys make their way to retail soon enough.

 

New product drives revenue, so you know...mini driver, new putters, etc.. I expect it's all going to happen, and soon.

Anyway...here's the story as told by TMaG:

 

Drivers: 

Ranked No. 1 with 18 in play

 
Fairways: 
Ranked No. 1 with 25 in play

Hybrids: 
Ranked No. T3 with 4 in play
 
Irons: 
Ranked No. 4 with 8 sets in play
 
Wedges: 
Ranked No. 6 with 17 in play
 
Golf Ball: 
Ranked No. 2 with 9 in play
 
Putters: 
Ranked No. T5 with 3 in play

 

TOUR NOTES

Plenty of excitement this week at Doral, starting with the course re-design work that started the day after last year's event to put some teeth back into the Blue Monster. Maybe the coolest changes are those made to the par-four 16^th. Formerly 372 yards, it was shortened to 341 and trees were removed from close to the front of the green, giving players the chance to drive the green. Happily, the long par-four 18^th, one of the best finishing holes in PGA Tour history, has been left alone.

 

The excitement for TaylorMade this week is the first appearance of a new metalwood prototype called the “SLDR Mini Driver,” targeted at players who often opt for the control and workability of a 3-wood off the tee. It's an entirely new type of club, much like our Recue Mid, which created the hybrid category. The SLDR Mini driver is only available in one loft right now, 12*, and we brought a boxful to Doral.

 

Tour technician Wade Liles sizes up a new SLDR Mini Driver build.

 

 

It's the ultimate “control-and-distance” club for use off the tee, yet it's also easy to hit off the deck. Needless to say, our Tour Staff pros were giddy about it. Some said they might keep their current driver in the bag and put the SLDR Mini Driver in as their 3-wood. A few said this could be an excellent club to have in the bag at Augusta, where length, accuracy and workability off the tee is paramount. Take the par-five 13^th, where a long, well-controlled draw is the exact shot needed to set a high-percentage second shot to set up a good chance for eagle.

 

Justin Rose tried the SLDR Mini Driver we built for him, with a Matrix Velox 70 shaft, and hit it great. “I'll put this in my bag as my 3-wood if you give me a driver that goes 20 yards father,” he said, before adding, “do me a favor and put it in my locker.”

 

Boo Weekly was another guy who striped the SLDR Mini Driver, and marveled about the feel, control and consistency. Dustin Johnson tried it, but the 12° loft went too far, and didn't leave a large enough gap between his SLDR 460 and the Mini Driver. We'll get back to him with the higher lofted 14° and 16° as soon as they're ready, in a couple of weeks.

 

Boo Weekly checks out the new SLDR Mini Driver on the range.

 

 

Stephen Gallacher a Scotsman, tried the SLDR Mini Driver and immediately pronounced it a terrific option for links play, where a controlled draw on a firm fairway will go a long, long way. Stephen also asked us to build him a SLDR 430 with a slightly heavier shaft. He's been playing an SLDR 460 with a Project X Black 60-gram, so we built him a 10° 430 lofted up to 12° with a Project X Black 70-gram shaft. Boom, lofting up with SLDR's low and forward CG, plus the heavier shaft, gave him added distance over his previous SLDR 460 gamer. Yes, the SLDR 430 went straight into his bag.

 

Jason Day told us he had complete trust in his new Tour Preferred MC irons, and that was critical to his winning the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship two weeks ago. He's been playing Rifle 6.5 shafts in them, but this week asked us to build a short set (5, 7 and PW) with Rifle 7.0 to test. He said he feels stronger than he ever has, and he thinks the slightly stronger shaft could tighten his dispersion even more while allowing him the ability to work the ball.

 

We also built Justin two new 3-woods, an SLDR and JetSpeed, to test this week, both with a Matrix 7N3X tipped one and a half inches. He liked the SLDR after we lowered the loft by a degree to 14. Historically it gets windy at this tournament, and he liked the lower, hotter flight he was getting. In regard to irons, JR has a combo set of the new Tour Preferred irons this week – Tour Preferred CB 3-iron, Tour Preferred MC 4, 5, 6 irons, and Tour Preferred MB 7, 8, 9, PW.

 

Finally, Justin received a new Ghost Spider Blade putter this week. Justin has been playing this same counterbalance model for a while (won U.S. Open with it), but wanted a new one that was “SLDR inspired.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Justin's Putter Specs:

Spider Blade 32 Prototype

Length | 35"

Loft | 3

Lie | 71

Insert | Aluminum PureRoll

Headweight | 356 grams

Swingweight | E0

Totalweight | 595 grams

Grip | 15" counterbalance Spider Cyan Prototype Alignment | Line in top only

[SPY ZINGER]

Does that include Adams for HB's and FW's?

[Tony Covey MGS]

Does that include Adams for HB's and FW's?

 

I didn't ask this week, but I did last time around. Last week TMaG was #1 for hybrids without Adams in the count, so my assumption here is that these numbers are TaylorMade branded clubs only.

[Mr_Theoo]

Love the black on the putters