New! TaylorMade Driver Patent Issued
Posted January 11, 2010 by GolfSpy X
The Taylormade Driver with Fins!
It’s official…well kind of. TaylorMade is one step closer to producing a driver with fins! If you are a long time reader of MGS ten you might remember back in June of 2008 we published an article about a new patent application TaylorMade had filed regarding a driver with fins. Well just last week the patent issued! Which means it is one step closer to becoming a reality.
The driver is all about sound and creating hopefully the most desirable sound to a golfers ears. Here is an excerpt from the previous article explaining a little more about the design:
TaylorMade In Search Of Perfect Sound
This week if you get a chance to watch both the College Baseball World Series and the USGA U.S. Open at the same time, do a quick experiment at home. Put both events on at the same time and see if you can tell the difference between the sound of a “modern driver” and the sound that comes off the “aluminum baseball bat”.
All Sounds The Same
Ten years ago the you never even heard the reference being made about a driver sounding like an aluminum bat. That has all changed, and in the golf world not for the better. Golfers buying equipment today have had to sacrifice sound for size. But with companies promising both longer and straighter drives they have seemed to give up on the fight for one of the most important aspects of a golf club. The sweet sound of a well hit ball. When someone hit a bad drive a few years ago, you would almost always hear a partner saying something like, “You hit it thin” or “You hit it off the toe” or “You hit a heelie”. That is because you could actually tell the difference in the sound that came off the driver. Hard to remember those days but TaylorMade looks like they might be trying to bring them back with this new patent that just issued.
Purpose of The Patent
From what I have read it is to perfect the sound of the driver or at least make it resemble what drivers used to sound like. And that is where the “Fins” come in, the “Fins” actually change the sound coming from the driver by how and where they are located.
Taylormade States the Preferred Sound is:
The sound generated by a golf club is based on the rate, or frequency, at which the golf club head vibrates upon impact with the golf ball. Generally, for wood-type golf clubs (as distinguished from iron-type golf clubs), particularly those made of steel or titanium alloys, a desired frequency is generally around 3,000 Hz and preferably greater than 3,200 Hz. A frequency less than 3,000 Hz may result in negative auditory feedback and thus a golf club with an undesirable feel.
Taylormade Fin Driver
Taylor made Fin Driver
Related Articles:
- Callaway Golf – New Driver Patents
- Shocking Patent Issued by TaylorMade Golf
- Cleveland Golf with a Square Driver?
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January 11th, 2010 at 11:01 am
TM you have done it again, this driver is going to go great with my new boogie board and wet suite..
January 11th, 2010 at 11:31 am
LOL
January 12th, 2010 at 8:59 am
From an engineering standpoint it looks like they are trying to solve a design problem they currently have. One issue a lot of newer drivers have now is power hitters have a tendency to crack the crown along the front parallel with the face. Drivers are designed to be hit higher on the face than they used to be and the crowns are so thin the flexing of the face at impact weakens the crown along the face and fails. These “fins” look like they are designed more to stabilize the crown than anything else. If I am looking at the drawings correctly they are on the inside in the front and outside in the rear. The added weight on the inside should have the effect of moving the COG higher and more forward which would is the opposite of what it should be unless the advantages of the stronger crown outweigh the COG change. Just a thought! I agree a previous poster though. Fins on the outside are nonconforming by current rules.
January 11th, 2010 at 11:29 am
Madness strikes again… This looks like a crap version of the Slazenger K1 Speed rubbish they were flogging over here…
January 11th, 2010 at 11:32 am
You have any good pics of that one Si?
January 11th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Can’t find one of the crown, but basically it had 3 fins on the top, which were very weak spots and prone to cracking along the fins and the top of the face… Oh and it was non-conforming too, all in all a waste of £169 (£99 plus cheap rescue and golf balls thrown in!!!)
January 11th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Yeah theirs seemed to be more geared around looks rather then functionality though.
January 11th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
personally i dont care about the sound, as long as it hits great, and looks good. never really been a fan of TM tho so im a little biased. however great this club sounds, and hit, it still doesnt defeat the fact that it will end up looking like a shark/airplane.
this all being said tho i admire their innovation, and ideas
January 12th, 2010 at 6:12 am
I have two words for the driver
HOCUS POCUS
January 12th, 2010 at 6:40 am
Looks like we are retro back to the 1960s car era– FINS???
January 12th, 2010 at 7:39 am
Like a Charger or Dart or maybe even a Challenger that has been zuupped up!
January 12th, 2010 at 6:52 am
Any club that does not look good to me will tend to make me uncomfortable when addressing the ball. This club, at first glance, may be one that causes me to be uncomfortable and results might not be satisfactory. While a club’s sound is somewhat important to me the looks is more important. Most important is distance and direction.
January 12th, 2010 at 7:40 am
I think this is the problem some designers are having right now…it is tough to marry all those in one design,
January 12th, 2010 at 7:21 am
And let me guess, the fins are going to cut through the air which will increase your clubhead speed and therefore result in this being taylormades longest driver ever until the next one comes out with lighter fins and the one after that with superfast fins and so on!! God i love this business!
January 12th, 2010 at 7:40 am
Well put FSU
January 12th, 2010 at 8:01 am
wow they finally put in some aerodynamics Adams has been using that for a while theres a reason the longest hitter in the world uses the 9032LD niot the LS the LD is reinforced
January 12th, 2010 at 8:06 am
The fins in this design are actually geared around sound.
January 19th, 2010 at 6:56 am
If the fins were geared to help the club square up at impact it would be a good feature for higher handicappers. I’m not sure I would ever look at it for myself, as I’m not sure if I could stand the look of it.