Taylormade White Headed Driver

Unfortunately I am old enough to remember when TaylorMade introduced the first R series driver with the R300 series. Since then they have given us the R500, R5, R7, R9, R11 and then the chronologically challenged R1 before surprisingly ditching the R name for the loft up message of the SLDR driver.

The SLDR driver may not have been the most commercially successful driver TaylorMade has ever done, but it did herald their new philosophy of low forward centre of gravity CG and low spin for more distance.

Now TaylorMade return to the R brand name that served them so well in the past with the R15 driver and are building on the low forward CG message to hopefully get the best of both worlds.

It is good to see the R name back and the larger profile of the R15 quickly sets it apart from the taller and more compact SLDR, even though both are 460cc heads.

As you can see the white crown is back too. Having been told white was the answer to all alignment issues with R11, TaylorMade went to the dark side with the black crowned SLDR and now the R15 is back in white. With a black option, just in case.

I am easy about this, as having a white crown and a black face does make it easier to align, but why then does the R15 with the black crown have a black face rather than a silver one like the SLDR. It could be a trend thing or maybe black R drivers are destined to be dark, as the R1 Black had a black face too.

At least they are going back to what they know works and more importantly sells, even if at first glance there is not much visual difference in the crown graphics from the R11 driver to the R15 and its plain white head.

Enough about colours and names, the real difference with the R15 driver is the Front Track, which has evolved from the SLDR by making it longer and adding a second weight. The SLDR has one 20g weight whereas the R15 has two 12.5g weights giving you an extra 5g of CG moving fun.

The Front Track is also 12mm closer to the front edge of the R15 face, so now the channel acts like a Speed Pocket to allow the face to flex a bit more so you get less fall in ball speed and hence distance on off centre hits. This design also moves 40g of weight closer to the face than on the SLDR, resulting in 75 of the total mass of the driver being low and forward.

This is where the low and forward CG message comes in as that is good for ball speed and distance, but sometimes not great for forgiveness. I had to check this out.

Right from the first swing I could tell this was a completely different club to the SLDR. For starters it was much easier to get it in the air. Compared to the SLDR in the same loft setting, the flight was much higher wherever I hit it on the face and the face was more forgiving too.

The SLDR was good if you hit it out of the middle, preferably with a higher swing speed. If you didn t, then the performance suffered and this is where the R15 driver makes the difference by giving more forgiveness and a better flight with less effort.

Using Trackman I could see that the spin rates were about the same as the SLDR with the two R15 weights together in the neutral setting in the middle.

The sound throughout was really good without being too high pitched or shouty, which some TaylorMade drivers have been in the past.

The two sliding weights on the sole also make a difference. I started with them both in the middle and the effect was to give a much more solid strike as the mass is directly behind the ball, which should in turn give more distance.

Unscrewing with the supplied wrench and sliding both weights together to the full draw and fade setting did change the shape of shot I produced, but in a reasonably subtle way. With the weights towards the heel it had the effect of changing a straight shot to a draw rather than anything that will straighten up a raging slice or vice versa.

I then moved the weights apart with one at each end for the most forgivness as the stability of the head is increased in this setting. On Trackman it showed an increase of 300 rpm in ball spin and a 7 increase in trajectory height compared to having the weights in neutral, which is what I expected, so the Front Track is doing its job. Again it did feel more forgiving and the sound was a little hollower than the nice solid, but fairly muted sound of the neutral middle setting.

What I do like is the option to tighten the weights at any point along the Front Track and there are 21 possible choices. This enables you to fine tune the CG location so you can get exactly the right balance of weight from heel to toe in a place that makes it the best club for you, rather than the nearest best alternative determined by the manufacturer.

There is also an adjustable hosel allowing up to /- 2 of loft changes with a standard or upright lie and that is all in one head. In addtion there is a choice of 4 heads in lofts from 9.5 to a new high of 14 in both colours, plus a 430cc head option in white only. Therefore custom fitting of your R15 driver is esential to get the right head, then the right loft, lie and weight settings to get the best out of it.

The R15 shaft is a similar Fujikura Speeder 57g to the SLDR and the length is a manageable 45.5 inches, which was one of the best things about the SLDR and is great to see this being continued.

The final touch that is worthy of mention is the retro white headcover that has a leather look and feel. It looks very classy even though it does not have a shaft sleeve, but most golf bags these days should have enough protection. I am not sure how white it will stay on the courses I play, but it does look good out of the box and stays on the club well.

When you take that lovely headcover off to reveal the new Front Track, you get this feeling the the R15 is all business, as R drivers have been in the past. And when it comes to the business end of the driver then it does deliver, which it really has to as this is not a cheap driver and visually it looks like the R11.

The R15 is much easier to get going than the SLDR and the adjustabiity from the sliding track and the 4 loft options should enable you to get the most distance from your swing and provide a good level of forgiveness.

In the last year the driver market has seen a re-alignment and there are several good models out there with different CG strategies on how to pulverise a golf ball. TaylorMade may have gone back in time to the R name to go forward, but with the R15 driver they have a quality driver that will be a strong contender for the number one sales position.

User Reviews.

After much anticipation, TaylorMade has just released their first official sneak peek at their new R11 Series. Introducing the 2011 launch of the TaylorMade R11.

Winner. Winner. Congratulations WestPAgolfer you re the winner of a brand new TaylorMade AeroBurner Mini Driver. Check your email.

Reviews. See Reviews above as same as similar to standard version. TaylorMade SLDR 430 Driver. Many better players prefer the look of a smaller club head as they feel.

TaylorMade drivers are currently the 1 driver played on the PGA Tour. TaylorMade first introduced steel-headed woods in golf, and they have been on the leading edge.

• Mar 04, 2011  Mark Crossfield hits the Taylormade Burner 2.0 Superfast driver. Watch the white headed Burner driver tested by Mark. See how it.
• Feb 07, 2012  Get Mark s iPhone App Get Mark s Android App https://market.android.com/details.id Like Mark Crossfield on.

Written By: Tony Covey

Gentlemen and the three handfuls of ladies that read this site, prepare to wowed excited even or agitated, or maybe just sit calmly in a state of tepid indifference.

Whatever. I m good with any of it.

This isn t one of those days where I m going to tell you how to feel or what to think.

What I m certain of is that today s Official announcement of the SLDR Mini Driver will leave you feeling something or nothing.

What the Hell is a Mini Driver.

Order SLDR Mini Driver Today – 279

For those of you just hearing about this for the first time, the SLDR Mini Driver is TaylorMade s latest driver or fairway wood or something inbetween. For the purposes of Golf Datatech s retail surveys, I m reasonably positive actually, let s go with 99.999 positive the Mini is going to be classified as a driver. But out here in the real world or at least on the golf course, the true nature of this particular species is going to vary from bag to bag.

Let s start with the particulars.

The SLDR Mini, be it driver or fairway, has a 260cc steel head, comes in lofts of 12, 14, and 16, and the stock shaft length is 43.5. Like everything else with SLDR stamped or glued to the sole, the Mini features a low/forward center of gravity placement for low spin and with a properly fit head high launch.

Does that clear it up.

Didn t think so. Maybe this will help.

According to TaylorMade, the SLDR Mini was designed to be hit primarily off the tee, but with its smooth sole I m talking Barry White smooth-you-out-of-your-knickers smooth, it s much easier to hit off the deck than a conventional driver. Incidentally, that turf interaction piece is why you would maybe consider Mini over cutting 2 off your driver.

Leave it to TaylorMade to create the club you never knew you needed.

Actually, leave it to TaylorMade to create the club you needed in 2001.

13 years and 200cc later, what used to be called a driver is reborn as the SLDR Mini Driver.

Ain t that something.

If I told you that SLDR Mini Driver was actually a ThrowBackThursday idea that simply got out of hand, you might be inclined to believe me.

So I asked Brian Bazzel, TaylorMade s Senior Director of Product Creation for Metalwoods, why his damn title is so long. After that I asked him why TaylorMade felt compelled to reinvent the driver from 2002.

Bazzel touched on the talking points from the press release. Things like this:

Tour pros and betters amateurs often hit their 3-wood off the tee more often than from the fairway. We embraced that fact to create a metalwood that s sized between the average 3-wood and driver and designed to be easy to hit off a tee. – Brian Bazzel, TaylorMade Golf

He spoke about things like control and workability, and the old-school guys who have never been comfortable with the adjustment from sub-300cc to the modern 460cc driver. And then matter of factly he added:

Over the years, as driver volume has increased to 460cc, fairway wood volume has stayed basically the same. – Brian Bazzel

I m of two minds on that:

Most golfers don t think in terms of head volume. I mean, some may prefer 440cc drivers to 460cc drivers, but I don t think many if any have concerned themselves with the volume gap between their 460cc driver and their 160cc 3-wood.

I also know that golf is a psychological game. It s true that some golfers have never completely adjusted to 460cc, or 425, or even 400cc drivers. Some guys grew up playing with sub-300cc drivers and liked it and long for those bygone days of yore, and there are some guys who inexplicably can t hit a big-headed driver.

I d make a joke, but the truth is that back in the days of R580 I hit nothing but 3-wood off the tee for two straight years simply because the driver got in my head and I couldn t get it out.

Now I can t hit 3-wood to save my life, but that s another story.

Call it a driver. Call it a fairway. Call it completely unnecessary. Whatever, like I said, I m good with whatever you think.

Is the Mini Driver Even Really a SLDR.

Prefacing this with a reminder that the actual name of the club isn t SLIDER, it s S L D R es-el-dee-are, or es-el-dee-arrrrrr for you pirates out there, here are some things that differentiate the Mini Driver from all, or some of the existing SLDR lineup.

Unlike SLDR Driver both 460 and 430, SLDR Fairway, and SLDR Rescue, the SLDR Mini Driver isn t the least bit adjustable. More to the point, your loft is your loft. Live with it.

Unlike SLDR Driver, but not unlike the namesake fairway and rescue, SLDR Mini Driver has no actual SLiDeR. Apparently sole bling isn t conducive to that smooth turf interaction we talked about. The only way you re going to tweak your draw or fade with the Mini Driver is to alter your face to path relationship. That s Trackman wisdom, kid.

That s right, there s not single purposeful spot on the club that will allow you to make use of anything in your stack of TaylorMade wrenches. Quite frankly, I m not sure how I feel about that. Sad maybe.

Unlike all the other SLDR stuff, instead of a glossy charcoal crown, SLDR Mini comes in a smooth matte silver. While the contrast with the black clubface doesn t get us back to the Science of White, it does give it Science of Silver sort of vibe, so there s that.

SLDR Mini Driver isn t the type of product that s going to set the world, or even the cash registers, on fire, but it is an intriguing option for guys who play on relatively short courses, are looking for more control off the tee, or who have otherwise totally abandoned the conventional 3-wood or the 460cc driver.

As it happens, I qualify for most of the above.

Something Old or Something Borrowed.

While not even TaylorMade is going to argue that spec for spec the SLDR Mini doesn t look a hell of a lot different from your 12 year-old driver, Brian Bazzel told me that TaylorMade sees Mini in a category unto itself. As you might imagine, if golfers take to the Mini they buy the club in meaningful numbers, TaylorMade will be ready and happy to expand their offerings in the category whatever you want to call it.

There s also little doubt in my mind that suggestions will be made actually, they ve already been made that TaylorMade s inspiration from the Mini was borrowed from Callaway Deep Series fairway wood or even the PING Rapture 3-Wood.

Having hit the Rapture, which is already larger than the X2 Hot 2 Deep, I ll tell you that I personally don t see it, but by all means, decide for yourself.

Here s a comparison chart:

How Does SLDR Mini Driver Perform.

All of this background info is great unless you totally don t give a damn – in which case, why have you read this far., but we thought some of you would be interested to see how the SLDR Mini Driver performed, and where that performance suggests the Mini Driver might actually fit in your bag.

We brought in a few of our testers to hit the Mini alongside the SLDR Drivers 460 and 430 as well as the 14 SLDR Tour Spoon Fairway. We tested with the equipment we had on hand using stock TP shafts. As the chart below indicates, we delofted the fairway to get to 12.5 as close to 12 as the settings allowed, and added loft to a 10.5 430cc head to get to 12.

We hit all of the clubs off the tee and also hit the Mini Driver and the Fairway from a fairway lie. Here are the average results.

From the fairway, the Mini produced numbers quite similar to the fairway wood. It s not an unreasonable stretch to assume that the extra distance and higher ball speed is a result of the additional 1/4 of shaft length.

What I think is most telling is the similar even slightly better accuracy numbers. Our preliminary data suggests that the Mini Driver isn t any more difficult to hit of the deck than your average TaylorMade fairway wood – even if it will look like a bulky monstrosity to many of you.

As far as hitting out of the rough goes we didn t try it, but I did ask Brian Bazzel about from-the-rough performance. He basically told me that if you can t hit a standard fairway wood out of the rough, you re not going to be able to hit the Mini out either. Me I ve never been afraid to try it, but it s almost never gone well. Your actual mileage may vary.

Off the tee, the numbers broke out more or less how we expected they would. The SLDR 430 is a beast, and it basically did it exactly what we expected it to off the heels of our 2014 Most Wanted Driver test. It was the longest, it spun less, and yes it didn t fly as straight as the others.

The real story lies in the other 3 clubs. In theory, the 460cc SLDR head should be the most forgiving, and the easiest for most to hit straight, and again that proved to be the case for us. Telling perhaps, the mini wasn t that far behind, and again our data suggests it s slightly more forgiving than the SLDR fairway wood, which also makes perfect sense given the larger head.

In looking at the chart above you ll notice that the SLDR Mini Driver fell almost in the absolute middle between the 460 driver and the fairway wood for Carry Yards, Total Distance, Ball Speed, and to a lesser extent that accuracy number. Obviously we d like to see that spin number go down a bit, but that could simply be a matter of finding the ideal tee height. We really don t know.

If for any reason you think you have a need for something to fill the gap you may never have realized existed between your driver and a conventional 3-wood, the SLDR Mini Driver would seem to fit the bill.

Timed for Augusta

I m not one who generally believes in coincidence anyway, and I never believe in coincidence when it comes to TaylorMade, so it s pretty safe to assume that this announcement was cleverly timed for Masters Week also, TaylorMade told me as much. We try to condition you not to care what Tour guys are bagging, but for those who do concern themselves with such things, I m told that the probably is extremely high that Justin Rose will have the SLDR Mini bent to 13 in play at Augusta.

While Rose would use the Mini primarily from the tee, he s said that he could conceivably use it to play his second on 8 the only place other than the tee on the entire course he s likely to use a 3-wood anyway.

While TaylorMade would no doubt love to have more Mini Drivers in play during the most-watched tournament of the season, Augusta isn t a place where equipment companies, even TaylorMade, are likely to try and force an equipment change on any of their staffers. If more Minis make it into play this week, it s because a given staffer or we re told potentially non-TaylorMade staffer believes it will give him the best shot at winning the biggest of the big ones.

Some Closing Thoughts

As intrigued as I am by the Mini I ll definitely be spending some on-course time with it when the rest of this miserable snow melts, for many it s probably not destined to be an everyday club. I see the Mini as very much a horse-for-the-course option.

Playing in a scramble and want something a little longer than your 3-wood. Grab a Mini.

Playing a shorter course where control is at a premium. Grab a Mini.

Do you hate your big-headed driver and conventional 3-woods. Grab 2 Minis.

Sure, there will be guys who take the driver out of their bag for a Mini, but for most of us, I think it will prove to be more fairway wood than driver assuming it proves to be anything at all.

The SLDR Mini Driver almost certainly won t be longer than your driver,  and it may not prove to be more forgiving or more accurate than your driver either, but as a hybrid of sorts between a driver and a 3-wood, it fills the space nicely even if we re only hearing about that space for the first time today.

The SLDR Mini Driver hits stores May 2nd.

Retail price is 279 for the standard model and 379 for the TP model.

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According to TaylorMade, the SLDR Mini Driver was designed to be hit off the tee, but with its smooth sole I m talking Barry White.