TaylorMade P·770, P·790 Copper irons

The TaylorMade P·770 and P·790 Copper look old, but play modern.

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Gear: TaylorMade P·770, P·790 Copper
Price: $1,499.00 (4-PW) with KBS C-Taper Lite Black shafts and Golf Pride TaylorMade Victory Copper grips”
Specs: Hollow-bodied irons with 8620 carbon steel chassis, forged 4140 steel face, vibration-‘dampening foam.

Who It’s For: Golfers who love the look of vintage clubs but who also want to experience the benefits of modern, distance- and feel-enhancing technologies.

The Skinny: The TaylorMade P·770 and P·790 Copper are identical to the previously-released versions of the P·770 and P·790 but have been given retro styling and details that pay homage to TaylorMade’s 1980s offerings.

The Deep Dive: For the past few years, golf footwear makers have been revisiting popular shoes from “back in the day” and releasing updates and modern interpretations, adding better materials and technologies while trying to maintain what made the shoes appealing in the first place.

With the release of the Copper Collection, TaylorMade is doing the same thing. Two weeks ago, the BRNR Mini Driver Copper was released, complete with a throwback logo on the sole and a shaft that was cosmetically designed to harken back to the old Burner Bubble shaft from the 1990s. Now, the brand is releasing the P·770 Copper and P·790 Copper, two better-player distance irons that are identical in design to the previously-released P·770 and P·790. However, both clubs look like they would have been at home in the bags of players at Baltusrol Golf Club back in 1983 when Lee Janzen was battling Payne Stewart at the U.S. Open.

The TaylorMade Copper family, including the BRNR Mini Driver, P·790 and P·770 (TaylorMade)

Both irons feature a hollow-body design that allows the forged 4140 stainless steel faces to flex more efficiently at the moment of impact, resulting in more ball speed and distance. They also have a Speed Pocket slot in the sole that helps to enhance performance on thin shots and TaylorMade’s FLT CG system. It shifts mass inside the heads, so the center of gravity (CG) location in each iron is optimized. In the long irons, it’s lower to help get the ball up more easily, while in the scoring clubs, it is elevated to help keep the ball down for enhanced distance control.

The hollow chambers in both clubs are filled with SpeedFoam Air, a second-generation material that absorbs vibrations, enhances sound, and removes weight from the center of the club.

The smaller P·770 has a body made from 8620 carbon steel, while the P·790 has a thick-thin back wall construction to save weight.

But let’s be honest, all those performance features are available in the standard P·770 and P·790. If these clubs spark your interest, it’s because of the copper-toned finish and the retro style. You like the way copper-toned irons create a throwback look to your bag and how the old-school grips feel in your hands. You probably also like the use of TaylorMade’s original logo on the toe instead of its current logo.

TaylorMade says the copper finish will “mature over time,” but for golfers who love the throwback style of the P·770 and P·790 Copper, that will only enhance the vibe.

Below are some close-up looks at the P·770 Copper and P·790 Copper irons

Scottie Scheffler’s New TaylorMade Spider Tour X putter. What makes it special?

Golfweek talked with TaylorMade’s director of product creation for putters, to learn why the putter is unique.

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Scottie Scheffler won over $21 million in prize money last season and was one of the PGA Tour’s worst putters. His driving and iron play were that good. He played in 23 events and made the cut in all of them, earning top-10 finishes in 17 to go along with two wins and two runner-up finishes. He did all that while finishing No. 162 in Strokes Gained: Putting.

Scheffler tinkered with different putters in the second half of 2023, benching his Scotty Cameron blade-style putter for a prototype TaylorMade Spider with a milled face at the end of the PGA Tour season. That didn’t work, so Scheffler played a few events with a blade made by the Olson Putter Company at the end of 2023 and in early 2024, but that didn’t work out either.

Then, in the days leading up to the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, Scheffler switched back into a TaylorMade Spider and won, leading the field that week in Strokes Gained: Putting. The following week, he won again at the 2024 Players Championship, finishing first in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (naturally) and 37th in Strokes Gained: Putting.

Rory McIlroy’s prophecy appeared to be coming true because, speaking with Amanda Balionis at the Genesis Invitational in February as Scheffler struggled on the greens, McIlroy had said, “I’d love to see Scottie try a mallet, but selfishly for me, Scottie does everything else so well that he’s given the rest of us a chance.”

A few days before the Masters, Golfweek talked with Andrew Oldknow, TaylorMade’s director of product creation for putters, to learn what makes Scottie Scheffler’s new Spider Tour putter unique, how it is similar to Spider Tour X putters sold at retail and more.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop TaylorMade Spider Tour X putter” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/5gJa91″]

Golfweek: Let’s go through a progression. Towards the end of last season, Scottie Scheffler started using a TaylorMade Spider putter with a milled face. Was the goal to create a mallet that would feel like the milled blade putters that he had before but that would provide the forgiveness or stability?

Andrew Oldknow: The goal, honestly, was to give him better alignment. While centering the ball with the alignment system, we were actually trying to get that thing to perform just like a blade.

We put a massive amount of tungsten in the front of that putter. We used all aluminum in the back. We gave it a profile of the Spider X shape, but under the backside, it really was all cut out. We were hollowing the whole thing out to get as much weight forward as possible so that the putter actually closed like a blade.

At the time, he loved the performance of his blade, he just felt like he didn’t have enough alignment out of it. True Path worked really well for him in terms of centering the ball. One of his biggest issues is he doesn’t always hit the ball center face.

GK: Got it. A blade simply doesn’t have the size to be able to accommodate a True Path-style alignment system.

AO: Correct.

GW: After playing a few events with an Olson blade, Scottie and his team asked TaylorMade for many different Spider putters with different hosel configurations, neck styles, and even different inserts. Obviously, he was very open then to the alignment system you talked about, and he wound up settling on a Spider Tour X with an L-neck hosel. That configuration is not available at retail. How much does that hosel configuration play into the way his putter swings for him?

AO: Yeah, great question. So, over the last few years, even Rory McIlroy has gone into a slant-neck version of the Spider Tour. They’re very similar, but the toe hang is going to be slightly different.

We know that toe hang is slightly more toe down with the L-neck, so that helps [Scottie] rotate and feel more blade-like performance. Again, we’re trying to get him the good feel that he wants. He’s been in the blade for the majority of his life, and winning majors and so forth in a blade product.

So, we want to make sure that when he’s releasing the putter, that it has the right feel. A slightly more toe-down putter is going to have more of a familiar feel, and so that’s been the most important thing for him.

And yes, he asked for everything under the sun and our team has done everything we can to provide him with that.

GW: I noticed on the retail putters there is an X7 in the sole in the toe area, but on Scottie’s but an X1.

AO: Yep.

GW: Does that mean anything?

AO: Yeah, hosel, that’s the type of hassle on there. We have code names for our hosels.

Scottie Scheffler lines up his putt on No. 11 during the final round of the Masters Tournament. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Network

GW: So, the motivation for Scottie to change was really rooted in wanting to be able to align the putter more easily, and then you designed a Spider that would swing like his blade. But now, instead of hitting off a milled metal face, he’s using a grooved Pure Roll face. Is it the same one that is in retail putters?

AO: He was in the camp of wanting more metal face inserts versus the Pure Roll Surlyn insert. We provided him with milled prototypes and metal versions with different thicknesses to get different feels. And then, low and behold, Joe Ryon, who runs our putter lab, was like, “Let’s just throw one in with the actual, stock, Surlyn insert even though they’re not asking for it.” We wanted to give it to him.

The Pure Roll insert has a little bit of aluminum powder in it, so it’s 80 percent Surlyn. We’ve player-tested pure Surlyn inserts (essentially ionomer resin) in the past, but they test too soft.

GK: So that’s the same insert that is found in the retail Spider Tour putters?

AO: Yes. The addition of the Aluminum flake slightly firms the compound to create a perfect balance of feel, sound and roll performance. And, as you can see, the score lines and grooves are angled down slightly. They will grab the ball better and get it rolling. In everything we’ve ever tested on our Quintic Ball Roll system here in The Kingdom, you will see that if you put somebody in this 80/20 Pure Roll insert, they will instantly get better numbers.

GK: What is the loft on Scottie’s putter?

AO: Our traditional Spider Tour putters have 3.5 degrees of loft, but Scottie’s has 3.1 degrees. You need some loft in there because the ball sits in a depression created by its weight. You have to get it out of the depression or else you end up just jamming it into the ground, but the grooves grab the back of the ball and stop it from back spinning.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop TaylorMade Spider Tour X putter” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/5gJa91″]

Masters: TaylorMade’s ‘Season Opener’ collection pays homage to Augusta National and Georgia

Check out TaylorMade’s limited-edition gear for the 2024 Masters.

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For decades, golf equipment brands have made special bags, headcovers and accessories for staff players to use in major championships to serve two purposes. First, at the most prestigious events, the cool gear makes it easier for companies to showcase how many players use their equipment. Second, if they are creative and appealing enough, the limited-edition items can also be sold to fans online.

This week at Augusta National Golf Club, TaylorMade staff players will be using “Season Opener” bags, headcovers and accessories designed especially for the Masters, and fans can pick up the gear on TaylorMade’s website.

The Staff Bag ($599.99) is covered in symbols, some of which are subtle, like the three gold flags with a halo near the handle that pay homage to Amen Corner (the 11th, 12th and 13th holes), while others like the azalea-patterned TaylorMade logo are easy to understand. The lining of the pockets are covered in a peach pattern.

The headcovers for drivers, fairway woods and hybrids ($99.99) and both blade-style and mallet putters ($119.99) also have peach linings.

TaylorMade also designed special-edition TP5 and TP5x Pix balls for the 2024 Masters ($59.99) that are covered in peaches instead of the orange and black diamond pattern found on the standard 2024 version of the Pix balls. According to TaylorMade, Tommy Fleetwood, who uses a TP5x Pix in competition, plans to use the Season Opener edition during this season’s Masters.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop 2024 Season Opener Collection” link=”*”]

Masters: 3 things you didn’t know about equipment at Augusta National

You know about the green jacket, the back-nine charges and the pimento cheese, but did you know these things about equipment at the Masters?

Whether you are lucky enough to have a badge and plan to attend this year’s Masters Tournament in person or will be watching the action at Augusta National Golf Club from home, you already know plenty of details about the season’s first major because it is the only one that returns to the same venue every year. Green jackets, pimento cheese sandwiches, epic collapses, back-nine charges and the hole locations on Sundays – they all combine to make the Masters unique.

But there are a few things related to golf equipment that most patrons and Masters fans are unaware of, but that also make the tournament special.

No Equipment Vans on Site

At week-to-week PGA Tour events and the other three major championships, golf equipment makers like Titleist, Ping, TaylorMade, Callaway, Cobra and Cleveland/Srixon park large trucks near the practice area because technicians, fitters and other reps work closely with the players on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays as they prepare for the tournament. The vans arrive on Sunday afternoon and leave as a group shortly in the early afternoon on Wednesday to start the drive to the next event.

Equipment at the Masters — At the Masters, PGA Tour reps have to park trailers across the street and walk back and forth to service players. (Google Earth)

However, there are no equipment vans on-site at the Masters Tournament. The trucks park in a large lot across the street at the corner of Washington Road and Azalea Drive. The technicians and PGA Tour reps who are credentialed to work at the Masters Tournament need to cross Washington Road and then go through a special gate to gain access to the grounds, then they walk either around or through the caddie building before arriving at the practice range.

Like the patrons, the PGA Tour reps and company workers are not allowed to bring their cell phones into Augusta National, so communication can be challenging and there is a lot of walking back and forth between the practice area and the trucks.

Masters Practice Area — PGA Tour reps and technicians work with players in the practice area but do not linger on the range, keeping it much more open. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

Also, fitters and technicians need to be brought to the practice area by a player or requested by a player. Loitering around the range or near the practice green is not done. If business discussions need to happen, those conversations typically happen either under the massive oak tree behind the clubhouse or in a quiet place away from the practice area.

No Demos

Like the rest of us, when pros start missing putts and get frustrated, they can be tempted to look for a new putter to turn things around, and at nearly all PGA Tour events, companies leave large bags filled with demo clubs, prototypes and other putters for competitors to try. However, at the Masters Tournament, that doesn’t happen.

Odyssey putters at the practice area — An assortment of Odyssey putters available for golfers to try at Riviera Country Club during the Genesis Invitational. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

There are two practice greens at Augusta National for competitors to use. There is a large one next to the driving range in the practice area, and a second putting green behind the clubhouse and just a few steps away from the first tee. Players make use of both practice greens throughout the week, but the only golf bags you will see are those being used by the players. There are no demo bags or areas with gear left for players to try at the Masters.

Unique Wedge Prep

The greens at the Augusta National Golf Club are famous for being fast and for having massive slopes and undulations. There are also tightly mowed areas where players need to chip and pitch the ball, and those factors combine to put a premium on wedge play and generating spin, so you might think that competitors use brand-new wedges at the Masters Tournament. They don’t.

Justin Thomas Masters Wedge — In 2019, Justin Thomas had his jacket size stamped into his Titleist wedges. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

During the Florida Swing in March, PGA Tour reps who are responsible for wedges often chat with players who are already in the field at the Masters about what clubs they will want to use at Augusta National. Based on those conversations, the technicians will then either give the players what they want at a tournament or send the clubs directly to the player’s home. Next, the players will “break in” the wedges by either using them in one or two practice sessions or non-competition rounds. The goal is for the player to feel how the soles work through the turf and how the bounce feels, and to gain trust in the wedges’ performance. Once that is established, the golfers will set the broken-in wedges aside and save them for the Masters.

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TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper

The TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper is designed to deliver driver-like distance with fairway wood control.

Gear: TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper
Price: $449.99 with UST Mamiya ProForce 65 shaft and Golf Pride TaylorMade Victory Copper grip
Specs: Titanium face and chassis with carbon fiber crown, adjustable sole weights and adjustable hosel. 11.5 and 13.5-degree models

Who It’s For: Fast-swinging golfers who want an alternative to their driver off the tee but who want more forgiveness and distance than most 3-woods provide.

The Skinny: Smaller than a driver, yet much larger than a typical 3-wood, the BRNR Mini Driver Copper combines exotic materials and driver-like technologies to create a powerful alternative off the tee for elite players.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop TM BRNR Mini Driver” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/6eNzxb”]

The Deep Dive: Aside from the possible exception of a driving iron, no club in golf is more macho than a mini driver. Carrying one says to the world that there are times on the course when your driver goes too far, and, you are skilled enough to get the ball airborne with a fairway wood that has driver-like loft.

TaylorMade has quietly made mini drivers available for a few seasons. The Original One Mini debuted in 2019, and in 2021, the 300 Mini driver was released. Last year, TaylorMade offered the BRNR Mini, and a few pros, including Tommy Fleetwood, have put it in play frequently. Now, on the eve of the 2024 Masters, TaylorMade is dropping the BRNR Mini Driver Copper, a club that is virtually identical to the 2023 BRNR Mini but cosmetically pays homage to the late ’90s Burner woods.

The BRNR Mini Driver Copper’s head size is 304cc, which is 34 percent smaller than most drivers on the market today, like the 460cc TaylorMade Qi10 Max. However, the BRNR Mini Driver Copper dwarfs 3-woods like the Qi10 Max (200cc) and Qi10 Tour (170cc). The BRNR Mini Driver Copper also comes standard at 43.75 inches in length, which is a half-inch longer than those 3-woods but 2 inches shorter than a stock Qi10 LS driver and 1.75 inches shorter than a standard Qi10 Max driver.

With specifications like that, and being available only in 11.5 and 13.5-degree lofts, some golfers will call the BRNR Mini Driver Copper a 2-wood instead of a mini driver. Regardless of what you call it, the club is designed to excel off the tee as alternative to a driver.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop TM BRNR Mini Driver” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/6eNzxb”]

TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper — The BRNR Mini Driver Copper has a titanium face and body along with a carbon fiber crown. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

The BRNR Mini Driver Copper has a titanium face and body, along with a carbon fiber crown, to create a significant amount of discretionary weight, which engineers re-purposed in the form of two sole weights. With the 13-gram weight in the front and 1.5-gram weight in the back, the BRNR Mini Driver Copper produces more ball speed, less spin and a lower launch angle. However, with the 13-gram weight in the back port and the lighter weight in the front, golfers should see an increase in both spin and launch angle, along with more stability.

The BRNR Mini Driver Copper also has Twist Face, a shot-straightening technology that debuted in 2018’s M3 and M4 drivers, and it has a Speed Pocket slot in the sole to allow the lower portion of the hitting area to flex more efficiently on low-struck shots.

If players decide to play the BRNR Mini Copper off the deck, its K-shaped sole is designed to allow the bottom of the club to skim across and over the turf more effectively. But be warned: With a deep face and large size, this club was designed to be used primarily off the tee. Fast-swinging, skilled players will be able to create enough lift to get shots up in the air, but slower-swinging players might struggle to generate enough spin to maximize carry distance.

To fine-tune the spin and trajectory, the BRNR Mini Copper comes with an adjustable hosel that allows players and fitters to increase or decrease the loft by up to 2 degrees.

Even with all those modern features and technologies, the copper accents and the font used to spell the word TaylorMade on the sole will immediately be recognizable to golfers who remember using Burner drivers and fairway woods in the 1990s. And, if you recall that turning the head cover of last season’s BRNR Mini driver inside-out revealed a fuzzy rainbow design that some players opted to use, you will be pleased to know that turning the BRNR Mini Copper’s headcover inside out reveals a fuzzy blue-patterned option you can go with.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop TM BRNR Mini Driver” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/6eNzxb”]

Below are several close-up images of the TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper.

Rory McIlroy using prototype TaylorMade iron at 2024 Valero Texas Open

McIlroy has a new club in the bag the week before he goes for the Career Grand Slam once again at the Masters.

When it comes to drivers, Rory McIlroy has been more than willing to upgrade into TaylorMade’s newest, latest and greatest every year since he signed an endorsement deal with the company is 2017. Irons, however, are another story.

The four-time major winner has used a prototype set of RORS Proto irons fitted with Project X 7.0 shafts for nearly all his rounds, occasionally adding a TaylorMade P·760 2-, 3- or 4-iron based on the course setup and conditions. Those clubs, which Jon Rahm played when he was a TaylorMade staff player, were released in 2018, so it was noteworthy when McIlroy was spotted on the range preparing for the start of the Valero Texas Open with a prototype TaylorMade 4-iron.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5TrRsAAW4z/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

McIlroy was asked about the club during his pre-tournament press conference.

“So after I went to Vegas, I went out to The Kingdom [TaylorMade’s test center in Carlsbad, California] for two days. I needed to get into a fresh set of irons, my irons were like two years old maybe, so they were getting a little worn,” McIlroy explained. “They just produced these couple of proto, I guess like are they the MC replacements maybe, I think? I’m not sure what they’re actually going to be called. Yeah, I have no idea.”

Commenting on how the 4-iron played, McIlroy said, “They performed really well. It’s just as fast as the 760 that I was using. Launch is a little higher actually, which was surprising, and it’s just sometimes I felt like when I hit my 5-iron in the blade and then the 4-iron in the 760, it was such a different feel. To go from a 5-iron now to that 4-iron, it feels a little closer to what I feel in the 5-iron. So just a little bit more responsive, but didn’t lose any performance from it, which is great. Yeah, it will be in the bag this week.”

As a true muscleback blade, McIlroy’s RORS Proto irons have extra mass low in the head, behind the area where he makes contact with the ball, but his prototype 4-iron is clearly a better player’s cavity back iron. The current P•7MC has a very similar shape and similar milling design on the back of the head, as well.

McIlroy’s prototype is fitted with the same Project X 7.0 Rifle shaft and Golf Pride MCC grip as his other irons and wedges.

[lawrence-auto-related count=4 category=1364]

TaylorMade’s Performance Decision Kit could be a great golf ball fitting option, but you can’t buy it

This is exactly what many golfers need.

With its namesake mountain looming in the background, twilight descending, and the empty, emerald-green fairway laid out in front of me, the 18th hole at Superstition Mountain Golf Club in Golf Canyon, Arizona, was the perfect place to have a little fun.

No one else was around that evening, so I dropped five or six three-ball sleeves of the newest golf balls on the ground and started hitting approach shots, pitch shots and chip shots until darkness made it too hard to see. I made little notes on a pad about how each ball felt and flew, how much it appeared to spin (I didn’t have a launch monitor), checked-up on the green and which balls seemed to end up closest to the hole.

It was the first time I’d really tested golf balls, and it has become a yearly ritual that starts my season every year, although, sadly, Central Connecticut is not as pretty as the Arizona desert in late March.

I have encouraged Golfweek readers to buy three-ball packs of newly released balls at the start of every season and test them against the ball they currently play on several occasions, so when I recently received TaylorMade’s Performance Decision Kit, I thought a brand had finally made the job of ball testing a little easier. Inside the box were six two-ball packs of each urethane-covered ball in the 2024 TaylorMade stable: TP5, TP5 Pix, TP5x, TP5x Pix, Tour Response and Tour Response Stripe.

One box, three different balls in both white and in each ball’s visual-technology version.

The TaylorMade Performance Decision Kit includes six two-ball packs of TaylorMade balls. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

But when I reached out to TaylorMade to find out when the Performance Decision Kit was going on sale to the public, I got the bad news: This unique box will not go on sale to consumers. It was created for select members of the media and influencers to make them aware of TaylorMade’s new offerings for 2024.

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I recently went to TaylorMade’s golf ball manufacturing plant in Liberty, South Carolina. I have also visited Callaway’s facility in Chicopee, Massachusetts, along with Titleist’s golf ball plant in New Bedford, Massachusetts, several times. These state-of-the-art facilities turn out millions of dozen boxes of golf balls every year thanks to lots of proprietary systems, customized machines and other automated processes. The assembly lines are built to make thousands of the same ball at a time, paint them, number them, add them to sleeves and then get those sleeves into dozen-ball boxes.

I assume creating something like the TaylorMade Performance Decision Kit involves a level of small-batch work that would be difficult to do at scale. In fact, it would likely fall to the custom golf ball department that handles corporate orders and other small-batch projects. Still, that doesn’t mean I don’t want TaylorMade and other brands to make dozens of boxes like this available to everyone.

For the last 20 years, the percentage of golfers who buy their clubs after going through a custom fitting season has dramatically increased because while a good-quality custom fitting session can take time, the result is a club that is ideally suited for the player. Once players go through a fitting for a driver or irons, they never buy “off the rack” again. Custom fitting for putters and wedges still lag behind woods and irons, but those numbers are going to climb.

Golf ball fittings? Almost no recreational golfers get fit for the ball they use, which is why a multi-ball pack sold as a fitting tool is something we need. It would make the process easier if you could buy a dozen box and get a sleeve of:

Bridgestone Tour B X, Tour B XS, Tour B RX and Tour B RXS
Callaway Chrome Tour, Chrome Tour X, Chrome Soft and ERC Soft
Srixon Z-Star, Z-Star XV, Z-Star Diamond and Q-Star Tour
TaylorMade TP5, TP5x, Tour Response and Soft Response
Titleist Pro V1, Pro V1x, Pro V1x Left Dash and AVX

Any time I talk with a brand about helping golfers find the right clubs, they all say custom fitting is the key. If you don’t get custom fit for your woods, irons, wedges or putter, you are almost certainly leaving some performance behind. The same thing holds true with golf balls.

Unfortunately, TaylorMade’s Performance Decision Kit may be an example of a great idea that is not ready to become a reality for most golfers.

Winner’s Bag: Scottie Scheffler, 2024 Players Championship

A complete list of the equipment Scheffler used at TPC Sawgrass.

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A complete list of the golf equipment Scottie Scheffler used to win the PGA Tour’s 2024 Players Champiionship:

DRIVER: TaylorMade Qi10 (8 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft

Shop Scottie Scheffler’s driver

FAIRWAY WOOD: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees), with Fujikura Ventus Black 8X shaft

Shop Scottie Scheffler’s fairway wood

IRONS: Srixon ZU85 (3-4), with Nippon Pro Modus3 Hybrid Tour X shaft, TaylorMade P-7TW (5-PW), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts.

WEDGES: Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (50, 56, 60 degrees), with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts.

Shop Scottie Scheffler’s wedges

PUTTER: TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-Neck prototype

BALL: Titleist Pro V1

Shop Scottie Scheffler’s golf ball

GRIPS: Golf Pride Tour Velvet (full swing) / Golf Pride Pistol (putter)

TaylorMade SpeedSoft golf balls

A option for budget-minded golfers who want more distance off the tee.

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Gear: TaylorMade SpeedSoft golf balls
Price: $24.99 per dozen
Specs: Two-piece, ionomer-covered ball available in white, yellow and Ink pattern (green, blue, orange, pink and red)

Who It’s For: Budget-minded golfers who want more distance off the tee.

The Skinny: TaylorMade designed a new, ultra-soft core for the SpeedSoft for more distance, then developed a new visual pattern to make it stand out.

The Deep Dive: TaylorMade is trying to make significant inroads in the golf ball category in 2024, and the balls that you will hear the most about are the TP5 and TP5x, along with their TP5 and TP5x Pix counterparts. Those are the balls that Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Nelly Korda and Rickie Fowler are playing, and those are the balls that will put the most considerable dent in your wallet. For many players, $54.99 for a dozen balls is just not going to happen, and the $42.99 per dozen Tour Response may be out of reach, too.

For budget-minded golfers who still want a ball that delivers solid performance and doesn’t feel like a rock when you hit it, TaylorMade is releasing the SpeedSoft. This two-piece, ionomer-covered ball was designed to provide soft feel, more distance and possibly add some pizazz to your game.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop TM SpeedSoft golf balls” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/5gErRL”]

TaylorMade SpeedSoft golf balls — The Ink version of the SpeedSoft ball is eye-catching. (TaylorMade)

At the heart of the SpeedSoft is the newly developed PWRCore. It is an exceptionally soft core, so every golfer should be able to activate it off the tee for more distance. However, because the SpeedSoft has a 50 compression, it holds the distinction of being the softest-feeling ball in the TaylorMade lineup.

The SpeedSoft does not create the same level of greenside spin that the urethane-covered TP5 and TP5x can. Still, its ionomer cover is designed to generate a mid- to high-launch trajectory with wedges, so golfers should be able to create stopping power by bringing shots in more vertically.

In addition to traditional white and yellow color options, TaylorMade is offering the SpeedSoft in a new Ink pattern that features splashes of green, blue, red or pink, along with a complimenting black. The pattern, which looks like splattered paint, is eye-catching, but there is still an arrowed side stamp for golfers who like to use a line on their ball when they putt.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop TM SpeedSoft golf balls” link=”https://worldwidegolfshops.pxf.io/5gErRL”]

7 new golf equipment products to check out at Golf Galaxy

Check out these 7 new golf equipment products at Golf Galaxy.

Once the calendar flipped to 2024, brands across golf began to release their newest gear. Whether it was drivers, irons sets, wedges, balls or something in between, it seemed like every equipment manufacturer had new offerings.

Well, thanks to our friends at Golf Galaxy, we’ve put together a list of some of our favorite recent releases including drivers, irons and golf balls.

Some of the brands on the list below include Callaway, Cobra, Ping and more.

Most of the equipment below can be found on David Dusek’s best golf equipment lists for 2024 including best drivers, best irons, best golf balls and more.