Making Sense of TaylorMade’s Bizarre Week

Written By: Tony Covey

While it’s fair to say that this week belonged to Callaway (did you hear they’re releasing a new Big Bertha?), it’s been an interesting, maybe even odd, week for their biggest rival. TaylorMade kicked off the week by announcing that they’d eventually be offering a 14° model of their popular SLDR driver.

For a few reasons I’ll discuss in a bit, this is actually a fairly compelling release, but the timing of the announcement is beyond suspect. It’s hard to look past the fact that TaylorMade didn’t, or rather, it would seem, couldn’t provide a specific date for availability (they’re working to produce enough quantity).

It sure gives one the impression that the announcement was more about trying to steal a little bit of Bertha’s thunder than it was promoting any actual TaylorMade product.

A 14° add-on? One hour a head of the Big Bertha embargo? Can I get even one of you to argue coincidence?

This type of “me too, me too” marketing is exactly how Callaway responded to TaylorMade releases not so long ago. Back then it was lame…and well, nothing much has happened to change my opinion on what is at best poor timing.

Monday was Callaway’s day, and the professional play would have been to let them have it.

Uncharted Territory

Still, it’s hard to really blame TaylorMade for what I’d suggest is a slight misstep. The golf equipment game is generally regarded as a competitive one, but for the better part of the last decade nobody has really challenged TaylorMade. This is uncharted territory for them.

Callaway took a few swings this year. Some of them landed.

While there’s no arguing TaylorMade is in a fight, we’re still in the early rounds.  Whether TaylorMade rises up (old school Hulk Hogan) or the empire crumbles under the pressure (Tyson against Buster Douglas springs to mind) will go a long way towards determining who’s on top of the golf industry 2 years from now.

TaylorMade has proven they’re very good at running with nothing in front of them and not much behind them. With some rearview traffic moving fast and gaining, it’s going to be very interesting to see how they respond to the pressure.

A 14° SLDR is actually a Story

Lost in the timing of TaylorMade’s announcement is the fact that a 14° SLDR is actually worth talking about. SLDR is one of those rare clubs that’s basically everything the manufacturer says it is. The low and forward CG does significantly reduces spin, and nearly everybody who hits it (myself included) actually does need more loft than he would with basically any other driver on the market today.

#LoftUp is real, and I’ll tell you what else, so is the distance story behind it. While everyone who doesn’t work at TaylorMade will talk about low MOI (one individual recently suggested TaylorMade has created a 390cc driver in a 460cc head), nobody is disputing the distance benefits. It’s the forgiveness that’s in doubt, and whether a few might argue otherwise, most golfers don’t actually give a damn about such things.

Distance aside, a 14° offering puts TaylorMade in quite a pickle. With the new heads (SLDR and JetSpeed), 9.5 is the new 8.5° and that means 14° is the new 11.5°. They need to offer it, because I can promise you, more than a few golfers need it. Unfortunately, for the prideful golfers among us (and that’s most of us), 11.5° and 12° drivers are already a very tough sell.

TaylorMade can tell all the stories they want about their Tour Pros lofting up (TaylorMade now has PGA Tour veterans in 12° heads), but when a fitter tries to tell a 10.5° guy who already belongs in a 12°, that he needs to be in a 14°, sadly, I believe most will leave the distance on the table and opt for somebody else’s 10.5°; sparing themselves from a right-proper soul crushing.

As TaylorMade continues to zero in on its focus of 17° and 1700 RPM as the ideal pairing of launch and spin, it’s going to be increasingly difficult to sell the drivers that provide what TaylorMade says are the optimum numbers. Their ability to tell the story, or perhaps sell the story, is going to be tested, and speaking as a well-informed guy who generally fits into an 8.5° head;  even though I know better, the thought of personally bagging a 12° or even 14° driver…it’s stomach churning. Good luck, guys.

Golfers will sacrifice anything for distance; the one exception is the delusion of youth.

The TaylorMade Japan Leak: Accidental or Calculated?

If Monday’s loft announcement wasn’t odd enough, by mid-afternoon Tuesday, TaylorMade’s new Tour Preferred (not the same as TP) irons and SLDR 430 Tour Preferred (also not TP) showed up on the TaylorMade Japan website.

There are two irrefutable truths in the golf industry:

• Ask any company who deals with it, coordinating releases between the US, Japan, and Europe can be excruciatingly difficult.
• Sometimes the apparently run of the mill gun-jumping by an overseas faction is actually part of a calculated release strategy.

My assessment is that it could be either.

Bertha still had legs on Tuesday…and Wednesday.

While I’m certain Monday’s announcement had everything to do with Bertha, I’m less convinced about the irons. Still…new TaylorMade products making their first appearance in any earnest and official capacity in Japan? It’s weird, right?

Regardless, by Wednesday, TaylorMade wanted everyone to know that Justin Rose would be bagging a combo set (CBs and MCs) this weekend. And so here’s your proof.

The new irons are generally being well-received. Short of RBladez Tour, TaylorMade hasn’t released a better players iron in 3 years, so it’s really hard for even the most ardent consumer of TaylorMade hater-aid to argue market oversaturation. While player’s irons will never be the top seller, the TaylorMade trio looks like more than enough to keep TaylorMade on top in the iron category.

About that 430cc SLDR

The bigger curiosity (actually, let’s call it what it is…cause for excitement) for me is the 430cc SLDR. Sure, we assumed it was coming, but the info on TaylorMade Japan basically confirms that it’s going to be available at retail (not one of those Tour Issue only things that golfers claim to despise).

Since I’m illiterate in Japanese, I’m forced to rely on rumors instead of actual info. What we’re hearing is that the 430cc model is extra-super low spin (460 is already super low spin), and that, where playability is concerned, it’s almost certainly #LOFTUP-IER (lower launch) than what’s already out there.

While I’m loathe to call anything a better player’s offering, SLDR 430 certainly doesn’t look like anything that’s designed for the average player. The demand won’t be overwhelming and the MOI numbers will certainly be underwhelming, but I’d wager that there are going to be plenty of guys itching to get their hands on the smaller version.

The good news is that I expect SLDR 430 to be officially announced very soon. The bad news is that sources inside TaylorMade are telling me that the totally awesome, SuperQuad-esque, paint job on the Japanese version is different from what is now going to feel like the slightly less-awesome US version. My guess is that the SLDR 430 we get will look almost exactly like 460’s Mini Me.

Pricing hasn’t been confirmed, but my thinking is there’s no way TaylorMade sells the 430 without a TP (real) shaft. My guess is $499.99, but that really is only a guess.

But Wait…There’s More

If all of that wasn’t enough, as I think, maybe…I dunno, part of their strategy to get the LoftUp message out there, yesterday TaylorMade posted this video:

Umm yeah, not sure what to make of that. At least we know they’re not opposed to having a little fun inside the walls of TaylorMade HQ. While I know with absolute certainty that TaylorMade is sitting on some of the best product-related videos you’ll likely ever see, that’s probably not one of them. Here’s hoping they make the really good stuff public soon enough.

Stay Tuned

We’re obviously very close to some more official stuff from TaylorMade. By the middle of the month, I think we’re going to have all the details on the latest round of products. Take it for what it is, enjoy your holidays, and then prepare for a full on media assault as both TaylorMade and Callaway do what they can do to get their message out before the snow melts and the Spring buying season gets underway.

This week was…I don’t know…bizarre, anomalous; at the very least it was a-typical TaylorMade. There are probably 100 guys at their desk’s on Fermi Court right now who think I’m reading way too much into this – and they might be right, but as I’ve pointed out, Monday was basically the biggest release announcement ever for TaylorMade’s biggest competitor, and they had to do something, right?

Was TaylorMade’s strange week the result of bad strategy, or just bad timing?

Coincidence or convolution; you be the judge.