Equipment
TaylorMade M1 Tour driver heads enter The Vault
The Vault at TaylorMade features one-off, limited-run and prototype equipment from the company that become available for purchase.
The latest entries are TaylorMade M1 430 and 460 Tour heads, which will be available in “very limited quantities” on Thursday, Nov. 19, and will cost $800 apiece.
According to TaylorMade, the driver heads will have a “+” symbol to ensure it’s been COR tested and the loft, lie and weight have been marked by technicians at the company’s Tour department. Each head will come with a metal shaft sleeve and a head cover.
See photos of an M1 460 Tour head below, and for more information from TaylorMade click here.
Related: We review TaylorMade’s M1 430 and 460 drivers
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Equipment
Spotted: Chris Kirk’s Callaway Opus wedges
Gear junkies have been waiting patiently for Callaway to release new wedges. We may have gotten a sneak peek at what’s coming after seeing something new in Chris Kirk’s bag at the 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge. Spotted were a few different wedges, but the Callaway Opus caught our eye.
The term opus can mean, “any artistic work, especially one on a large scale. With iconic wedge designer Roger Cleveland now working with Terra Forza golf, could this have been his last creation for Callaway?
We don’t have any official word from Callaway on these wedges, but the main focal point seems to be the extra mass in the center of the club. This added material could be used to adjust the center of gravity on the wedge in order for it to launch and spin a specific way. It can also be used to enhance the feel and sound of the club with more material behind the impact location.
The shaping of the head looks to be a little more on the rounded side compared to the current Jaws Raw wedges. The topline on the wedge looks to be fairly thin and the leading edge is pretty straight with just a little bit of a radius to it. The color looks to be an antique brown and it will be interesting to see if that is a plating on the club or some kind of oilcan finish that will wear away and rust.
- Check out the rest of our photos from the 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge
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Equipment
Callaway launches Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Max driver
Give me a Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond driver but make it Max. Callaway engineers have taken the tour staple triple diamond head and boosted its size from 450 to 460cc’s. “By doing that we’ve created a more forgiving head while still keeping the same great shape that’s beloved on tour,” said Callaway’s advanced R&D manager Nick Yontz. The driver offers more spin than Triple Diamond standard — and thus more workability and forgiveness.
In contrast to the standard Triple Diamond, which features 14 and two-gram weights. The Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Max is equipped with 10-gram and four-gram interchangeable weights, which contributes to greater overall stability. According to Callaway, the driver plays more neutral than the neutral-to-fade-bias Triple Diamond.
Discussing testing on tour, Nick Yontz, advanced R&D manager, said:
“We first brought this head out for Tour testing in November last year. Players would step up and we had it matched up to their gamer driver specs. They would swing, and we saw consistently good ball flights – very stable. It was the word ‘stable’ that continued to be used by players.”
“They would continue to split the fairway and what that caused them to do was to start swinging faster. They had this excitement that, ‘This thing doesn’t go offline. I can keep swinging harder and harder and it maintains that straight flight’”
“We were seeing players. that would have small gains in ball speed from just the driver head alone, but then the swing speed would increase the more and more swings they made. By the end of it, they really saw meaningful gains in ball speed and distance.”
As a refresher on the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke driver family — which now includes Paradym Ai Smoke Max, Paradym Ai Smoke Max D, Paradym Smoke Max Fast, Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond, and Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Max — check out our launch piece.
Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Max: Pricing, specs, availability
Price: $599.99
Loft options: 9, 10.5 degrees
Stock shaft: Project X Denali Blue
At retail: June 7
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Equipment
Photos from the 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge
GolfWRX is live this week at Colonial Country Club for the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Custom Camerons and some “super” new grips from SuperStroke are filling our galleries early in the week as well as WITBs — including the always interesting “Cashmere Keith” Mitchell.
Check out links to our photos below, which we’ll continue to update throughout the week.
And while you’re making your way through our photos, be sure to check out last year’s incredible gallery of prototype and personal Ben Hogan golf clubs.
General Albums
WITB Albums
- Keith Mitchell – WITB – 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Rafa Campos – WITB – 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge
- R Squared – WITB – 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Martin Laird – WITB – 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Paul Haley – WITB – 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Tyler Duncan – WITB – 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge
Pullout Albums
- Eric Cole’s newest custom Cameron putter – 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge
- New Super Stroke Marvel comic themed grips – 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Ben Taylor’s custom Cameron putter – 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Tyler Duncan’s Axis 1 putter – 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Cameron putters – 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge
- Chris Kirk’s new Callaway Opus wedges – 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge
See what GolfWRXers are saying in the forums.
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Marcel
Feb 21, 2017 at 6:34 pm
Can anybody explain to me the different shortcuts written on the head?
Lie, Loft, Weight and CT is pretty clear to me but what about FA, RA1 and RA2?
FA could be the Face angle but i am not shure. Are they really all open at adress?
Thanks!
rymail00
Dec 10, 2015 at 8:58 am
Has anyone ever bought anything from The Vault? I’m not interested in getting anything but was always wondering if they let you pick weird and in between lofts like say 9* instead of the stock 8.5* and 9.5*? Or is it you say what stock loft you want and then they just send you any head spec’d close to your stock loft pick?
The last Ping driver I bought, the Rapture V2, they’d let you pick any loft and ask for a head that was slightly open and I believe they charged only like $7-10 extra to find you loft you wanted that wasn’t stock.
SAm
Nov 23, 2015 at 10:31 am
I actually think I was given a tour head by TM when i complained about the delay on delivery for my M1.
It has the + symbol on the neck, and it also has the weight number stamped onto the moveable weights – none of the others in the shop did.
Danny G
Nov 20, 2015 at 11:29 am
Just get an M1 hat. That will for sure add an extra MPH in ball speed. Find your self with a tour issued M1 hat and the sky’s the limit. Who wants to be that person that has to explain to the whole group that their club it “tour issue” and that’s why they are a yard in front. Get a proper fit don’t fall for the marketing.
Bob
Nov 20, 2015 at 2:18 am
$800 for a head with accurate specs! Just buy JDM
Nothing
Nov 19, 2015 at 10:34 pm
I have a bunch of friends on staff with Taylormade, so I get my hands on tour issue stuff….the only difference between tour issue clubs and retail clubs is the specs are a little tighter (like loft) and the face angles are open. Otherwise, the only difference is when they crack, you can’t get them replaced.
Lee
Nov 18, 2015 at 3:44 pm
I just love the way the Pro’s hit the M1 as far into the sh*t as the R15, SLDR et all. What an absolute hopelessly, desperate piece of marketing which surely nobody believes. We all know TM is in trouble but this is shameful!!
Reeves
Nov 18, 2015 at 2:30 pm
I hope all you see that when you pay $400 for a Taylormade (or any OM club) what you are getting is a COPY of what tour players use….maybe Knockoffs and off brand clubs will look a little better to everyone when you consider that is what you are buying with the OM name on it??????
john
Nov 18, 2015 at 6:34 pm
lol they’re not knockoffs – you obviously don’t work in the industry or know anything about it, have you even played golf before? here is the difference for you (bar bubba and tiger who have their own custom driver designs), ones on the shelf have a much bigger tolerance for COR, loft & weight (inc. swing weight) – the Tour guys get 50 of these and pick the ones that max at 0.83 COR and have an exact loft (say 9.1 degrees or 8.7 degrees) that the player in question requires. This extra testing if put on a club for a muppet like yourself would be a COMPLETE AND UTTER WASTE OF MONEY – you can’t hit the center of the face in 100 tries, so why bother adding another $150 worth of labor to your club?
Anyway, bash away my zero knowledge friend.
scott
Nov 19, 2015 at 9:29 pm
yep he’s a little over the top with the comment but $500 bucks for a driver is the real joke in six months it’ll be half that price, six more months half thats price. So is this years model $500 dollar better then last years ? Only if you want it to be
golfbum
Nov 20, 2015 at 12:17 pm
Let me get this straight? A person comments on a golf site and ask, wait let me get the quote marks right….”have you even played golf before?” So you just discounted your ability to have any knowledge on this subject. Then you go on to insult this person with the following: “This extra testing if put on a club for a muppet like yourself would be a COMPLETE AND UTTER WASTE OF MONEY – you can’t hit the center of the face in 100 tries, so why bother adding another $150 worth of labor to your club?”….I think I quoted you correctly, no?
So, John, if would, please provide your USGA GHIN #….so that we can see how many times you hit the center of the club face?
Christestrogen
Nov 18, 2015 at 10:03 am
I bought a tour vault sldr last year on eBay for $129….saw no difference…
It was pretty cool to have all the little measurements hand written but other than that it was seemingly the same….at least IMHO
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Reeves
Nov 18, 2015 at 2:36 pm
Had one chance to hit a Pro Players driver (it was a Taylor Made and fit for him out of the tour van) If you ever can try it, the club was so well balanced it made my driver feel like a cave mans club. It showed me that it was not just the parts it was the guys that put them together.
blake
Nov 18, 2015 at 9:36 am
I have a tour issue r9 supertri v2 and it is miles different than the retail version. Mine is 440 cc, deeper face, and launches/spins the ball a lot lower that the retail counterpart. Don’t know about the M1 but there is definitely a difference in my personal experience with gaming retail vs. tour issue.
Carlos Danger
Nov 18, 2015 at 12:53 pm
So…you basically have a Superdeep?
blake
Nov 18, 2015 at 1:11 pm
not nearly as deep in the face. just a little deeper than the retail supertri but certainly more left/right forgiveness on the face than the SD. plus it has three adjustable weights as compared to only two on the superdeep. also the head shape/profile is different from the superdeep. so, basically, NO. Not the same at all
Carlos Danger
Nov 18, 2015 at 2:05 pm
but basically…
blake
Nov 18, 2015 at 2:33 pm
basically what? not even really sure what you are refuting here.
Carlos Danger
Nov 18, 2015 at 3:36 pm
exactly
christian
Nov 20, 2015 at 4:00 am
Basically, as in they are both driver heads?
blake
Nov 20, 2015 at 3:21 pm
they are both black. so he has me there…
blake
Nov 18, 2015 at 2:47 pm
and i am in now way endorsing spending $800 for a driver head. These will cost $150-200 on the Wrx BST by summer. If you have to play tour issue, for whatever reason, buy a release cycle behind for a fraction of the price.
Rick
Nov 19, 2015 at 12:05 am
I too have an R9 Supertri v2 also. I would say the face is not noticeably larger than a stock 460cc head, but certainly the body is much more a bulbous delta shape that gives the Supertri its name. Is the face tall like a Super Deep, no.
The v2 performance is perfect for my game. Actual TM provided a CT number and an aftermarket CT test. The measured TM CT is 248 and therefore is a tour legal usable head, what makes it unique is the CT measured slightly high and toe of the tour measuring point results in a 256. Its Lie is 61.1*, Loft 9.3*, Face Angle Open 3.75*. Hot Melt Weight 202.7, Slope of 3.2 and a CI of 1.76. I do not know what the slope and CI indicate.
The club performs as well or better than all drivers I have used and or demo’d except an explosive 975J that cracked early in the century.
The Supertri R9 v2 was and is the best $225 driver investment I have made over the past 20 years. The club recently aided another subpar round.
I would recommend the purchase of a tour head if it has a CT above 244, 257/258 is maximum allowable.
Charlie
Nov 18, 2015 at 9:28 am
If I take a retail head, get it measured and stamp a ‘+’ on it, can I command $800 for it?
Billy
Nov 18, 2015 at 1:48 am
Aren’t they still made in China or in Carlsbad, CA?
Ryan
Nov 18, 2015 at 1:30 am
Low CT rejects is what they are. Why aren’t they on the tour van ? Why is the CT rating covered up ? Exactly..
ltd
Nov 18, 2015 at 3:12 am
yepper
Charlie
Nov 18, 2015 at 9:21 am
Or high CT, doubtful though.
LorenRobertsFan
Nov 18, 2015 at 10:15 am
Exactly my thoughts
Scott
Nov 18, 2015 at 12:34 pm
Since I do not know what CT means, this head is not for me.
john
Nov 18, 2015 at 6:36 pm
that is a great point lol, $800 for a driver that’s got CT blacked out
SB
Nov 18, 2015 at 1:00 am
It’s expansive but still a good offering. Did you have the opportunity to play two exact same drivers and had the feeling that one performs much better?! The tour editions are always duly checked and are more consistent. Still 800$ for head I agree 😉
Brian
Nov 17, 2015 at 10:37 pm
They will make the average hacker exactly $800 lighter.
mike
Nov 17, 2015 at 9:33 pm
none
Mark
Nov 17, 2015 at 9:21 pm
$800 for a head. Seriously. What, if any difference will these heads make to the average player?
COGolfer
Nov 17, 2015 at 11:06 pm
The difference would be found in $800 worth of lessons.
This sort of thing comes up in cycling as well. Should you spend an extra grand on a bike that weighs a pound less or could you stand to lose a few on your person…
John Triscott
Nov 18, 2015 at 12:14 pm
Great comparison.
This is the same thing as Tour Issue DG Shafts. They are just thoroughly checked. More for the peace of mind for the golfer, in this case, a PGA Tour player.
Rick
Nov 19, 2015 at 12:12 am
No, a CT driver with less than 258 conforms to the rules of golf. Professionals cannot use non CT measured drivers.
Regarding shafts, I would imagine they are hand sorted and set batched so players have a stash to back up their playing set should one snap.