TaylorMade-adidas Golf's new R11S driver
TaylorMade-adidas Golf continues to make adjustments (pardon the pun) and innovations to its R11 driver. The company has launched the R11S, which it says is “the most technologically advanced driver to date.” The all-white, 460cc driver features a three-degree Flight Control Technology (FCT) sleeve and a new five-way Adjustable Sole Plate (ASP) the company says allows the golfer to find their optimum address set-up – a proprietary setting not found in any other driver.
The R11S is the follow-up to TMaG’s successful R11 driver and can be tuned for 80 separate launch settings, which TMaG says makes it the most adjustable driver in golf.
“It’s the realization of every ounce of innovation, adjustability, and performance we could package in a bigger, more aerodynamic, white club head,” said TMaG executive vice president Sean Toulon.
Similar to the original R11, TMaG says the new R11S (suggested retail price $399) features a flat-white crown color and black PVD face it says improves alignment and accuracy off the tee. Its address footprint measures more than 11,500 mm², and its white crown color makes it appear even larger (two percent). That’s an advantage, according to TMaG, in that its testing indicates that the majority of golfers gain confidence at address from a head that appears large relative to the ball.
TMaG says ASP technology was a “major performance” breakthrough as it complemented Flight Control, a technology first introduced in the R9 family. When FCT is employed alone, the loft and face angle is coupled by the sleeve system. Adjustable Sole Plate technology, according to TMaG, allows the decoupling of loft and face angle by using a sole plate to adjust face angle independent of loft sleeve setting.
In other word, a golfer can adjust the face angle independently of the loft, and vice versa. The five face angles made possible by the improved ASP Technology of the R11S are neutral, slightly open, open, slightly closed and closed.
ASP Technology is characterized by a raised, five-pointed plate on the sole roughly the diameter of a quarter. Changing its position is achieved by loosening the screw that holds it to the sole, rotating the ASP, then re-tightening the screw.
TMaG says ASP works with FCT to create 40 combinations of loft and face angle, which can be used to further accentuate a face angle or counter a negative face angle due to a sleeve adjustment.
TMaG’s Flight Control Technology allows a player to change the orientation of the driver head with the shaft to effectively adjust the loft up or down, giving player eight choices of lie and loft/face angles at range of three degrees of lie and three degrees loft/six degrees face angle for what TMaG says is up to approximately 60 yards side-to-side trajectory adjustment and three degrees.
