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TaylorMade R1 Driver Review - Forum Testing Thread

SuperStroke
Hawk said:
The shaft's a little on the boardy side to me, but like you, I'm coming from some pretty tip-soft offerings. Definitely doesn't have the smoothness of a B Asha or Kuro Kage to me.

My advice is get dialed in and give it a little time. If I took my first session with this and wrote a review I don't think I'd have found as many good things to say as I did after a month.

This one has never been the driver that appealed to all my sensory needs as much as it appealed to my ability to get a good output.
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Thanks for the feedback, Hawk. My mind was swimming from the experience last night and my analytical processing of the experience may have sounded more negative than intended.

That is an extremely astute observation about the shaft tips. Thank you. The morning after I do think the feel of the shaft was affecting my interpretation of solid, if slightly unspectacular, results. Today I'm thinking 250ish with range balls probably equates to 265ish with regular balls on the course, which is very good for me. Toss in the necessary work on the swing and time to get it dialed in and this looks promising. I may want to keep my eyes open for a different shaft in the forum (hello B Asha), but that is a somewhat different matter from being too critical of how the out of the box club performs.
 
The shaft is an odd duck to me. It's actually performed very well, but I don't love the way it feels. Similar to the Trinity in the RFXtreme in some ways. Like I said though, I've played similar profiles in my driver shaft for years now and it's understandable that a departure from that would be a little difficult.
 
When I got fitted for my stock shaft R1, I didn't hit it very far. The first time I took it to the range, I saw 235-245. I was discouraged. When I took it to the course first time, my misses were 240-245 and by the end of the round I was getting 265-275 almost every hole. The bigger thing for me was the confidence boost. I knew I was going to pump it right down the middle!

taptalking my way to a lower score
 
Im watching the Masters range camera on the stream and Luke Donald seems to be hitting 6 different R1s trying to find what works for him....very cool.
 
I hit another big bucket tonight. The shaft felt better. I fiddled with settings more and landed on 11.25 and 1* closed. I wasn't able to get on a Trackman machine so distances were hard to determine. When I put decent swings on the ball the club was incredibly accurate, very tight dispersion. Sound was a little more annoying than I remember from last night. The Indian still needs to work on his driver swing, think I'm taking it back too much to the inside.
 
I played that exact setting for a good while t4k.
 
mcook77 said:
You know, it's kinda funny because I never complained about the sound. Until.......I hit it side by side next to the Classic XL. Now I see what others are saying about just how loud the TM offerings are.

Didn't bother me when playing a round but did tend to get kinda annoying when hitting 15-20 balls at the range in 8-10 minutes.
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There was a guy at the range hitting an R1 beside me for his whole bucket it seemed, it was quite annoying after a while. First few were okay, the next 75 not so much. That said, if it feels right and gives the right results, so be it. For this fella, he seemed to be hitting it quite well so I couldn't fault him.
 
Have a R1 on the way thanks to Jschlesi for a great deal. I won't mess around with the stock shaft though, already have another shaft to go into it. Never understood why people get fitted to a certain shaft and don't continue playing that shaft. I will hit a few balls with the stock shaft, but I have never had any luck with stock offerings in the current drivers, way too light for my swing.
 
Hi. I'm new to THP. I just spent the last few days reading this R1 thread from start to finish. Thank you to the testers, WarEagle, mcook, ATLgolfer, MSB256, and the others I'm sure I'm forgetting. This thread has been so interesting and informative. I think I'm going to pull the trigger and join the R1 club after reading everyone's experience. (I'm ok with orange graphics hoping it doesn't overly clash w/ red TM bag...)

A little about me. I'm currently playing an R11S after finding it slightly longer than my previous R9 SuperTri. I've gotten the R11 dialed to where I can hit it fairly well, unless I jack my swing. But as someone else said, I don't have the confidence that I'm hearing from the R1 users. So thanks to Stan the Caddy for the comparison request, as that info was very welcome.

I plan to get fitted to pick the right stock shaft (between R and S). Then I hope to learn more about custom shafts as I've never used one. I did find that R was the right one for me on the R9 and R11s, but don't know if that'll be true for the R1. I also can say that the shaft in my RBZ 3W really fits my swing and the ball just launches. I would appreciate any thoughts on how that might translate into the right shaft for me on the R1. Thanks again to all on this thread!
 
fupresti said:
I've been debating it to be honest. I read your thread and have been eyeing them for awhile. Should I be looking at the SL?
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If you want to try an axe I been debating pulling mine for a black tie
 
Franklin51 said:
If you want to try an axe I been debating pulling mine for a black tie
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Picked up a tour spec fuel I am enjoying right now. I will keep it in mind.
 
This thing was amazingly accurate at the range tonight. Aside from consistently blocking balls right with other drivers and having them be together but offline, I don't recall more consistent groupings with a driver. Really impressive.

I stuck with 11.25 and 12 degrees and still 1 degree closed. There really wasn't much difference directionally between the two lofts, just a little extra trajectory.
 
We still have a foot of snow on the ground, but I got to hit mine indoors at a lesson today. I'm a 90ish swing speed/R shaft player, still working out some issues so not the greatest smash/contact. Still, though I didn't hit it huge long (220-235 consistent), it was grouping like nobody's business, I was very impressed. Swings nicely for me, I was finding the center of the face very frequently.
 
This driver is such a beast! I had another good day with it on sunday. Also, if you read my write ups and remember when I let a friend try it after he hit his first drive with his FT-9... well, he tried it again. Same result. Then he texts me and asked about the driver and the specs! I think he might be hooked!

I. Love. This. Driver.
 
Definitely happy with this driver.
I had it at 8* for a while but now I've changed it up to 10.5.
It goes really high but I can't complain because the distance is awesome.

On hole 14 at my course theres a stream at the bottom of the valley before it climbs back up to the green;

Hole14drive_zps1a75fbd2.jpg


You need a minimum 315 yard carry to clear the stream.
With my Nike sq I managed to cross 3 times, 3 times ever in my life until I got this driver.

The last 5 rounds in a row I have bombed it over the stream, sometimes right and sometimes straight.
I do have a tendancy to sometimes slice the ball with this driver and I'm trying to combat that but in general this is by far the most accurate my driving has ever been.
I think I have hit longer shots with my Nike occasionally but this is consistently longer if comparing averages.

Definitely glad I purchased it.
I think the only other driver I would consider is from the Ping range after hitting a monster with the Ping i20.
Shame I didn't consider it when trying the drivers out but I'm happy with the length and accuracy of this one.
 
Man I kinda have buyers remorse . Hitting this thing multiple times inside golfsmith and golf galaxy I never thought it was loud. Took it to the range today after buying and good lord this thing is loud. Which does not make sense being outside in an open space you would think it would be quieter. :confused2: . Could it be the range balls compared to the balls hitting in the sim?
 
Had another decent round with the R1 on Thursday. Missed the first two fairways, but made good solid contact on all the other holes and pretty much put the ball where I wanted to. Really looking forward to two 18-hole rounds next weekend.

trae* said:
Man I kinda have buyers remorse . Hitting this thing multiple times inside golfsmith and golf galaxy I never thought it was loud. Took it to the range today after buying and good lord this thing is loud. Which does not make sense being outside in an open space you would think it would be quieter. :confused2: . Could it be the range balls compared to the balls hitting in the sim?
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Could be. Range rocks would probably generate a louder noise that a ball that had a softer cover. The range is the only place I notice the sound.
 
adwillingham said:
Had another decent round with the R1 on Thursday. Missed the first two fairways, but made good solid contact on all the other holes and pretty much put the ball where I wanted to. Really looking forward to two 18-hole rounds next weekend.



Could be. Range rocks would probably generate a louder noise that a ball that had a softer cover. The range is the only place I notice the sound.[
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Good to hear. I won't write it off till I get on the course with my normal ball but man I bet you coulda heard this thing from the parking lot with those balls lol .
 
trae* said:
Man I kinda have buyers remorse . Hitting this thing multiple times inside golfsmith and golf galaxy I never thought it was loud. Took it to the range today after buying and good lord this thing is loud. Which does not make sense being outside in an open space you would think it would be quieter. :confused2: . Could it be the range balls compared to the balls hitting in the sim?
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I think the range balls do make a difference. I'm not a fan of the R1's sound at impact on the course, but it really seems louder on the range. I had not thought about the range balls being a factor before, but that makes sense.

With that said, I can put up with the sound since the performance is very good.
 
I hit a large bucket today, spending the 2nd half with the R1 after really being dialed in on the first half with the 8i. When hit well they were high, tight and straight. SS was in the 93 range and total distance was 260. Those are normal good numbers for me. Any lack of wow actor is compensated or by accuracy. All that said, there were plenty of ugly ones too, but I know that is clearly on me. I need to have some dedicated driver time with my instructor. The good thing is there appears to be a light at the end of the driver tunnel.
 
First time on the course was today with the r1. I had a strange/unique experience with the club today.

I set it to my fitters recommendations (2 closed and draw biased weight setting at 10.5, was done on a launch monitor, and recommended to set it to 12* but it was windy) however the ball flight was always low and just felt like I wasn't letting the club release naturally for the first 3 drives.

I then went to neutral setting and neutral weights at 10.5* and wow what a difference! Much better flight almost looked like the ball was being pushed along its trajectory and much more distance. I still missed some to the right but will tinker more in the range. Either way, I wanted to share my experience.

I also learned that if you try to over power the club nothing good will result from this. My best drives Mae from a slower tempo and just swinging at 75-80% I crushed one 280 today and didn't feel like I was trying.

All in all, a great club definitely recommended.
 
I had my first my round with the R1 today. I found the fairway way more than usual, which was great. I had two bad misses right which were on me, but other than that my misses right were very playable. It was cold and windy and that made it harder to judge distances. I didn't come away feeling like I especially bombed any, but there were a couple of times when I was past locations I am usually at even though I was playing from the back tees. So i was obviously hitting them decent distances even if it didnt feel like it. A couple of times I noticeably hit the ball way low on the face and I saw a much lower ball flight and a big distance loss, but the ball was in the fairway. I started teeing it up lower and had better results. All in all, pretty solid first round, all things considered.
 
well I think I proved it was the range balls that were making it so loud. Pulled a hex chrome I had found previously on the course out and hit it and the sound was at least 50 percent quieter .
 
trae* said:
well I think I proved it was the range balls that were making it so loud. Pulled a hex chrome I had found previously on the course out and hit it and the sound was at least 50 percent quieter .
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Good to hear Trae.
 
trae* said:
well I think I proved it was the range balls that were making it so loud. Pulled a hex chrome I had found previously on the course out and hit it and the sound was at least 50 percent quieter .
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Couldn't agree more dude!! The driver is a lot quieter with a softer ball!
 
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