My TaylorMade 2009 Burner irons came this week. 2 degrees flat, half an inch short. Since the Burner irons are half an inch longer than standard irons shortening them makes them standard length. TaylorMade also played around with the lofts, so a Burner 7-iron has the loft of a typical 6-iron. Critics say TaylorMade is just juicing the numbers, that's why Nick Faldo can't believe he's hitting his irons so far. But there must be more to the Burner irons than marketing because for almost identically lofted wedges I'm hitting it much farther.
My old sand wedge, a 56 degree Bridgestone, standard length, went maybe 70-ish yards. The Burner sand wedge, at 55 degrees, goes 90-ish yard, 100 on a solid hit. I can't believe that 1 degree less loft would gain me 20-30 yards. And the weird thing is the trajectory on the Burner is incredibly high, much higher than the Bridgestone. Same with the Burner approach and pitching wedges. The ball launches ridiculously high compared to my old wedges, which makes no sense with the decreased lofts. Great for me since I can't spin the ball so a high trajectory helps the ball from flying off the greens.
Not sure how TaylorMade did it. Must be the club head weight distribution/design. The club face must be "hot" to give me the extra distance on the wedges. The shaft is also lighter, so that probably gives me increase swing speeds. Haven't really kept track of how much distance I've gained on the mid and long irons, maybe 5 yards, nothing mind shattering. But the high trajectory seen in the wedges is also there in the other irons.
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