R11 Driver Quickly Gains Popularity

TaylorMade debuted the R11 driver at the 2011 PGA Merchandise Show and it quickly gained popularity among professional and amateur golfers alike. The most distinguishing feature of the R11 Driver (and its sister driver, the Burner Superfast 2.0) is the milky white crown. Sure, TaylorMade was not the first equipment company to offer a white driver, but it’s the first company (to my knowledge) that made it successful.
Like many other TaylorMade products, the R11 driver seemed to polarize the golf world with its white matte finish. You either loved the look of it or you hated it. Not many people I spoke to about the taylormade r11 driver were neutral about it. I am one of those who liked the look of the white crown because I think white is classy and distinguished (I wore a white tuxedo to my senior prom). I will say though, the problem with the white finish is it stains easier. I’m not quite sure how it happened, but I managed to get grass stains on the top of the driver during my testing.
I took the taylormade r11 driver to the driving range at Deerfield to test the "3 Dimensions of Distance" (as TaylorMade calls it) to see if I could find the right R11 for me. To start, I hit it without adjusting any of the settings. The first thing I noticed was how easy it was to hit. My first five drives on the range went right down the imaginary gut and the trajectory and ball flight matched my typical shot shape (isn't it funny how the first few shots with any new club are always awesome?). I hit a few more drives and then decided it was time to experiment with the first dimension of distance - loft.
The loft of the taylormade r11 driver is controlled by Flight Control Technology, which is built into the hosel. With FCT, you can increase or decrease loft by one full degree, so you really have three drivers in one (9.5, 10.5 and 11.5 degrees). I used the wrench (it's included) to add one degree of loft because I wanted to see what it would be like to hit an 11.5 degree driver. And the results were what I expected.
As mentioned previously, the face angle of taylormade r11 driver is controlled by the Adjustable Sole Plate and it provides two degrees of variation in either direction. I used the wrench again to adjust the face angle and I tried both settings, "Open" and "Closed". If I could pick any shot to play off the tee, I would play a slight draw so I settled on the "Closed" setting.

The third and final dimension of distance is flight path, and it's controlled by the Movable Weight Technology (anyone else notice how TaylorMade brands everything?). MWT consists of two weights, a 1-gram weight and a 10-gram weight, that tunes the center of gravity. With the 1-gram weight in the heel and the 10-gram weight in the toe, the center of gravity moves toward the toe and promotes a neutral ball flight.