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TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC Review Thread

SuperStroke
Thanks guys. I hope I am not coming across as arrogant or anything, but I really do have the greatest amount of confidence in these irons when I am standing over a shot. I love the feel when the club meets ball and then meets grass. It is just so sublime and beautiful.

Now if I can get my driving and short game back, I would be set like JELLO.
 
I really hope that I will have the opportunity to hit these this weekend. I love the way these look and they felt great the one time I got to hit them. I can easily see these being added to my bag.
 
JB thanks for the feedback on the comparison of the AP2, Nike Split Cavity, and the MC! That was the biggest thing holding me back was finding out if the MC would be an improvement over my split cavity because I love how they feel! I knew if I posted the question there would be someone on here who would be able to help me! Definitely pumped for these now!
 
I am really appreciating all of the great feedback on these irons. Keep it up testers!
 
OK, I got out to the range today to hit these.

What I like best about these irons is that when you put a good swing on them, they produce remarkably repeatable results with very tight dispersion. For example, I was hitting my PW to a green about 135 out. Swinging about 80% in control, I was able to hit 5 shots in a row that varied less than 10 yards across and less than 3 yards in distance dispersion.

Moved on to the 7 iron for the green that is about 165 yards out. Again, 5 shots, all hit the green, at most 5 yards distance dispersion. This is why I like these clubs.

I decided to hit the 3 iron for a while since things were going pretty well with the other irons. I started out teeing them up for a little confidence boost, and I hit that club the best I've hit it yet. About two thirds of the shots were good, about 225 yards, and within about 15 yards of dispersion. Moved to hitting them off the grass and got similar results, maybe 5 yards shorter. I still prefer the ball flight and distance of my 3M mashie to this club, but I could definitely see using this on really windy or links style courses with success.

Of my misses, when I catch it a groove or 2 thin, the results are still very acceptable.. for 7 iron and below I'm not even seeing much difference in distance. Shots hit high on the face or on the toe continue to really hurt distance as noted before.

Overall, still enjoying these clubs, and look forward to playing a round or 2 this weekend to put them to the test again.
 
I made my way to the SIM this evening, but ended up playing 18 with some guys from work. I have a "tee time" reserved for thursday and have some HUGE plans for testing these irons. If you know me, I am honestly shaking with excitement over the amount of science there is to be done! But I digress....

I was really struggling off the tee today making my course play much longer than the listed 6800 yards. Unfortunately that means my Mashies got a lot of work, and the MCs spent a little more time in the bag than normal. Despite hitting only 8 fairways (average drive of 230) I hit 10 greens (and missed 2 more on the fringe). Last year I averaged 6 GIR a round and my last two rounds on a SIM I have been in the 4-5 range as well.

I am getting MUCH more confident with my distances now, and starting to figure out the way the ball responds in different circumstances. As detailed earlier, I don't shape the ball left and right, but I am starting to get a feel for distance on punch shots, and those "choked down" easy swings I tend to use when caught between clubs. The greens I did miss were either left or right- not short or long. I agree with G4L above that when you hit a good shot that the distance is very predictable.

My misses.
I had two really bad swings today. The first one was a 7-I that I wanted to take a little off of. I choked up and caught the ball pretty far on the toe. Ball moved about 15 yards right of target and I came up almost 50 yards short of the green. Stuck the wedge close and saved my par. The second awful swing was a ball in the "rough" that I glided right under and hit VERY fat. My 6I was suppose to go 165 and ended up only making it 100 yards. Ball felt absolutely dead (worst feeling shot I can remember hitting with these irons) and came out really funny.

Pros:
1. These irons still look and feel beautiful
2. Distances are really locking in, including all the "tweener" shots
3. The sound!
4. Improving ball flight (my fade is improving!)

Cons:
1. Significant distance loss on my two big misses today
2. Didn't get to hit as many iron shots today as I would have liked

Golftec lesson tomorrow and then the range on thursday. Be expecting a couple of updates over the next two days!
Thanks for reading!
 
Gus,
Since you are getting used to ball flight and distances, do you think you could give us some updates on the playability?

1. What are you seeing from the ball flight with the MCs? High, low, etc...
2. You are coming from wider soled irons I believe, are you seeing a difference in turf interaction between the two?
 
JB said:
Gus,
Since you are getting used to ball flight and distances, do you think you could give us some updates on the playability?

1. What are you seeing from the ball flight with the MCs? High, low, etc...
2. You are coming from wider soled irons I believe, are you seeing a difference in turf interaction between the two?
Click to expand...

Of course- my apologies for not getting around to it sooner.

My definition of playability is the ability to hit the shot I want to hit under a variety of conditions. As I have noted before, I do not make any attempt to work a ball left or right unless absolutely required- I opt instead to play my natural ball flight. For these irons, the only playability that I have attempted is to change trajectory of the shot and to control distances between full swings by taking something off of it, choking down, or muscling up.

Based on those criteria above- I have to say I am overall very impressed with these irons. My older set really struggled to flight a shot low, or to take something off the distance by changing trajectory. They only had one flight path and that was HIGH, and no matter what I did to try and bring the flight down I was unable to make any significant difference in the end result. On my natural swing these irons are visually lower than the equal lofted irons of my old set, though it is really tough to quantify without some visuals.

To be clear, I am not hitting stinger 3i's or flighting a 7i approach in under the wind- just hitting a more piercing ball flight. Standing on the range with Seth in Georgia my 7i was still flying higher than his 8i. I am continuing to improve my swing in regards to this (forward shaft lean is a B****) but I think the key focus for me is that the irons are no longer the limiting factor to my development of some "basic" golf shots. Again, I am not even looking to move the ball- just small changes in launch.

I will take my old irons with me to the SIM tomorrow and see if I can get some screen shots of the comparative flights between the sets. I think that would be an interesting experiment that takes "swing changes" out of the equation. It also seems that my lower flighted shots are a little straighter than a similar shot on a normal trajectory- though I have not hit enough of them to feel comfortable saying that this is 100% the iron.

Turf Interaction
I haven't been able to put these on grass since my last trip to georgia (2 weeks ago) as none of the grass ranges here are open. What I can tell you from that trip is that these really cut through grass/turf quite well. I struggled getting my club through the bermuda grass at the last outing. The Georgia bermuda was dormant, but one of the courses had really thick/fluffy rough and I never had a problem with the club getting through the grass. I am unsure how much of a difference dormant vs growing bermuda would make though, so perhaps someone could enlighten me in that. The other thing I found is that the club didn't punish the slightly fat shot. I don't mean to say that hitting the ball 2 grooves high doesn't have an effect. What I do mean is that the club cut through the soil well and didn't lose a lot of speed/power. Often times after a clean ball strike I don't even feel the contact with the ground.

This is night and day versus my old SGI shovels. If you look to my first pictures you can see my old PW compared to the new one. This is the club that I noticed the biggest difference with- and I never want to go back to a fat pitching wedge. I just feel more confident that I can use my PW for more than just full shots and not need to worry if I can get the club clean on the ball. This is a HUGE mental thing for me. Last year I got a chance to try P4B's old mizzies (MP 57?)and while they did not work out well for me as a set, I wanted nothing more than to keep his PW as my own. I think the MC PW is even more versatile/pleasing than the mizzie. Needless to say, I like it a lot.

Overall, these irons have really grown on me. I am hitting my PW-7i much better than I ever did with my old RACs. The 6i and 5i still jump up and bite me on occasion when I am not swinging well. As time goes on I expect contact with those irons to continue improving.
 
That's a solid write up Rx! Hopefully your golf season gets underway soon.
 
Thanks for the update! I can't wait until I get to try these guys out (assuming the local shops are gracious and get a lefty head in...)
 
TC said:
That's a solid write up Rx! Hopefully your golf season gets underway soon.
Click to expand...

Thanks.
Could you answer my question about dormant bermuda? How different is a deep/buried lie in dormant vs growing bermuda?

This bermuda grass stuff fascinates me. I'll take Bent greens any day of the week, but Bermuda still intrigues the heck out of me.
 
was on the road yesterday, so I didn't get to hit these. However, tomorrow I am getting out early to look at a house, and then heading to the range to hit these. Still eying a trip this weekend to get some on course testing. I do tend to get home every night and take about 50 swings in the living room with these.
 
RxGus said:
Thanks.
Could you answer my question about dormant bermuda? How different is a deep/buried lie in dormant vs growing bermuda?

This bermuda grass stuff fascinates me. I'll take Bent greens any day of the week, but Bermuda still intrigues the heck out of me.
Click to expand...

Dormant bermuda in the fairway tends to lay down a bit more so it's important to notice whether or not you're hitting into it or against it. I also find that dormant bermuda in the rough tends to hold the ball up a bit more as opposed to letting the ball fall down into it. To me, I like hitting out of active bermuda fairways but much prefer dormant bermuda 1st cuts of rough. Ever notice how when in Florida, your ball in the rough just seems to sit so far down? It creates the panic sweats for me, but my man biggsy gave me the best tip ever on how to hit out of it........choke up a hair. It worked like a charm.
 
Thanks for the update G4L, very detailed with the yardages and the dispersement (or lack of) that you're seeing.

Gus, that was a top notch write up (both of them) thanks for all your work on these, you're doing a hell of a job! (As is everyone in this thread!!)
 
Great reviews guys....loving the specific yardages that everyone is seeing now
 
JB said:
I agree with One-T. If you watch the video that THP shot at the PGA Show, they address the weight and why its there I believe. Its not meant to be changed and is a permanent fixture in the irons. With that being said, people are removing them and changing them, but I would DEFINITELY speak with TaylorMade about this first to make sure it does not void the warranty.
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This is good to know. I had heard different stories on this and I will check with TM on this. It would be nice if it is adjustable so I don't have to play the lead weight game on the short irons. I guess I was misinformed and that is why I love this site always someone that can come up with the right answer.
 
h2ojon said:
This is good to know. I had heard different stories on this and I will check with TM on this. It would be nice if it is adjustable so I don't have to play the lead weight game on the short irons. I guess I was misinformed and that is why I love this site always someone that can come up with the right answer.
Click to expand...

it would be cool if you could change it in and out if you are someone who likes to tinker. Before receiving these I thought that would be an option, however once I got them I never once thought about changing the weights of them.
 
I would really like to hit these off of grass instead of off of mats so I can get a good feel for the way that they interact with the turf. But from what I have heard on here it is pretty good. I'll just have to find a demo day that is held at a course instead of a driving range.
 
ddec0418 said:
it would be cool if you could change it in and out if you are someone who likes to tinker. Before receiving these I thought that would be an option, however once I got them I never once thought about changing the weights of them.
Click to expand...

Does TM offer customized swing weights in this set? Can you order heavier/lighter sticks direct?
 
h2ojon said:
I would really like to hit these off of grass instead of off of mats so I can get a good feel for the way that they interact with the turf. But from what I have heard on here it is pretty good. I'll just have to find a demo day that is held at a course instead of a driving range.
Click to expand...

I feel the same way, I've only been able to hit them off of mats. However that could change this weekend. I do love the feel of these irons. I know it's been mentioned about the smaller head profile these have, coming from the i10's that doesn't seem to be a big issue for me. If I were to be making the jump from the g15 or something like that, then it might have given me a little more cause for concern. I really like the way these set up to the ball.
 
CraftyLefty said:
Does TM offer customized swing weights in this set? Can you order heavier/lighter sticks direct?
Click to expand...

I would tend to think so, but I'm not 100% sure.
 
Great info G4L and Rx! I love the detail you guys are giving on these irons. They sound like they are going to be a big hit for TM. Keep up the good work!
 
I don't believe so...heavier shafts would help add some weight to the irons though
CraftyLefty said:
Does TM offer customized swing weights in this set? Can you order heavier/lighter sticks direct?
Click to expand...
 
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