Has TaylorMade Hit Upon Another Winner?

[ChetlovesMer]

This seems brilliant to me.

Taylormade brought out white drivers in 2010-ish. Next thing you know you see them all over the place. On tour, on the course, seemed like everyone had to have a white driver. Was it a fad? ... Of course it was, but Taylormade sold a lot of drivers. One of the reasons was you could recognize a white driver head easily on TV, or from a distance on the course. 

Fast forward to 2022. The white driver head is now antiquated. So, what does Taylormade do? Make a red driver face... Tada! 

This seems like a smart move to me. I'll be interested to see if it works out.

 

[Darkfrog]

9 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Make a red driver face

I think I read that TM will offer face color customization too, so if red is not your thing, there are other choices, maybe for extra $$$.

I could be totally wrong, I can’t find where I read that now. 

[ChetlovesMer]

21 hours ago, Darkfrog said:

I think I read that TM will offer face color customization too, so if red is not your thing, there are other choices, maybe for extra $$$.

I could be totally wrong, I can’t find where I read that now. 

I'm not sure if that's true or not. But somebody at the driving range was talking about that. 
I've heard a lot of talk about this driver. More talk than I can remember about previous releases of new drivers. Some of the talk is that "Can't wait to get my hands on one" kind of talk. Some of it is "Ah it's just another gimmick" talk. Either way, I hear a lot people talking about it. 

If the goal of Taylormade is to generate buzz, I think they've done that. 

[iacas]

1 hour ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I'm not sure if that's true or not.

https://www.taylormadegolf.com/MyStealth-Plus-Driver/DW-TA063.html?lang=en_US#/head

MyStealth will be the customizable ones for $699.

[ChetlovesMer]

38 minutes ago, iacas said:

https://www.taylormadegolf.com/MyStealth-Plus-Driver/DW-TA063.html?lang=en_US#/head

MyStealth will be the customizable ones for $699.

Wow, that's kinda cool. I think if I was going to be dropping a pile of cash on a new driver, I'd have to seriously consider doing that. 

[TourSpoon]

3 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

If the goal of Taylormade is to generate buzz, I think they've done that. 

They have always been good at that and this is no different. The red face is turning heads and generating some excitement. Performance wise its not going to be any better, but it will look good in the bag! I remember the "17" promotion of Rocketballz at Doral. Every TM player had the hat on with the white driver and that kind of attention is always good. 

Anyway, the MyStealth should get attention from the MySpider crowd. I am sure we will see some interesting combos! 

[xrayvizhen]

I spent a considerable amount of time trying out the Stealth driver at my local Golf Galaxy, comparing it with my TM-M3. I saw a small % improvement meaning if you can carry the ball 260-280 you'll get more carry, maybe a 6-yard increase, than I could. Since I can no longer do that, I saw a 1 mph increase in clubhead speed, a small drop in spin, and maybe 2-3 yards increase in carry and that was only with center of the face hits. I saw no real difference in direction of off-center hits but I'm not very far from the center of the face most of the time and my club path is pretty straight. For that level of improvement, a price of close to $600 is a little steep for me but if you have older clubs maybe it would be worth it.

I did see another guy pounding out 270 yard drives who got a 10 yard increase, but that could also be because the fitter replaced a stiff with an x-stiff shaft and that caused the guy's fade to straighten out considerably. (The fitter obviously knew what he was doing.) The guy ordered the club BTY. (They're saying it's about a 2-week lead-time.)

Edited January 15, 2022 by xrayvizhen

[ChetlovesMer]

Yesterday, in my travels I happened past a Golf Galaxy. I took a few minutes (okay, like 90 minutes) and went and hit a bunch of the new drivers. Mostly Stealth, Rogue and LTDx. But I hit a couple with the PING and the Titliest as well. I have to say I didn't love the Stealth. I'm sure it's a great driver. But its yet anther Taylormade that sits weird to me behind the ball. I can't put my finger on it. But it looks wrong behind the ball. I used to always like Taylormade drivers, I even played a Burner Bubble shaft way back in the day. But when twist face came out it looked wrong to my eye and even though that's been dialed back a bit with each new iteration, this still doesn't look right. 

Anyway, I hit it just fine. It has a very muted sound. Without a ton of research I would say I preferred the Callaway of the ones I hit. The Ping G425 is loud! Not quite  Nike SasQuatch Sumo2 loud, but definitely the loudest of anything else out there. 

[onthehunt526]

On 1/4/2022 at 8:48 AM, ChetlovesMer said:

This seems brilliant to me.

Taylormade brought out white drivers in 2010-ish. Next thing you know you see them all over the place. On tour, on the course, seemed like everyone had to have a white driver. Was it a fad? ... Of course it was, but Taylormade sold a lot of drivers. One of the reasons was you could recognize a white driver head easily on TV, or from a distance on the course. 

Fast forward to 2022. The white driver head is now antiquated. So, what does Taylormade do? Make a red driver face... Tada! 

This seems like a smart move to me. I'll be interested to see if it works out.

 

This is far from the first “Carbonwood”, the Callaway C4 came out 20 years ago and that wasn’t even the first. I had a Daiwa Exceler from like 1989 and I’m not sure that that was the first. Yonex had some carbon woods.

The red driver face does make it stand out. However, I tested it and I’ll stick to my ZX7.

[StuM]

Do I need to get all six to coordinate with my clothes?

Edited February 26, 2022 by StuM

[ChetlovesMer]

2 hours ago, onthehunt526 said:

This is far from the first “Carbonwood”, the Callaway C4 came out 20 years ago and that wasn’t even the first. I had a Daiwa Exceler from like 1989 and I’m not sure that that was the first. Yonex had some carbon woods.

The red driver face does make it stand out. However, I tested it and I’ll stick to my ZX7.

Correct. I actually had a carbon wood way back in the day. Mine was a knock-off of the Callaway, not even a Callaway. 

In fairness, I don't think Taylormade ever said it's the first carbonwood. I think they have continually said that they have perfected the carbonwood over the last 20 years. And now it's ushering in a new age. Which we all know is probably just marketing, but it certainly has been a talking point. 

I remember being told a story that metal woods, back when metalwoods first came out, aren't made of metal because it's a better material. Metal woods are made of metal for ease of manufacturability and repeatability. Before anyone yells at me, I'm not saying metal woods aren't better than wood woods. I'm just saying originally the manufacturers started using metal because it was a much more repeatable manufacturing process. 

I do recall the manufacturers experimenting with a lot of materials "back in the day". Carbon, Aluminum, Powdered Metal (I had a powered metal driver at one point. That thing sounded so bizarre at the time), of course titanium, different polymers, there was even a clear acrylic driver... etc... 

Whether or not Taylormade has perfected this technology and are truly ushering in a new age... Time will tell. My guess is this is more of the square driver (a shot lived fad) and less of the 460cc driver (once rare, and now the norm). But I've been wrong before. I do know that Taylormade is selling a boat load of these things right now. 

19 minutes ago, StuM said:

Do I need to get all six to coordinate with my clothes?

Don't you only need scarlet and grey? 

[Vinsk]

Which color produces the most distance?

[ChetlovesMer]

19 minutes ago, Vinsk said:

Which color produces the most distance?

I'm sure that depends on what color ball you play. For example if you play an orange ball, clearly you need the orange face driver. If play a green ball, green face... etc... 

If you have a multi-colored ball, i.e. Srixon Divide, Callaway Tru-Vis, TaylorMade Pix, etc... You have to wait for next year's release when the multi-colored, 60 layer, carbon, twist face comes out. 

[boogielicious]

6 hours ago, StuM said:

Do I need to get all six to coordinate with my clothes?

Yes. It’s kind of like Garanimals.

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I’d like to try the driver, but I’m skeptical I would like it. I like a more pronounced sound from the driver. I have Titleist and a Callaway Epic and the Epic sounds dull to me.

[Zippo]

On 2/26/2022 at 5:17 AM, Vinsk said:

Which color produces the most distance?

I'm not sure about that but I need a red one to match the color on my face when my drive sails into the boonies...

[Bucki1968]

I happened into Golf Galaxy this past week-end and was browsing around the clubs section and was checking out the used clubs and found that the used (must have been demo clubs) Callaway Epic speeds were selling for $500.00 bucks. They had some "idiot marks" on the tops of them and were in no way "like new". So I started looking at other used equipment and found that it's not much cheaper than new. I guess inflation is finding it's way into the golf club business. The wife got some balls and gloves that were a good deal (on sale) and it looks like new apparel is the same price as well as shoes. 

[The Flush]

1 hour ago, Bucki1968 said:

I happened into Golf Galaxy this past week-end and was browsing around the clubs section and was checking out the used clubs and found that the used (must have been demo clubs) Callaway Epic speeds were selling for $500.00 bucks. They had some "idiot marks" on the tops of them and were in no way "like new". So I started looking at other used equipment and found that it's not much cheaper than new. I guess inflation is finding it's way into the golf club business. The wife got some balls and gloves that were a good deal (on sale) and it looks like new apparel is the same price as well as shoes. 

My son just bought an Epic Speed from Callaway Preowned for $275. It was in like new condition and appeared almost flawless when he received it. I don't know why anyone would look for a used Callaway anywhere else.

[xrayvizhen]

23 hours ago, The Flush said:

My son just bought an Epic Speed from Callaway Preowned for $275. It was in like new condition and appeared almost flawless when he received it. I don't know why anyone would look for a used Callaway anywhere else.

Your statement has absolutely nothing to do with the subject of this thread, but I'll just say I would never, ever buy anything preowned, regardless of the vendor, unless I could touch, feel and test the club personally.