|
The first thing you notice when picking up the Taylormade R1 driver are the orange-and-gray racing stripes on the top of the club head. While this is admittedly cool in itself -- it feels like you're about to swing a race car exceedingly hard -- TaylorMade claims that the design choice isn't merely for aesthetic reasons. In fact, the colors and design were chosen specifically to help golfers line up shots and hit the sweet spot more consistently.
In practice, once you’ve swung the club a few times and found your groove, these become a little unnecessary. But the unmistakable bright white of the club head does ensure you’ll be the envy of everyone at the range.
The great news is that, much like its predecessor, the Taylormade R11 driver, the R1 is capable of launching some scary rockets. Even better is that this incarnation comes with a bigger club face. For fast swingers like me, it’s only good news knowing you’re going to be hitting the meat of the club every time. The ball feels a little softer coming off the face with a duller sound -- and, more importantly, distance is noticeably better.
With the R11 driver, some purists cried "foul" when TM introduced a pure white crown, but many performance-minded golfers couldn't get enough. Golfers were able to tinker with the loft, face angle at address, and trajectory. Now with the R1, TaylorMade has a driver that adjusts 12 different ways for loft, seven ways for face angle, and also boasts trajectory tuning.
Meanwhile, the drawbacks are minor. The shaft on the club I used could have been stiffer -- a frequent quibble for a fast swinger. But it’s an issue that’s easily remedied. Bottom line is that TaylorMade has produced a club that’s an improvement on its record-setting and game-changing R11 series, something few thought possible.
The TaylorMade R1 driver performs as advertised, which is to say: better than the Taylormade R11S driver. Higher ball speed off the face means more carry yards. Not many more, but more. About 1-3 more carry yards in our testing, but notably with much lower spin, which means golfers see more roll-out for more overall distance.
The sound of the driver is solid - more of a thwack, and less "tink" than TaylorMade's last model R11S. The stock shaft offering of Aldila RIP Phenom 55 is fine, but I'd personally prefer a return to the Matrix line of stock shafts. The Aldila feels a little whippy, perhaps even too light at 55 grams. That's OK for many of us, who can use a little bit more clubhead speed, but might be too light for the higher-swing-speed players. Source from: http://www.auscheapgolf.com/article-307-Does-new-TaylorMade-R1-Driver-Work.html
Related Articles -
cheap golf clubs, golf clubs for sale,
|
