TaylorMade-adidas Golf’s new R11 driver with Adjustable Sole Plate Technology, Moveable Weight Technology and Flight Control Technology likely will appeal to most golfers for one reason: The white color of its crown. Sure, there is that merry band of equipment techno geeks who will want the R11 because it gives a player 48 ways to set up the club head in order to promote up to 100 yards of side-to-side trajectory adjustment, but the overriding factor in picking the R11 for most players will be its white crown.
That’s what’s going to initially attract them to the driver on the shelf and it’s what they will see when they put the club on the ground. Most won’t know that the R11 is 440cc as opposed to their current 460c driver, which is okay because that’s a bit of the eye trickery of the white crown.
The R11 includes two weight cartridges weighing 10-grams and one-gram. To create a neutral bias, install the heavy (10-gram) weight in the toe, for a draw bias, put the heavy weight in the heel. If a more neutral setting is desired, TMaG provides four- and six-gram weights separately. TMaG says players who prefer a specific face angle setting can bias the weights to adjust trajectory independent of the ASP (Adjustable Sole Plate) setting. For example, a player may prefer an open face angle at address while also desiring a draw-bias performance. With the R11 driver, TMaG says, the player can open the face using ASP and put the heavy weight in the heel, resulting in an open face but a draw-bias weighting.
All this is great – and it works with the proper swing of course – but in the world of the 18 handicapper, how much is too much? When does technology outstrip the average player’s ability to take advantage of that technology?
We could be reaching that limit with the R11.
