Taylormade take customer's advice and create the black version for R1 Driver. In either color, the R1 is a vaunted weapon on the fairway, almost entirely customizable to give players flexibility in shot weight locations, face angle, and the piece de résistance, loft angle. That’s huge, when you consider that TaylorMade says 80 percent of golfers are using the wrong loft angle on every drive.
The black version of the
TaylorMade R1 Driver is identical to the white version in nearly every way — it’s still 460 cubic centimeters, with the same center of gravity, adjustable loft sleeve and face angle adjuster. It also has the same stock shaft — an Aldila RIP Phenom — and the same grip. But the driver’s crown, which was originally released in a matte white color with an orange-and-gray racing stripe, has been painted black. The TaylorMade R1 improves on the company’s premium driver from a year ago, the R11S, offering slightly more ball speed and less spin thanks to a lower, more forward center of gravity. It’s also quieter than the ear-ringing R11S, and more forgiving on misses low on the face.
To clear up any confusion or questions that might come up, the answer is yes. This is the same driver as the current R1, just in a different color for those that have a preference.
TaylorMade R11s Driver is not a replacement for the R1 as the driver will still be available in both colors. The driver has 16 worldwide wins this year and features the greatest range of adjustability of any driver in TaylorMade’s history.
TaylorMade was willing to accept because the company was covering about 35% of the metal wood market at the time (it’s subsequently gone up to about 44%). Olsavsky said that the 20% ‘
cheap golf clubs unfavorable’ was acceptable, because that would likely be part of the percentage that wasn’t buying their products anyway. But they also figured that once people hit the clubs and used the R11’s adjustability to ‘tune’ their driver to their swing -- they’d even potentially capture part of that 20% who’d said they were initially turned off by the white color.
So TaylorMade did a series of studies using different color combinations, and found that if there’s a stark contrast between the crown and the face (note: the R11’s and Burner 2.0’s face is black), lining up the club becomes much easier.
The face of the
TaylorMade R1 Black Driver is deeper (read taller) than the R11S, giving golfers a slightly larger face area. You can consider upgrading your driver with a latest black r1 driver.
