For the R11 club review, TaylorMade sent me an “off the rack” PW, 7I and 5I with the stock KBS 90 shafts. I’ve got to say I was waiting with bated breath for these bad boys to arrive, after watching the presentation and reading about the new clubs, I was pretty pumped about the irons.
If I had to summarize these clubs in one sentence, I’d say they were a perfect blend of the Tour Preferred and Burner Irons. From the Tour Preferred the R11 Irons took the control, feel, sound (with solid contact) and aesthetics whilst the Burner irons provided the forgiveness and increased COR and MOI (Moment of Inertia a property of physics that indicates the relative difference in how easy or difficult it will be to set any object in motion).
I’ve always played with the game improvement category of irons and was really impressed at the feedback provided by the R11 Irons. You can feel, pretty accurately, where you made contact with the ball and when you hit it solid, you’re rewarded with a deep appealing audible indicator that seems to say “You’re going to like that one.“ On the flip side, however, mishits have more of a hollow “thwack” sound that is not at all appealing.
Distance from the R11 Irons was a bit of a let down for me, on average, I didn’t gain any significant yardage over my Burners. I was hoping with the deeper center of gravity and the precision weight port that I’d see at least an additional club length in distance, but alas, tis not to be.
The R11′s have a great look and feel to them. The design is well executed and they were even able to manage a strip of white to go with other TaylorMade clubs in the 2011 line. They feature a progressive topline thickness that increases as you get closer to the short irons, but this is barely noticeable and the look of the clubs at address really gives a confidence boost.
I was also pretty pleased at the amount of spin I was able to generate with the clubs, especially the short irons. I’m playing with the Bridgestone e6 golf ball and I did a side by side comparison to the Burner irons and about 60% of the shots, I was able to get more spin with the R11′s and rarely did they get outclassed.
Overall, I was impressed with TaylorMade’s newest iron set. The R11′s have the forgiveness hackers like me appreciate and they’ve got the feel and shot shaping capabilities that you better players will enjoy.
The TaylorMade R11 Irons have a MSRP of $799 and are now for sale at your local golf retailer or reputable online outlets.
Don’t miss our TaylorMade R11 Driver review.
Let me know your thoughts on the clubs!
Have a custom club fitting question? Visit our Ask the Fitter page, post your question and you’ll be entered to win a free custom club fitting from the TaylorMade Performance Lab!
Related posts:
TaylorMade R11 Irons Unveiled
2009 TaylorMade Burner Irons Review
TaylorMade introduces the R9 Irons
TaylorMade Burner Irons – 2010 Golf Digest Hot List
TaylorMade Burner 2.0 Irons – Just Announced
Tags: taylormade golf, TaylorMade Irons
This entry was posted on September 6, 2011 at 12:43 am and is filed under Iron Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
