Taylormade Releases Clubs – Golfers Piss Their Pants!

Adjustable Sole Plates (or ASP) is Pointless

The other significant news from yesterday’s non-release (and today’s actual release) is the long awaited announcement of the follow up last year’s STOOPID successful R11 driver. I don’t have any inside information, but if I were a betting man, I’d wager that the new Taylormade R11S was originally scheduled to be released mid-summer/early fall 2011, but when R11 sales destroyed every reasonable expectation, TaylorMade did something very uncharacteristic; they did nothing.

While there are some tweaks or “improvements” as some might call them, the R11S (note, it’s not the R12) offers what I consider to be slight evolutionary improvements. I don’t believe that even TaylorMade would argue that it is a revolutionary product.

In my opinion, the only significant change (at least where adjustability is concerned) is the increased change in loft realized by the hosel-based Flight Control Technology. The R11S, now allows for 1.5 degrees of adjustablility in both directions. While I can say with almost certainty that most golfers would be best served finding their ideal setting and leaving it, there is something to be said for having the option to make changes as your swing changes or as course conditions dictate.

While you could make an argument that the Titleist system is more practical, the Cobra system easier to use, or that Callaway’s new system shows more promise, I’m inclined to say, for now anyway, TaylorMade’s implementation is at the top.

I’ve said from day 1 that TaylorMade’s Adjustable Sole Plate (or ASP) is pointless. Sure, it looks nifty. It’s one more thing you can use your TaylorMade wrench on, and it reads brilliantly on paper, but the thing about any sole modification is that to truly be effective it requires turf interaction. For ASP to work, not only do you need to begin your swing with the sole of your driver firmly on the ground, you would need to return it to that same grounded position at impact. Full disclosure, I’m no Hank Haney, but bottom line, if you’re making contact with the turf with your driver, well, simply put, you’re doing it wrong.

Granted, if you’re the Sergio Garcia type who occasionally will play his driver off the deck, then ok, it matters. Otherwise, it’s basically pointless. Shiny and red, but pointless.

Golf Industry (vs) Auto Industry

Now sure, the auto industry is notorious for releasing new models year after year, offering little more by way of improvement than chrome accents on the radio dials, but ASP wasn’t that. From a functionality standpoint it’s more akin to adding a 5th wheel and arguing that it offers a 20% improvement in handling. In the R11S TaylorMade is giving you two additional settings, which I guess is like putting mag wheels with spinners on your superfluous 5th wheel. We all want that right? Improvements made to nearly pointless “technology” are nearly pointless.

Fluff (vs) Substance

Moveable Weight Technology remains unchanged in the R11S, and while I’ve yet to see any real evidence that MWT alone can impact ball flight whatsoever, it remains a big selling point. Again, it’s fun to play with, but there’s not much substance to it. Now certainly there are some actual benefits to Moveable Weight Technology, the kind of stuff that actually could matter to the average golfer, but since TaylorMade isn’t talking about them, I’m not going to do their work for them. But if you believe moving around a tiny percentage of overall club mass is going to impact meaningful change on your ball flight, I have a lovely bridge you might be interested…and it’s adjustable (it’s a drawbridge).

Finally, once the wrench is out of your hands, the R11S offers a couple of other enhancements and tweaks over the original. First, they’ve bumped the head volume up to 460cc. Given TaylorMade’s history of launching smaller drivers in the Spring and their 460cc counterparts later in the year, this also adds to my speculation that the R11S was originally planned for a 2011 release.

460cc in an of itself is neither good nor bad. If you prefer larger heads it’s good. If you perfer smaller ones, it’s bad.

Finally, TaylorMade boasts of refined aerodynamics in the R11S. As with the RocketBallz Fairway wood, the more scooped out sole shaping is, to my eye, eerily similar to that of the Adams Speedline series (particularly the 9064 and 9088 series). Those similar designs have produced some of the fastest ball speeds among the drivers we’ve tested, so it’s reasonable to assume that if TaylorMade has borrowed a page from somebody else’s playbook, the R11S may prove to be longer than the original.

Look, my intent isn’t to tear the new TaylorMade lineup apart. Golf companies “borrow” from each other all the time, and there’s a finite amount of ground-breaking left to be done. Based on my own experience with the original R11, I’m confident that #TM2012 will prove to be as good as just about anything else on the market, but I don’t expect we’ll see anything truly spectacular either. If I’m wrong, I’ll be the first to admit it, and the first to recommend you go try the new stuff for yourself. But the story here isn’t the clubs. The most interesting aspect of the new release can be found in the marketing itself.

TaylorMade Releases Stuff and the Sheep Come Running…

The lessons learned from yesterday’s non-release are as obvious as they are disappointing. TaylorMade once again proved it is without question the biggest name in golf; the Shepard of the golf industry…and well, what’s a shepard without sheep? Don’t bother answering that. We also learned that when the Shepard wears Adidas, the flock’s numbers will be strong, and yesterday they came out full force with tails wagging.

The disproportionate interest (at least when compared to real-world benefits) also serves as further proof that the perception of “new technology” is more than enough to overpower the actual reality, and that there’s no easier way to sell a wood than to stamp “TM” on the sole plate (adjustable or otherwise). What I find sad is the number of golfers already expressing an extreme desire to put the R11s or RocketBallz in their bags.

Who Buys a Club Without Trying it First? Turns Out, A Lot Of People Do

It’s one thing to be excited about the release of a new club. Hell, if I’m being on honest, I’m a little excited.  I’m looking forward to checking out the R11’s and RocketBallz fairway, and the new supposedly ground-breaking wedges (that one hasn’t been announced, or even non-announced yet), but being curious, and buying without taking so much as a swing are two different things. It disappoints me that so many golfers are going to pre-order something from #TM2012 (and I can promise you pre-orders will be strong), and otherwise buy sight unseen. How can one say something like “these are the best clubs ever, I can’t wait to buy them”, when 99.9% of golfers haven’t taken so much as a swing. Who buys a club without trying it first? Baaah, Baaah (and other assorted sheep noises).

If the so called objective media wants to roll out the red carpet and treat every TaylorMade release with the same open arms with which a  pre-teen girl would welcome Justin Bieber that’s one thing, but as golfing consumers we all need to spend more time reading the fine print, and differentiating between what’s real, and what’s little more than eye-candy coated in gooey marketing speak.  Do me a favor, tone down the excitement a notch.

You want to get excited…the next time one of the little guys puts out a press release, read it…read it good. There’s a good chance it will offer you a glimpse into what the big guys will be working on next year.