As someone who is still trying to conquer this incredibly frustrating sport I am always looking for the perfect equipment to help better my game. I realize that more often then not it’s my flaws on the course that are the problem and not necessarily the equipments fault but it’s so much easier to blame the clubs. On my quest to find a set of irons that truly suited my game I was given the opportunity to try the TaylorMade Ladies SuperLaunch irons and it was love at first strike.
From the Company
Enter the Burner SuperLaunch, an iron specifically designed to be spectacularly forgiving and easy to get in the air, allowing a certain segment of players – mainly slower swingers and low-ball hitters — to get more distance. In addition, Burner SuperLaunch iron’s generous offset helps straighten a slice and promote a draw.
Burner SuperLaunch irons are also engineered to deliver tremendous forgiveness from end-to-end (heel to the toe) and top to bottom (topline to leading edge). In fact, it’s the most forgiving iron ever from TaylorMade. That makes it a great iron for high-handicappers with patterns of inconsistent ball-striking. In fact, Burner SuperLaunch irons boast the highest MOI of any TaylorMade iron, ever.
Features:
– Ultra-large and deep cavity for massive perimeter weighting, offering super-forgiveness on all mis-hits
– Low-profile long-iron design contributes to high MOI and low CG, making them easy to launch
– RE*AX SuperFast 50-L graphite shafts promote high launch, increased clubhead speed for slower swingers
– Unique color palette for women’s Burner SuperLaunch is sleek, elegant
Looks
When I first saw these irons I was immediately drawn to the shaft. For the most part it is all black but at the top near the grip it has a beautiful honeycomb-like design in purple, silver and black that is very eye catching. I think it has the perfect amount of femininity without being over the top girly. I am a person who likes when things match and that may have a lot to do with why I am so smitten with the looks of these clubs. From top to bottom there is a perfect design flow from the grip which is all black with accents of purple to the club head which also has silver, black, and purple. The clubhead, to me, is not too busy, but for someone who prefers a very plain look this might not be your cup of tea. The cavity has the same honeycomb design found on the shaft with a solid silver middle and the word SUPERLAUNCH in purple. The only drawback, and this is actually not an issue for me personally, is the thick topline. Some people might prefer a thinner topline especially if they aren’t used to playing a game improvement (GI) iron. However, for me, if it helps my game I don’t care how thick the iron is I just want to hit the ball better.
Range Testing
Just like the range testing we do for the men’s reviews we put up fliers at local area courses asking for female golfers to help test equipment and give us their 100% honest feedback. Our requirements are always the same; the testers must have an established handicap, they have to be currently playing game improvement irons, and those irons need to be less than 18 months old. We got a great turnout of ladies from varying skill levels and ages. In total we rounded up 20 ladies for testing and each one was eager to try the SuperLaunch irons.
Our first order of business was to have each lady warm up with their current irons so this way they were feeling loose and comfortable. The next step was to set up each lady with a bucket of range balls where they hit their own clubs and the TaylorMade Ladies SuperLaunch irons and then we asked for their feedback on looks, feel, forgiveness, and overall impression of the irons. Here is a breakdown of their scorecards after the testing was complete.
Looks – 15 of the 20 testers absolutely loved the look of the irons. They loved the splash of purple, however, there was one lady who didn’t care for the purple at all. She said she wasn’t a big fan of ‘girly’ colors and she would have rather had the entire club be black. The biggest complaint about the looks, and I had a feeling this would happen, was the extra thick topline. A few ladies found that too difficult to set up to.
Feel – 16 out of 20 thought they had a better feel than their current irons. This is always a very subjective category because everyone seems to have their own definition of feel. Most ladies will base it off of sound while the lower handicap players will be able to notice the difference more at impact. The few who didn’t care for the feel said they didn’t like the way the club felt when they made contact with the ball they felt like the club felt weird in their arms as if it was vibrating back to them.
Forgiveness – 18 out of 20 golfers thought these irons were more forgiving their their current clubs. I can’t say that I was shocked by these results because I can honestly say I have never hit a more forgiving club to date. Every lady could tell that a miss hit with these irons was still a usable shot. They couldn’t believe how high and straight the ball went even when they hit it off the hosel or the toe. This was a hot topic all day with the ladies.
Overall – 16 out of 20 testers felt that the TaylorMade SuperLaunch irons outperformed their current clubs. The women who said they didn’t prefer these irons to their current set were the ones who didn’t care for the feel and simply preferred the way her clubs felt over the SuperLaunch irons.
Post range session I had a little powwow with the ladies to ask them for some more details regarding their likes and dislikes of the irons. As mentioned above the forgiveness received the highest praises that the SuperLaunch were more forgiving. This was also the most heavily discussed category after the testing. The ladies just could not get over how easy it was to hit these irons and how high, straight, and far their ball went. Many said they were 1 to 2 clubs longer with their distance which was mind blowing and very exciting. Each lady agreed that their confidence levels were immediately boosted after just 5 strikes with these irons. The only major negative that was brought up was from the women who couldn’t get past that thick topline. They all agreed that the clubs performed better their their current set and they loved the results they were getting but they just weren’t sure they could look down at that topline.
I asked the women if this was a set of irons they would consider buying and having in their bag permanently and the majority said yes and two ladies actually said they had plans to head to their nearest golf shop after this session to look into buying these club right away. I would say that’s pretty good confirmation that the SuperLaunch irons are a great set of clubs. With all the great feedback from the ladies I couldn’t wait to take these to the course.
Course Testing
As mentioned in the intro paragraph of this review my first impressions of these irons was love at first strike. I had some great range testing with them but the real test for me was going to be how they performed out on the course. On my first time out with the SuperLaunch I had a career low round! I was hitting all my iron shots so pure and the distance I gained from these irons was astounding. I was a true two clubs longer with these which was a huge part of why my score was so much lower. I am not a long hitter, I have a very slow swing speed and I am still a newbie to the game so my ball striking can be erratic at times, but with the SuperLaunch irons in my hands I couldn’t miss. The only time I struggled was with the long irons and that was user error, I could hear my instructors voice in my head yelling at me to keep my head down.
I often hit the course with a girlfriend who is a crazy long hitter and when I am pulling a 4 iron she has her 6 or 7 iron. However, with these irons I was able to pull a 6 iron when she was pulling a 7 iron. Wow, what a confidence boost that was. Besides hitting the ball further I was hitting it straighter and much higher. I have always had a low launch angle but with these irons I got great height with each shot and even saw a pretty little draw, who knew I could do that? What really impressed me the most, and it was discussed a lot during the range session, was the forgiveness. There were times where I could feel that I hit a bad shot because I had weight shift issues or just had a bad swing but the ball still did what I needed it to do. It wasn’t a perfect shot like when I hit it pure, it didn’t go as high or quite as far, or even as perfectly straight but it still got where it needed to go without causing me to lose a stroke like I would have had in the past. I don’t want to call these magical clubs but they really have done wonders for my golf game.
Overall
After numerous rounds on the golf course and the overwhelmingly positive response from the 20 testers I am confident in saying these are some of the best irons on the market today for ladies. Unless I can find something that better suits my personal game these sticks have found a home in my bag. If you are in the market for a new set of irons I would definitely gives these a try. These irons retail for $799 and you can learn more about the TaylorMade Burner SuperLaunch Irons and other offerings by TaylorMade on their website here.
Your Equipment Guru,
Golfer Gal
