new drivers

I saw an advert for the new taylor made r1 driver so i googled it!! what ever happened to custom fitting golf clubs, you have 12 different loft positions to choose from, then 3 open faced settings and 3 closed face setting and just incase you need it, neutral!

Can you imagine playing with one of these clubs, if you slice the ball out o.o.b you take 3 off the tee and close the face.

Then the next hole you have a hill in front, dog leg left, so you close the face and increase the loft.

I struggle to hit the ball straight any way so id be up the creek with out a paddle with one of these, il spend the money on lessons and learn how to hit the ball i think.

Rant over, im sure its a fantastic club.

paul.

No, its not that simple at all. You CAN'T adjust the club during a round, its illegal.

I've got the r11 with a slight draw set up, it helps me no end. I've seen massive improvements with my father in laws game with his Nike Dymo set up to closed. It increases the loft of the club and has helped him gain distance and accuracy.

I'm not saying this will cure everybody's slice, pull, hook etc but it can go a little way to helping.

Lessons at the beginning of ones golfing career is essential. Get the fundamentals right.

After all you can still hit a slice with a club set up to closed.

A friend of mine had an R11s, he never really got on with it, after 6 months he changed to a new nike VRS. Which he hit's much more consistantly well. I tried the R11s quite a few times and never hit it as well as my ping G15 12 degree neutral driver.

Paul. It's marketing bllcks really. The adjustments work perfectly in theory, but unfortunately that's not the case in the real world. If you need to test something like this (so, heaven forbid you don't need to lie in you're advertising) you stick it on a swing robot. Every swing is mechanically identical so adjusting things like lofts and draw bias gives real, measurable results.

I'm willing to bet that your swing (and 99.9% of golfers) isn't that consistent, even the pros.

Unless you have the cash and inclination to turn up at the pros door every 5 minutes with an adjustable driver, I really do struggle with the supposed benefits such a tool can provide. For two seasons now I have had a Taylor Made Tour Burner Driver (10.5 loft, Superfast regular flex shaft, slight draw bias). It serves me extremely well and with slight variation in my stance and grip, I can work the ball with fairly consistant results. I will be sorry when it's had it's day as I feel we are working well together. An adjustable driver is just going to confuse me I believe and golf doesn't need any more complications for me. I would like to hear from players who unlike myself are keen to employ this new driver.

Its down to personal choice and feel. If it works, then use it, simple.

The problem is the advertisements encouraging us that we're missing out on new technology. That's how they make the money though.

As I've always said, try as many as you can and pay for lessons, practice and improve.

I know someone who's just switched to Nike. He was a fantastic player but got persuaded to switch to Nike. Saw him play last week - he isn't playing as well as he used to. I recall his name is Rory something...

On a more serious note, I too cannot really see the point of so many adjustments. I'm just at the stage where I want to start being able to shape shots if I want/need to but will go for lessons rather than rely on adjusting the club (which, of course, you cannot do during a round... bet some do though)

Golf is all about physics it's that simple. Yes you have to put the correct swing on the ball, but that goes for every shot. The key is being able to know when you are swinging out to in, or in to out, with an open or closed club face etc etc. Now I'm no genius golfer by any stretch of the imagination, I have a handicap of 18. However I have had a few lessons and worked on this and now I have this in my mind at least I can have a better visualisation of what it is that I am trying to do. Sometimes it even works!

Having taken a lot of advice from my mate who runs a golf shop and trying 10 second hand drivers I went for an R7 Superquad last October

It has a really soft feel - the 4 weights mean there is far less tweaking you can do than on the R11 - which is probably a good thing for me!

I have set the weights to combat a fade and I can safely say this is the best driver for my game that I have ever used and I paid a fraction of the price that the R11 would of cost. My FIR is now between 55-65% - hell of an improvement!

Also according to my mate the R7 head is better quality than the R11 as more money was spent on the club head in those days rather than the techie additions now.

i've never known a company to bring out so much new stuff so quick...or at least that's how it seems with taylormade