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TaylorMade SpeedBlade Irons Review Thread

SuperStroke
Thanks tequila, pic is below now. I read all of the posts on the SpeedBladez thread. You guys gave great feedback on those irons. I was going to get them, but had to wait for the money. I decided to get these after finally getting the cash and reading the posts on this thread.
 
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Congrats on the purchase!
 
 
Yea, the 60 degree wedge is not available in lh on the SpeedBlades. I think I'm going to like the ATV though. I hit it good out back in the yard today
 
Mine arrived yesterday as well!
4i-AW, Nippon 950GH R flex shafts, -2 Lie, Std loft, Std length., stock grip.

Background: Played TM MB 3i-PW w/KBS Tour S this year. Before that R11, Graphite R.
Moved out of the R11s, as my swing had progressed to where I was 'overpowering the shafts' hitting WAY too high and spinny. The ultra-light weight was causing tempo issues. Tried the RocketBladez and RocketBladez Tour, both great clubs, but just could not get comfortable enough to go with them. Moved to the MBs, really no loss or gain in my playing. However. Developed tenosynivitis in my hands, and needed to either move to graphite, softer steel, or give up the game. Option 3 was not an option, and with my experience with light graphite, i was hoping #2 was the answer.

First demoed these a month or so ago, and loved them. Even with the stock stiff shafts, my hands were not useless after the range session. The looks fit my eye better than the RocketBladez did as well. They reminded me a lot of my R11s (others who have played the burners said they reminded them of burners as well). The feel was amazingly soft. On pured shots, there really wasn't much difference between the MBs, The R11s or these... it was the shots that were slightly less than perfect that I noticed the change... no more sting!!! So fast forward a few weeks, and I decide to get fitted. I knew what the stock shafts were like, but wanted to try the Nippons first. I also decided to go R flex, so I could work on a slightly slower, smoother swing, and let the club do the work. The feel was even better, and the flight, perfect. I lost almost no height with these (i'm a naturally hight ball hitter anyways), but the ball stopped when it landed! no ballooning. I remember one shot I hit with the 7i 165yds, landing on hard-packed ground (bald spot in the range), and I know the shot was hit thin... expected the ball to bounce and fly... it stopped! Also tried the graphite shaft, but the lighter weight brought back all of my tempo issues. Even the fitter liked my swing and flight better with the Nippon. I normally play -2 with my irons, so that is what I started the fitting with. Granted, these sit upright by a 1/2 degree from what I normally played, so my -2 was actually a -1.5 compared to other clubs. After watching the ball flight, I took the club to the fitter, and looked at the 'mat funk' build up on the bottom of the head-- all perfectly centered. I asked the fitter, "with my marks like this, are we going to do the lie board?" He said we could if I wanted, however with the perfectly straight ball flight, and the marks, he doubts the board would tell us anything different. Stock grips seemed pretty soft, and like they would hold up decent, so no need to upgrade there. So I ordered them. (Ok sorry for being long winded but I wanted to give the whole story)

Out of the box, the clubs looked perfect.(I've only ever had one small issue with a custom TaylorMade product-- I had a ferrule that wasn't glued perfectly, and after a few shots looked like it moved. The local Pro put a small drop of epoxy to hold, and it worked for as long as I kept the clubs. As far as I know, it's still holding today).

First Session Thoughts:
Started hitting the "AW". I found it 'annoying' and 'hokey' that everyone called it the 'Awesome Wedge' on here.... until I hit it. Yes, it is an awesome wedge! Full shots were every bit as long as my previous pw, but just felt GREAT. It just felt like with this wedge, all i had to do is THINK about the shot i wanted to make, swing, and the club made it.
Worked down through the rest of my clubs, and of course had the 'new iron yips' going on, so I did hit a few nasty slices, hooks, chunked shots and thin shots. HOWEVER, even at that, I was no worse than my 'off days' with other irons. I know I will need to get some time to get used to these. The biggest change will be the longer club length. I found overall a high trajectory, that landed SOFT no matter which iron i played, and didn't balloon.

Feel: Flushed shots, felt good. soft, like hitting marshmallows, buttery (still don't understand that description). But with that being said, there really is no difference in feel between the harshest clubs to the softest, ON A PERFECTLY FLUSHED SHOT (assuming decent golf balls)-- perfectly flushed shot is transferring all of the force of teh club head throught he center of gravity to the ball. The feel at this point is the feel of the BALL and not the CLUB. Where the feel differs is that thin shot, the shot toward the toe, etc. There the 'softer clubs' do feel better, in most cases. However, with a forged blade, where the shot would sting your hands like a tazer, or the toe shot that would rip the club out of your hand, with these, you still know you made the that miss, but wasn't as physically punishing. The sound is much nicer as well. more 'forged players club-like' than previous offerings. The sound was very reminiscent of Titleist AP2s.
Distance:
Wow. I know a lot say 'i don't want distance in my irons, I want consistency'... these irons made me realize...Why can't you have both?... you do with the SpeedBlade! When I played the MB Blades, to keep gapping where i liked it, I would have needed to carry 16 clubs. The longer clubs are MUCH longer, while the short clubs not so much so. Yes the gaps between irons is slightly bigger, but I can deal with that. I don't hit consistently enough to care that I have a 15yd gap instead of a 12yd gap at 175yds out. Let me touch on the lofts. I'm sure someone will butt in and say "they hit that far because of the jacked up lofts". Ok, so the lofts are stronger, we know that. we can read. But when you can hit a 5 iron that launches as high as a traditional 6 or 7 iron, and carries as far as a traditional 3 iron, and stops on a dime, who cares that its loft is similar to the traditional 4 iron! So even if you were to humor those people and call it a 4 iron, it still plays longer than a traditional 4 iron. Sorry, I had to rant, but I can't stand the negativity that comes out when talking about modern irons.

The good, the bad and the ugly... With anything, you have to take the bad with the good. The bad about them. It took me this many years in life to find a set of irons like these. Another bad thing, is I do see myself having to make some other changes to my bag. I do see myself either re-shafting and loft adjustments my SW and LW (TaylorMade XFT 56 and 60*), or spring for the SpeedBladez wedges when available. I also found that I had to take my 5hybrid out of the bag. I get the same flight out of my SpeedBlade 5i. I also see my need to change out my 4h with possibly a 2 or 3 h, as again, my 4i covers the same ground, and is more consistent! Now changing the hybrids may cause me to have to change up my fairway metal... My only concern is the finish, as I've always seen darker finished irons look ratty after a while... but only time will tell.

Conclusion. In case you haven't guessed already, I REALLY LOVE THESE IRONS!! I really don't have anything bad to say about them yet. but I am in the honeymoon phase. I do promise that in a few weeks, after I get a chance to use them more, and get some course time, i will post a follow up
 
Awesome review rebel, and others. These irons call me. One aspect that is important for me is looks. Yes I am vane. If something looks bad, I will always find an issue with it. TM hit it outta the park with these. That is on the outside package. I can maybe get over my lack of enthusiasm for offset in an iron(s). Although I can strike the ball quite well, I have been missing the forgiveness component (should have never offed the R11 irons, best TM made IMO). So far there are a few boxes being ticked here for my buying dollar. That being said, I lured myself into GT. I hit 6i for these and the bladez tours. I did notice a 'chunkier' looking iron, nothing too horrible to make me put it away. Important things here...
1.) Distance- The SB's were on average 13 yards longer total.
2.) I like blue better than yellow
3.) I was surprised at the stock shaft, I will give credit. As a shaft snob, it held up well. I may be able to get used to a 40g difference when I see that much more distance. Did not lose a lot of control. Still not as confident in being able to control the ball via shaft stoutness as well as my current shafts.
4.) Here is where I was skeptical, both sets were almost the same peak trajectory. Spin numbers were almost the same. Whats going on here... This shouldn't be happening as the Tours are supposed to be lower overall compared to a GI (which I find the tours to gravitate more towards).

In closing, I believe that the spedblades may be bag worthy here. On off days, I wouldn't mind an uber long and forgiving iron set. I just need to get over some skeptical issues... Offset, control, and flight into wind. When I hear HIGH, I kind of cringe, like a lot of people who have no affinity for GI irons. Yet, what the heck is wrong with increased carry thats consistent. This game is hard enough!
 
Great write up Rebel! You told us your background and a detailed review to date, well done. I look forward to hearing more as you play them.
 
Mark said:
Awesome review rebel, and others. These irons call me. One aspect that is important for me is looks. Yes I am vane. If something looks bad, I will always find an issue with it. TM hit it outta the park with these. That is on the outside package. I can maybe get over my lack of enthusiasm for offset in an iron(s). Although I can strike the ball quite well, I have been missing the forgiveness component (should have never offed the R11 irons, best TM made IMO). So far there are a few boxes being ticked here for my buying dollar. That being said, I lured myself into GT. I hit 6i for these and the bladez tours. I did notice a 'chunkier' looking iron, nothing too horrible to make me put it away. Important things here...
1.) Distance- The SB's were on average 13 yards longer total.
2.) I like blue better than yellow
3.) I was surprised at the stock shaft, I will give credit. As a shaft snob, it held up well. I may be able to get used to a 40g difference when I see that much more distance. Did not lose a lot of control. Still not as confident in being able to control the ball via shaft stoutness as well as my current shafts.
4.) Here is where I was skeptical, both sets were almost the same peak trajectory. Spin numbers were almost the same. Whats going on here... This shouldn't be happening as the Tours are supposed to be lower overall compared to a GI (which I find the tours to gravitate more towards).

In closing, I believe that the spedblades may be bag worthy here. On off days, I wouldn't mind an uber long and forgiving iron set. I just need to get over some skeptical issues... Offset, control, and flight into wind. When I hear HIGH, I kind of cringe, like a lot of people who have no affinity for GI irons. Yet, what the heck is wrong with increased carry thats consistent. This game is hard enough!
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I would recommend trying different shafts. IMHO, the weight, and flex profile of the shaft are crucial in your tempo.
As for the offset, I've played both offset irons (R11), and some with almost no offset. Yes, I too prefer no offset, but will say, the offset in these is doable. Looking at the specs, it appears that from the 6 or 7i down, these have less offset than the R11, the same in the mid irons, and only slightly more in the long irons. So if you could deal with the offset in the R11, you would do fine here

As for the launch characteristics from golf store monitors, I take those with a grain of salt. You really need to hit outdoors with decent balls to tell. I am normally a high hitter, so many game improvement clubs and softer shafts are not for me (balloon so high, I need to call the FAA to warn low flying aircraft). But I have learned to embrace the high flight and not try to stop it. These did launch high, but just went up and flew out. Very penetrating flight. But again, they may not be for you. Definitely try different shafts, though. From the sounds of it, the KBS CTaper Lite may be in order
 
jvmjr said:
Great write up Rebel! You told us your background and a detailed review to date, well done. I look forward to hearing more as you play them.
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Thank you. I didn't want to bore everyone, but since I'm newer here, I thought it would help to know what context my review was in-> what suits my eye, experience, what I'm used to hitting and so on.

Definitely like things over here on this site. Very friendly bunch, and very little negativity.
 
Thanks Rebel, I will try to get some out on course soon. If the stocks dont work, Ill just order the v2 or CTL's. If I read correctly, the dispersion with these is pretty dead straight on and solid consistent?
 
Philly Golf Guy said:
Second major thought I had after a few swings is they felt very similar to my current set. And that's a good thing. I was able to get in a nice groove with them and was getting the distance and consistency it took months to get with my current set. The other thing that struck me was that you could get very aggressive with your swing and the graphite could handle it.
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That is very interesting to me, I can't seem to get aggressive with my swing when I want that extra 5 yards out of the club. When I really go after them, I end up getting some pretty big hooks. Were you seeing the same thing with the steel shafts?
 
esg777 said:
I hit the Speed Blade today at Golfsmith. I also just bought a new set of Ping G-25's about 3 months ago, so I am not in the market for new clubs. If these clubs where beyond I would have bought them.

There has been a great amount of buzz around this club and was looking to see my results with the club.

One word could sum it up "Disappointed". My spin numbers where between 6000-7000 and launch angles where not great. I did see 5-10 additional yards but this set of irons are not for me. For one distance, is not my problem. I am not sure if I would need a shaft upgrade or something else.

I am sticking with my Ping G-25's. I know on this thread I am in the minority for not liking this iron set but I wanted to be truthful.
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Nothing wrong with being in the minority.. That's the beauty of THP and the benefit of so many different clubs on the market right now!! Question: What shafts are you gaming in your G25s? I am very surprised to hear about the added spin yet added distance as well.
 
Wongstongs said:
That is very interesting to me, I can't seem to get aggressive with my swing when I want that extra 5 yards out of the club. When I really go after them, I end up getting some pretty big hooks. Were you seeing the same thing with the steel shafts?
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Yeah, when I was aggressive and put a good swing with the steel shafts, I was getting great ball flight and a huge distance gain. But most of the time, I struggled with staying consistent with such an aggressive swing with the steel shafts, with my misses pretty much going every where. So I really toned it down and found that a nice tempo swing worked better for me. With the graphites, I was able to stay aggressive with much more consistency, but I was getting the same, maybe a tiny bit more, distance than what I get with my current set.

I'd say that the graphite shafts are a bit firmer than some of their previous offerings, definitely firmer than the graphites in the R11's. That's a big gold star on my checklist.
 
Philly Golf Guy said:
Yeah, when I was aggressive and put a good swing with the steel shafts, I was getting great ball flight and a huge distance gain. But most of the time, I struggled with staying consistent with such an aggressive swing with the steel shafts, with my misses pretty much going every where. So I really toned it down and found that a nice tempo swing worked better for me. With the graphites, I was able to stay aggressive with much more consistency, but I was getting the same, maybe a tiny bit more, distance than what I get with my current set.

I'd say that the graphite shafts are a bit firmer than some of their previous offerings, definitely firmer than the graphites in the R11's. That's a big gold star on my checklist.
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I agree the Velox are more stable than the Motores in the R11 irons. The only thing that kept me out of them was the 30g lighter weight than the Nippons
 
Great review Rebel. Glad you love your irons! Looks like you have a winner for you, good luck on improving you game and lowering your scores.

These irons are not exactly what I would look for, personally...but I bet they feel amazing, and I wouldn't mind hitting these to see.
 
Agent Jay said:
Great review Rebel. Glad you love your irons! Looks like you have a winner for you, good luck on improving you game and lowering your scores.

These irons are not exactly what I would look for, personally...but I bet they feel amazing, and I wouldn't mind hitting these to see.
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Thank you. These will help I'm sure. No matter how easy or how tough of irons you play, this game is still dang hard! Perfect iron shots only go so far in recovering from a sliced drive, or 4-putting half the holes.
Don't get me wrong, I will miss playing "players clubs", but instead of fighting the change, I'm going to embrace the change and take full advantage of what these have to offer. And who knows. I look at it this way, being able to "bubba hook" a 7i into a tucked in pin, but it's also just as fun to be on the green than in the water when I'm having a bad day.
 
I just about wore a hole in the toe side of the 7 iron last night. Blech. Felt rotten and produced a bunch of big old looping hooks. Came around towards the end. I do really enjoy hitting the scoring irons in this set.
 
Great review rebel. Thanks for being thorough with your thoughts. I especially love the part where you discussed the "jacked-up lofts". Spot on analysis. The iron number should do more with the launch of the ball than the degree of the club. Will there be a tour version of SB? I heard TM will introduced three new forged irons next year to update their previous forged line.
 
Kchauv said:
Great review rebel. Thanks for being thorough with your thoughts. I especially love the part where you discussed the "jacked-up lofts". Spot on analysis. The iron number should do more with the launch of the ball than the degree of the club. Will there be a tour version of SB? I heard TM will introduced three new forged irons next year to update their previous forged line.
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I would think a tour version of this would overlap with the market that the CB version of the forged irons would cover. But this is TaylorMade, one thing they are good at is coming up with something good, and selling tons of it!
 
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