TaylorMade RocketBladez - Review Thread

On the negative side was the lack of distance control. I was hoping the marketing was not a lie, but it seems to be. I will go back again later for another session. Just to give a sense of the lack of control, I was hitting the 6 iron anywhere between 222 to 186 yard with a club head speed between 93 and 88 mph.

Wow. I have seen a few big ones here and there, but nothing like that. What were you hitting off of? Grass or mats?
 
Wow. I have seen a few big ones here and there, but nothing like that. What were you hitting off of? Grass or mats?

And I'm curious, was it a launch monitor or was it one of those store simulators? Because 93 mph with a legal ball and club should not be able to travel that far (well, unless you're getting 30+ yards of roll).
 
It was all mat. Topically I would rather do grass as it is easier to get "under" the ball on the grass.
But since I wanted to test some thin shot as well, the mat was a good option.
 
There are set to local condition, Colorado the mile high city... :bashful:
Trust me distance like this are not uncommon at all.
 
And I'm curious, was it a launch monitor or was it one of those store simulators? Because 93 mph with a legal ball and club should not be able to travel that far (well, unless you're getting 30+ yards of roll).

That is kind of interesting from that aspect.

It was all mat. Topically I would rather do grass as it is easier to get "under" the ball on the grass.
But since I wanted to test some thin shot as well, the mat was a good option.

Question for you Frederic, could the distance differential be partly because of the mats and not catching the ball flush and maybe a groove or two thin? Genuinely curious here, because a 40 yard differential between 6 iron shots is rather substantial.
 
That is kind of interesting from that aspect.



Question for you Frederic, could the distance differential be partly because of the mats and not catching the ball flush and maybe a groove or two thin? Genuinely curious here, because a 40 yard differential between 6 iron shots is rather substantial.

Yes it could. Which is why I really need to try this again. It is bugging me.
Also the difference was due in part to the type of shots. When I was hitting draws I had longer roll and even slightly longer carry. Normally I try to avoid draw shots on shorter club like a 6 iron, and rather go for straight or slight fade to control it better. But since this was to test a club, I wanted to try different style of shots. I was even trying to miss it thin just to see the result.
 
So, I had to run to the ATM and get some cash for parking tonight when I take my wife out the the Broadway show and I though, why not sneak out to the little range here in town? I now remember why I don't go there often at all even though its a mile and half from my house....jankety. Anyways though, I hit a couple Heinz57 buckets of balls with the RocketBladez.

REFERENCE LINKS:
Spoiler

  • Opening Pictures: CLICK HERE
  • Initial Thoughts: CLICK HERE


Initial Thoughts on Looks:


Initial thoughts at address of the ball are mixed for me. First, the satin look at address is a good one and the offset really didn't phase me 4-AW, sure there is a little more than the i20's but its really not bad at all compared to most GI sets IMO. One thing did leave me a bit perplexed at the looks at address though, the topline. Now, it is NOT that the topline is "chunky" IMO, in hand its REALLY close to the same width as my i20's (but not rounded like the i20's), at the ball though it looks bigger to my eye and I really think it has to do with how the texture on the face that runs over the groove section runs up to the topline but only covers about 3/4 of it. This lets it play a bit of a trick on my eye IMO. I took some pic's to try and show what I mean (I could just be crazy though):

DSC_0507.jpg


DSC_0509.jpg


DSC_0512.jpg


DSC_0516.jpg



Initial Thoughts on Range:

So, I made sure to work my way all the way through the set. This range's markers are off by about 20 yards according tot he last time I was there and GPS'd them off so I don't really have much I can say about distance yet. Getting to another ranged and more importantly ON COURSE will dictate that much more to me so that I can accurately speak on it. I'm going to break these thoughts into 4-7 (w/ slot), 8-PW (no slot), and AW (ATV sole).

4-7 (w/ slot):

Obviously, these are what everyone is curious about. I actually started with the 7i and worked my way to the 4i before ever hitting the non slotted clubs in the set, turns out this is what I'm most curious about as well. It sucks not having distance to gauge things off of so I focused more on flight and sound(feel).

I was impressed that it wasn't just the 7i, 6i, and 5i that got up in the air, I had NO issues getting the 4i up off the deck and the tee....this is exciting to me as I'm a sucker for a good 4i, but I digress. Now, obviously the KBS Tour's will play a role in flight (my gosh I forgot how good these feel) so I intentionally tried to flight the ball higher and lower on this windy day to see if the heads would let me. There was zero issues for me adjusting my flight, none at all even with the new slot technology. I was actually a bit surprised here as I thought this might be something these struggle at.

As for sound (sound IS feel kids), it was windy out and I was hitting some ancient rocks so that messed with me a bit but there is for sure a different sound for me with the slotted clubs. Nothing nerve shattering, but different, I would simply call it more of a solid and deeper click off of the face. Now this sound makes for some interesting "feel" feedback to my hands and brain to process but it wasn't anything that freaked me out or made me cringe, its just different. Coming into this I sort of expected that as putting a slot into a long iron would have to play some role with sound much like it does a sound slot in putters. This will be interesting to keep an eye/ear on when I actually get out onto the course.

8-PW (no slot):

No beating around the bush here, for these irons with no slot I expected Burner 2.0's and from hitting them without seeing distances I still think of them that way so it'll be curious to see if those "jumpers" are gone out of these clubs compared to the 2.0's I used to adore. Again, on a crappy range with no distances and some heavy wind I decided to focus on if the clubs would "flight" for me and what the sound (feel) was.

For flight, I was ripping some towering shots with all of these, not ballooning, just towering. I would have LOVED to have seen what they would've done landing on a green because I feel like they would have been pretty dart like for me. After regular swings I adjusted to try and bring the flight down into the wind and much like the 2.0's were for me it wasn't an issue, just as I figured I would see.

For sound (feel), nothing big to report, it sounds like hitting an iron to me so the feedback was much the same. The ball got off the face and got up quickly off the sound of impact. I will say that I can denote the audible difference between the slotted irons (4-7) and these non-slotted ones (8-PW), it will be curious to see though as time goes on if my head was making any of this up. Again, to me it wasn't a sound difference worthy of being a turn-off, it was just there and a different tone from each, neither left me with the though of bad feedback today FWIW.

AW (ATV sole):

Not much to way here since I was on a ratty range and I'm more interested to see this one around the green because I'm in the camp that was not impressed at all with the ATV sole as compared to some of the other dual-soles out on the market. I did get really aggressive at swinging down with this one in the 10 balls I used it on to see the turf interaction and had no problem getting the ball to get up. I did have a couple I got a little bladey on but I'm not putting any stock in that until I get on an actual course or range with nicer grass than today.


All in all, it was nice to get out and just HIT them if nothing else after reading all of the feedback form JB, Jake, Hawkster, and Kmac. I didn't expect any revelations today with where I was going and what the weather was like, tomorrow should tell me much more when I get on the course with them though. In all, I like the look, I'm a bit stymied by the topline playing tricks on me, and the sound that the slotted irons put off isn't an actual put-off for me so far. I'm ready to see some distances and numbers though...and that will come very soon.
 
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Nice work, Jman. We'll chat more here about your first time out and my day today in a bit!
 
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The i20s look HUGE in this picture compared to the RBladez. Is that just the angle?
 
Good initial info Jman. Looking forward to following along.
 
DSC_0516.jpg


The i20s look HUGE in this picture compared to the RBladez. Is that just the angle?

Its hard to hold two irons in one hand like that, my goal was only for the toplines to show in comparison. As far as actual iron size, no, I find them very-very close in size. Surprisingly so in all honesty.
 
Its hard to hold two irons in one hand like that, my goal was only for the toplines to show in comparison. As far as actual iron size, no, I find them very-very close in size. Surprisingly so in all honesty.
Got it. I figured it had a lot to do with the picture than actual size.
 
Got it. I figured it had a lot to do with the picture than actual size.

Yep, the sole of the RocketBladez 8i is digging into my palm a bit, I see what you see, it makes the i20 sole look HUGE.
 
I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to talk about when it came to my Rocketbladez experience today and I think I have it nailed down.

For as well as I hit the ball off the tee, I didn't bring much of an iron game. In all honesty, I sort of hit my irons like junk today. Lots off the toe and some thins. There were a few good shots out there, but I wasn't that impressed with myself overall.

With that said, the forgiveness was what really made it for me today. The three greens I hit with the irons (two others were with 588 wedges) were misses on the toe. All of them were fairly high, made it to the green, and had the shot shape I expected. On top of that, I had 7 other approach shots that were just off the green and in spots that I could make a reasonable run at an up and down. Would have loved to capitalize on some of my drives, but that's golf I guess. Bottom line is that I still put up a personal best today and I have to figure that the performance I was lucky enough to squeeze out of the RocketBladez had something to do with that.

It was cold today. Right around 37° when I teed off. I feel like I saw some distance loss on every full swing club, but I was still grabbing a club less than I normally would have in most situations.

Last thought I'll put down is this - last time I played this course I put up a score one stroke higher. Had my old irons in the bag that day and they are definitely less forgiving across the face. I almost felt like I played better that day if I'm being honest. Not sure what that really means, but it's something that has been on my mind this afternoon.

That's it. Short and sweet today. Irons weren't really the story of my round.
 
That is really interesting Hawk. I think if I am reading this right, the forgiveness not only helped keep you in play, but also drop strokes almost directly.
 
That is really interesting Hawk. I think if I am reading this right, the forgiveness not only helped keep you in play, but also drop strokes almost directly.

Basically, I missed a lot of shots, but was never really far off target. Looking back, a few of the greens I missed short were pins near the front of the green and two of the greens I hit with mis-hits were center and back pins respectively. Might be a sign that I should shoot for the middle a little more and I could probably pick up a couple more GIR's a round.
 
So, I had to run to the ATM and get some cash for parking tonight when I take my wife out the the Broadway show and I though, why not sneak out to the little range here in town? I now remember why I don't go there often at all even though its a mile and half from my house....jankety. Anyways though, I hit a couple Heinz57 buckets of balls with the RocketBladez.

REFERENCE LINKS:
Spoiler

  • Opening Pictures: CLICK HERE
  • Initial Thoughts: CLICK HERE


Initial Thoughts on Looks:


Initial thoughts at address of the ball are mixed for me. First, the satin look at address is a good one and the offset really didn't phase me 4-AW, sure there is a little more than the i20's but its really not bad at all compared to most GI sets IMO. One thing did leave me a bit perplexed at the looks at address though, the topline. Now, it is NOT that the topline is "chunky" IMO, in hand its REALLY close to the same width as my i20's (but not rounded like the i20's), at the ball though it looks bigger to my eye and I really think it has to do with how the texture on the face that runs over the groove section runs up to the topline but only covers about 3/4 of it. This lets it play a bit of a trick on my eye IMO. I took some pic's to try and show what I mean (I could just be crazy though):

DSC_0507.jpg


DSC_0509.jpg


DSC_0512.jpg


DSC_0516.jpg



Initial Thoughts on Range:

So, I made sure to work my way all the way through the set. This range's markers are off by about 20 yards according tot he last time I was there and GPS'd them off so I don't really have much I can say about distance yet. Getting to another ranged and more importantly ON COURSE will dictate that much more to me so that I can accurately speak on it. I'm going to break these thoughts into 4-7 (w/ slot), 8-PW (no slot), and AW (ATV sole).

4-7 (w/ slot):

Obviously, these are what everyone is curious about. I actually started with the 7i and worked my way to the 4i before ever hitting the non slotted clubs in the set, turns out this is what I'm most curious about as well. It sucks not having distance to gauge things off of so I focused more on flight and sound(feel).

I was impressed that it wasn't just the 7i, 6i, and 5i that got up in the air, I had NO issues getting the 4i up off the deck and the tee....this is exciting to me as I'm a sucker for a good 4i, but I digress. Now, obviously the KBS Tour's will play a role in flight (my gosh I forgot how good these feel) so I intentionally tried to flight the ball higher and lower on this windy day to see if the heads would let me. There was zero issues for me adjusting my flight, none at all even with the new slot technology. I was actually a bit surprised here as I thought this might be something these struggle at.

As for sound (sound IS feel kids), it was windy out and I was hitting some ancient rocks so that messed with me a bit but there is for sure a different sound for me with the slotted clubs. Nothing nerve shattering, but different, I would simply call it more of a solid and deeper click off of the face. Now this sound makes for some interesting "feel" feedback to my hands and brain to process but it wasn't anything that freaked me out or made me cringe, its just different. Coming into this I sort of expected that as putting a slot into a long iron would have to play some role with sound much like it does a sound slot in putters. This will be interesting to keep an eye/ear on when I actually get out onto the course.

8-PW (no slot):

No beating around the bush here, for these irons with no slot I expected Burner 2.0's and from hitting them without seeing distances I still think of them that way so it'll be curious to see if those "jumpers" are gone out of these clubs compared to the 2.0's I used to adore. Again, on a crappy range with no distances and some heavy wind I decided to focus on if the clubs would "flight" for me and what the sound (feel) was.

For flight, I was ripping some towering shots with all of these, not ballooning, just towering. I would have LOVED to have seen what they would've done landing on a green because I feel like they would have been pretty dart like for me. After regular swings I adjusted to try and bring the flight down into the wind and much like the 2.0's were for me it wasn't an issue, just as I figured I would see.

For sound (feel), nothing big to report, it sounds like hitting an iron to me so the feedback was much the same. The ball got off the face and got up quickly off the sound of impact. I will say that I can denote the audible difference between the slotted irons (4-7) and these non-slotted ones (8-PW), it will be curious to see though as time goes on if my head was making any of this up. Again, to me it wasn't a sound difference worthy of being a turn-off, it was just there and a different tone from each, neither left me with the though of bad feedback today FWIW.

AW (ATV sole):

Not much to way here since I was on a ratty range and I'm more interested to see this one around the green because I'm in the camp that was not impressed at all with the ATV sole as compared to some of the other dual-soles out on the market. I did get really aggressive at swinging down with this one in the 10 balls I used it on to see the turf interaction and had no problem getting the ball to get up. I did have a couple I got a little bladey on but I'm not putting any stock in that until I get on an actual course or range with nicer grass than today.


All in all, it was nice to get out and just HIT them if nothing else after reading all of the feedback form JB, Jake, Hawkster, and Kmac. I didn't expect any revelations today with where I was going and what the weather was like, tomorrow should tell me much more when I get on the course with them though. In all, I like the look, I'm a bit stymied by the topline playing tricks on me, and the sound that the slotted irons put off isn't an actual put-off for me so far. I'm ready to see some distances and numbers though...and that will come very soon.

First off, the high towering shots sounds nice! I like high balls.

I think I"m with you that the slot irons have a different sound or something than the other irons. Actually, the only ones I can even remember noticing are the slot irons now that I look back.

As for the wedge, I thought it was ok, but I'm not sure I'm seeing a benefit for replacing my 588. Maybe I'd appreciate what appears to be a little cavity action if I took more full wedge shots, but that's not my style at all. At best, I could see it as a specialty wedge from the rough, but I'm not sure if that's really necessary at this point. I didn't put it in the bag today after yesterday's practice session and I'm glad I didn't.
 
Nice review Jman . It is some what disappointing to hear the feel or sound is not similar to forged like TM claims . Of course I will reserve judgement till I hit them.
gb
 
Great round with these today. Started really getting in a groove with the distances today.....then IT happened and it wasn't good. More on that later.

Temps were around 60 degrees with a 10-15 mph wind, basically a gorgeous late fall day here in South Dakota. I was really excited about the round today as it was my first back to back days playing the RocketBladez and I feel like I'm really starting to get the feel of these and settle into a nice groove. My ball striking wasn't great early on, in fact it was rather poor but the RBladez bailed me out time and time again. I can't say that I have a certain most common miss but if I did it would be that I miss them high on the face or catch them a little fat. Forgiveness is paramount with these irons and more often than not I find myself on or near the green even after a slight miss. I love that!

Getting into the back 9 my ball striking started to get better, I had several shots in a row where I hit the ball right where I was aimed and the distance control really started to show. Again all day I was hitting these a full club longer than the J40 CB's I had prior to this, I would say that is expected because of the traditional lofts of the CB's compared to the stronger lofts of the RBladez.

So let me explain the IT I was referring to earlier. The one thing I've always struggled with when using distance irons is that every so often you'll just groove one right on the button and BOOM you get about 10 or 15 yards more distance than you've ever seen out of that club. Well today on the 15th hole after just going birdie/birdie on the previous 2 holes I smoked probably my best drive of the day, I'm dead center of the fairway 115 to the middle of the green. There's a wind that's from the right and slightly hurting so I pull a PW. The second I hit it I knew it was money. It was so pure and solid I just knew it was perfect. I'm watching this thing, a high majestic ball that was just all over the stick. I'm thinking to myself "go in baby" and it just keeps going and going and going. Total I hit that PW close to 140 yards. I stood there just in shock as now I had an almost impossible chip down hill back toward the hole on this difficult green. It lead to a bogey. I don't know where that shot came from, I mean it was perfection at the moment of contact. It leaves me a little worried going forward as I know those sorts of shots only pop up at the worst possible time. I'm hoping that the more I can get dialed in with the swing and the distances this will not be an issue. So far it's only happened once our of 3 rounds of 18 so it's not like we're talking about something that happens a lot...but still.

Otherwise I'm loving the RBladez so far. I again had great success with the bump and run shots with the 8,9 and PW. The AW shined as well, on the par 5 13th hole I had about a 30 yard pitch shot. I used the AW and it checked up perfectly and wound up 1 inch from the hole. Almost a hole out eagle! I'm definitely getting more and in tune with all of the irons and I really like it so far.
 
Great round with these today. Started really getting in a groove with the distances today.....then IT happened and it wasn't good. More on that later.

Temps were around 60 degrees with a 10-15 mph wind, basically a gorgeous late fall day here in South Dakota. I was really excited about the round today as it was my first back to back days playing the RocketBladez and I feel like I'm really starting to get the feel of these and settle into a nice groove. My ball striking wasn't great early on, in fact it was rather poor but the RBladez bailed me out time and time again. I can't say that I have a certain most common miss but if I did it would be that I miss them high on the face or catch them a little fat. Forgiveness is paramount with these irons and more often than not I find myself on or near the green even after a slight miss. I love that!

Getting into the back 9 my ball striking started to get better, I had several shots in a row where I hit the ball right where I was aimed and the distance control really started to show. Again all day I was hitting these a full club longer than the J40 CB's I had prior to this, I would say that is expected because of the traditional lofts of the CB's compared to the stronger lofts of the RBladez.

So let me explain the IT I was referring to earlier. The one thing I've always struggled with when using distance irons is that every so often you'll just groove one right on the button and BOOM you get about 10 or 15 yards more distance than you've ever seen out of that club. Well today on the 15th hole after just going birdie/birdie on the previous 2 holes I smoked probably my best drive of the day, I'm dead center of the fairway 115 to the middle of the green. There's a wind that's from the right and slightly hurting so I pull a PW. The second I hit it I knew it was money. It was so pure and solid I just knew it was perfect. I'm watching this thing, a high majestic ball that was just all over the stick. I'm thinking to myself "go in baby" and it just keeps going and going and going. Total I hit that PW close to 140 yards. I stood there just in shock as now I had an almost impossible chip down hill back toward the hole on this difficult green. It lead to a bogey. I don't know where that shot came from, I mean it was perfection at the moment of contact. It leaves me a little worried going forward as I know those sorts of shots only pop up at the worst possible time. I'm hoping that the more I can get dialed in with the swing and the distances this will not be an issue. So far it's only happened once our of 3 rounds of 18 so it's not like we're talking about something that happens a lot...but still.

Otherwise I'm loving the RBladez so far. I again had great success with the bump and run shots with the 8,9 and PW. The AW shined as well, on the par 5 13th hole I had about a 30 yard pitch shot. I used the AW and it checked up perfectly and wound up 1 inch from the hole. Almost a hole out eagle! I'm definitely getting more and in tune with all of the irons and I really like it so far.

Sounds like another solid day, Jake! Man, I have to think that the very first swing I took on-course with these was one of the nukes. It went far far far. Missing long is usually bad news on a lot of the older courses I play with back to front greens.
 
Quite an interesting set of reviews here. I already own more irons than I can hit but......

I wasn't a fan of the Burner 2.0's at all, I played 15 rounds at most with them and sold them because they flat out didn't work for me. I play with two different sets now depending on how my game is going and consistently I always have the same miss, it's going to be high towards the toe if I'm going to be off. These reviews are making me want to try these out sometime soon. 6-gw I have no problem with really in any iron (well, a little consistency issue with a 6i but not enough to stress) but I typically won't even pull my 4-5 out in any set I've owned. I'll either replace them with hybrids or hit a 7 and a chip because I'd rather have a good shot at saving a bogey than a fat shot moving the ball 30 yards and needing a 150 yard approach shot that will probably still require a chip.

Definitely going to look into these somewhere I can hit them.
 
Stay tuned then, slodsm. I haven't carried a 5 iron for almost 6 months up to this testing. I'm still not sure if I'll end up bagging the RBladez 5 iron long term, so there should be plenty of info regarding that over time.
 
Well I only hit the rocketbladz a few times today but they are a great looking set. With the stock shafts, they feel light compared to other irons. One thing I was blown away on was the sound on quality shots, it's perfect. These were producing a nice high ball flight and I am hoping I can get a chance to game these down the road
 
26.5 degree loft on a SIX iron?! That's 3.5 degrees stronger than my J40 DPCs... Wow. Plus a little more than a half inch longer. Again, wow. To keep saying "they're longer" TM just jacks with the lofts. So, why not match the lofts across makers, no matter if 6 iron vs 3 iron, cuz to prove longer, you have to go apples to apples... This is why I've lost all interest in TM. I would LOVE to see some super slo-mo video showing ow the minimal weight of the ball can compress the cavity, if you go to the TM site they show the cross section. The ball in the pic isn't even aligned to the "slot". I gotta see it to believe it.
 
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