TaylorMade Introduces RocketBallz Driver, Fairway Woods and Rescues!

[R11driver]

Great writeup. Any idea what the COR is for the RBZ driver ??

[mvmac]

Originally Posted by R11driver

Great writeup. Any idea what the COR is for the RBZ driver ??

Thanks, driver will be at the legal limit .830

[R11driver]

Excellent. Thanks.

[mymizunosrock]

Why cant they give people the choice of colour?? For me, the white is just obnoxious. Its bright, its loud, it screams "look at me". In all honesty, Im not loyal to one make or the other when it comes to drivers and woods, but as long as they keep making white heads, I wont be using one, which I sure TM will lose sleep over. The all black of the 910 and the Callaway Razr Black are much more appealing to me. All Im saying is just give people the choice. Wonder how much extra to put a real shaft in it??

[newtogolf]

Most likely marketing first and then higher production costs.  TM gets a lot of marketing value when their pro's swing those white drivers.  You can't differentiate between black drivers too easily on television, even high def, but everyone now assumes if it's white it must be TM.  It's the same reason Canon switched their pro lenses to white, they wanted their products to stand out when shots were taken of the on field photographers to show how many were using them over their competition.

On the cost side, it's probably more expensive to manage multiple colors.  Not only would it increase productions costs it would create inventory issues as they and their retail channel would have to predict which color will sell better.

Originally Posted by mymizunosrock

Why cant they give people the choice of colour?? For me, the white is just obnoxious. Its bright, its loud, it screams "look at me". In all honesty, Im not loyal to one make or the other when it comes to drivers and woods, but as long as they keep making white heads, I wont be using one, which I sure TM will lose sleep over. The all black of the 910 and the Callaway Razr Black are much more appealing to me. All Im saying is just give people the choice. Wonder how much extra to put a real shaft in it??

[mvmac]

Originally Posted by mymizunosrock

Why cant they give people the choice of colour?? For me, the white is just obnoxious. Its bright, its loud, it screams "look at me". In all honesty, Im not loyal to one make or the other when it comes to drivers and woods, but as long as they keep making white heads, I wont be using one, which I sure TM will lose sleep over. The all black of the 910 and the Callaway Razr Black are much more appealing to me. All Im saying is just give people the choice. Wonder how much extra to put a real shaft in it??

Originally Posted by newtogolf

Most likely marketing first and then higher production costs.  TM gets a lot of marketing value when their pro's swing those white drivers.  You can't differentiate between black drivers too easily on television, even high def, but everyone now assumes if it's white it must be TM.  It's the same reason Canon switched their pro lenses to white, they wanted their products to stand out when shots were taken of the on field photographers to show how many were using them over their competition.

On the cost side, it's probably more expensive to manage multiple colors.  Not only would it increase productions costs it would create inventory issues as they and their retail channel would have to predict which color will sell better.

Good point.  IMO the best selling products the last ten years have been the R11 and the Odyssey 2-ball, both very visible when you're watching tour coverage.  Works better than an ad with a tour player telling you how far he's hitting it.  But when you see lots of players swinging white drivers, especially players that aren't on TM staff, it's a great marketing tool.  Obviously those players, like Luke Donald, are still payed to play the TM driver but he is pulling it out of a Mizuno bag with a Mizuno head cover on it.

We see this color trend because OEMs are at the limit for what they can do for COR and everyone uses titanium, only so much they can do with the engineering until they start using different materials.  Which is expensive from an R&D; and production standpoint, so it's cheaper to create this demand for white drivers.  They say white is better, because it appears larger and easier to line up.  Can't wait when they go back to black and tell us it's better I'm sure multiple colors is in the works as well

[Born2bWild]

Here are a few more pics from the Taylor Made event.... ROCKETBALLZ!!

mvmac and Tom Kroll Getting the R11s dialed in

R11S and RBZ Drivers fresh out of the box

mvmac ready to get on the course.

We want to thank TaylorMade for giving us the opportunity to test drive the R11S and RBZ line.

[mvmac]

Thanks for the pics Steve!

[shooter101]

mvmac,

Not sure if you did a review on the clubs in comparison to your currently clubs.  If you did I failed to find it, if not is there any way you could give us some insight?

Thanks!

[mvmac]

Originally Posted by shooter101

mvmac,

Not sure if you did a review on the clubs in comparison to your currently clubs.  If you did I failed to find it, if not is there any way you could give us some insight?

Thanks!

I didn't do a review comparing it to my current set because I didn't get to hit enough side by side.  Actually 90% of my shots were either demo clubs or clubs out of Tom's bag.  But I definitely think the RocketBallz 3 wood is a winner, looks great, easy to hit, launches high.  For me it was/would have been longer than my G15.  The same for my hybrid, RockerBallz launches it and you'll hit it longer.  Which could be an issue if you like your hybrid and can hit it a reliable distance.

I've been doing some comparisons between the G20 driver and the R11 (original) and I hit them almost exactly the same distance.  R11 seems to spin less for me but the G20 flies further.  The best thing about the TM drivers is the tuning aspect.  Change loft, lie, shaft, face angle, swing weight, very cool stuff.

Anyway my only comparisons were of the R11s, RocketBallz Driver and the R11(original) head.

My Take

I enjoyed hitting the Tour driver in the 9* head.  Testing it against the R11S it went slightly further and both were longer than my R11.  Again I was able to test the same shaft in all 3 heads.  The look is for those who like the Superfast 2.0 or PING drivers.  I think it's better looking than the 2.0 which I didn't like at all.  More compact gives it a stealthy, bullet like appeal.  Ball flight was lower than the R11 and for me had a tighter dispersion.  The white crown works with the bits of lime and it's fun to yell "RocketBallz!" after a good driver.  Best driver out there at $299, no question.

RocketBallz irons are great, obviously going to go higher and farther than my PING Anser's due to the stronger lofts, hotter face, lower cog.  But the 7 thru wedge looked nice, not the chunky, offset looking irons you would normally see in a set of clubs designed for mid-high handicapper.  With the right shaft I could definitely put them in play and have about just as much control as anything else.  Long irons are stupid easy to hit.  They basically took JPX-800/G20 technology and made them look more pleasing to the eye at address and playable for all golfers.

But the "must have" club of the line will be the fairway metal, can give up 10 yards, they say 17.

[ukalum]

I think this is going to be TM's mid price level club that will be marked down quicker that the R11s.  I also think the which color is a real miss on TM's part.  Not only will the viewer not be able to tell the difference betwenn the R11s and RBZ on TV, if they don't like the look of the white club there is no other TM choice for them,  Plus the lime green is a real ugly color on a golf club.

For myself I have been interested in the TM clubs, but the white color scheme through the line just doesn't suit my eye.  I may be willing to buy them on deep discount, but I won't pay near the current asking rate for a white club. Plus, the shelves are full with last year's R11 and Superfast.  The golf stores must need to blow these our to make room for the new R11s and RBZ stuff.  Look for some deep discounts this spring.

[shawea]

Hey guys, Global Golf is actually running a contest giving away both the RocketBallz Driver and a Fairway Wood. Check out their thread here. http://thesandtrap.com/t/55084/taylormade-rocketballz-giveaway

[mvpcb]

Hey guys, new guy to golf here. What can you expect the price to change on say a previous years model to change with the release of these new clubs. Thanks

[Old1964]

If he can hit the 3 wood 300+ off the deck consistently, he should just scrap his driver. I'm sure the shorter shaft would give him tighter dispersion control and provide him with great accuracy.  Why use a driver?

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by Old1964

If he can hit the 3 wood 300+ off the deck consistently, he should just scrap his driver. I'm sure the shorter shaft would give him tighter dispersion control and provide him with great accuracy.  Why use a driver?

The extra 40 yards?

[jamo]

Anyone know why they've gone away from the "TP" branding with the Rocketballz line and are using "Tour" instead, despite the fact that they're keeping "TP" on the R11S? And I know it's kind of OT for this thread (there have been a lot of TaylorMade threads lately), why did they discontinue the xFT line? It seems like they could keep the ATV, xFT, and RBZ lines of wedges, and they would still all be different enough to keep around.

[mvmac]

Originally Posted by jamo

Anyone know why they've gone away from the "TP" branding with the Rocketballz line and are using "Tour" instead, despite the fact that they're keeping "TP" on the R11S?

And I know it's kind of OT for this thread (there have been a lot of TaylorMade threads lately), why did they discontinue the xFT line? It seems like they could keep the ATV, xFT, and RBZ lines of wedges, and they would still all be different enough to keep around.

Not sure about the TP, maybe just to do something different.

With the wedges they said the xFT was too far ahead of it's time.  They don't quite have the right look and feel.  This was said at the media day.  They also say the new grooves on the ATV are more durable so you wouldn't really need the replaceable faces.

[jamo]

Not sure about the TP, maybe just to do something different. With the wedges they said the xFT was too far ahead of it's time.  They don't quite have the right look and feel.  This was said at the media day.  They also say the new grooves on the ATV are more durable so you wouldn't really need the replaceable faces.

Gotcha.