TaylorMade R9 irons and R9 TP irons are finally here…
The long awaited TaylorMade R9 Irons have finally been released to accompany the astonishingly successful R9 driver and fairway woods.
To be honest I thought the company would be a bit quicker in launching the irons but they’ve made us all hang on for a while. The company says the irons are designed to deliver modern performance and tremendous distance in a more classic package.
“Whereas our Burner irons deliver extraordinary distance in a modern design, the R9 irons are aimed at the technician, and so are rendered in a player’s shape with a clean and conventional look,” said Harry Arnett, TaylorMade’s senior category director of metalwoods, irons and balls.
“However, a ridiculous degree of performance-enhancing technology is packaged within each oversized clubhead. The result is an iron that’s phenomenally easy to play despite its classic appearance, and extremely controllable and accurate as well.”
Like the Burner irons, the new R9 long-irons and middle-irons were designed separately from the short-irons to optimise performance in each club. The result is that the 3-iron through 6-iron are extremely long and easy to hit, and the short-irons are engineered to promote great feel, control and accuracy.
Each R9 long-iron and middle-iron (3 through 6) houses a large and fully enclosed compartment positioned behind the clubface, underneath the cavity badge. Called the Velocity-Control Chamber (VCC), it makes it possible for an immense area of the ultra-thin (2.0 mm) clubface to exist unsupported. They call it a wrap-around clubface because it acts like a face that wraps around the top-line and the leading edge, which gives the face more freedom to flex and reflex at impact, much like a thin-faced driver.
This Velocity Control Chamber makes it easier to launch the ball with the long- and middle-irons, yet TaylorMade engineers have gone to great lengths to ensure that the R9 irons deliver controlled power by incorporating Inverted Cone Technology on the inner side of the clubface. In addition to promoting higher ball speed on off-centre hits, the Inverted Cone has been carefully calibrated to eliminate “hot spots” so that ball speed is consistent across the clubface, resulting in keen and consistent distance control in all of the R9 irons.
They sound fantastic to me and I can’t wait to get my hands on a set to try them out. Good marketing it may be but that doesn’t stop me wanting a set just as much as I did the R9 driver. They look lovely and the tour version even more so.
Although the R9 long and middle-irons don’t immediately appear to be perimeter-weighted they are, given that the VCC is occupied by a nearly weightless foam, as well as a silicone shock absorber positioned directly behind the center of the face; both serve to absorb unwanted impact vibration. The foam starts as a powder sealed within the VCC; heating the clubhead turns the powder to foam that expands to completely fill all open areas of the chamber, ensuring that the sound and feel at impact is soft, agreeable and consistent across the face.
The R9 short-irons are engineered to deliver increased playability, control and feel in the scoring zone. The simple, straightforward teardrop shape and clearly delineated leading edge make it easy for any player to aim these irons target-ward and fire the ball at the flag.
Each compact club head incorporates a deep undercut cavity and broad, low-CG sole that makes it easy to make solid, spin-inducing contact to get the ball in the air and stop it quickly upon landing.
R9 short-irons also incorporate a vibration-quieting layer sandwiched between the backside of the clubface and the thin, protective black badge in the cavity. The vibration-quieting is a visco-elastic adhesive made by 3M that also absorbs unwanted vibration and sound. The result is a solid and satisfying sound and feel, which is critical to good short-iron play. Additionally, at the bottom of each short-iron cavity (hidden behind the badge), more weight has been concentrated at the heel and toe to more stability and forgiveness on miss-hits
The company has also introduced new conforming grooves for 2010 which will affect players at high level competition. I’m not sure that everyone will want conforming grooves though, they’ll want as much help as possible. Then I think you’d only buy these clubs if you’re at the top of your game anyway.
The 8 club set of R9 irons includes 4-iron through sand wedge at a recommended retail price of £699 for the steel shafts and £799 for the graphite. Definitely not one of your cheaper sets!
The TP or Tour Preferred versions are available in men’s right and left-handed models, steel shafts only, X, S and R flexes. An 8 club set consists of 3-iron through pitching wedge; a 2-iron and attack wedge are available separately. R9 TP irons become available starting on October 12th, 2009; the recommended retail price for a standard set is £729.
TaylorMade are one of my favourite golf club manufacturers and I think they’ve done very well with this latest release. No doubt they will be just as successful as the R9 Driver. Only 12 days to go…
just bought a set of r9tp`s in october. sit great and look great.
a better ballflight, and crisper strike than my last set . (callaway x18)
fancied a complete change of irons and the r9 fitted the bill.
also bought the r9 driver and 3 wood, still unsure of the driver
Hi
Anybody know where I can get a Taylor Made Superquad TP Golf Driver with a good shaft in it for cheap?