TaylorMade Golf made a huge splash in golf world last week, announcing their latest metalwoods for 2015. For the new year, the company brings back the R series and Burner family in the new R15 and AeroBurner collection of metalwoods. Although both families of metalwoods are not available at retail until January 9, 2015, Eighteen Under Par received a special invite to be one of the first in British Columbia to test these golf clubs! This past weekend, we had the opportunity to visit the TaylorMade Performance Centre at University Golf Club with Master Fitter Andy Johnson to test the R15 and AeroBurner line of drivers, fairway woods and hybrids. We will focus our impressions below on the drivers.
The Technology
With the R15 driver, TaylorMade combined all of their technology into one golf club. The R15 driver now features dual sliding weights (two 12.5 gram weights) on the Front Track System. The dual sliding weights allow golfers to have max distance, a draw bias, a fade bias or max stability. By moving the weights to opposite ends of the weight track, this improves the R15’s moment of interia and really helps the forgiveness of the golf club. The Front Track System acts like a speed pocket and has been moved 12mm closer to the leading edge of the driver. This pushes the centre of gravity even lower and more forward than the SLDR, providing high launching and low spinning drives. The clubhead is also roughly 4 grams lighter than the SLDR, which will help golfers swing a bit faster. The R15 also has 4-degrees of adjustability.
The AeroBurner driver is meant for speed and distance. It is a super lightweight golf club, weighing less than 300 grams and is one of TaylorMade’s most aerodynamic. Similar to the Ping G30 driver, the AeroBurner also has a raised area on top of the crown. It also features an “Aero Hosel” – a small fin located on the hosel of the club – designed to reduce drag to boost club head speed. The fourth generation Speed Pocket is also utilized and is twice the size of the Speed Pocket used in the JetSpeed driver. It extends the entire width on the sole of the driver to help with forgiveness on mishits. The AeroBurner will not have loft adjustability.
The Look
You’ve all seen the official photos of the R15 driver from TaylorMade by now and may have seen both a matte white and gloss black version offered. When we first saw the photos, we decided on black immediately, however, after seeing both the white and black R15 drivers in person, we have to say that we prefer the look of matte white more. Under the lights of the driving range, glare from the gloss black R15 head was very noticable compared to the white. Furthermore, the glossy finish didn’t seem to hold up too well against fingerprints which were very noticable at address – you’d have to keep it very clean! The science of white was definitely in action, as there was minimal glare and the matte finish helped fight off any fingerprints on the crown. The overall profile of the club seems slightly larger than the compact and taller SLDR. The R15 seems to be more stretched back with a slightly shallower face, though both are 460CC. We definitely had a lot of confidence standing over this driver!
The first time we saw the AeroBurner driver in photos, we have to admit, we had our reservations about it. The graphics and paint brush look on the sole were a bit too much for us. We were also very curious as to how the AeroHosel and raised area of the crown would look in person. Upon seeing the driver in person at address though, we have to say that it is not as bad as we intially thought. The clubhead looks good down by the golf ball and the AeroHosel is not something that is noticeable. The raised area of the crown, combined with the matte white paint job, is also more subtle than online photos suggest. Although we’re still not huge fans of the graphics on the sole, it’s not something that a golfer will see when hitting a golf ball – not a huge deal in person. With the CG so low and forward now, TaylorMade was able to create a more traditional, pear-shaped driver in the AeroBurner versus the Burner Superfast that is in our bag currently, which has more of a triangular shape to it.
Master Fitter Andy Johnson hitting a few shots for us!
The Sound & Feel
TaylorMade has always made excellent drivers. Although some have been borderline “too loud” at impact (Burner Superfast 2.0), the R15 driver makes a very nice sound at impact. It’s not overly loud, but loud enough to make the person next to you go “whoa.” It’s a deeper sounding bang rather than the higher pitched, shouty types of “bang” at impact that some TaylorMade drivers are known for. The feel at impact is also extremely solid on on-centre hits and on off-centre mishits as well. As TaylorMade’s latest campaign suggests that MisHits Happen, the R15 driver is actually very forgiving as well, especially when the dual sliding weights are set up at opposite ends combined with the Speed Pocket Front Track System. Feel can be a difficult subject to write about, so we recommend you go in store and test this driver out for yourself! With a proper fitting, the R15 is most likely going into our bag this year.
We also hit the AeroBurner driver and it is as advertised – very lightweight and meant for speed and distance. With such a light weight, we felt we were swinging the club a lot faster, but it was almost too light to the point where we were over-swinging the club. It felt difficult to really feel where the clubhead was in the back swing, something that is a preference for us (we do prefer a slightly heavier driver). But these initial feelings were with a stock, off the rack shaft – it’s definitely important to get fit. It will be interesting to see how our impression changes with different shaft options. Upon impact, it does make quite a loud “bang” typical of the previous Burner series drivers. Personally, we do think the R15 sounds better, but the feel at impact is similar between both drivers – very solid.
Wearing Bunker Mentality and DAGWOOD Golf this evening!
The Performance
Back in the summer, we were fitted to SLDR drivers at the TaylorMade Performance Centre at University Golf Club with Master Fitter Andy Johnson. The most immediate difference with the R15 compared to the SLDR was how much easier it was to get the ball in the air. Although the SLDR was very good when struck on the middle of the club face and with a high swing speed, performance suffered when that wasn’t the case. If you did not hit the middle of the clubface and you had a slower swing speed, it was very difficult to get the ball in the air. It’s low moment of inertia also made the SLDR less forgiving. The R15 really addressed those issues though – it is much easier to get the ball into the air and the dual weight system really helps to keep the driver as forgiving as possible. With an even lower and more forward centre of gravity compared to the SLDR, the R15 actually launches the ball about 1 to 1.5 degree higher with 100 – 200 RPM less spin.
For us, it is one of the best performing drivers we’ve ever hit in terms of look and feel. We hit the R15 with the TP shaft option (Fujikara Speeder 661 Evolution, Stiff, 45.5″) and the preliminary numbers on the FlightScope system were given a thumbs up by Andy – we’re sure we’d see even more improvements with a proper fitting! Carry distance averaged roughly 270 yards with total distance averaging around 285 yards.
We love the details – the “TP” badge on the headcover is awesome!
The AeroBurner driver performed as you would expect a driver from this line to from Taylormade. The stock shafts are 45.75″ long, which may prove difficult for some golfer’s to control and keep their golf ball in the fairway. The loud bang may be a turn off for some, but it definitely makes the driver seem powerful, despite it’s light weight. The launch seemed higher than the R15 driver and spin was higher than the R15 as well. It is a relatively easy driver to hit though, particularly with the new speed pocket – it is great on mishits and still gets the ball out there quite a ways. The 3-wood was probably the most impressive, as it has a lot of driver characteristics in ball flight, spin and more.
Overall, the R15 and AeroBurner drivers (as well as the rest of the metalwood collection) are very good golf clubs. We were very impressed upon our initial testing of both drivers, but we’ll definitely be back to test it more thoroughly and bring you the specific FlightScope numbers. We can definitely see a R15 driver and AeroBurner 3-wood combination for a lot of players, similar to the release of the R11S driver and RBZ fairway wood. One thing is for sure, the R15 460 driver is the front runner to go into our golf bags for 2015! It’s worked very well for us, but to find out if it’s the best for you, make sure to test it yourself and get properly fitted for your golf clubs!
Source: TaylorMade Golf
