The new Taylor Made R11 and Superfast 2.0 arrived to us in a gleam of white light. The new white headed driver is surprisingly nice looking and we headed over to the truck to squeeze off a few shots ahead of the Golf Digest Ireland review.
Initial reports are great and this driver has a much lower launch angle over the older R9 which is great for long distance numbers as we can introduce the loft settings with more effect. The new FCT hosel is easier to understand with much simpler “higher” and “lower” ball flight settings. The fact that the R11 comes in only two lofts is great with a 9* that can be adjusted to 8* and 10* and a 10.5* that can be tweaked to 9.5* and 11.5* respectively.
The only disappointing feature is the open or closed face plate situated on the sole. This only works on angling the head at address and lifts or drops the head to make it “look” open or closed but it does not have any real effect on the face angle at impact, which I am not sure it is very effective. It actually isn’t really needed as the FCT hosel is the same as last season and can still open and close the face and increase and decrease the loft the same way the R9 did. I also believe that the lack of a weight port at the back of the head is having a massive affect on the launch conditions over R9 and I suspect is some of the reason behind the lower launch numbers.
The standard shafts in both felt quite solid but a quick flick of the wrench and with an Aldila Voodoo XVS7 shaft the driver really started to fly and with the incredibly low spin made this a great driver for the better player or high spin hitter. The new R11 is actually a great replacement for the SuperDeep from last season and these characteristics are making the new R11 very popular on Tour. I think the R11 is a smart money saving move by Taylor Made to fuse the number of heads and lofts from last season into one head with “two” lofts. This move will have a huge benefit for them as they now only have to stock 2 lofts in one head design as even the R11 TP is the same head – its only the shaft thats different.
So, is this a “better” player club? Well, not exactly but as with any low launching, low spinning product the club choice will have to focus on the shaft. With the adjustable loft settings it seems the success of this club will come from matching the tip and flex profile of the shaft to the golfers ball flight and swing requirements. This R11 is by far one of the most innovative clubs I have ever seen but with all these settings and adjustability I wonder how much more confused the consumer will be? This is definitely one of the hardest clubs to get right and its proper custom fitting and especially the shaft will be an essential part of its success.
The Superfast 2.0 has an all white head and hit very solid with a very similar feel to its predecessor. Its long in length and is very lightweight following on from last seasons Superfast. A little bit of the same with this head, except it is very white!! We can’t wait for the TP version which by all accounts is destined to be a class act. The white head of this new range of drivers, fairway woods and hybrids will be a like or loathe scenario for a lot of golfers.
Rest assured the performance is there but I cant stress how important the right shaft is and even with all the adjustability in loft and face if the shaft is wrong you might never unlock the true potential of this Great White.
Available for Select-Fit custom fitting with us from mid February 2011.
Tags: R11 TaylorMade Golf
