TaylorMade Golf’s recent driver unveilings have centered around three key areas of the club: adjustability in the sole (SLDR’s sliding weight track), center of gravity (CG) shifts and crown color (the white-crowned R11).
The latest driver offering from TaylorMade, the M1, features a little bit of everything, from a dual-track system in the sole that alters launch and face angle to a redesigned face shape. But the big story surrounding the company’s newest model is a new lightweight carbon composite crown that weighs 10 grams — roughly 12 grams less than the thick-thin titanium crown that has been used on previous TaylorMade drivers.
TaylorMade has shied away from using carbon composite — especially in the U.S. market — in the past. However, in the last few years, engineers at the company began to realize the material could help with weight saving initiatives and performance.
“Two years ago that crossroads happened where we started to have a material and a process that had the potential to have a big weight savings,” said Brian Bazzel, TaylorMade Golf’s senior director of metalwood creation. “Once we did that, that’s when we felt like we could take that next leap in performance. The carbon composite crown allows us to unlock that weight and move it into the sole.”
Adding a multi-material crown — a white titanium section near the face connects with a carbon composite piece in the rear area of crown — saved 10 grams of weight that was repositioned in the sole to lower the club’s CG for increased forgiveness. According to TaylorMade, pushing the CG even lower also made it possible to line up the clubhead’s CG with the exact center of the face.
From a visual standpoint, the contrasting white-black crown is designed to make the club’s face appear open — the white titanium strip on the crown is slightly thicker near the toe — a position better players typically prefer to see at address.
“Back when we came out with the original white crown design with the R11, we knew it was important because it allowed golfers to see the alignment of the club better at address,“ said Todd Beach, vice president of research and development for metalwoods at TaylorMade. “Since then, we have done a lot of testing and we’ve found that we can use this white-to-black contrast, with this stripe, to steer the performance of the club.”
Along with lowering CG, the weight saved from the crown was used in the two sliding weight tracks in the sole — one that runs from heel to toe and another from the front of the club to the back. With a combined weight of 25 grams, the two tracks allows face angle and launch to be altered based on weight position.
The 15-gram track that runs parallel to the face shifts the CG horizontally towards the heel or toe to promote a fade or draw. The horizontal track has been a part of previous TaylorMade driver offerings, starting with SLDR.
A second 10-gram track runs front to back to alter trajectory. Moving the weight forward produces a lower launch angle with less spin, while the back weight position increases launch, spin and forgiveness.
The driver also features a 12-way adjustable loft sleeve that allows golfers to increase or decrease loft up to two degrees.
While the driver won’t be available at retail until Oct. 8, TOUR players have been testing and working with M1 since the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. It’s unclear who will put the driver in play at next week’s BMW Championship, but according to Chuck Presto, TaylorMade’s senior vice president of global sports marketing, the goal is to make M1 the No. 1 driver model in play at Conway Farms.
TaylorMade’s M1 driver retails for $500 and comes with three stock shaft offerings: Aldila’s Rogue Silver 70, Mitsubishi Rayon’s Kuro Kage Silver TiNi 60 and Fujikura’s Pro 60. The M1 460 has four loft options (8.5, 9.5, 10.5 and 12 degrees); the M1 430 has three loft options (8.5, 9.5 and 10.5 degrees).
By PGATour.com
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