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Taylormade Marketing Hype At Its Finest!


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Well the most hyped club release of the year so far from Taylormade didn't go off as they expected I am pretty sure.

 

- First they have (still have) a glitch on their website for most users that did not show the video on time. Was supposed to launch at 3 PM EST and now it is not showing it until 4 PM EST. Pretty big blinder when you think about it. The web users patience is pretty short and I am sure they lost interest right off the bat from a large % of users.

 

- Secondly, the video they used as their big launch production has actually been up on YouTube since a couple days ago....hmmm...really TM.

 

And to top it all off...this new supposed club that has unstoppable distance...was for a 2nd version of an existing iron model...and not much changed with it either.

 

Here is the video...have a look and tell us and Taylormade what YOU think.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RBh46BmRCk

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I was watching some of the videos on the Burner 2.0 mini-site. In the "Specs" video I expected to hear about new 42* PWs, but no. They've invented this amazing new process where they actually have different lofts and shafts lengths for EVERY CLUB! How dare they?!? How long until everyone else catches on? ;)

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I can't believe he admitted it! The Burner irons basically take your current 7 iron and slap a number 8 on the sole and all of a sudden you can hit your 8 iron ten yards farther. That's technology for you.

 

 

i can't wait for all the other "great technology" to come out in the "next twelve months". ;)

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I can't believe he admitted it! The Burner irons basically take your current 7 iron and slap a number 8 on the sole and all of a sudden you can hit your 8 iron ten yards farther. That's technology for you.

 

Great Catch LOL

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I still like my 09 burners...

 

Why these are necessary (except for the BUY ME, I'M NEW sales) I don't know.

 

 

It does make me want to break out the MX300's again and see if I can play them yet.

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Do they realise they are becoming, sorry, ARE a joke of a company.

 

You can fool people for a while but eventually they understand what dribble they were fed were basically lies. If everyone did add the unstopabble distance claimed with every new club that was released we would all be hitting 270 yard 8 irons, again, sorry, in TM's case their 8 irons are almost 5 irons.

 

42 deg PW's are not helping people's games, they are making them worse, 14deg gap to a standard SW, no worries!

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Argh! I wish I was there to heckle, not one part of that presentation is new.

 

Different kick points in each shaft for each club? Really?????? New technology???? Please, how stupid do you think people are?

 

Thin face? That's fine as long as you get it out of the middle, if you don't, you are worse off.

 

Technology has been maxed out in every part of the game, in most cases it will be wound back in the net few years, so his whole presentation about moving forward at a rapid rate is crap.

 

The one thing I wish the USPGA and R&A could limit is BS marketing like this.

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So I started looking at the lofts on the set again after this announcement. Here are the 09 burner specs: (3-LW)

Screen shot 2010-09-09 at 9.27.08 PM.png

 

And here are the ones for the Mizuno MX300's

Screen shot 2010-09-09 at 9.25.59 PM.png

 

A couple of things jump out.

TM jumps 5 degrees from PW-9i-8i where the mizuno step in 4* all the way through. Once I went through the lofts, the TM lofts at the long end of the set actually make it a bit easier to add a hybrid and still bag three woods (9* driver 15* 3W, 19* 5W, 21* 3H) then make the jump to 5i.

 

As long as I don't think about the lack of a club with the number 4 on it, this works to cover lofts and bag 4 wedges too.

 

If I bag the 300's, it does give me a reason to go and pick up a 4W though :huh:

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"3D, Web, we got stuff going on. Awesome. It's awesome!"

 

OMG! OMG! OMG! I'm sold. I must have these clubs NOW! Anybody want to buy a set of Miuras? Some guy in a baby blue half-zip just told me they're garbage, and I won't need them once I have these super-hi-tech, state-of-the-art, better-than-any-club-in-the-world-ever-since-even-before-the-dawn-of-time Burner 2.0. I NEED MORE DISTANCE (especially in my scoring clubs) AND I NEED IT NOW!!!

 

Seriously?

 

I just bent my lob wedge from 60 degrees to 45 and put a 5-iron shaft in it. It plays soft, and the bounce is an absolute ******, but when I hit it flush, it's 40 yards longer than my old wedge. Maybe I should hold a press conference?

 

Seriously?

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I guess, if for no other reason than my own amusement, I will be the voice of dissent:

 

As I have posted before, I worked in golf retail for 6 months a couple years ago, and I'm back there now. For all of the outrage and mockery that I see posted on the forums about TM/hype/fast product cycles/etc, there is no brand that I sell more of. Their drivers fly out the door, there is lots of interest in their irons, and despite the fact that they get about 1/10 of the space that Vokey does, they move a good number of wedges. Those of us who study specs and learn about golf equipment with great passion are not going to be fooled by "UNSTOPPABLE DISTANCE!!!" but most people are. Most people, as the guy in the video says, are super happy when they go from hitting their 6I 150 to 160. I had a guy in the store just yesterday bitching at me because we stopped carrying a ball that he used to play that was, and I quote, "30 yards longer than anything else." Does this kind of hype make my job very annoying? Yes, because everyone thinks they hit it 300 yards and they are very very wrong. However, does this kind of hype move product? Y-E-S, yes. Final question: if it moves product, does TM care what the golf equipment intelligentsia think about their hype? I'll leave that one for you to answer.

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I guess, if for no other reason than my own amusement, I will be the voice of dissent:

 

As I have posted before, I worked in golf retail for 6 months a couple years ago, and I'm back there now. For all of the outrage and mockery that I see posted on the forums about TM/hype/fast product cycles/etc, there is no brand that I sell more of. Their drivers fly out the door, there is lots of interest in their irons, and despite the fact that they get about 1/10 of the space that Vokey does, they move a good number of wedges. Those of us who study specs and learn about golf equipment with great passion are not going to be fooled by "UNSTOPPABLE DISTANCE!!!" but most people are. Most people, as the guy in the video says, are super happy when they go from hitting their 6I 150 to 160. I had a guy in the store just yesterday bitching at me because we stopped carrying a ball that he used to play that was, and I quote, "30 yards longer than anything else." Does this kind of hype make my job very annoying? Yes, because everyone thinks they hit it 300 yards and they are very very wrong. However, does this kind of hype move product? Y-E-S, yes. Final question: if it moves product, does TM care what the golf equipment intelligentsia think about their hype? I'll leave that one for you to answer.

 

Everything you just said is true - and that is unbelievably sad. Even when we're testing, I have guys that want to buy the TaylorMade. Some without hitting it, some even after I show them they're longer and straighter with 3 other clubs. I don't mean to imply that TM clubs are bad, or worse than anybody else's, but like anything else, they aren't the best for everybody. Although they certainly sell disproportionaly to their actual benefit.

 

What really killed me most about the video was when right about the time he was mentioning that Nick Faldo was in the back, he suggested that lower-handicap golfers are always looking for more distance. I am not a low-handicap golfer, but I play with enough of them (and spend enough time at the racetrack), that I can smell a steaming pile of horseshit when it's right at my feet. Low-handicap golfers (and smarter high-handicap ones too), want more accuracy (or they want to putt better). Distance is the last thing they talk about. Can't count the number of times I've been out-played by someone in their mid-50's or even 60s, and the only time distance comes up at all is when they say "When I was your age, I could hit the ball almost as far"...and then they take my $6.

 

Show me an iron that's 5 yards shorter, but brings me 5 yards closer to the center of my target line, and then, well, it might be awesome, even without 3D and the web.

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This presentation type is so tired. A guy we could care less about trying to sell us a product we don't want. Reminds me of the guy from "Yes Man".

 

Retailers had these on their web site for sale long before they went "live" on the TM site.

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I guess, if for no other reason than my own amusement, I will be the voice of dissent:

 

As I have posted before, I worked in golf retail for 6 months a couple years ago, and I'm back there now. For all of the outrage and mockery that I see posted on the forums about TM/hype/fast product cycles/etc, there is no brand that I sell more of. Their drivers fly out the door, there is lots of interest in their irons, and despite the fact that they get about 1/10 of the space that Vokey does, they move a good number of wedges. Those of us who study specs and learn about golf equipment with great passion are not going to be fooled by "UNSTOPPABLE DISTANCE!!!" but most people are. Most people, as the guy in the video says, are super happy when they go from hitting their 6I 150 to 160. I had a guy in the store just yesterday bitching at me because we stopped carrying a ball that he used to play that was, and I quote, "30 yards longer than anything else." Does this kind of hype make my job very annoying? Yes, because everyone thinks they hit it 300 yards and they are very very wrong. However, does this kind of hype move product? Y-E-S, yes. Final question: if it moves product, does TM care what the golf equipment intelligentsia think about their hype? I'll leave that one for you to answer.

 

I have to agree with you. There is a group of older golfers at my club - about 12 of them ages 55-70 that play 3 times a week. I think 10 of them have bought the Burner irons from the Pro Shop in the past year. It is important to them to be able add distance. They used to hit a 7 iron 150, and they want to get back to that instead of having to hit 5 iron on par 3s they used to hit 9 irons on. They certainly don't want to hit 2 clubs more than their partner, even if they hit it closer. Call it ego, whatever, but they literally rave about the irons. Ask them if they like their irons, and their eyes light up and they talk about how much they love them. And the pro shop has made a lot of money off this "new" technology. Yes, it is hype, but it sells.

 

That being said - the web presentation yesterday was unwatchable.

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It's been proven time and time again from people like Ralph Maltby, Jeff Summitt and Tom Wishon that longer shafts plus lower lofts equals hard to hit properly. Yet TM continues to want to fly in the face of that testing-supported fact. It's deception and that's all- if it's the same club length as your old 7 iron and has the loft of your old 7 iron, guess what? They're the same club. Just because you etch an 8 on the sole doesn't prove anything. They're just making the 3, 4 and 5 irons even harder to hit for the average golfer than they already are. One bonus: anyone who's ever gamed (and liked) the 2 iron can start using them again... you'll just have to put up with a "3" on the sole.

 

This really does show who TM markets to: the fair-weather golfer that doesn't truly understand what's going on. Those that know realize they need to get a proper fitting and understand what it does for them, whereas the fairweather golfer's only go by what the adds tell them. They see the "new and shiny", buy it OTR and even though they're a full club longer (duh) they're still slicing it OB. In the rare instances they aren't, it's only because the lie angles are more upright than they have ever been, as well (check that out sometime).

 

From a lefty perspective, I wonder what they're trying to prove. If the last club is a "PW" or "AW" (or as I like to call them, the 9 iron and old PW) what do we do if we need more wedges to overcome that huge gap? Not everyone carries 46, 47 or 48* PWs to fill the void... Vokeys might, but A) that's just feeding another hype machine; and :huh: I'm not even 70% sure about what lofts they (or anyone else, besides the "standard" 52, 56 and 60*) carry for lefties.

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I hate to burst everyones bubble but you can have the biggest banjo (tennis racket) head for a driver, the highest/lowest lofted new tech iron. It all doesn't matter if you "AINT GOT THAT SWING"! Equipment Shitment, what people need to do to get better is #1 get properly fit. #2 Take some lessons. I know that sucks but if you wat to get better you have to practice. (and guess what practicing a crappy swing doesn't do dittely do do ) If you keep buying the latest, greatest and you still have the same swing flaws you had yesterday the ball will do th same exact thing tomorrow. Unless your carrying around Iron Byron you will not consistantly hit any more fairways or greens. Good swings make that happen plain and simple. You can do it with persimmon woods and forged blades. Now cavity backs may give you a little bigger sweet spot and metal woods may go a little further...... but THE BOTTOM LINE IS... you need to swing properly. Atleast through the impact zone anyway. The swing can be flat or upright but as long as you do what right at impact then your ball will go where you aim.... well most of the time. LOL.

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Cobra King FLYZ+ 10.5* w/ Aldila Rogue 125 R 44.5"

Tour Issued TM M2 10.5 w/ Mitsubishi Tensi CK Pro Blue 60S

Tour Issued TM M2 15* w/ GD Tour AD 7S 43"

TM R7 17.5 HFS w/ Tour AD 7S Stiff 42"

Cobra S3 Pro's 4-pw w/ Aldila RIP Tours SLT 115 Reg. 5i 38.5"

Titleist Vokey Proto's

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I hate to burst everyones bubble but you can have the biggest banjo (tennis racket) head for a driver, the highest/lowest lofted new tech iron. It all doesn't matter if you "AINT GOT THAT SWING"! Equipment Shitment, what people need to do to get better is #1 get properly fit. #2 Take some lessons. I know that sucks but if you wat to get better you have to practice. (and guess what practicing a crappy swing doesn't do dittely do do ) If you keep buying the latest, greatest and you still have the same swing flaws you had yesterday the ball will do th same exact thing tomorrow. Unless your carrying around Iron Byron you will not consistantly hit any more fairways or greens. Good swings make that happen plain and simple. You can do it with persimmon woods and forged blades. Now cavity backs may give you a little bigger sweet spot and metal woods may go a little further...... but THE BOTTOM LINE IS... you need to swing properly. Atleast through the impact zone anyway. The swing can be flat or upright but as long as you do what right at impact then your ball will go where you aim.... well most of the time. LOL.

 

 

While I agree with d@mn near everything, the only difference is a perssimon head and forged blades will absolutely go the same distance as today's 460cc titanium heads and cavity-backed irons. The distance you get is based off the loft of the head and your swing speed... that's it. Granted, this is assuming the club's center of gravity is slightly below the ball's CG at impact.

 

Where the metal breatheren earn their stripes is with forgiveness. Titanium is very strong, which allows a designer to make the walls very thin, which means they can make the head bigger, which means the Moment of Inertia (MOI) can be bigger (but no higher than 5900 g*cm2). This equates into more forgiveness for those of us (myself included) that need the help for the times we miss the pin-point sized "sweet spot" (where all the head's balance points intersect). The cavity back irons do the same things, just to a lesser extent... that's only because of their (basically) predetermined size. They're also much shorter than the driver, so there's more control over the swing with irons as compared to the big dog.

 

Where you are SO right is with practice... a bad swing will still yeild bad results. Maybe instead of being 40 yards in the gorse you're 25-30... but you're still in the gorse. It's that "engineering" of the major OEMs... 46" drivers when most pros use 44.5"... think about that. Pros use a 44.5" driver and STILL knock it 300+ yards. Average golfers use 45+" drivers and only get 235 on average (per the National Golf Foundation in '09)... All those "extra distance" claims they give are bogus, but they aren't. A robot swinging a 46" driver with 9* loft can hit a very good shot at any swing speed. Since most humans don't have that precise of a swing (not even the likes of Tiger, Ernie, Zach, etc.), those same driver specs actually do more damage- especially to those with swing speeds less than 95 mph. But that's how the OEMs sell their claims- through robot testing, and people buy that junk every day.

 

As TW said, if you (generalized, not directed at anyone) get a set of properly-fitted clubs after 2006 (when the last effective club-related rule sans the groove rule: the 5,900 g*cm2 MOI rule, was installed) you've got a "current" set of clubs. You could have clubs prior to that that will still be very effective. Save your money and use it towards lessons. Or better yet, divvy the $$$ into lessons and a few more rounds of golf!

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Everything you just said is true - and that is unbelievably sad. Even when we're testing, I have guys that want to buy the TaylorMade. Some without hitting it, some even after I show them they're longer and straighter with 3 other clubs. I don't mean to imply that TM clubs are bad, or worse than anybody else's, but like anything else, they aren't the best for everybody. Although they certainly sell disproportionaly to their actual benefit.

 

What really killed me most about the video was when right about the time he was mentioning that Nick Faldo was in the back, he suggested that lower-handicap golfers are always looking for more distance. I am not a low-handicap golfer, but I play with enough of them (and spend enough time at the racetrack), that I can smell a steaming pile of horseshit when it's right at my feet. Low-handicap golfers (and smarter high-handicap ones too), want more accuracy (or they want to putt better). Distance is the last thing they talk about. Can't count the number of times I've been out-played by someone in their mid-50's or even 60s, and the only time distance comes up at all is when they say "When I was your age, I could hit the ball almost as far"...and then they take my $6.

 

Show me an iron that's 5 yards shorter, but brings me 5 yards closer to the center of my target line, and then, well, it might be awesome, even without 3D and the web.

 

No argument that it's sad, it's just the truth. As one of those smart mid-handicappers, I am not interested in shafts or clubs that will hit it longer, just ones that might help tighten my dispersion. However, I, and most of the guys on this board, are not "most people."

 

 

I have to agree with you. There is a group of older golfers at my club - about 12 of them ages 55-70 that play 3 times a week. I think 10 of them have bought the Burner irons from the Pro Shop in the past year. It is important to them to be able add distance. They used to hit a 7 iron 150, and they want to get back to that instead of having to hit 5 iron on par 3s they used to hit 9 irons on. They certainly don't want to hit 2 clubs more than their partner, even if they hit it closer. Call it ego, whatever, but they literally rave about the irons. Ask them if they like their irons, and their eyes light up and they talk about how much they love them. And the pro shop has made a lot of money off this "new" technology. Yes, it is hype, but it sells.

 

That being said - the web presentation yesterday was unwatchable.

 

Distance is unbelievably important to almost everyone I come in contact with in the store. The first question everyone asks when they hit a ball on the launch monitor is: "How far did it go?" Not once has the first question been, "How straight was it?" Just yesterday I had a guy practically screaming in my face because we no longer carried a ball that he claimed was "30 yards longer than every other ball out there." Now, common sense tells us that no ball is actually 30 yards longer, but his outrage speaks to how important distance is to him. I've yet to have anyone scream at me about their most accurate ball not being made anymore. I have a feeling that I shouldn't hold my breath waiting for that moment.

 

I hate to burst everyones bubble but you can have the biggest banjo (tennis racket) head for a driver, the highest/lowest lofted new tech iron. It all doesn't matter if you "AINT GOT THAT SWING"! Equipment Shitment, what people need to do to get better is #1 get properly fit. #2 Take some lessons. I know that sucks but if you wat to get better you have to practice. (and guess what practicing a crappy swing doesn't do dittely do do ) If you keep buying the latest, greatest and you still have the same swing flaws you had yesterday the ball will do th same exact thing tomorrow. Unless your carrying around Iron Byron you will not consistantly hit any more fairways or greens. Good swings make that happen plain and simple. You can do it with persimmon woods and forged blades. Now cavity backs may give you a little bigger sweet spot and metal woods may go a little further...... but THE BOTTOM LINE IS... you need to swing properly. Atleast through the impact zone anyway. The swing can be flat or upright but as long as you do what right at impact then your ball will go where you aim.... well most of the time. LOL.

 

Every single day I tell at least 2 people, "Instead of buying a new club, you might want to consider some lessons. Let me show you how an improved swing will net you more distance gains than this new driver." Do you know how many people have taken me up on that? Zero and counting. Me? I'm hanging up my spikes after tomorrow and spending 6 months rebuilding my swing (with weekly lessons) in the hopes of getting down to scratch, because I know that my current move will not get me there regardless of what equipment I'm playing.

Follow me on Twitter: @MattSaternus

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Some of us get the best of both worlds. New Irons+proper lessons = +40 yards on all iron shots with a pretty sad swing speed!

 

Also, I'm gathering some of you guys don't work in IT. Compaired to some of the product demo webcasts I have to sit through, that wasn't all that bad. As in, I'd rather watch it then pull all my hair out for example but that's about it. I do find the changing of the iron number to the loft to be insanely silly. No wonder all my taylormade friends are using 5 hybrids with their burner 1.0's.

I laught at your claims to fight a zombie apocalypse when most of you can't stand up to a Spider

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Some of us get the best of both worlds. New Irons+proper lessons = +40 yards on all iron shots with a pretty sad swing speed!

 

 

 

But that's the thing: the "average" golfer doesn't want to get lessons or practice- they just want to show up expecting to make like a field artillery unit and just bombs away. If you're properly fit to a club that's right for you (no sense playing a forged blade if your impact is schitzo, for example) coupled with lessons you can most definitely see gains like that. But the average golfer doesn't do that (for numerous reasons).

 

@ Saturnus: you and everyone else here is what makes this forum so much better than the others I've seen. You're all smart and opinionated, but maintain a level of respect that I personally appreciate.

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