Driver Tech Talk

R What?

The driver is perhaps golf's most intriguing club and rightly so. Recently I spoke to two persons and the topic centered on drivers. One bought a R11. What is distinct about the R11 from TaylorMade? If you have ever played Taylormade drivers such as the r5, r7, R9, R9 460, R9 SuperTri you will understand roughly what the R11 could be. When they first came out with the R9 it was about 420cc in club head size with a D4 swing weight, torque at 3.5, length of 45.25 and shaft weight at 65g and it offered only MVT (Movable Weight Technology). This clubs should be used by better players just for the head size alone.

Following the R9 along came the R9 460 which as the name suggest now comes in a bigger head at 460cc with similar swingweight, torque but now with a longer length at 45.75. Torque is 3.1 for Aldila shaft and 3.5 (60g) for Fujikura Motore (65g) but there is an absence of MVT but they gave us FCT (Flight Control Technology). Maybe at this point, they haven't figured out how to put both MVT and FCT together yet or just holding back to sell a new concept.

Soon after, the R9 SuperTri was introduced. This comes in an all-black club head of 460cc with similar attributes in swing weight, torque, length with a marginally reduced shaft weight at 59g but hey now SuperTri has both MVT and FCT. You can adjust the CG (Centre of Gravity) by changing weight using the MVT and adjust and change the loft, lie and face angle by using the FCT.

Finally, the all new R11 made its debut but what features have they incorporated into this club? The first thing that strikes you is the all white colour of the club head. It is not just white but comes in a non-glare matt finish. Tell me if a matt black finish is any different? To performance and look?

 

Are they trying to match colour coordination with their Daytona ghost white putter? The first time I have experienced something similar was when Nickent introduced the "Pipe" putter where the alignment aid was completely white. It was kind of cool when you rest your putter on the green, you do see a clear contrast of the white alignment on the green.

A darkened face provides even greater clarity on the hitting zone. However, please be aware that this driver comes in a 440cc club head. Swing weight is D4 while torque is 3.5. The length at 45.75 is reasonable in what you will find in all drivers today as anything more can be tough. Shaft weight is slightly reduced at 58g in a Fujikura Blur shaft. Now the coolest part of this driver is the technology of both MVT, FCT and a new addition called ASP (Adjustable Sole Plate) which you can use to tune your preferred angle to Neutral, Open or Close by 4 degrees.

 

 

You can see it here, the sole plate is the red patch. For MVT when you put the bigger and heavier weight at the heel of the club (behind) you will promote a draw bias shot (right to left)while slotting it to the front on the toe helps promote fade bias (left to right). Super cool! In essence, this is a club for better players as weaker players might find the smaller head less forgiving. I am telling you right now that this is potentially a driver of the year in 2011. What do I like about this driver - everything. A smaller head feels less cumberson.

  

Our topic soon evolved and we were talking about the Burner driver, longer shafts versus shorter, swing speed, etc. You see the Burner is founded on distance and for distance to be achieved, you have to enhance those criteria which are a faster swing speed and a longer club. Because they can make the club head with more perimeter weighting they could afford to give you a longer shaft as compensation. When choosing distance, beware of longer shafts which can help you hit a bit longer but you will lose accuracy somewhat.

For those who do not possess a faster swing speed then all the lighter clubs are what you will need because swinging something lighter naturally increases your swing speed. So this is the concept of the Burner Superfast 2.0 - more forgiving club head with CG stretched, longer shaft and lighter weight to promote swing speed.

Why the Burner is not suitable for everyone? The pros can handle it because theirs are fitted to specification. What we get mostly are stock shafts with standard lies, length, etc. Maybe you could like this if you have a smooth and easy swing. So this friend was saying that he tried the Burner and all his other friends too and they found the the Burner swing speed was actually slower than their own drivers.

Swing Speed v Swing Weight

You see what we feel and what is actually the truth are quite different. I want you to know that what they were actually referring to was not the swing speed but the swing weight. If you were to take a wedge and a driver and in your usual swing it takes 2 seconds to swing through, both clubs takes the same amount of time to do so but it will feel that the longer club takes longer as it has a wider arc.

Any clubs that are lighter automatically increases your swing speed. It is like carrying a bag of potatoes and trying to swing it around versus using an umbrella. Which one is faster. The umbrella of course because it is lighter. So the only reason they thought the the Burner was actually slower was due to its swing weight. Most older clubs are only at D1 or D2 for swing weight for example the r5. The next batch like the Ping G15 is at D3, R9 at D4 and I read that the Burner Superfast is at D9??

You do not feel much difference when jumping between D1 and D2 but if you were to jump from D1 to D4 you will feel the difference. More so when you go to D9!!! This driver has a favourable torque at 4.5 but when I see the length at 46.5 inches I could not believe it. Yes it will help you hit somewhat longer and given a friendlier head as compensation maybe some could handle it. I understood that there are two version and the other has a shaft at 45.75 inches. Choose the latter. It is not how big or long your equipment is. It is how you use it!

In the past PGA pros average driver length was at only 44.5 inches. In the last few years they may have increased a bit to say 45 inches or 45.25 at most. Why would we want something so long unless to retrieve balls in the pond? It can be a very good club if you can handle it.

Please see my previous article on swing weight - http://gforce-guru.blogspot.com/2009/07/swing-weight-is-it-important.html

Good luck and happy golfing! Golf as in life, play as it lies.

Superfast Burner - Long Shaft, Light Weight and Swing Speed.