{"id":308,"date":"2011-04-05T19:55:04","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T19:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jaystuller.com\/?p=308"},"modified":"2011-04-05T19:55:04","modified_gmt":"2011-04-05T19:55:04","slug":"with-taylormade-s-new-r11-it-s-a-nice-day-for-a-white-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/golf\/equipment\/308\/with-taylormade-s-new-r11-it-s-a-nice-day-for-a-white-wedding","title":{"rendered":"With TaylorMade\u2019s New R11, It\u2019s a Nice Day for a White Wedding"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The R11 and its adjustment points. <\/p><\/div>\n

There\u2019s something about TaylorMade\u2019s new drivers with the novel ivory-colored heads that compel golf writers to stretch far and wide for headline puns, and then wax poetic about the product. \u00a0Aside from several novel and technical advanced features in the R11 and the Burner SuperFast 2.0 TP, the pearly top is one of the most distinctive aesthetic developments to hit the PGA Tour and local golf courses since John Daly\u2019s pants and Ricky Fowler\u2019s cringe-worthy coordinated outfits.\u00a0 Thus the inspiration for evocative review titles.<\/p>\n

After testing an R11 last weekend, I originally wanted to call this piece The White Supremacy<\/em>, a take on the Jason Bourne movies.\u00a0 Alas, fearing that might be perceived as insensitive–or taken the wrong way by tattooed fellows residing in San Quentin and Northern Idaho–I instead went with the old Billy Idol song.\u00a0 And heck, when a ProV1 is struck well with the R11, it is indeed a nice day for a white wedding.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not alone following this line of thinking.\u00a0 After spending a month pounding drives with his Burner SuperFast 2.0 TP driver, fellow GearEffectGolf.com<\/em> and A Position<\/em> Contributor Ken Van Vechten reached into the way-back machine for the classic Procol Harum standard from the late 1960s and termed the club \u201cA Whiter Shade of Never Fail.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Now,<\/p>\n

Van Vechten is either a student of music history, had parents who played the original vinyl on the turntable during his childhood, or there\u2019s a portrait of a deceptively old Ken in some closet.\u00a0 In any event, he clearly loves the club, which you can read about at the following link:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/geareffectgolf.com\/golf\/taylormade-superfast-driver-review-whiter-shade-of-never-fail\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Then our boy Jeff Wallach checked in with his personal take on R11, and for his title went with a riff from a beer commercial so ancient that the Super Bowl in which it was first featured was less than X.\u00a0\u00a0 But he too liked the white crown.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/geareffectgolf.com\/golf\/taylormade-golf-s-r11-great-taste-less-filling\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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The black face and white head make the R11 the most unusual looking club on Tour and on ordinary golf courses. <\/p><\/div>\n

My feelings were mixed only because I was unfortunately stuck testing the lone demo model from Marin Country Club, which had a stiff flex shaft rather than the regular to which I\u2019m accustomed.\u00a0 (Thanks to six weeks of steady rain, TaylorMade is behind on its demo days and short on loaner clubs.)\u00a0 However, the TaylorMade rep did watch me hit a few balls and adjusted the loft up a half from 9.5 to 10 degrees and then used the nifty little plate on the club\u2019s bottom to slight close the face, to see if we could promote a draw instead of my normal straight drive or gentle fade.<\/p>\n

In fact, the R11 is the first club that allows one to change its loft, face angle and spin rate with some fairly simple adjustments.\u00a0 It also has adjustable inserts to put more or less weight in the toe or heel, yet another means to promote a fade or a draw.\u00a0 In many ways, the R-11 is a short cut to getting a custom-fit driver without hitting dozens of different clubs or having it built to specifications.<\/p>\n

Another difference from my Ping Rapture is the feedback, especially from the sharp aural report from a perfectly struck R-11 shot.\u00a0 I of course had one pull drive on the 9th<\/sup> hole, which is customary.\u00a0 And I even managed a couple of gentle fades despite the closed face.\u00a0 My friends said it looked like I was playing a driver with a headcover, but also acknowledged that on my better drives I was a few yards longer than normal.<\/p>\n

While the white headed driver represents something of a risk for TaylorMade, its initial popularity suggests other manufacturers will follow, perhaps with different colors.\u00a0 And then we\u2019ll be struggling to find even moldier titles, perhaps from back when Ben Hogan, in his prime, no doubt enjoyed Roy Acuff’s \u00a0Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s something about TaylorMade\u2019s new drivers with the novel ivory-colored heads that compel golf writers to stretch far and wide… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,372,3],"tags":[6363,6364,6365,6366,147,6367,6368,5308,6369,1027925,1094,4933],"class_list":["post-308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-taylormade","category-equipment","tag-ken-van-vechten","tag-procol-harum","tag-billy-idol","tag-san-quentin","tag-idaho","tag-r11","tag-burner","tag-marin-country-club","tag-roy-acuff","tag-taylormade","tag-taylor-made","tag-jeff-wallach"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2011\/04\/Unknown.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions\/312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}