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Redefining User-Friendliness
And now for something completely different in the shape of the TaylorMade 09 irons. In the latest instalment of Asian Golf Monthly’s exclusive Taking the Test series, Mike Sebastian marvels at the friendliness of these new irons.
What? Another set of Burner irons from TaylorMade? How prolific can these guys get? Is the market ready for the new Burner? And is the name going to confuse consumers out there in golf land?
These are all very valid questions that beg answering. First, I feel that we must clear the air about the confusion relating to the name ‘Burner’. As long as I can remember (and that’s pretty long), TaylorMade’s irons have been referred to as ‘Burners’. I feel that the consumer must be aided in differentiating between the various models within the genre.
The latest offering from the company is called the Burner 09. It would have helped tremendously if these hot-off-the-production-line clubs were tagged as the Burner 2009 – this would have helped clear the confusion once and for all. Anyway, now that I have got the name hang-up out of the way, let me take a serious look at the new clubs.
To start with, the clubs are different – very different! So different that you want to give it a thorough evaluation. I have confessed on numerous occasions that I don’t have a particularly affectionate relationship with irons and it is with this reservation that I reluctantly took delivery of a solitary seven-iron. It was the only demo item that TaylorMade could supply me for a test.
I stuck it in my regular bag of clubs and went out for a game at Jurong Country Club in Singapore. I drew it out only on the 15th hole and thought to myself: ‘Here goes nothing!’ Now get ready to lap up what happened – this seven-iron from the Burner 09 series was an absolute killer!
It slid under the ball, lifted it up effortlessly and sent it rocketing on its way. Ay, caramba! This was one terrific shot and it was so easy to handle. I gave it a work-out over the finishing holes and it did not let me down once.
This incredible performance was sufficient for me to call up TaylorMade’s Eric Abdullah and gush forth my feelings about the new Burner 09 iron. “In terms of ease of use, it’s a kindergarten beauty; talk about user friendliness – it gives a whole new meaning to friendlineness and playability,” was what I told Abdullah. In one word, based on the performance of the solitary seven-iron, the Burner09 is awesome.
Within a few days, TaylorMade rushed over a brand new set. This time it was complete. Before I took it out for a burn, I gave the gleaming irons a once over and the one thing that stood out was a special feature – the distance gaps between the clubs, especially between the long and middle irons.
It looks like the smart guys at TaylorMade have engineered the long irons to be very long and forgiving; the middle irons to be also long and accurate; and the short irons to be accurate and responsive.
“During the past few years we’ve cultivated a trend of convincing golfers of all types that we’re more than a metalwood company,” said Abdullah. “The new Burner 09 irons will continue that trend. However, it’s not just going to change minds, it’s also going to blow them away. The performance is that remarkable.”
Abdullah went on to add: “Our performance goal was to create an easy-to-launch iron that delivered ‘meaningful distance’. What do we mean by that? Longer distance that’s consistent from club-to-club, for one thing.”
The Burner 09 technology platform makes sure that every club is consistently longer than the club before it, and that the distance gaps between each iron are even, because it doesn’t help if you hit the six-iron 15 yards longer than your seven-iron, but only hit the four-iron five yards longer than the five-iron.
“Meaningful distance also has a lot to do with control. Extra yardage with your irons doesn’t mean anything if you’re missing greens with crooked shots or hitting low bullets that skip hard and roll over the back,” Abdullah explained.
TaylorMade’s R&D team began the search for meaningful distance with long irons. “We felt that if we could make a long iron that was far easier to hit than any other, we’d learn a lot about how to make the middle and short irons easier to hit, too,” said Dr Benoit Vincent, TaylorMade’s chief technical officer.
“We spent a great deal of time in the beginning deconstructing conventional long irons and re-thinking how we might reconstruct them in a new and different way. We’d given the previous Burner irons longer, lighter shafts and Inverted Cone Technology, but we knew we could do more.
“We realised that tweaks weren’t enough, that we had to redesign the club completely. We realised that each grouping of irons – the short irons, middle irons and long irons – had to be treated separately and differently, because each one is a different animal.”
Bret Wahl, TaylorMade’s senior director of iron development, said: “The results blew us away. We created a four-iron that’s as easy to hit as our Rescue clubs and which promotes greater accuracy. We applied these same principles to the three-iron and five-iron and got the same result, and that’s how we succeeded in what are by far the easiest-to-hit long irons that we’ve ever created.
“They deliver the highest MOI (moment of inertia) of any by TaylorMade. That, combined with their thin, fast 1.9-millimetre face, also makes them exceptionally long. It’s important to note that the thin face saves approximately 10 grams, which is redistributed to the perimeter to contribute to the high MOI.”
It’s a revolution, baby! From what the TaylorMade folks have said so far, it seems very apparent that they have junked their proven technical mindset that has worked very well to date and have fully embraced a whole new thrust to drive them forward.
Well, there’s only way to find out and that is to see if the new Burner 09s (complete set) can set any fairway ablaze. And guess what – all that has been said about the new irons is an exaggeration, a believable and achievable exaggeration!
I hit every club in the set – long irons, middle irons and short irons – and each club was shatteringly impressive. Each club that was tested delivered better distance, accuracy and forgiveness. This was benchmarked by me hitting two shots – one with a Burner 09 iron and the other with an equivalent from my normal playing set. What an experience – a truly gratifying and satisfying experience. Now, if only the irons can be renamed Burner 2009.
How about looks? The cosmetic appeal of the Burner 09s is revolutionary, featuring a futuristic blend of curves, angles and lines that is completed with a dark, almost sinister finish.
“The story behind the new Burner irons’ development offers a telling glimpse into the creative way TaylorMade finds new ways to create better equipment. The result is an iron that looks like no other iron and which performs like no other iron,” declared Jing Tan, TaylorMade’s managing director for the Southeast Asian region.
“The new Burner irons are astonishingly long, straight and easy to launch, and will be played by everyone from Tour pros to 29-handicaps,” said Abdullah. “It’s the next great iron from TaylorMade.”
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