To make his point, Olsavsky says you could theoretically set a 9° R11 to have an open face at address, a draw weight bias and an effective loft of 10°. The same club could be adjusted to have a closed-face at address, a fade bias and 8° of playing loft.
Like the r7 and R9 drivers, the R11 features weight ports—one in the heel and one in the toe—that allow for a draw or fade bias. The R11 comes with a10-gram screw and a 1-gram screw. Positioning the 10-gram weight in the heel promotes a draw, while putting it in the toe encourages a fade. According to TaylorMade, the movable weights provide up to 25 yards of right-and-left adjustability.
PROS
DISTANCE: Provides solid distance,titleist 710 ap2 irons, particularly when testers get it set up properly for their swing.
ACCURACY/FORGIVENESS: The center of the clubface is easy to find, which is mighty helpful when trying to correct directional misses.
FEEL: Pleasing,r7 cgb max, solid thud on center hits with little harshness on mis-hits.
PLAYABILITY: R11 TP really shines here; testers execute a wide variety of shots with relative ease.
LOOK: Attractive shape and deep clubface frame ball; white crown and black clubface provide a unique alignment system.
R11 TP
Category: Tour Drivers
We tested: 9°, 10.5° with Fujikura Blur TP graphite shaft
In addition to all that adjustability, Olsavsky says the R11′s head shape is more aerodynamic, making it at least 6 yards longer than 2010′s R9 SuperTri.
R11
Category: Game-Improvement Drivers
We tested: 9°, 10.5° with Fujikura Blur 60 graphite
CONS
White crown takes some getting used to; a few find it’s not a particularly powerful feel at impact.
As you can see, the crown of the club is white, but the sole is black.
The video below shows several TaylorMade staff players’s reactions to the R11 driver:
OUR TESTERS SAY: Eye-catching, 440cc white head is one of the top-rated drivers. Excellent adjustability features contribute to straighter, longer drives.
After the success of the r7 and R9 drivers, the release of TaylorMade’s third generation R11 adjustable driver was bound to cause a buzz in the equipment world.
"The satin white finish, along with the black face, creates the maximum contrast between face and crown to help you align the club more easily," says Tom Olsavsky, TaylorMade’s director of product creation (metal woods). Olsavsky adds that the white finish helps to reduce the hot spots and glare often created on glossy-topped drivers.
In the r7 and R9, an aluminum sleeve attached to the shaft, which screwed into the head in a variety of face angles. Not anymore. Now the R11‘s sleeve has eight settings to increase or decrease the effective loft by as much as one degree.
The standard R11 driver will come with a 45.75" Fujikura Blur shaft and retail for $399. A TP version of the club will feature an identical head and several shaft upgrades for $499. Both drivers should arrive in pro shops in mid-February.
Key Technologies: The adjustable soleplate can be rotated into one of three positions to determine face angle at address (2° open, 2° closed or neutral). This combines with "movable weight" technology and "flight control" technology to create the company’s most adjustable driver to date. Now you can adjust face angle and loft independently of one another.
Key Technologies: "Flight Control Technology" (eight settings create +/- 1° loft change), "Moveable weight technology" (25 yards of left/right trajectory difference) and "Adjustable sole technology" (Neutral, Closed or Open for +/- 2° of face-angle adjustment) create 48 head settings.
From The Shop Blog (December 6, 2010)
Golfers who are really into gear have been buzzing for weeks on message boards and blogs about white drivers. First, there was the all-white Cobra Limited Edition ZL, which Ian Poulter put into play and won with in Asia.
OUR TESTERS SAY: Among the top drivers tested; excellent playability results.
Face angle is controlled by an adjustable aluminum sole plate. By moving the red triangular plate into the closed, neutral or open position, you can adjust the look at address. The face settings range from 4 degrees open to 4 degrees closed.
CONS
The white paint job and crown graphics have detractors; a few testers don’t care for cushioned impact feel.
But even before the pros at Kapalua start tinkering with TaylorMade’s newest model,r9 supertri, they’ll notice the glaringly obvious thing that sets it apart—it’s white.
Because the club is so adjustable, the
R11 driver will be available in only two lofts — 9° and 10.5°. Olsavsky says that’s all the loft options that are required, even for Tour pros.
PROS
DISTANCE: Shots range from "above average" to "bombed it, one of the longest tested" for majority of testers.
ACCURACY/FORGIVENESS: Very consistent results, it’s both highly forgiving and accurate; R11 is a straight shooter.
FEEL: Dampened, muted, soft feel with some spring in the face; a well-balanced club that’s easy to swing.
PLAYABILITY: Several faster swingers make aggressive swings without fear of a hook due to clubface adjustability; many testers hit it higher than normal.
LOOK: White head looks odd initially, but a majority of testers find that the distraction quickly becomes a non-issue; white makes clubhead look larger.
Rumors have been swirling over the past few months that TaylorMade was planning to release a white driver, but many those rumors failed to mention the R11’s new level of customization. In previous models, TaylorMade’s torque wrench was used to adjust the face angle,r11, which automatically changed the club’s loft as well. In the R11,callaway x 22 irons, loft and face angle are adjusted independently.
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