FIELDREPORT
Carbon smart
TaylorMade’s new M1 driver and PSi iron reveal new applications of multi-material designs. Category director Jason Howarth describes the new technologies, and reveals why the brand believes it has just created its best driver ever
big dogs like JetSpeed, SLDR and R15 all employed the low and forward Centre of Gravity positioning which, coupled with a few extra degrees on the face, would apparently see our drives sailing merrily past those of our CG-naïve opponents. So it is something of a surprise to see
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that one of the main additions to the brand’s formidable new M1 driver is a slider that lets us shiſt a 10g weight backwards, towards the rear of the head. “Through the development of SLDR
and into R15, our testing clearly demonstrated ball speed benefits in mating a forward CG position with extra loſt,” explains TaylorMade’s category director Jason Howarth. “Nothing has changed there, and M1 can still be set up to create those launch conditions. However, we’ve always been aware that distance is only one part of the story. Golfers also value forgiveness in a driver, or at least one that can be adjusted to increase it. “By moving that red 10g weight back
to its rear setting, you increase the inertia of the head, and that means more forgiveness. It also raises the spin rate by up to 300rpm, which assists launch. This makes it potentially considerably more forgiving than SLDR and R15.” Such a performance attribute is
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t isn’t so long ago that TaylorMade were urging the world to ‘loſt up’ in the quest for longer drives. Recent
important to a brand like TaylorMade, whose prolific tour presence and profuse technology can sometimes paint them as a brand for the elite player. But they are determined to ensure that the M1, despite already having been adopted by four of the world’s top 10 (Jason Day, Justin Rose, Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia) is also seen as a tool for the aspiring golfer. As well as offering the most
adjustability of any TaylorMade driver to date – 300rpm of spin, 25 yards of draw/fade bias, four degrees of loſt and 12 hosel sleeve settings – M1 is also its most expensive, at £429, and according to testing, easiest to launch. “Much of that is down to our use of carbon composite in the crown,”
CATEGORY DIRECTOR: Jason Howarth
Howarth continues. “When we launched SLDR in July 2013 we knew we were coming to the end of what we could achieve using titanium. A thinner crown creates discretionary weight that allows us to lower CG and help launch, but we were casting the crown down to a thickness of 0.4mm, about the same as two pieces of paper. Any thinner and you start getting in to failures.” TaylorMade is no stranger to carbon
composite. In the mid-2000s they launched a carbon driver called XR05 Cti into European and US markets. But in applying it to the crown and rear of M1, they’ve freed up enough weight to permit the striking T-Track adjustability mechanisms on the sole, as well as lowering the club’s CG. “We’ve also worked hard on the sound,” adds Howarth. “Carbon in drivers tends to create a duller, less powerful sound. So as well as the shape and materials, we’ve also tweaked the inner design and engineering to help acoustics. We feel M1 sounds remarkably similar to the all titanium R15 it’s replacing; and while there is probably a slight change in tone with the carbon, none of the feedback we’ve had from tour players or from consumers on early accounts has thrown sound up as an issue.” Despite M1’s many clear attributes, the
retailer must still find a way to sell a driver which, at a suggested retail price of £429, represents a £60 hike on the brand’s outgoing R15 and is likely to be the priciest in the shop. “It’s our most adjustable driver ever,
with all the technologies, and with the latest technology comes a higher price,” Howarth defends. “But it is also our best- performing. Early testing shows a faster ball speed, between 1 and 4mph on tour,
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