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TaylorMade Tour Preferred MB Review Thread

SuperStroke
long&straight said:
Sad to say that the honeymoon is over and I may already be looking for a divorce. I have to start out with saying it may not be the club and just my swing. I purchased these clubs from a TaylorMade rep and he just looked at my swing with no other analysis and told me I could hit these irons. I did not hit any other irons, again my fault.

My issue with the club is that when hitting into the wind or in between clubs I can not take the club I am comfortable with at that distance and put a little extra into it to get it to the green. If you just barely mishit it you are going to pay. I have played 12 full rounds with these clubs in the last month so testing has been done.

As others on here I may just look to go with the MC 3-7 and keel the MB 8-pw. I want to make sure that people do no think I am bashing these clubs, they are just not the clubs for me and I regret not hitting any other irons.
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Firstly, check out the for sale forum, a guy is selling his MC set for $600. Secondly, I don't see this as a bash at all either. For me personally, I started with the MC and hit those, not even considering the MB's since they were a blade and then when I hit them I fell in love with them. I think you are right and it is your swing (most of the time it is). However, if you don't have confidence in your irons you won't play well, going to the MC you will stay in the same TM line you are in now and should see more forgiveness on those off hits.

I personally am still on the honeymoon and my swing is getting better everyday! I actually shot my career round at my home course or 74 with these babies.

Definately keep your irons. It will be good for a mix and match set, at same time you'll get better and maybe return to them.
 
Slider said:
Firstly, check out the for sale forum, a guy is selling his MC set for $600.
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Thanks for the heads up on this! I am completing this sale tonight!!
 
Long&straight, sorry to hear your no longer happy with your MB's. Take Slider's advice and keep them. You may want to come back to them as your swing gets better. I'm a mid handicapper and I am still loving these irons. Yes I have my occasional blade and mishit that shocks the heck out of my hands, but I knew going into it that I had to focus and that my game would take a bit of a hit. What's surprising is that another part of my game stepped up and I'm still right around where I was before using these. Everyday I seem to like these a lot more. It definitely helps if you have confidence in your clubs. I will never be on the tour, so these are doing what I wanted them to do. Take away my fade and stop rolling all the way thru greens on approach shots.
 
long&straight said:
Sad to say that the honeymoon is over and I may already be looking for a divorce. I have to start out with saying it may not be the club and just my swing. I purchased these clubs from a TaylorMade rep and he just looked at my swing with no other analysis and told me I could hit these irons. I did not hit any other irons, again my fault.

My issue with the club is that when hitting into the wind or in between clubs I can not take the club I am comfortable with at that distance and put a little extra into it to get it to the green. If you just barely mishit it you are going to pay. I have played 12 full rounds with these clubs in the last month so testing has been done.

As others on here I may just look to go with the MC 3-7 and keel the MB 8-pw. I want to make sure that people do no think I am bashing these clubs, they are just not the clubs for me and I regret not hitting any other irons.
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That maybe the smartest thing you can do. There is plenty of workability with the MCs. You might even look at the CBs in a 3&4 and move into the MCs with the 5, 6, 7 and then the MBs for 8,9,PW.
 
So I took the new irons out to the range on Friday and played 18 at my local course on Saturday. It took me a bit to get used to them. They are standard length which was a change because I normally play my irons about 3/4" short. The clubs work about as good as the swing you put on them. I changed from a set of burner 2.0s so the change in lofts was about 1 club short.

That being said, I shot my best round ever (85) which included three doubles and a 5 over on the second hole. Had my first eagle ever as well which definitely helped out my score. I had at least 9 shots at birdie too.

One thing I noticed about these irons is how consistent the distances are. I could actually count on the club going the same length with each swing. That was a major problem I had with the burner2.0s. One shot would go 150 and the next would go 165 with what felt like the same swing/contact. I was consistently dropping the 6i about 155. I had my share of mishits with these as well though. These irons dont punish you distance wise on off center hits as much as I thought they were going to. Maybe about 10 yard at the very most. They had a lower ball flight but still went straight. The smaller head was a plus for me. I think having a smaller club head on irons is a benefit. The bigger the face, the more area to miss. The size of the burners were so big that I had a tendency to overswing. The smaller face of the MC/MBs definitely made me swing within myself and focus on good contact. I used to miss everything right. Not a slice but more of a block. These irons actually helped me straighten out my shot. I actually have a small draw on my irons now with the same swing as I had before.

I think I made a mistake going with the DG XP shafts however. The ballflight was really high. I am normally a low ball hitter but these things just launch. I think the lighter shaft weight (105g vs 127g stock DG) may have led to a higher swing weight as well. The heads felt much heavier than the ones I tried out in the store. Not bad, just different. I am looking around right now for a lower launching shaft. I was interested in the C-tapers but they may be a little too low for me. If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them.

All in all, these clubs are definitely working for me. It didnt hurt that every other club was working this weekend as well. I need more time to dial in the distances and get used to the new length but they were really good for the first time out. Its also a bonus that these clubs just look sweet
 
Glad to hear you are liking the new sticks. I sort of struggled all weekend with everything but felt like I was hitting my irons the best of all my clubs. Not that I hit any well. The first round we played was good for me, but that was it. I hacked the rest of the way.
 
bullfrog41775 said:
Glad to hear you are liking the new sticks. I sort of struggled all weekend with everything but felt like I was hitting my irons the best of all my clubs. Not that I hit any well. The first round we played was good for me, but that was it. I hacked the rest of the way.
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It was just the pressure of the competition getting to you.

I seem to recall you making solid contact with an iron out of the sand on 18 at Yankee!
 
LOL!!! Solid blade that it is. If I would have only made the putt! It was the tee box that got me most of the time yesterday. Then I couldn't recover. Man it was brutal. Ask Gus, he witnessed my pain... LOL
 
Marengo said:
So I took the new irons out to the range on Friday and played 18 at my local course on Saturday. It took me a bit to get used to them. They are standard length which was a change because I normally play my irons about 3/4" short. The clubs work about as good as the swing you put on them. I changed from a set of burner 2.0s so the change in lofts was about 1 club short.

That being said, I shot my best round ever (85) which included three doubles and a 5 over on the second hole. Had my first eagle ever as well which definitely helped out my score. I had at least 9 shots at birdie too.

One thing I noticed about these irons is how consistent the distances are. I could actually count on the club going the same length with each swing. That was a major problem I had with the burner2.0s. One shot would go 150 and the next would go 165 with what felt like the same swing/contact. I was consistently dropping the 6i about 155. I had my share of mishits with these as well though. These irons dont punish you distance wise on off center hits as much as I thought they were going to. Maybe about 10 yard at the very most. They had a lower ball flight but still went straight. The smaller head was a plus for me. I think having a smaller club head on irons is a benefit. The bigger the face, the more area to miss. The size of the burners were so big that I had a tendency to overswing. The smaller face of the MC/MBs definitely made me swing within myself and focus on good contact. I used to miss everything right. Not a slice but more of a block. These irons actually helped me straighten out my shot. I actually have a small draw on my irons now with the same swing as I had before.

I think I made a mistake going with the DG XP shafts however. The ballflight was really high. I am normally a low ball hitter but these things just launch. I think the lighter shaft weight (105g vs 127g stock DG) may have led to a higher swing weight as well. The heads felt much heavier than the ones I tried out in the store. Not bad, just different. I am looking around right now for a lower launching shaft. I was interested in the C-tapers but they may be a little too low for me. If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them.

All in all, these clubs are definitely working for me. It didnt hurt that every other club was working this weekend as well. I need more time to dial in the distances and get used to the new length but they were really good for the first time out. Its also a bonus that these clubs just look sweet
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Thank you for your feedback Marengo keep it coming!
 
Great write up Marengo!

I'm still loving my irons, and need to do a better job of scrubbing them more often! Clean clubs inspire confidence!
 
Is it just me or is everyone else super paranoid about getting nicks/dings/scratches in their irons? I got a tiny (real tiny) mark on the toe end of the face of one of my irons and wanted to cry. Must have been a small rock or sand or something on the ball. I actually put in an extra large towel just to wrap around the heads so I can minimize bag chatter. Must have OCD or something.
 
Marengo said:
Is it just me or is everyone else super paranoid about getting nicks/dings/scratches in their irons? I got a tiny (real tiny) mark on the toe end of the face of one of my irons and wanted to cry. Must have been a small rock or sand or something on the ball. I actually put in an extra large towel just to wrap around the heads so I can minimize bag chatter. Must have OCD or something.
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I do as well but I can tell you the finish holds up extremely well on these. I am still taking these to the range and on course and they don't look a bit worse for the wear. I use headcovers to keep from dinging the soft metal but the faces and grooves still look as good as new.
 
Marengo said:
Is it just me or is everyone else super paranoid about getting nicks/dings/scratches in their irons? I got a tiny (real tiny) mark on the toe end of the face of one of my irons and wanted to cry. Must have been a small rock or sand or something on the ball. I actually put in an extra large towel just to wrap around the heads so I can minimize bag chatter. Must have OCD or something.
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No, it's not just you. The metal of these are softer and I agree it just seems like they are going to nick up and get all dinged but really they do hold up pretty well unless you really nail them on something. Maybe some iron covers would help, but jeez, who wants to hide such a pretty iron?
 
I've been slightly paranoid about dings, but things are going to happen over time. Clubs are made to hit things, and you will hit things you don't want to hit sometimes.

Little update. These irons have been just fantastic for me. I wish I was swinging better, but I have 100% confidence with these, the transition from a split cavity to these was easy for me and after hitting a ton of balls with them and having them over a month, I have still yet to get a stinger from them. They feel like a cavity back to me!

Now if I can just get the slight dip out of my swing I could get back on plane:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbvmWFajZZM
 
If anyone is interested in these clubs I have a set for sale in the sale forum.
 
Took these out again tonight to the range and they feel great. I love the way you can control the trajectory with so much ease with these clubs. Still the best balanced club I have ever swung.
 
JRod said:
Took these out again tonight to the range and they feel great. I love the way you can control the trajectory with so much ease with these clubs. Still the best balanced club I have ever swung.
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sounds great, sell them to me!
 
JRod said:
No can do, I love these things too much to part with them, plus I was honored enough by being chosen to test them, not sell them!
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oh, didnt know you were a tester, havent read through it all from the beginning...disregard then
 
mikedean441 said:
oh, didnt know you were a tester, havent read through it all from the beginning...disregard then
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No problem, I am glad you are interested in these irons, they are amazing for sure. As I said before, I have never swung a better balanced club.
 
Man i'm still in love with these babies. I hardly ever blade them anymore. Nothing like the feel of hitting the sweet spot!!
 
I cant wait till Monday. Thats when my new sticks come in. I am coming from the CB's. I just hit these better for some reason. I love the softness, the ringers will allow me to focus a tad more. Forgiveness is a great thing. However, minimal to no offset, thing top and sole. they just set up better for me. Got a tee time booked for Monday, expecting a tough first round. Tuesday will be better.
 
I started taking interest in golf way back in 2000, took lesson to get the basics right. Took 2 years to break 100, accomplished this when I learned how to use the Driver. It took another 4 years before I broke 90 and I usually do this courtesy of good chipping and putting. I am a decent driver but I was never a good iron player, I would probably hit one good iron shot in a game and this is where my game got stuck. I have taken lessons, change equipment and custom fit my irons nothing helps. Obviously never even consider blades as the best I can do is a 5i cavity back on a regular graphite shaft.

I would not know the difference between good and bad iron swing as all of them feels the same to me. Then I played with a friend of mine who 5 years ago I have to wait for him for about 5 mins to reach my driving distance. This time he was the one waiting for me. He felt so sad to see the state of my iron play that after a third hole he never use his driver for me to catch up with his distance. Officially I hold an 18 handicap but now I can barely break 100.

In the quest to improve, I decided to try players irons, my head keep telling me “it’s not the clubs but your swing, you can’t even hit cavity back properly and you want to try blades? Have you gone mad?”, my heart is telling me “how can you improve if you your clubs are not telling you what wrong with your swing?”

Heart prevailed, got the taylormade tour prepared MB, TT S300. Wife complains she is also a golfer “what the @#$% is wrong with you, you think a small clubhead and a stiff shaft is going to save you some strokes? Did you even bother checking your swing speed before you got those stiff shafted clubs?”

Wife and I went to the range, first club PW. Top it!, I look at my wife and I said “warming up”. Second try PW, went straight…right of the target. Told wife “the club just told me I was standing too far from the ball, see the mark on the clubhead it’s on the toe”. Wife said “that’s a pitching wedge and you can’t even hit it”.

Adjusted and stand closer to the ball by about half an inch, took my swing and heard a very soft “tuck”. What did the club told you this time asked the wife, I said “Nothing, what ball I was using? Why it felt so soft like I did not hit anything?” wife reply “range ball dear”. I ask where did the ball go and how far?, wife has no reaction. Swing again, same soft feeling same sound. This time I saw where the ball went, straight to the target line 120 yards. Lucky shot wife replied, now try a 4 iron wife insisted, “Dear one step at a time”. No get that 4 iron and hit it. Pressure as the last time I hit 4 iron correctly was...can’t remember.

So 4 iron of we go, fade ball flight and landed on the green marked as 170 yards, 3 foot short from the flag. Wife said “just a lucky shot, if those things really help to swing better, hit another shot…but draw ball flight same target”. Dear your pushing it I replied. Out of curiosity I tried anyway set up for a draw..this time I did manage to draw the ball but overshoot the target green. Wife stands up and said “you missed the green, Im going to get something to eat”

Wife comes back after her snack and ask “Do they have those on lady flex?” …..PRICELESS ;)
 
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