TaylorMade R15 TP Driver - THP Review

You mentioned it reminded you of the R11.

I'm currently using the R11S and it has been an amazing club. I'm curious to hear if you think it would be worth the upgrade once you get to review it fully.
 
Paying close attention to this thread. I am considering upgrading my current R1 with the Black Tie 7M3 Stiff shaft to this club with a Speeder 757 Evo X Stiff shaft.
 
in my few swings with this one i thought it was ok. didn't help on my misses out near the toe but center or close to center were good.
 
in my few swings with this one i thought it was ok. didn't help on my misses out near the toe but center or close to center were good.

Did you tinker with the weights much?


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The SLDR wasn't a great fit for my game. I'm interested to see if the R15 is better. Looking forward to testing this out.
 
I liked the R1 and R11. I'm hoping TM can deliver with this one.
 
Looking forward to your thoughts Dan. Will be buying a new driver this year and this one is high on my list. Had some good numbers with this club when I took some swings at Golfsmith but really want to hit it outside.
 
Looking forward to this one Dan. With a consistent swing, this thing can be lethal. I've never hit a driver further on well struck hits.
 
Loved it on center strikes and the sound/feel was very good. Never liked the white but the shape sets up nicely. Unfortunately saw some pretty big penalties when I missed center - really not much better than the SLDR in that regard. That said, one of my playing partners is a scratch handicap with a 108-110 MPH swing speed - his driver contact is far more consistent than mine and the stock TP set up gave him great numbers.
 
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Loved it on center strikes and the sound/feel was very good. Never liked the white but the shape sets up nicely. Unfortunately saw some pretty big penalties when I missed center - really not much better than the SLDR in that regard. That said, one of my playing partners is a scratch handicap with a 108-110 MPH swing speed - his driver contact is far more consistent than mine and the stock TP set up gave him great numbers.

What kind of penalties were you experiencing? Distance loss? Spin loss? spraying the ball?
 
What kind of penalties were you experiencing? Distance loss? Spin loss? spraying the ball?

Both distance and spin loss - my usual miss is a slight toe hit and slight block combination. I was losing anywhere from 5-15 yards more than the D200 I tested against it on the same miss.
 
Both distance and spin loss - my usual miss is a slight toe hit and slight block combination. I was losing anywhere from 5-15 yards more than the D200 I tested against it on the same miss.

Out of curiosity, how did you have the weights set up? Did you try different set ups?
 
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On the monitor yesterday with the R15 TP and I have some thoughts. Didn't really get a good chance to play with the configurations of the head, but I did have the opportunity to hit it at a couple settings. Sound wise it's not as lively as I was anticipating, but it's also not a turn off. I'll try to get some greater depth of thought on sounds overall the next time I am hitting.

Combination of shaft to head makes a lot of sense. The Speeder 661 TS provides quite a lot of stability (noted by another golfer) but it still provides that mid launch/mid spin characteristic that many could need if R15 shares some of the similar characteristics of SLDR.

There was a bit of distance loss when driving through the zone inside with an open face, but I think that has a lot more to do with quality of contact than the overall driver forgiveness. The head seems to do a nice job of setting up to the ball, and can really generate some power with good contact through the zone. I saw some big distance numbers and swing speed numbers on my better swings, sliding easily into the 275+ carry range with over 300 total distance. Those are great carry/total numbers for me.

Next time out I'll spend more time on the adjustable weights and loft as a whole. Just getting acquainted yesterday.
 
I spent some time today on the range hitting the R15 head to head with the Alpha 815. The R15 was the winner hands down for me.

I was hitting into a little bit of a breeze, the R15 just punched right through it, went a lot further. It may be configuration but I didn't really feel the 815 was low spinning. The R15 was better for my miss as well. With my most common miss I get a low spinning hook, one that is usually in play but not deep. The 815 kept more speed and higher spin which meant a ball further offline. On well struck shots this thing just goes. May have one of these in my future.
 
I are a huge fan of 430 version of this driver. I was a huge detractor of the 460, but after hitting the 430 against everything that was out and what was in my bag it was easy to justify making the change. I was getting the lowest spin numbers, longest carry and most forgiveness when hit off center. The sound is what I would expect from a TMaG driver. This driver actually feels closer to the original R11 TP than anything that's been in my bag since.
 
I took a stab at hitting the R15 today at our local Dick's. It was a 9.5 460 with the stock stiff Speeder Evolution shaft. I'm now in serious ponder mode! Great feel and it was 9 yards longer, carry, than any of the other 4 drivers I hit on the monitor. I'll need to find the right shaft to help get the spin down and improve the dispersion, but, overall, I'm quite interested!

After looking at the pics of the club, the one I hit had Tour Preferred on the grip, so it must've been a TP.

 
On the monitor yesterday with the R15 TP and I have some thoughts. Didn't really get a good chance to play with the configurations of the head, but I did have the opportunity to hit it at a couple settings. Sound wise it's not as lively as I was anticipating, but it's also not a turn off. I'll try to get some greater depth of thought on sounds overall the next time I am hitting.

Combination of shaft to head makes a lot of sense. The Speeder 661 TS provides quite a lot of stability (noted by another golfer) but it still provides that mid launch/mid spin characteristic that many could need if R15 shares some of the similar characteristics of SLDR.

There was a bit of distance loss when driving through the zone inside with an open face, but I think that has a lot more to do with quality of contact than the overall driver forgiveness. The head seems to do a nice job of setting up to the ball, and can really generate some power with good contact through the zone. I saw some big distance numbers and swing speed numbers on my better swings, sliding easily into the 275+ carry range with over 300 total distance. Those are great carry/total numbers for me.

Next time out I'll spend more time on the adjustable weights and loft as a whole. Just getting acquainted yesterday.
Definitely similar to what I saw today at Dick's. I had a few with spin 1800-1900, but overall spin average was 2501 on 12 shots. I averaged 267 carry with a high of 285 and a low of 257. 10 out of the 12 had carry of 260 or higher. The two shortest shots were ones I hit out near the toe. Definitely a mid spin combo with this head and shaft. I agree with a previous post regarding similar feel to the R11. Very different club in performance and feel, for me, vs any of the SLDRs.
 
I had 3 posts in the "Preview" thread (sorry guys, didn't know) with my 430 TP with the Elements Chrome 6F4T shaft. Played another round on Saturday, it was a gloomy cold day even for the nice sunny weather here in Los Angeles, this was not the day.

This time I set it one click towards the lower from Std. Didn't hit it as far as the Std setting, seems like thats the much better setting for me. I think overall, my driving was in the pits that day, hit it left & right. Worse shot right was a straight push and worse shot left was the low draw/hook (not high, LOW)..did 2 of these and while they only went 220-240, they weren't that bad...seriously, I was in the left rough. The worse was the push, where my ball went FAR and landed on the middle of the Par 3 fairway adjoining (thank goodness I never push it out), I then had 95 yards to the pin and dropped it to 12 ft for a birdie. Goes to show, even bad drives still gets the bird...it's all in the second shot. But boy, that drive was smoked for a push.

This time I really had the head weights set to "forgiveness" but I didn't push it all the way left & right, kinda in the middle. Seems to like that a lot and I think if I had a teenie weenie more loft, it would have been longer for me. My last few rounds, I had 1 weight on draw and 1 in the neutral.

Now, I can't make head or tail with the Aldila Rogue. It's a 110 MSI, 60 stiff and plays 45". My EC plays 45.5". Its a nice shaft, low launch and spin but my swing really likes the EC much better. I like the kick better in the EC. On course performance shows the EC/R15 430 combo is super forgiving. I know, as when I put this exact same shaft in my 460 SLDR, the sidespin is worse, and it tends to go more left than right. I was wishing this Rogue combo would work but it's not. The 757 is better than the Rogue, for me so thats in my SLDR. I think its time to move on...

The only thing left is to tweak these weights a little bit more, that's what make these R heads fun...along with the ability to change the shaft.

Anyway, I find these late posting that the R15 compares to the R11. I had the R11, and for me, THERE IS NO WAY, it's anything like the R11 in feel. That was so unbelievably short driver for me and I had the Whiteboard (perhaprs it was the TM graphic Ahina 60X) in it and it felt dead. I think that turned me off the R drivers until the R15. I think I went to a G10 7.5 afterwards, or then a G15 7.5 (this was a hard to find head)...both were miles ahead of the R11. The R15 is more livelier, longer...and it plain works.
 
Got a chance to play some simulator golf this weekend and I'm really liking this driver. I haven't toyed around with the weights since I bought it. When I was fitting myself for it I moved them all over the place and adjusted lofts, etc. Found that the best set up for me was with the weights split for max forgiveness and the loft set at 10.5. The sims I play in don't do well with high launch on drivers so I've been playing it down at 8.5 to keep the launch around 14. In the LM, at 10.5* of loft I was getting about 16* of launch, 1900 rpm and an average of about 155 mph in ball speed.

I just love the way this thing sets up to the ball and really like the feel of the ball coming off the face. Moving the weights does have an impact on how contact feels for me. I move them to the "power" setting it feels just like the SLDR did on misses. But in the "forgiveness" setting it feels like I'm hitting the sweet spot every time. I have noticed that hitting this driver in the center gives the best results. For some reason with the Alpha and the Bio Cell+ I had the best numbers just slightly above center and on the toe side. Can't wait to get out on the course with this!
 
I liked the R1 and R11. I'm hoping TM can deliver with this one.

I gamed the R11 TP for 4 years.. Is that how long it has been out? Have not found something better until this year.. surprisingly it was actually the Titleist 915D3. I did like the R15TP, but the D3 seemed to be more forgiving and put it in the fairway more consistently. They were pretty close though.
 
I had 3 posts in the "Preview" thread (sorry guys, didn't know) with my 430 TP with the Elements Chrome 6F4T shaft. Played another round on Saturday, it was a gloomy cold day even for the nice sunny weather here in Los Angeles, this was not the day.

This time I set it one click towards the lower from Std. Didn't hit it as far as the Std setting, seems like thats the much better setting for me. I think overall, my driving was in the pits that day, hit it left & right. Worse shot right was a straight push and worse shot left was the low draw/hook (not high, LOW)..did 2 of these and while they only went 220-240, they weren't that bad...seriously, I was in the left rough. The worse was the push, where my ball went FAR and landed on the middle of the Par 3 fairway adjoining (thank goodness I never push it out), I then had 95 yards to the pin and dropped it to 12 ft for a birdie. Goes to show, even bad drives still gets the bird...it's all in the second shot. But boy, that drive was smoked for a push.

This time I really had the head weights set to "forgiveness" but I didn't push it all the way left & right, kinda in the middle. Seems to like that a lot and I think if I had a teenie weenie more loft, it would have been longer for me. My last few rounds, I had 1 weight on draw and 1 in the neutral.

Now, I can't make head or tail with the Aldila Rogue. It's a 110 MSI, 60 stiff and plays 45". My EC plays 45.5". Its a nice shaft, low launch and spin but my swing really likes the EC much better. I like the kick better in the EC. On course performance shows the EC/R15 430 combo is super forgiving. I know, as when I put this exact same shaft in my 460 SLDR, the sidespin is worse, and it tends to go more left than right. I was wishing this Rogue combo would work but it's not. The 757 is better than the Rogue, for me so thats in my SLDR. I think its time to move on...

The only thing left is to tweak these weights a little bit more, that's what make these R heads fun...along with the ability to change the shaft.

Anyway, I find these late posting that the R15 compares to the R11. I had the R11, and for me, THERE IS NO WAY, it's anything like the R11 in feel. That was so unbelievably short driver for me and I had the Whiteboard (perhaprs it was the TM graphic Ahina 60X) in it and it felt dead. I think that turned me off the R drivers until the R15. I think I went to a G10 7.5 afterwards, or then a G15 7.5 (this was a hard to find head)...both were miles ahead of the R11. The R15 is more livelier, longer...and it plain works.

Surprising.. I ahve several friends I play with, including myself, that think the R11 is the best driver TMG has ever put out. It feels like butter to me when I hit it solid. The R15 is without a doubt the closest to the R11 to all of us. Definitely a great driver and should perform well for anyone with the right shaft, loft, weight combinations.
 
Surprising.. I ahve several friends I play with, including myself, that think the R11 is the best driver TMG has ever put out. It feels like butter to me when I hit it solid. The R15 is without a doubt the closest to the R11 to all of us. Definitely a great driver and should perform well for anyone with the right shaft, loft, weight combinations.

This is how I felt when I got it dialed in. And I loved loved loved the R11.
 
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This is how I felt when I got it dialed in. And I loved loved loved the R11.

I think having the familiar colour scheme on the head does it some big support in that logic, but I'll agree with the head overall drawing some similarities.
 
I think having the familiar colour scheme on the head does it some big support in that logic, but I'll agree with the head overall drawing some similarities.

Not sure if it's the color, since I had the RBZ and didn't feel as comfortable as I do with this. I was actually hoping that the 430 would be in black because I think they did a real nice job with that color this year. Alas, white it was, but I'm considering getting one of those golfwrapz in a charcoal or a red
 
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