Taylormade R9 Driver - Good Bad & Ugly?

[kingofcars08]

I apologize, but i disagree slightly with what you say. The R9 will fix his misses and straighten out his drives. It is an awesome head, very hot like the R7 when it came out. And if he gets fit for the R9 with the right shaft, right lie angle, loft, offset, for his swing. He will hit 30% more faiways and gain 25% more yards easy. I currently have an r7, but spent 30 min in a taylormade demo session and hit the R9 15 yards longer with some 30+, and I was straighter on slight mishits. It is a sick driver, and looks and sounds beautiful. Between the new 909D and the R9, not sure what Im going with.

[Amoretti]

It's fun to buy new clubs.

This guy hit the nail on the head.

[JimmyDoesGolf]

No one here can tell you how you will hit the R9. You may hit it well, you may hit it terribly. Certainly, the wiser investment by a mile is lessons or at least a fitting. I'm sure you can find 30 mins here and there for that.

[Duffy]

I agree with those who suggested that the manufacturers are making things more complicated. Golf is complicated enough without adding the stress of setting this weight or that or angle adjustments etc. Is it really going to be a better club than my Tour Burner? Doubtful at best. Besides, It's a robot driver. Ben Hogan is rolling in his grave!

[GaijinGolfer]

Ive got an R9 and I personally like it. However, its not going to gain you the distances that you are wanting.
I went from a Mizuno MX-560 12* to the R9 10.5* that I currently have and I did gain about 30 yards, but Id say thats most due to the loft.
While I do think that the adjustability of the R9 is a nice feature to have and that by opening or closing the face it could reduce a hook or slice (much like the draw drivers that are available), I dont see the R9 taking you from hitting 200 yard drives to 275-300 yard drives.
Id agree with the others who said that youd be better off spending your money on some lessons.

[bogeyhitter25]

Get a Nike Sumo SQ 5000 (best driver I've ever hit in my entire life) and spend the extra $250 on greens fees and lessons.

[ApocG10]

If you have money for a new driver, you'd be better served using that money for lessons in all honestly.

A good series of lessons on swinging is far more valuable to you than a driver ever will be.

It takes one hour to get a lesson, and 30 minutes a day at the range to practice it. Im sure you can fit that in somewhere.

But no, I tried the R9, wonderful club, but I didnt actually get to tinker with it or use it extensively.

[Alley Cat]

I was having the same problems as the OP and swapped my HiBore XLS Monster for the R9 today. I adjusted it to correct the slice and took it to the range. I hit 50 balls and 49 of them were dead center. I couldn't believe the amount of control I had with this club.

I only hit the ball about the same distance as you and I honestly didn't notice a big difference in yardage either way, but again everything I hit was center cut. It was my most consistent time at the range ever.

I agree with everyone that lessons are ultimately the way to go (for both of us), but this club will help. It's not a cure all and won't replace learning to swing properly, but it is an excellent club. The way I look at it is that you can always return the club to the neutral position once you fix your swing.

Also, once you get it fixed it won't matter if you're swinging an R9, R7, Titleist, Ping, etc... Guys didn't just start hitting 250+ yard drives in the last 10 years, they were hitting them with wooden clubs... so again, lessons are the only "cure".



just my $.02