GolfSpy Barbajo Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 I will freely admit I am an impetuous fool, and I am facing my club ho affliction. In addition, I have never owned a TaylorMade driver, and even considered myself a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to appearance, not that the white or anything else bothered me much. Had an R-11 3-wood for about 6 months before selling it to a buddy -- couldn't stand it, but it was more me than the stick. I couldn't hit anything that year! Well, enough of the foreplay. I've buried the lead long enough, so here it is: I bought an R-1 and I FREAKIN" LOVE IT!!!!! There. It's out. I feel much better. Backstory: My driver spin numbers have, for some unkown reason, gone way the hell up since I first went do Florida to play some golf in February. My Titleist 910D2 with the Talamonti shaft that had performed so well for me last fall was just killing me. I'm talking 190-200 yards off the tee killing me. Ball would shoot up like an Estes Rocket and them plummet to earth like a paratrooper. I know something was seriously wrong when I would see a ball mark in the fairway and them my ball was sitting 2 feet behind it. I don't think you're supposed to be able to back up a driver like that.... Anyway, went to GolfSmith and hit a bunch of drivers and found spin numbers in the 5 - 6 thousand range. And that was hitting everything they had except the R1. Best of that lot for me was the new Amp Cell. If only Blair O'Neil would return my calls.... Later took the Nike Covert challenge at Golf Galaxy - brought my driver and saw the spin numbers for my 910/Talamonti combo in the flesh for the first time. Mercy! And it wasn't getting better. What the hell happened? I was killing this thing last fall... My pro/fitter invited me to be a guinea pig for a training he was doing for his staff in advance of his big demo day. He's a fitter for Ping, NIke, Mizuno, Titleist and, new this year, TaylorMade. The TMAG rep was going to be there and he wanted to fit me as a learning experience for his staff. Was hitting my 910 solidly and thought I had fixed whatever was wrong, but when he put me on his Flightscope Launch Monitor I saw drives of 195, 205 and a long of 212, with ridiculous backspin. Brad and the TMAG rep grabbed an R1, did a couple of adjustments and handed it over... "Don't look at it," he said. "Just hit it." Whoa.... Ball flight was beautiful -- nice, powerful with a pretty arc to it. I hit 5 or 6 drives with it, and then he told me to come take a look at the numbers. Spin rates were WAY down -- one was under 1K, and the distances ranged from 240 to a long of - no s*** - 265. I'm 52 years old and a solid 11 from the blues - that's Howitzer-like for me. Oh, Mommmy! I may be impetuous, but I also live in daily fear of my wife, and buying another club would mean the couch. Buying a $400 club would mean the garage. Besides, I wanted to play a round with one first. Was able to do that with a rental set at TPC- Vegas two weeks ago. All I could say was... WOW! Long and in play -- that's my kind of driver. Must. Buy. New. Toy! Was able to sell a few items on Craigslist to foot most of the bill, picked it up Tuesday, brought it to Canada on Wednesday and was hitting some bombs with it that afternoon. Hokey Smokes! My guess - and I'm an amateur on these things, and I'm trying to interpret what the TM rep and Brad the pro shared with me - is that for whatever reason, the combo of 910 and the Talamonti PD-70 shaft was no longer working well for me, producing WAY to much spin and killing my drives. The R1 and - get this - the stock RIP Phenom 55 gram shaft - fits much, much better. And the graphics on the head? I have yet to pay any attention to them -- really no negative impact between the ears whatsoever. And after my 3rd drive with it, I began to like them... Will write a more detailed review of it over the next couple of weeks as I get to play more with it. But as of right now, there's a hell of a lot of love in that golf bag o' mine! What's in the bag: Driver: TSR3; DynaPWR Carbon FW Wood: DynaPWR 3-wood; TSR 2+ Hybrids: PXG Gen4 18-degree Utility Irons: ZX MkII 20* Irons:; 699/699 Pro V2 Combo; D9 Forged; MT86 (coming soon!); VIP 1025 V-Foil MB/CB; Wedges: RTX6 Zipcore Putter: HB Soft Milled 10.5; Newport Special Select; Willamette, BB8; 8802; MATI Monto Ball: Tour B RXS; Z-STAR Diamond; Triad Stat Tracker/GPS Watch: Follow @golfspybarbajo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walkerjames Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Glad to here Barbajo! seams like lots of guys on here are having success with the R1. MY BAG- Driver- Taylormade SLDR 12* (Speeder 7.2vc tour spec S) 3 Wood- Taylormade R11(bimatrix prototype S) 3 Hybrid- Ping I20(stock S) Irons-Taylormade Tour Perferred MC ( C Taper S) Wedges- 50, 54, and 58 SCOR4161( KBS) Putter-Taylormade Ghost Corza. All Left Handed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BK in TEXAS Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 Nice! MENTOR, L4 COACH & TRAINER FIRST TEE GREATER HOUSTON HDCP: 8.3 (GHIN: 3143312) In my bag, April 2023 TS3 Driver & 4 Wood Hzrdous Smoke Shaft (Stiff Flex) TS2 Hybrids Mitsubishi Tensei Shaft (Stiff Flex) MP-59 5-PW; KBS Tour (Regular Flex) SM8 Wedges EVNROLL ER2 Putter SRIXON Z-STAR DIAMOND BALL Sun Mountain Cart Bag 4.0 Push Cart (I'm walking 9 outta 10 rounds!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blade Posted May 11, 2013 Share Posted May 11, 2013 That's great barbajo! Glad you're finally out of the snow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPY VIP The Dansome Posted May 11, 2013 SPY VIP Share Posted May 11, 2013 Ball travels farther in Canada, you'll notice that especially on the west coast. Yo #JustPlayBetter Follow @GolfSpyMBP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hckymeyer Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Glad you found a keeper!! Oddly enough I have not been having great results with the driver I was fit for (R11s w/ Oban Kiyoshi) so only played it for one round this year. I have been getting great results with the winter project backup driver though. So for now the Adams F11 w/ Grafalloy BiMatrix that I painted blue will be staying in the bag. Quick side story: Over the winter my bro-in-law and I hit up the simulators at Bunker Hills in Coon Rapids a couple of times. The last time we went there he had a wild follow through and hit the ceiling with his R11 and put a nice dent in the toe. He just had our pro send it in to TMaG and they replaced with an R1 for free. He's played a couple rounds with it and loves it so far. Now I almost wish I was 6'6" tall so I could do the same thing Driver: SLDR w/ Fujikura Ventus Black 3w: '16 M2 hl w/ Diamana D+ 82 5w: Launcher HB w/ HZRDUS Yellow Hybrid: 22 deg. Launcher HB w/ HZRDUS Black Irons: 5i - gap Launcher CBX w/ Nippon Modus 3 125 Wedges: 54 CBX & 58 Zipcore w/ Nippon Modus 3 125 Putter: Red 7s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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