Equipment

2013 TaylorMade RocketBladez Tech Specs & Video

Published

11 years ago

Nov 12, 2012

The best part of TaylorMade’s RocketBladez irons isn’t the long distances that they fly, according to TaylorMade engineers. It’s the consistent distance that the irons fly on mishits.

TaylorMade has made long-flying irons in the past, one of their most popular being the two-year-old Burner 2.0 irons. But those and other “game-improvement” irons haven’t been popular with better players because they tend to cause problems with distance control. Irons such as the Burner 2.0s have what’s called a hotspot, a place above the center of the clubface that when struck with clean contact causes shots to fly longer-than-anticipated distances. This is bad because unlike drivers, skilled golfers aren’t trying to hit their irons as far as possible. They’re trying to hit them a controlled distance.

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Click here for more discussion in the “Tour/Pre-release equipment” forum.

Bret Wahl, TaylorMade’s vice president of R&D for irons, said that he and his team have spent the last five years designing irons with a higher coefficient of restitution, or COR. A high COR is achieved by making clubfaces thinner, increasing the spring-like effect and making the ball fly farther. But even though engineers were able to increase speed on shots hit on the center of the clubface, they struggled to add a similar amount of speed to mishits, especially shots hit on the stiff, lower portion of the face that is attached to the leading edge of the club.

The performance of the lower portion of the clubface is important for golfers because according to a TaylorMade study 72 percent of shots are struck below the center of the clubface. That means that almost three-quarters of all golf shots are not hit with optimal speed.

Last year, TaylorMade released its RocketBallz fairway woods and hybrids, the first of the company’s clubs to include its “Speed Pocket,” a slot on the bottom of the sole near the leading edge that increased COR. This added speed and forgiveness to the clubface, especially on shots struck below the center where the Speed Pocket functioned to make the lower portion of the clubface more flexible.

RocketBladez bring Speed Pocket technology to irons, and like the RocketBallz fairway woods and hybrids before them, the company is promising more speed and forgiveness. How much speed and forgiveness a golfer will get, however, depends on which model of RocketBladez irons they choose.

RocketBladez Tour Irons

TaylorMade’s two most popular irons on the PGA Tour are the company’s Forged MB and CB models, thick-faced irons that provide slow speeds on center strikes. But even though they lack the speed of distance irons on shots hit on the center of the face, the MBs and CBs are more consistent than other models on slight mishits and have no hotspots.

According to Gary Gallagher, market manager for metal woods for TaylorMade, there was no desire on Tour for substantially longer-flying irons. That’s why instead of giving RocketBladez Tour irons the “full steroid” treatment that designers gave the non-Tour RocketBladez, engineers held back, only adding “a quarter of a steroid” to their ingredient list.

Click here to see the RocketBladez Tour irons Matt Bettencourt put in his bag at the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Classic.

The RocketBladez Tour irons were designed to mimic the aesthetics of the Forged CBs. They have thin soles, a small amount of offset and similar blade lengths and toplines. But the Speed Pocket in the sole increases the COR to 0.819, adding at least 1 mph of ball speed to center strikes and making the sweetspot of the RocketBladez Tour five times larger than the Forged CBs (note: TaylorMade defines the sweetspot as the area of the clubface where there is less than a 1 mph drop off in speed).

Like the RocketBallz fairway woods and hybrids, the Speed Pocket increases ball speed as well as launch angle, which gives Tour players two options with RocketBladez Tour irons. They can:

Hit the RocketBladez Tour irons higher and a little further than their current irons (the current average off added distance according to Gallagher is 8 yards).
Bend the lofts stronger, giving them an iron that flies as high as their current model but goes substantially further.

The RocketBladez Tour 3 iron through 7 iron are cast from 17-4 stainless steel, which adds the necessary stiffness for construction. To make the irons feel softer, the Speed Pocket is filled with a special polyurethane developed by 3M that still allows the pocket to flex and reduces vibrations. It also limits debris that could enter the pocket.

The Speed Pocket is not used in the 8 iron, 9 iron, pitching wedge and “attack wedge,” however, because Gallagher said the speed pocket becomes less active and thus less important as loft is added to the club. Since the short irons are slotless, they can be cast from a softer material, 431 stainless steel. The distance gap between the 7 iron and 8 iron is bridged gradually by varying the different variables of the irons — mainly loft, face thickness and the depth of the speed pocket throughout the set.

RocketBladez Irons

Click here for more photos of the RocketBladez irons

The RocketBladez (non-Tour) irons lose the wacky geometry of last year’s RBZ irons in favor of a more traditional game-improvement iron shape, resembling the Burner 2.0 irons at address. They have the same COR as the Tours, but they have thicker soles, thicker top lines, more offset and a longer blade profile to support a deeper center of gravity (CG) position. This makes makes them more longer and more forgiving than the Tours and 5 mph faster than the Burner 2.0s, which accounts for double-digit distance gains.

Like the Tours, the RocketBladez employ a slot in the 3 through 7 irons and no slot on the 8 iron, 9 iron, pitching wedge and A-wedge. They are also available in a 55-degree sand wedge and 60-degree lob wedge that use TaylorMade’s ATV sole grind. Take a look at the specs below for more information.

Click here for more discussion in the “Tour/Pre-release equipment” forum.

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14 Comments

john

Jan 3, 2013 at 6:42 pm

Just received a flyer from my local golf store abot a pre-order for rocketbladez max irons. Speed slot is in all clubs from 4-AW. Anyone heard of this or seen the sceps?

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- rod
  
  Jan 9, 2013 at 4:04 pm
  
  just 3-7 iron for the slot.
  
  Reply Report comment
Falcon

Dec 16, 2012 at 7:25 pm

was in Bangkok recently…accidentally got to shoot on a swing simulator…i normally hit my 7 iron 150 yards on average with my R11 irons with KBS 90 R…the fitter gave me a japanese manufactured forged cavity blade with a Miyazaki C. Kua shaft…first shot went 170 yards…i was dumbfounded…then hit a few more and similar result…then bought a set of Rocket Bladez and had the same miyazaki shafts installed..and now my buddies are utterly confused how on earth i manage to hit so much longer

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paul

Nov 27, 2012 at 4:27 pm

I just tried these at my local golf shop and i didn’t find the distance to be a huge gain. maybe 1 club over my current Adams a1s but the ball took off a lot faster and higher. mishits low on the face were still very good. Distance control was very good. i hit my first 5-6 shots within 2 yards of each other. i don’t think these live up to the hype but i will buy a set when i can afford new clubs in a few months.

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Jeff

Nov 24, 2012 at 3:23 am

I just tested the new rocketbladez against my i20s. Rocketbladezs launched 2 degrees higher, spun between 800 to 1200 rpm less had a 10 foot higher peak trajectory and had a 2 degree steeper descent angle comparing an i20 5 iron to a rocketbladez 6 iron both having similar lofts. Both were roughly the same max distance but my thin mishits were 50 percent closer to my max distance with rocketbladez. My i20 6 iron has 3.5 degrees more loft than rocketbladez 6 iron and the same peak trajectory but was about 12 yds shorter with about 1500rpm more spin. I would like to try the rocketbladez with a dynamic gold to see if it performs better than the rocket fuel shaft. Either way distance is increased with the .819 cor face but the distance consistency is what will sell this club to mid and low handicappers.

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Lee

Nov 14, 2012 at 12:16 pm

Just love the 6 iron comparison chart on the TM website – 6.9 yards longer than Ping i20. Considering the RocketBlade has a loft of 26.5 and the Ping i20 30 degrees aren’t we comparing a 5 iron with a 6! Then of course where it matters the scoring clubs we get larger loft spacings to fit them in. I guess the good thing is you don’t need the 3 & 4 now as they really equal 2 & 3 and you can adjust the bottom of you’re bag accordingly.

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- Justin
  
  Nov 15, 2012 at 1:34 pm
  
  Lee, you are correct seeing the difference in lofts, but what I’ve heard is that even though it’s a lower loft the ball flys higher than say a pings 6 iron for example.
  
  Reply Report comment
  - NG
    
    Nov 15, 2012 at 8:54 pm
    
    Agree. Lee, if you had of watched the video attached to this you would find that there are many variables to determine what loft you place on each iron…you can’t and can never just compare lofts! Why does someone hit a 12 degree driver further than a 10 degree…have a think about it buddy
    
    Reply Report comment
paul

Nov 13, 2012 at 2:36 pm

“more longer”…

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- Christian
  
  Nov 17, 2012 at 12:45 pm
  
  Correction, it “makes makes them more longer”
  
  Reply Report comment
stephen

Nov 13, 2012 at 11:41 am

Why would you launch a product that can’t be bought for 3 months? I would like to try the tour version but would normally have my next seasons equipment in the bag over the winter to get used to it.

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- chris
  
  Nov 15, 2012 at 11:54 am
  
  Steven … I agree with you completely. I do a Super Bowl trip to Vegas end of January/early February and almost always the new stuff comes out a week later. Why not release before the holidays and take advantage of the buying season? Idiots….
  
  Reply Report comment
  - Al
    
    Nov 17, 2012 at 2:28 pm
    
    Another expert with insults and all of the answers. Just maybe these companies pay a bunch of people a bunch of money to do their marketing analysis and it has been determined that holiday releases do not have maximum effect on sales. They likely have determined that the lemmings will fall for the marketing hype at another time of year and make their annual game-changing purchase.
    
    Reply Report comment

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Equipment

A shocking Backstryke putter appearance + 7 interesting gear photos from the Zurich Classic

Published

12 hours ago

Apr 25, 2024

Andrew Tursky

Welcome to New Orleans, where TPC Louisiana plays host to the 2024 Zurich Classic. In between breakfast beignets and nightly Creole feasts, PGA Tour players are also competing in the unique two-man format at the Zurich this week.

Although the vibes in Nawlins are a bit lighter-fare than the recent back-to-back competitions the Masters and the RBC Heritage signature event), the gear news was no less serious this week.

We spotted some recent changes from Rory McIlroy, a very rare Odyssey Backstryke putter, dove into the bag of legendary New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, and spotted Patrick Cantlay continuing to test new equipment.

Get your beads out and crack your crawfish, because it’s time for an equipment rundown from The Big Easy (meaning New Orleans, of course, not Ernie Els).

See all of our photos from the Zurich Classic here

Rory’s on-and-off lob wedge

Since the end of 2023, Rory McIlroy has had an on-again, off-again relationship with a Titleist Vokey K-Grind lob wedge. In his last start, it was on, and the wedge is back in the bag again this week. We got a great look at the complicated grind that McIlroy uses.

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A full look into McIlroy’s bag above also shows that he switched out of the TaylorMade BRNR Mini Copper that he used at the RBC Heritage, and he’s back into the Qi10 core 3-wood. As we discussed last week, McIlroy will likely keep the BRNR around as a course-specific club, trading it in and out for the 3-wood.

See Rory McIlroy’s full 2024 WITB from the Zurich here

Turning Back the clock

Unless Tommy Gainey is in the field, it’s unlikely you’ll ever see Odyssey’s Backstryke technology make an appearance on the PGA Tour.

But then, when you least expect it, Russ Cochran shows up.

For more than a decade – since the 2013 Sony Open in Hawai’i – Cochran has been stuck on 599 PGA Tour starts. This week will be his 600th.

Cochran is in the field at the Zurich this week playing alongside Eric Cole, whose regular caddie is Reed Cochran, Russ’s son.

The Backstryke putter was first released back in 2010, and its unique design helps shift the axis point of the putter closer to the CG of the head. And, the putter is getting a nod this week at the Zurich Classic, thanks to Cochran’s 600th career PGA Tour start.

The putter is certainly awesome, but don’t forget to check out Cochran’s full WITB from this week.

Drew Brees with a Super Bowl winning Scotty Cameron putter

Drew Brees, a legendary retired quarterback for the hometown New Orleans Saints, made an appearance at the Zurich’s Wednesday Pro-Am, playing alongside Zach Johnson, Ryan Palmer, and current Saints QB Derek Carr.

Brees’ bag included a TaylorMade Stealth2 Plus driver, a BRNR Mini 13.5-degree, a Stealth 5-wood, a mixed set of P-790 and P-760 irons, Milled Grind Hi-Toe wedges, and a custom Scotty Cameron “New Orleans Saints” putter, which Scotty made for Brees following his Super Bowl MVP-winning performance in 2010.

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It should also be noted that Brees has his Venmo QR code as a bag tag.

If you’re gambling with Brees on the course, just know that not having cash won’t work as an excuse.

Brilliant.

See Drew Brees’ full WITB from the Zurich here

Stricker’s unrecognizable putter

Steve Stricker has made numerous upgrades to his bag recently, including a new TSR3 driver and T100 irons, but his longtime Odyssey White Hot No. 2 putter is still going strong. It’s the most recognizable unrecognizable putter ever.

Here’s a better look at Stricker’s flatstick, which he started using back in 2007.

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Patrick Cantlay has opened the equipment-switching floodgates

Over on the PGA Tour’s Equipment Report this week, we covered Cantlay’s recent switch into Ping Blueprint S irons, and a Titleist TSR2 driver.

Cantlay hadn’t switched irons for about seven years, so the iron switch he made at The 2024 Masters came as a shock to the norm. He simply isn’t one to change gear very often, so anytime Cantlay makes a switch, it’s news.

It seems the floodgates of equipment testing have opened up a bit for Cantlay, who was also spotted testing a custom Scotty Cameron blade putter on Tuesday this week. By Wednesday, Cantlay was back practicing with his familiar Scotty Cameron T5 Proto mallet, but it’s certainly something to keep an eye on going forward.

Daniel Berger’s custom Jailbird site lines

Berger, who’s currently using Odyssey’s Ai-One Mini Jailbird mallet putter, has a unique 3-dot, 2-line alignment on the crown of his navy-white-navy-white mallet putter. Looking down at the putter, it’s easy to see why this alignment system would help; it just seems impossible to set up to the ball off-center, or misaligned to the target.

Also, for anyone worried, you can rest easy. Yes, he’s still playing the 2013 TaylorMade TP MC irons, which we highlighted in our recent “Modern Classics: Old vs. New” video testing series.

FitzMagic teams back up

Brothers Matthew and Alex Fitzpatrick are teaming up once again at the Zurich this year, and Bettinardi Golf hooked them up with some festive “FitzMagic” headcovers to match this week.

See what else is in Alex Fitzpatrick’s WITB here

And, with that, we say goodbye to the Zurich Classic in New Orleans. Don’t forget to check out all of our photos from this week, including 30 unique photo galleries full of equipment photos.

We’ll see you next week in Texas for the 2024 CJ Cup Byron Nelson!

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