TaylorMade Golf continues to roll out the equipment for 2009 and this month they’ve given you a new driver and new putter to hopefully fill out your bag. We poke a bit of fun at TaylorMade about their product release cycle, but there is little doubt that for the myriad of products they release in a year, for the most part they churn out some very innovative equipment.
This time around we get a the Rossa Monza Spider Balero – the latest edition to join the popular mallet series – as well as the R9 460 driver, which features Flight Control Technology but no movable weights.
Tag along as we look into the latest from the folks at TaylorMade.
Rossa Monza Spider Balero
It seems that TaylorMade has been releasing new putters these days almost as quickly as they’ve been releasing new drivers. The lineup in the past year or so has been almost completely revamped, and in my opinion, for the better.
The Rossa Monza Spider line gets a new sibling with the release of the Balero, which according to the TM folks, is “a large mallet that combines the forgiveness and feel of the Monza Spider with a uniquely shaped head that makes it dramatically easier to aim the clubface correctly.” Or, “you can’t possibly miss with this putter.”
The Monza Spider Balero’s head was designed primarily to make it easy to aim. It does so with it’s “ball-in-cup” feature at the back of the head, giving you a nice visualization to make it super-simple to line up the clubface with the intended line.
The marketing folks at TaylorMade add this: “Balero’s ball-in-cup feature serves another positive function. Looking at it reinforces the image of a ball against the center of the back lip of the cup. That positively reinforces the practice of rolling the ball firmly into the back of the cup on short putts, which promotes a firm, accelerating stroke while discouraging deceleration.” I see the imagery, but I fail to pair that with making an accelerating stroke. Maybe that’s just me.
The Balero’s large head and shape give you some nice “super-high” MOI that gives you extra stability and forgiveness on those pesky mis-hits that is just what mallet fans desire. The uni-body, stainless steel construction, low center-of-gravity, and the soft polymer AGSI insert helps give the Balero’s “remarkably soft feel.”
The Balero comes in 34″ and 35″ for both lefties and righties and you can experience the Balero now at your favorite golf shop for about $160.
R9 460 Driver
Earlier this year, TaylorMade released the R9, which has a 420cc head and was met to decent reviews. For those who need a few more cubic centimeters in your driver, the R9 460 might be just be right up your alley.
One of the biggest features (pun intended) is the difference in head size between the R9 and the R9 460. However, that’s not the only one. While the R9 features Moveable Weight Technology in three weight ports, the R9 460 weight ports are fixed and cannot be moved. So rather than having 75 yards of “side-to-side trajectory change” of the R9, you’re “stuck” with only 40 yards using the Flight Control Technology (FCT). Which means my ball will go 35 yards less out-of-bounds with the R9 460 versus the R9. Or something like that.
The R9 460 on the right is a bit bigger than the regular R9 and does not feature the Moveable Weight Technology of it’s sibling.
The FCT allows you to change the club’s face angle, loft, and lie angle by loosening a bolt in the sole, rotating the shaft into the designated position, then tightening the bolt. That’s it. No more wishing you had a tour van in your basement. I won’t go too much more into the FCT but suffice to say, it’s a pretty cool feature.
Compared to the R9 driver, the R9 460 driver obviously has a larger head that TaylorMade calls “new classic” since it is a blend of modern and traditional. Call me old-fashioned, but I like the look of my r7 460 TP just fine. I guess change is inevitable. The “new classic” clubhead features a deeper clubface and a lower and deeper-back center of gravity which gives it a higher MOI for more forgiveness and a higher spin-rate, which helps out the lower-spin players to keep the ball in the air longer for monster drives.
Like pretty much every offering from TaylorMade, the R9 460 features the Inverted Cone clubface technology, which expands the area of the clubface in order to deliver high ball speed. The inverted cone is milled directly onto the inner side of the clubface and helps increases the club’s forgiveness on mis-hits, which is a very nice bonus.
The R9 460 driver follows the latest trend in drivers by lengthening the shaft; 45.75″ to be exact. The stock shaft is an Aldila RE*AX 60-gram tip-soft shaft which is available in L, M, R, S, and X flexes. The shaft characteristics and the additional length together promote more clubhead speed and distance.
For those who like more shaft options, the R9 460 TP also is available. It features the same identical clubhead as the R9 460, but comes with a Fujikura Motore F1 65 graphite shaft with a .335″ tip. Custom shaft options are also available in X, S and R flexes such as the Fujikura Motore F1 75, Fujikura Motore F1 85, Fujikura Motore F1 55, Aldila Voodoo VS6, Aldila Voodoo NV6, Mitsubishi Fubuki 63, Mitsubishi Fubuki 73, Matrix Ozik X-CON 5 and Matrix HD 6.
Available lofts for the R9 460 and R9 460 TP drivers include 8.5°, 9.5°, 10.5° and 11.5° in right-handed, 9.5° and 10.5° in left-handed. You can test drive the R9 460 and R9 460 TP at your favorite golf shop right now. The R9 460 has a street price of about $300 while the TP version has a street price of about $400.
In the End
I’ve had a TaylorMade driver in my bag for some time now going from the 200 Series, the r7, and the r7 460 TP so I’m a bit partial to their products. Having said that, while FCT is pretty cool, I’m not sure it’s worth an upgrade over my current driver. Once I got the driver set like I wanted it, I’ve left it unchanged. That doesn’t mean the FCT is a clubfitter’s dream to get golfer’s dialed in to a driver that will work out for them.
As for the Balero, I’m not much one for mallets but obviously they’ve got a market as the Rossa Monza Spider series seems to be doing quite well. It looks very easy to line up a putt with one and that’s half the battle right there.
That putter is so ugly.
I can attest that for anyone looking for a driver that don’t get fitted, you can’t really go wrong with the R9. I purchased the R9 to help me correct a slice which I set to have more of a draw bias to it and it helped. Perhaps you can correct it without the R9 but with this you can tweak the club to perform some of the work for you. Of course, after figuring out what I was doing wrong, I placed back to Neutral.
I guess you still need to figure out what loft you need but it can be a one stop shop club for most people.
I Picked up a LH R9 460 10.5 regular shaft today at Golfsmith, it was on sale and I had a coupon so I got the driver for $150.00 not a bad deal at all. I went to my local golf course and got a bucket of balls. I knew going into this purchase that I have a heck of a time hitting a driver to begin with. I set the FCT to the Neutral Upright Right position. Knowing that I have a wicked slice (right to left ball flight for lefties) with any other driver I have tried and basically the reason I didn’t own a driver in the first place. I tried the Nike Sumo 5000 and that went right back to the store for a trade in after three rounds. I was surprised to see that my first drive with the R9 460 was dead straight. This got my attention right away. I have a hard enough time just getting the ball in the air with a driver and this shot went a good 225 yards in the air. I hit a few more practice shots and most, not all were pretty straight. None of the practice shots reminded me of my other failed attempts at other drivers, so that was very promising. The sound of the club hitting the ball is very pleasing to my ear. Not too loud of a ping but enough to get some attention.
The R9 460 is in my bag now. I got off of every tee box and hit a good amount of fairways for my round with the club today. I used to leave a lot of shots on the box due to duffing my first swing on every hole, but not anymore. I easily took a good 10-12 shots off my round and noticed I was hitting my second shots with my 6, 7 and 8 irons instead of my 3, 4 and 5 irons.
The R9 460 is easy to setup with the wrench that is provided to you by TaylorMade. The bolt that attaches the club head to the shaft can’t get lost because it doesn’t full come off the head when fully loosened. I bet you could even change the setting between holes if you wanted to get crazy. I plan on going to the range and trying out some other setting just to see what is possible with the FCT. The TaylorMade R9 460 10.5 is a great driver and now on sale for a great price. Hope this helped, enjoy!!!