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TaylorMade SpeedBlade Irons Review Thread

SuperStroke
Nice pics Stan thanks. Looking to give my new ones a good work out on Tuesday. For me it's the first time I've ever had clubs where I can almost effortlessly get them up in the air and to fly for ages.
really looking forward to the season now...
 
I want to try these outside of a hitting bay at the store and compare to my bio cell 6i and JPX set - does anyone have a spare club of any loft (stiff or reg flex steel shaft) that they are willing to part with? PM me if interested and what your ask price is. Thanks!
 
SB 6 iron is 15 yds longer than the R11 6 iron because it has the shaft lenght and loft of the 5 iron...

These clubs will be easier to hit.. Will get up in the air faster... But.. If you struggle with your current 4 iron.. You will struggle with the SB 5 iron..., the again, if your SB 6 iron is going 185 yds (5 iron distance), who needs a 4 iron? Which is really a 3 iron... What a mess..

Anyways, i love these clubs but don't get caught up on distance gains, focus on your gaps between clubs and forget about he number at the bottom...


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Today I gave the Speedblades a good range session and with range balls in 45* weather they are 15 yards longer than my R11 irons with more forgiveness. Everything about these irons are incredible. I'm playing my first round on Monday and the biggest challenge for me is trusting what I've seen at the range and taking a club or so less than what I'm accustomed. Can't wait to get them on the course and will have a write-up about them after my round.
 
StanTheCaddy said:
Today I gave the Speedblades a good range session and with range balls in 45* weather they are 15 yards longer than my R11 irons with more forgiveness. Everything about these irons are incredible. I'm playing my first round on Monday and the biggest challenge for me is trusting what I've seen at the range and taking a club or so less than what I'm accustomed. Can't wait to get them on the course and will have a write-up about them after my round.
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Same problem here man. Ive been sending quite a few balls over the greens haha. I gotta get use to trusting the distance
 
Evok said:
Same problem here man. Ive been sending quite a few balls over the greens haha. I gotta get use to trusting the distance
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Luckily I'm playing a course on Monday that only has 1 approach shot that requires you to carry water. So I'm going to go one club less and worst case scenario I'm in some bunkers or short of the green on the fairway. It is going to be an adjustment though.
 
StanTheCaddy said:
Today I gave the Speedblades a good range session and with range balls in 45* weather they are 15 yards longer than my R11 irons with more forgiveness. Everything about these irons are incredible. I'm playing my first round on Monday and the biggest challenge for me is trusting what I've seen at the range and taking a club or so less than what I'm accustomed. Can't wait to get them on the course and will have a write-up about them after my round.
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How so you compare the SB against the R11s?, not counting distance gains club vs club. Are they really that much forgiven? Ia it really worth the upgrade?


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Porky said:
How so you compare the SB against the R11s?, not counting distance gains club vs club. Are they really that much forgiven? Ia it really worth the upgrade?


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I would agree with you about the lofts and lengths of the SB's -- if they didn't go so high and stop so fast. But because my SB 7 iron goes higher than my Ping 7 (and much higher than the Ping 6) and stops quicker and is more forgiving, I think it is legitimately marked as a 7. It's just a 7 that goes 15 yards farther than the Ping 7.

Also, I can't agree about the shaft length thing. I'm tall, so I had to have all my Ping irons reshafted long by an inch just to play them. When I tried the SB's they were the same length as the long Pings in stock configuration. I didn't do anything to them and compared them to the Pings side by side -- SB's were 15 yards longer.

The best thing about the SB's are the long irons. I formerly never carried a 3 iron because I couldn't hit it. My Ping 4 went a smidge under 200. The SB 4 goes 215 or so and the SB 3 (which I use as a driving iron) goes 230-240 off a tee. This means that sometimes I can drop my 5 wood and bag an extra wedge.
 
I posted this in another thread & wanted to share here.

mikeg_74 said:
Thanks to BigTazz I've had the pleasure of hitting this 6i for several range sessions and two rounds. I've put this up against the Bio Cell & my Adams CB3's. Some quick thoughts:

Feel- from the standpoint of turf interaction & feel off the face the SB's were ahead of the BC & CB3. Each well struck shot from the SB's felt pure. No harshness or vibration from the turf. Kind of hard to explain because I've never hit an iron that felt this good. I've always expected a little vibration or harshness from the club face & was surprised.

Distance- again on well struck shots yardages were similar. I was aiming at the 185 flag on the range and with the SB I was consistently hitting shots that were carrying by my guess to about 170-175 and rolling out up to & past the 185 mark. Mishits obviously went shorter, but still not too bad offline & decent yardages. Overall I think the Bio Cell might be more forgiving, but the SB isn't off by much.

Ball Flight- I enjoyed the flight from the SB. Not as high as my CB'3's (KBS Tour 90's) & on par with the BioCell. Nice mid flight with a piercing trajectory. I hit this into the wind on the range & on the course and the ball held it's flight and even provided respectable yardages.

Overall I like the SpeedBlade. I'm most impressed with the feel and the ease at which a smooth swing delivers the yards. The Bio Cell was more forgiving for me & my Adams still gave me yardages I'm used to. I'm not sure in ready to run out and buy the SpeedBlades, but if push cane to shove & I had to game these I would without any issues.
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Porky said:
How so you compare the SB against the R11s?, not counting distance gains club vs club. Are they really that much forgiven? Ia it really worth the upgrade?


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I would say they Speedblades are a definite upgrade from the R11's. I only went with the Speedblades 5-8 while I went with the Tour Preferred CB 9-AW. The Speedblades, besides being longer are much more forgiving, particularly low on the face. My miss, especially with longer irons is low on the face or towards the heel and I've seen much forgiveness at the range on these mishits. Shots low on the face that would of struggled to get up with the R11's get up much more with the Speedblades. I think they're much easier to hit than the R11's which I thought were very good irons. For me, I think the upgrade was worth it.
 
StanTheCaddy said:
I would say they Speedblades are a definite upgrade from the R11's. I only went with the Speedblades 5-8 while I went with the Tour Preferred CB 9-AW. The Speedblades, besides being longer are much more forgiving, particularly low on the face. My miss, especially with longer irons is low on the face or towards the heel and I've seen much forgiveness at the range on these mishits. Shots low on the face that would of struggled to get up with the R11's get up much more with the Speedblades. I think they're much easier to hit than the R11's which I thought were very good irons. For me, I think the upgrade was worth it.
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I'll be curious to see if you have a large distance gap between the SB 8 iron and the CB 9 iron. My initial thought is that the CB 8 iron wouldn't be as long as the SB 8 iron...causing a larger than normal gap.
 
O'Carroll said:
I'll be curious to see if you have a large distance gap between the SB 8 iron and the CB 9 iron. My initial thought is that the CB 8 iron wouldn't be as long as the SB 8 iron...causing a larger than normal gap.
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Did some testing with this yesterday at the range. I went +1/2 inch long and 2* strong with the CB's making them essentially the same length and loft as the Speedblades. Also, both have SteelFiber i95 shafts in them. Spend a ton of time with the Speedblades 8 iron and the CB 9 iron at the range using my rangefinder to shoot the distances and the gap was normal, 10-12 yards. The Speedblades are still a little more forgiving but I don't need the forgiveness as much with my 9-AW.
 
StanTheCaddy said:
Did some testing with this yesterday at the range. I went +1/2 inch long and 2* strong with the CB's making them essentially the same length and loft as the Speedblades. Also, both have SteelFiber i95 shafts in them. Spend a ton of time with the Speedblades 8 iron and the CB 9 iron at the range using my rangefinder to shoot the distances and the gap was normal, 10-12 yards. The Speedblades are still a little more forgiving but I don't need the forgiveness as much with my 9-AW.
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Got it...and it makes sense. I love the SpeedBlades, but I really like the sound/feel of the CBs too. Enjoy the new irons man.
 
I got the 6i with graphite shaft in the giveaway. I hit the club at the range yesterday. Nice club. Distance and trajectory came easily. This 6i was longer than my MP-H4 5i. Having played the RocketBladez for a year I kind of expected that, but it was still fun to see again. The only downside was feel...but only in comparison to my Bridgestones and Mizunos. For as much as I liked the easy trajectory and distance I also missed the softer feel of the others. I think that's more a reflection of hitting clubs with different characteristics back to back than anything negative about the SpeedBlades...if I only had a bag full of Blades I'd be happy with them.
 
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O'Carroll said:
Got it...and it makes sense. I love the SpeedBlades, but I really like the sound/feel of the CBs too. Enjoy the new irons man.
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Thanks, it's a unique combo set but I'm really liking it. Love the forgiveness of the Speedblades in the long irons with the profile and feel of the CB's with the short irons. First round with the irons on Monday, so I should have more info then.
 
The more I play these the more I like them. I'm becoming accustom to swinging easy to hit it far. That took a while to overcome. If I try to hit them aggressively, I gain distance but lose accuracy. I have now played enough now to know the distances I get consistently with each club. This now is helping to lower my scores. Now my misses are left or right pin high. If I could chip better I could do even better.

When I get back to Minn in two weeks I will work on that. If I have one complaint on these is I don't get very much rollout from my shots. Probably more to due to the soft conditions her in Arkansas right now. My 8 iron very seldom gets more than 2 ft. Yesterday I had 205 yards to the front of the green, hit nice draw with a 4 iron that hit just in front of the green and stopped. Even ten feet of run out would have been pin high.

But that is also the best thing about these clubs. The high launch and soft landings should really help when the fairways and greens firm up. When I get back to Minnesota I going to put in the CTaper lite shafts. Just couldn't find anyone I was comfortable with to do it here or close enough to have it done. I'm glad I didn't, so I could get the distances down. Now I will have something to compare.
 
I've really settled into my speedblades. Distances are right on, every time. Even slight mishits deliver the ball within a few yards of where I wanted to be. everything from 5i through PW lands very softly, with the shorter clubs generating plenty of spin. I've ditched the SW and LW that I just never got along with, though. I'll be keeping these in the bag until I go for a full-on fitting later in the year.
 
baldguy said:
I've really settled into my speedblades. Distances are right on, every time. Even slight mishits deliver the ball within a few yards of where I wanted to be. everything from 5i through PW lands very softly, with the shorter clubs generating plenty of spin. I've ditched the SW and LW that I just never got along with, though. I'll be keeping these in the bag until I go for a full-on fitting later in the year.
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I too have ditched the SW and LW and the AW is up for sale now, even though I had no gripes with it. I could not open them as far for flops and the rear shelf block kept catching on the grass in my backswing. The ATV's don't do that and they go the same distances as the SB wedges.

My distances have finally settled in after a brief ego-driven bout of trying to see how far they would go.
 
Still in love with my Speedblades. I really need to change out the stock stiff flex shafts for stock regular flex shafts, but just can't justify the cost right now.

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baldguy said:
I've really settled into my speedblades. Distances are right on, every time. Even slight mishits deliver the ball within a few yards of where I wanted to be. everything from 5i through PW lands very softly, with the shorter clubs generating plenty of spin. I've ditched the SW and LW that I just never got along with, though. I'll be keeping these in the bag until I go for a full-on fitting later in the year.
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I'm still working on the distances and some accuracy but that's moreso swing fixes than the clubs. Once I saw what these can do I started over swinging and trying to really scorch them. I have to remind myself to let the club do the work and they perform extremely well. I don't have any issues opening the AW slightly and adding a tad more loft.




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Im starting to think these may be making an appearance in my Morgan Cup bag. They always had great feel, just thinking with the right shaft pairing they could be phenomenal for me.
 
First practice session with these today and I couldn't have been happier. These are a fantastic all around iron. Was hitting my iron consistently 10-15 yards longer than with the CB's and with a beautiful penetrating high ball flight unlike I have never produced before. Cannot wait to get these on course.
 
DevRickus said:
First practice session with these today and I couldn't have been happier. These are a fantastic all around iron. Was hitting my iron consistently 10-15 yards longer than with the CB's and with a beautiful penetrating high ball flight unlike I have never produced before. Cannot wait to get these on course.
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Thats what I found. First round with them on Monday and results reflected what happened in practice. Long, straight, high.. So sweet
 
Thedoswells said:
Thats what I found. First round with them on Monday and results reflected what happened in practice. Long, straight, high.. So sweet
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I am sure the KBS Tour 90's have something to do with it but even on a mishit the ball just goes and you don't really feel it. Extremely happy.
 
fupresti said:
Im starting to think these may be making an appearance in my Morgan Cup bag. They always had great feel, just thinking with the right shaft pairing they could be phenomenal for me.
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These keep being a heavy ponder as well, unless I just have awful numbers with them (doubtful). I like long, high, and straight. Will be interesting if anything else comes down the TM pipeline before the event, but I'm really happy with the options we'll have for irons and wedges at this point.

Woods, well.. The speeder and I just aren't friendly. Too low launching for my eyes
 
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