Bigger is usually better, and when it comes to golf clubs most players can see the difference in today’s larger driver heads because the forgiveness factor is so much greater.

TaylorMade, which has pretty much led in the use of drivers on the PGA Tour and in sales to consumers over the last decade, has raised the bar again with the introduction of two new products in this category that feature some of the latest technology in a bigger, lighter package that can mean increased accuracy and yards off the tee.

First off, the R9 SuperTri driver is TaylorMade’s latest incarnation of the popular R9 series of clubs that feature not only the ability to move the weights around in the club head via their Moveable Weight Technology (MWT), and thereby influencing the ball flight up or down or side-to-side, but also to adjust the clubhead on the shaft with its Flight Control Technology (FCT) that allows for an open or closed club face—or even an more upright lie angle.  Together these two adjustable features can help promote a 75-yard side-to-side change in trajectory.

Until the release of the 460 cc SuperTri, the largest driver that featured both of these technologies was the 422cc R9.  Now it is available in the largest club head size allowable under USGA rules.

The R9 SuperTri was made possible by two crucial developments by TaylorMade engineers that saved enough weight to allow FCT and MWT to coexist in a 460cc head. The first is better, more widespread use of TaylorMade's Ultra-Thin Wall technology throughout the clubhead. The second is a new, lighter FCT sleeve that does everything the former one did while weighing three grams less.  The larger head is more forgiving, and its Center of Gravity is two millimeters farther back in the head than the R9 driver, making it easier to launch the ball higher and with more spin, helping players gain more distance.

Some additional features of the R9 SuperTri include a deeper face and higher crown that has been reshaped to help with wind resistance, and visually this club sets up beautifully with a black-on-black color scheme and black PVD clubface. The stock shaft is a Fujikura Motore, which, at  60 grams, is a lighter model than in the previous R9. In the Tour Preferred (TP) version of the SuperTri a number of premium shafts are available, including one of the most popular today, the Aldila Voodoo, which is also available in 60 and 65-gram models.

The R9 SuperTri is the ultimate tinkerer’s golf club with the adjustability features and extra size, and anyone who has an earlier R9 driver with FCT can simply unscrew the shaft using the provided torque wrench and switch them out on the driving range in a matter of seconds.

For the player who simply wants to bomb it and isn’t interested in the adjustability, the latest edition of the Burner line is the Burner SuperFast driver that has caught on both with the recreational golfer and with many tour pros.  In fact, TaylorMade reports that of the professionals using their drivers, the number playing the R9 and the Burner are about the same.

The Burner SuperFast is the lightest club in golf, according to TaylorMade, weighing just 284 grams. Its improved performance starts with a new 460cc clubhead shape that's sleeker and more aerodynamic than past Burner drivers and also boasts high MOI for tremendous forgiveness, and incorporates the largest clubface of any TaylorMade driver.

The larger face is important in light of the fact that the longer club-length (46.5 inches) of the SuperFast makes it more challenging for the average player to make square contact consistently, and the larger face gives them more area to strike the ball with. The Burner SuperFast face also features a new bulge and roll design that's optimized to work with the higher MOI head to maximize forgiveness on off-center hits. Finally, the clubface incorporates TaylorMade's renowned Inverted Cone Technology, which promotes faster ball speed on off-center hits.

Also critical to the Burner SuperFast driver's performance is its Matrix Ozik XCon 4.8 shaft, which is both ultra-light and tip-soft, helping the golfer generate more ball speed, a higher launch angle and more spin to promote more distance.                                 

For more information, visit the TaylorMade website at: www.tmag.com.