Taylormade M5 & M6 Woods - Pics added page 46

300_Straight · January 3, 2019

Pretty disappointing from a ball speed standpoint. Having never played a Taylor Made club, I was really hoping for this to show more ball speed. Obviously 1 or 2 reviews are not enough to pass total judgment AND we need to try them for ourselves, but I'm not quite as excited to test. The M3 Driver (this is my opinion) felt awful to me. The sound was very metallic and off-putting and the feel was that of hitting a baseball bat on the handle. Perhaps it's because I used to a shorter driver (44.5 - 45"), but it was awful.

I will say though, Alex from Golfbox typically is around 178-180 ball speed and swings 128-130 on that particular monitor. His M5/M6 review had him at 175-176 (saw a 177 in there) was with less club speed from his back issue. Not all is lost.

jacobEDGE · January 3, 2019

Sorry if it's been covered, I haven't been on this forum in months.

Will there be a 440/430 option for either model?

MrShield · January 3, 2019

I don’t know why this was very important for someone, but a few pages back in this thread someone said M5/M6 would kick TS3 butt in performance. (Like he already knew that would gonna be the case)

Well, now we know it’s the opposite. Rick had better ballspeed with TS3 (and TS2!) and was also hitting TS3 further. Nuff said! ;-)

getitdaily · January 3, 2019

Sorry if it's been covered, I haven't been on this forum in months.

Will there be a 440/430 option for either model?

M5 tour will be 435cc. That's it.

jcg132 · January 3, 2019

Hard pass. Will be looking at Callaway, PXG, and Ping for a new driver this year.

Edit: Maybe even Titleist or Cobra !

jokerusn · January 3, 2019

Does anyone know if the M5 fw will be compatible with M3 tips?

Yes M5 tips will be compatible with M3 tips.

Thanks, that's what I thought but they mentioned a tip with 12 positions and I was thinking "the current one has 12 positions... why mention this now??? Is it different?" and it made me doubt myself.

It's not different at all, just TM jargon.....

As we used to say in the Navy, "someone got an eval bullet out of that one."

Puttfordough91 · January 3, 2019

Even though it could vary depending on the person and how their previous m1/m2/m3/m4 fit them its still pretty disappointing to see a couple of videos and not see any ball speed jumps after taylormade claiming that we will all get faster.

You'd have to be extremely naive to believe center strikes were going to be faster.

just hopeful ha

BearQ · January 3, 2019

I actually snorted coffee from my nose mid drink, when Rick explained how TaylorMade are so fast they had to inject resin to dampen down the speed.
Frigging hilarious!!

Please God no-one actually believes this bs???

All he has is a platform. His golf IQ won’t impress anyone. His game is also surpassed by most decent ajga kids. Don’t know how he became so popular...

That being said it doesn’t take much to be a leader in any field now

dlamb83 · January 3, 2019

550 and 500 price tag!!! Not to mention the price when a premium shaft is added. Nah!! I’ll pass. But someone may like them.

TK3309 · January 3, 2019

I was very fortunate to be invited out to the TaylorMade 2019 Product Launch, along with jll62, to view the new lineup. It was a whirlwind 2 days that flew by. Our experience kicked off Wednesday night with the keynote presentation giving us the first glimpse at the new products. The following day was spent at the Kingdom and TaylorMade HQ. The morning consisted of a deep dive into the new products and Q&A with product development at The Kingdom. In the afternoon we were able to get our hands on the new product and start testing. Read along for my fitting experience.

EVERYBODY GETS FASTER. That is what TaylorMade is claiming with the 2019 M5 and M6. With manufacturing tolerances, it was very difficult to have every head at, or near the legal COR limit. It was just not possible. TaylorMade started asking themselves how they could live in the space between legal limit and “Tour Spicy Heads” and make every head as close to the legal limit as possible.

The way to get the heads as close to the legal limit as possible is to make the head illegal and then bring it back to conforming. To do that, resin is added behind the face to bring the club head back under the COR limit where the screws are on the face. The max amount inserted into a head is 1-2g, so it is a very minimal amount. This is NOT speed foam. With the COR limit being pushed to the limit, the sweet spot on the M5 and M6 drivers grew 66%.

The question was posed how durable the screws on the face are and if there would be any performance hindrances while making impact on the screws. TaylorMade tested the screws and there were no issues with durability and hitting it on the screws as opposed to hitting it anywhere else on the face. Also, Twist Face will again be incorporated in both the M5 and M6 drivers. The feedback and testing were so positive they do not see a driver that won’t have Twist Face technology moving forward.

DRIVING FITTING

I currently game a TaylorMade M3 9.5 with a Fujikura Motore Tour 7.2X set in the lower position. I prefer the lower setting because I like way the club sits at address. I was fit into the Motore Tour shaft a while back and have not found anything that has beat it out. My swing speed is 113, ball speed 165ish and my driver length off the tee is typically in the 285-295 yard range.

I initially wanted to try a couple other shafts besides the Atmos which is most comparable to my current shaft. I started with the M5 460 9.0 with the HZRDUS Smoke and the Pro Orange to start out. The M5 460 set up great and I really liked the matte black carbon finish on top. I was consistently getting numbers in the 165-167 ball speed range, but I could tell both shafts weren’t a fit for me.

I then switched into the Atmos 6X and I had a feeling this was going to be the right fit since I had been fit into my current setup for a while now. The first shot with the Atmos ball speed went up to 169 which was already a 4mph increase from my current setup. I was repeatedly getting 169mph ball speed and it became a fun game with the fitters trying to push to the 170mph ball speed mark. A few shots in I hit 170 ball speed, but my spin numbers were still a bit high. RPM was around 2600. We toyed with some of the weight configurations and settled on 1 weight completely up front and the other was in the way back toe for fade.

I have always been a bit of a high spin player, but I play the TP5 because I love the feel and spin around the green. The TP5 gives me the window I like to see with all my clubs and more of a lower flight. I was hitting all my initial shots with the 2019 TP5 and my fitters Joe and Tommy (awesome guys) said I need to give the TP5X more of a shot. I switched to the TP5X and was hitting 172 ball speed instantly! Total yardage of 300 yards and I was up 7mph at this point with just the combination of the 2019 ball and M5 head. The spin was in a respectable spot (2400 range) and launch at 13 degrees with the M5 460 9.0 but Joe insisted, “Hold on one second let me grab something”, and he came back 2 minutes later with a M5 Tour 9.0 head.

The M5 Tour is a 435cc head and it was the only one they had on site at The Kingdom. None of the Tour players had hit the M5 Tour at this point. Joe said, “Let’s try the M5 Tour to bring that spin down”. Until the original M1, I played a smaller headed driver for years. Right away looking down I thought it looked great. It is a compact, pear shaped head. It did look small after being used to the 460cc head for years now. First shot with the M5 Tour resulted in these numbers...

175 ball speed and spin down to 1939! Like I noted earlier I’m typically shy of 300 yards and can push it to 300 when I catch one perfectly. I have never seen numbers like this in my life and I’ve been fitted multiple times.

The M5 Tour has improved aerodynamics resulting in more speed and I saw the benefits instantly. My miss is typically low on the face too, so that is another positive for me with the M5 Tour head. I was worried about forgiveness, but I hit 15 shots with this setup to really test it and saw no downfall from forgiveness compared to the 460cc. I was repeatedly getting 174-175mph speed and spin in the 2000-2100 range.

In the matter of 30 minutes I went from my M3 with a very similar shaft (down from 7x to 6x though), new TP5X ball and the new M5 Tour head and gained 10mph ball speed! I know people might think that’s impossible saying I wasn’t optimized before, but I was darn close in my prior fittings. I would agree that the TP5 was a bad fit for me with the driver before. My shaft change was minimal, the new ball promoting ball speed is no joke (also tested with 6 irons and saw similar gains) and if you’re a high spin player, the M5 Tour head is a must try. I would attribute the M5 technology to a 3mph gain, M5 Tour head for 3mph, 2019 ball 2mph, and another 2mph with a touch lighter shaft.

The one negative I did see with both the M5 and M6 was the standard length coming in at 45.75”. All manufactures are moving to a longer stock shaft but I don’t think the average golfer needs a driver that long and can only be a hinderance. Make sure when getting fit, to get fit for the proper length.

FAIRWAY WOODS

Both the M5 and M6 fairway woods will have Twist Face technology. TaylorMade went through extensive testing to get the Twist Face correct as the fairway wood was a much different animal than the driver in getting the Twist Face correct. The driver incorporates one degree of twist in the face, the fairway woods will have 1.5 degrees of twist. The Twist Face in the fairways results in a reduction of 15 yards of left to right on shots hit off center.

The M5 line will feature a titanium head which I think will be a very welcome addition to the lineup. Along with the new titanium head the M5 3 wood will feature a new movable weight system which is a 65g steel movable weight. The movable weight makes up 30% of the total head weight. In the morning I held the weight not in the club and it’s incredible just how heavy it is. There are 7 different positions the weight can be moved to; neutral, 3 fade positions and 3 draw positions. The new M5 fairway line doesn’t have a HL option because the new titanium head promotes a higher launch. There will be a 14 degree (Rocket), 15 degree and an 18 degree option in the M5. The M6 will be avaialbe in 14 (Rocket), 15, 18, 21 and 24 degrees.

FAIRWAY WOOD TESTING

As I do with my driver, I play my fairway wood on the lower setting because I like the look of a more open club face at address. I currently play a M1 2017 HL set to lower so it’s at 15 degrees of loft. I started with the M5 3 wood 15 degree head set 2 clicks open to about 14 degree. At the start I moved the 65g weight all the way to the fade position just to test. My 2017 M1 has the weight one click toward fade. It was incredible how much influence the weight had on the shape of the shot. I hit a couple and they were all a slice. We moved it just to one click toward fade after that and it dialed in to about a 5 yard fade I liked to see. The amount of influence the new 65g weight is like nothing I have experienced with a club yet.

Right now, I hit my 3 wood 250 yards but I was seeing 260 yards consistently with the M5. I was very impressed with the feel, turf interaction and how straight I was hitting the M5 once the weight settings were adjusted. The only shaft available to me was a Tour AD-GP 7x which fit well for me, but I was surprised at how stout it was. It was an easy decision for me with the fairway as I knew right away I’d be getting a 15 degree M5 head and using my old Speeder 757 shaft that I’ve had in my fairway wood for years.

For fun my fitters Joe and Tommy said let’s try the Rocket head. It was a missile off the club. If you’re someone who likes to hit fairway woods off the tee and hit them better than drivers, the Rocket is the club to test. With the loft sleeve set to lower, I was seeing 272 yards carry and 286 yards total! For me personally that shot doesn’t fit into what I need in a 3 wood, but it was incredible the numbers I was seeing with a fairway wood.

It was a bit of a surprise seeing a $399 price tag for the M5 fairways. I wasn’t expecting a $100 increase and I can see how that could turn people off, but with the addition of Twist Face, a titanium head and the 65g movable it’s hard to offer that type of high end product without a price increase. Add in the 12 different loft sleeve adjustments and there isn’t another fairway wood on the market with this much adjustability. You won’t walk away disappointed from the M5 and M6 fairways after you test.

For my full review including the new TP5 and TP5X check it out here. https://community.taylormadegolf.com/t5/Blog/TaylorMade-Product-Launch-Experience/ba-p/4878

(Updated link)

ignitewvu · January 3, 2019

By far the best review I have seen on the M5

BearQ · January 3, 2019

Haha the teaser pics and the hype is quickly dwindled upon release

What’s feelings on the m5 fairway face depth/shape?

I’m feeling better than ever about my M2 tour 15* en route

KC4441 · January 3, 2019

I was very fortunate to be invited out to the TaylorMade 2019 Product Launch, along with jll62, to view the new lineup. It was a whirlwind 2 days that flew by. Our experience kicked off Wednesday night with the keynote presentation giving us the first glimpse at the new products. The following day was spent at the Kingdom and TaylorMade HQ. The morning consisted of a deep dive into the new products and Q&A with product development at The Kingdom. In the afternoon we were able to get our hands on the new product and start testing. Read along for my fitting experience.

EVERYBODY GETS FASTER. That is what TaylorMade is claiming with the 2019 M5 and M6. With manufacturing tolerances, it was very difficult to have every head at, or near the legal COR limit. It was just not possible. TaylorMade started asking themselves how they could live in the space between legal limit and “Tour Spicy Heads” and make every head as close to the legal limit as possible.

The way to get the heads as close to the legal limit as possible is to make the head illegal and then bring it back to conforming. To do that, resin is added behind the face to bring the club head back under the COR limit where the screws are on the face. The max amount inserted into a head is 1-2g, so it is a very minimal amount. This is NOT speed foam. With the COR limit being pushed to the limit, the sweet spot on the M5 and M6 drivers grew 66%.

The question was posed how durable the screws on the face are and if there would be any performance hindrances while making impact on the screws. TaylorMade tested the screws and there were no issues with durability and hitting it on the screws as opposed to hitting it anywhere else on the face. Also, Twist Face will again be incorporated in both the M5 and M6 drivers. The feedback and testing were so positive they do not see a driver that won’t have Twist Face technology moving forward.

DRIVING FITTING
I currently game a TaylorMade M3 9.5 with a Fujikura Motore Tour 7.2X set in the lower position. I prefer the lower setting because I like way the club sits at address. I was fit into the Motore Tour shaft a while back and have not found anything that has beat it out. My swing speed is 113, ball speed 165ish and my driver length off the tee is typically in the 285-295 yard range.

I initially wanted to try a couple other shafts besides the Atmos which is most comparable to my current shaft. I started with the M5 460 9.0 with the HZRDUS Smoke and the Pro Orange to start out. The M5 460 set up great and I really liked the matte black carbon finish on top. I was consistently getting numbers in the 165-167 ball speed range, but I could tell both shafts weren’t a fit for me.

I then switched into the Atmos 6X and I had a feeling this was going to be the right fit since I had been fit into my current setup for a while now. The first shot with the Atmos ball speed went up to 169 which was already a 4mph increase from my current setup. I was repeatedly getting 169mph ball speed and it became a fun game with the fitters trying to push to the 170mph ball speed mark. A few shots in I hit 170 ball speed, but my spin numbers were still a bit high. RPM was around 2600. We toyed with some of the weight configurations and settled on 1 weight completely up front and the other was in the way back toe for fade.

I have always been a bit of a high spin player, but I play the TP5 because I love the feel and spin around the green. The TP5 gives me the window I like to see with all my clubs and more of a lower flight. I was hitting all my initial shots with the 2019 TP5 and my fitters Joe and Tommy (awesome guys) said I need to give the TP5X more of a shot. I switched to the TP5X and was hitting 172 ball speed instantly! Total yardage of 300 yards and I was up 7mph at this point with just the combination of the 2019 ball and M5 head. The spin was in a respectable spot (2400 range) and launch at 13 degrees with the M5 460 9.0 but Joe insisted, “Hold on one second let me grab something”, and he came back 2 minutes later with a M5 Tour 9.0 head.

The M5 Tour is a 435cc head and it was the only one they had on site at The Kingdom. None of the Tour players had hit the M5 Tour at this point. Joe said, “Let’s try the M5 Tour to bring that spin down”. Until the original M1, I played a smaller headed driver for years. Right away looking down I thought it looked great. It is a compact, pear shaped head. It did look small after being used to the 460cc head for years now. First shot with the M5 Tour resulted in these numbers...

175 ball speed and spin down to 1939! Like I noted earlier I’m typically shy of 300 yards and can push it to 300 when I catch one perfectly. I have never seen numbers like this in my life and I’ve been fitted multiple times.

The M5 Tour has improved aerodynamics resulting in more speed and I saw the benefits instantly. My miss is typically low on the face too, so that is another positive for me with the M5 Tour head. I was worried about forgiveness, but I hit 15 shots with this setup to really test it and saw no downfall from forgiveness compared to the 460cc. I was repeatedly getting 174-175mph speed and spin in the 2000-2100 range.

In the matter of 30 minutes I went from my M3 with a very similar shaft (down from 7x to 6x though), new TP5X ball and the new M5 Tour head and gained 10mph ball speed! I know people might think that’s impossible saying I wasn’t optimized before, but I was darn close in my prior fittings. I would agree that the TP5 was a bad fit for me with the driver before. My shaft change was minimal, the new ball promoting ball speed is no joke (also tested with 6 irons and saw similar gains) and if you’re a high spin player, the M5 Tour head is a must try. I would attribute the M5 technology to a 3mph gain, M5 Tour head for 3mph, 2019 ball 2mph, and another 2mph with a touch lighter shaft.

The one negative I did see with both the M5 and M6 was the standard length coming in at 45.75”. All manufactures are moving to a longer stock shaft but I don’t think the average golfer needs a driver that long and can only be a hinderance. Make sure when getting fit, to get fit for the proper length.

FAIRWAY WOODS
Both the M5 and M6 fairway woods will have Twist Face technology. TaylorMade went through extensive testing to get the Twist Face correct as the fairway wood was a much different animal than the driver in getting the Twist Face correct. The driver incorporates one degree of twist in the face, the fairway woods will have 1.5 degrees of twist. The Twist Face in the fairways results in a reduction of 15 yards of left to right on shots hit off center.

The M5 line will feature a titanium head which I think will be a very welcome addition to the lineup. Along with the new titanium head the M5 3 wood will feature a new movable weight system which is a 65g steel movable weight. The movable weight makes up 30% of the total head weight. In the morning I held the weight not in the club and it’s incredible just how heavy it is. There are 7 different positions the weight can be moved to; neutral, 3 fade positions and 3 draw positions. The new M5 fairway line doesn’t have a HL option because the new titanium head promotes a higher launch. There will be a 14 degree (Rocket), 15 degree and an 18 degree option in the M5. The M6 will be avaialbe in 14 (Rocket), 15, 18, 21 and 24 degrees.

FAIRWAY WOOD TESTING
As I do with my driver, I play my fairway wood on the lower setting because I like the look of a more open club face at address. I currently play a M1 2017 HL set to lower so it’s at 15 degrees of loft. I started with the M5 3 wood 15 degree head set 2 clicks open to about 14 degree. At the start I moved the 65g weight all the way to the fade position just to test. My 2017 M1 has the weight one click toward fade. It was incredible how much influence the weight had on the shape of the shot. I hit a couple and they were all a slice. We moved it just to one click toward fade after that and it dialed in to about a 5 yard fade I liked to see. The amount of influence the new 65g weight is like nothing I have experienced with a club yet.

Right now, I hit my 3 wood 250 yards but I was seeing 260 yards consistently with the M5. I was very impressed with the feel, turf interaction and how straight I was hitting the M5 once the weight settings were adjusted. The only shaft available to me was a Tour AD-GP 7x which fit well for me, but I was surprised at how stout it was. It was an easy decision for me with the fairway as I knew right away I’d be getting a 15 degree M5 head and using my old Speeder 757 shaft that I’ve had in my fairway wood for years.

For fun my fitters Joe and Tommy said let’s try the Rocket head. It was a missile off the club. If you’re someone who likes to hit fairway woods off the tee and hit them better than drivers, the Rocket is the club to test. With the loft sleeve set to lower, I was seeing 272 yards carry and 286 yards total! For me personally that shot doesn’t fit into what I need in a 3 wood, but it was incredible the numbers I was seeing with a fairway wood.

It was a bit of a surprise seeing a $399 price tag for the M5 fairways. I wasn’t expecting a $100 increase and I can see how that could turn people off, but with the addition of Twist Face, a titanium head and the 65g movable it’s hard to offer that type of high end product without a price increase. Add in the 12 different loft sleeve adjustments and there isn’t another fairway wood on the market with this much adjustability. You won’t walk away disappointed from the M5 and M6 fairways after you test.

For my full review including the new TP5 and TP5X check it out here. https://community.ta...ience/ba-p/4746

Awesome write up!

MrShield · January 3, 2019

Anyone else see the obvious issue with producing an illegal club, then use resin to make it legal again?

How many clubs with the resin removed will we see out there in the wild? There will be no way to see that from the outside of the club. Probably won’t be an issue on PGA Tour but on smaller national tours or even my own hobby tour with the boys :-)

Edit: Wanna bet how many hours before we have video tutorial on how to remove the resin?

jokerusn · January 3, 2019

I was very fortunate to be invited out to the TaylorMade 2019 Product Launch, along with jll62, to view the new lineup. It was a whirlwind 2 days that flew by. Our experience kicked off Wednesday night with the keynote presentation giving us the first glimpse at the new products. The following day was spent at the Kingdom and TaylorMade HQ. The morning consisted of a deep dive into the new products and Q&A with product development at The Kingdom. In the afternoon we were able to get our hands on the new product and start testing. Read along for my fitting experience.

EVERYBODY GETS FASTER. That is what TaylorMade is claiming with the 2019 M5 and M6. With manufacturing tolerances, it was very difficult to have every head at, or near the legal COR limit. It was just not possible. TaylorMade started asking themselves how they could live in the space between legal limit and “Tour Spicy Heads” and make every head as close to the legal limit as possible.

The way to get the heads as close to the legal limit as possible is to make the head illegal and then bring it back to conforming. To do that, resin is added behind the face to bring the club head back under the COR limit where the screws are on the face. The max amount inserted into a head is 1-2g, so it is a very minimal amount. This is NOT speed foam. With the COR limit being pushed to the limit, the sweet spot on the M5 and M6 drivers grew 66%.

The question was posed how durable the screws on the face are and if there would be any performance hindrances while making impact on the screws. TaylorMade tested the screws and there were no issues with durability and hitting it on the screws as opposed to hitting it anywhere else on the face. Also, Twist Face will again be incorporated in both the M5 and M6 drivers. The feedback and testing were so positive they do not see a driver that won’t have Twist Face technology moving forward.

DRIVING FITTING
I currently game a TaylorMade M3 9.5 with a Fujikura Motore Tour 7.2X set in the lower position. I prefer the lower setting because I like way the club sits at address. I was fit into the Motore Tour shaft a while back and have not found anything that has beat it out. My swing speed is 113, ball speed 165ish and my driver length off the tee is typically in the 285-295 yard range.

I initially wanted to try a couple other shafts besides the Atmos which is most comparable to my current shaft. I started with the M5 460 9.0 with the HZRDUS Smoke and the Pro Orange to start out. The M5 460 set up great and I really liked the matte black carbon finish on top. I was consistently getting numbers in the 165-167 ball speed range, but I could tell both shafts weren’t a fit for me.

I then switched into the Atmos 6X and I had a feeling this was going to be the right fit since I had been fit into my current setup for a while now. The first shot with the Atmos ball speed went up to 169 which was already a 4mph increase from my current setup. I was repeatedly getting 169mph ball speed and it became a fun game with the fitters trying to push to the 170mph ball speed mark. A few shots in I hit 170 ball speed, but my spin numbers were still a bit high. RPM was around 2600. We toyed with some of the weight configurations and settled on 1 weight completely up front and the other was in the way back toe for fade.

I have always been a bit of a high spin player, but I play the TP5 because I love the feel and spin around the green. The TP5 gives me the window I like to see with all my clubs and more of a lower flight. I was hitting all my initial shots with the 2019 TP5 and my fitters Joe and Tommy (awesome guys) said I need to give the TP5X more of a shot. I switched to the TP5X and was hitting 172 ball speed instantly! Total yardage of 300 yards and I was up 7mph at this point with just the combination of the 2019 ball and M5 head. The spin was in a respectable spot (2400 range) and launch at 13 degrees with the M5 460 9.0 but Joe insisted, “Hold on one second let me grab something”, and he came back 2 minutes later with a M5 Tour 9.0 head.

The M5 Tour is a 435cc head and it was the only one they had on site at The Kingdom. None of the Tour players had hit the M5 Tour at this point. Joe said, “Let’s try the M5 Tour to bring that spin down”. Until the original M1, I played a smaller headed driver for years. Right away looking down I thought it looked great. It is a compact, pear shaped head. It did look small after being used to the 460cc head for years now. First shot with the M5 Tour resulted in these numbers...

175 ball speed and spin down to 1939! Like I noted earlier I’m typically shy of 300 yards and can push it to 300 when I catch one perfectly. I have never seen numbers like this in my life and I’ve been fitted multiple times.

The M5 Tour has improved aerodynamics resulting in more speed and I saw the benefits instantly. My miss is typically low on the face too, so that is another positive for me with the M5 Tour head. I was worried about forgiveness, but I hit 15 shots with this setup to really test it and saw no downfall from forgiveness compared to the 460cc. I was repeatedly getting 174-175mph speed and spin in the 2000-2100 range.

In the matter of 30 minutes I went from my M3 with a very similar shaft (down from 7x to 6x though), new TP5X ball and the new M5 Tour head and gained 10mph ball speed! I know people might think that’s impossible saying I wasn’t optimized before, but I was darn close in my prior fittings. I would agree that the TP5 was a bad fit for me with the driver before. My shaft change was minimal, the new ball promoting ball speed is no joke (also tested with 6 irons and saw similar gains) and if you’re a high spin player, the M5 Tour head is a must try. I would attribute the M5 technology to a 3mph gain, M5 Tour head for 3mph, 2019 ball 2mph, and another 2mph with a touch lighter shaft.

The one negative I did see with both the M5 and M6 was the standard length coming in at 45.75”. All manufactures are moving to a longer stock shaft but I don’t think the average golfer needs a driver that long and can only be a hinderance. Make sure when getting fit, to get fit for the proper length.

FAIRWAY WOODS
Both the M5 and M6 fairway woods will have Twist Face technology. TaylorMade went through extensive testing to get the Twist Face correct as the fairway wood was a much different animal than the driver in getting the Twist Face correct. The driver incorporates one degree of twist in the face, the fairway woods will have 1.5 degrees of twist. The Twist Face in the fairways results in a reduction of 15 yards of left to right on shots hit off center.

The M5 line will feature a titanium head which I think will be a very welcome addition to the lineup. Along with the new titanium head the M5 3 wood will feature a new movable weight system which is a 65g steel movable weight. The movable weight makes up 30% of the total head weight. In the morning I held the weight not in the club and it’s incredible just how heavy it is. There are 7 different positions the weight can be moved to; neutral, 3 fade positions and 3 draw positions. The new M5 fairway line doesn’t have a HL option because the new titanium head promotes a higher launch. There will be a 14 degree (Rocket), 15 degree and an 18 degree option in the M5. The M6 will be avaialbe in 14 (Rocket), 15, 18, 21 and 24 degrees.

FAIRWAY WOOD TESTING
As I do with my driver, I play my fairway wood on the lower setting because I like the look of a more open club face at address. I currently play a M1 2017 HL set to lower so it’s at 15 degrees of loft. I started with the M5 3 wood 15 degree head set 2 clicks open to about 14 degree. At the start I moved the 65g weight all the way to the fade position just to test. My 2017 M1 has the weight one click toward fade. It was incredible how much influence the weight had on the shape of the shot. I hit a couple and they were all a slice. We moved it just to one click toward fade after that and it dialed in to about a 5 yard fade I liked to see. The amount of influence the new 65g weight is like nothing I have experienced with a club yet.

Right now, I hit my 3 wood 250 yards but I was seeing 260 yards consistently with the M5. I was very impressed with the feel, turf interaction and how straight I was hitting the M5 once the weight settings were adjusted. The only shaft available to me was a Tour AD-GP 7x which fit well for me, but I was surprised at how stout it was. It was an easy decision for me with the fairway as I knew right away I’d be getting a 15 degree M5 head and using my old Speeder 757 shaft that I’ve had in my fairway wood for years.

For fun my fitters Joe and Tommy said let’s try the Rocket head. It was a missile off the club. If you’re someone who likes to hit fairway woods off the tee and hit them better than drivers, the Rocket is the club to test. With the loft sleeve set to lower, I was seeing 272 yards carry and 286 yards total! For me personally that shot doesn’t fit into what I need in a 3 wood, but it was incredible the numbers I was seeing with a fairway wood.

It was a bit of a surprise seeing a $399 price tag for the M5 fairways. I wasn’t expecting a $100 increase and I can see how that could turn people off, but with the addition of Twist Face, a titanium head and the 65g movable it’s hard to offer that type of high end product without a price increase. Add in the 12 different loft sleeve adjustments and there isn’t another fairway wood on the market with this much adjustability. You won’t walk away disappointed from the M5 and M6 fairways after you test.

For my full review including the new TP5 and TP5X check it out here. https://community.ta...ience/ba-p/4746

Thanks for that review! How did the feel of the M5 Ti fw compare to the M1 you play?

DFS PFD · January 3, 2019

Disappointed in shaft options for that price point.

Joker91 · January 3, 2019

Anyone else see the obvious issue with producing an illegal club, then use resin to make it legal again?

How many clubs with the resin removed will we see out there in the wild? There will be no way to see that from the outside of the club. Probably won’t be an issue on PGA Tour but on smaller national tours or even my own hobby tour with the boys :-)

Edit: Wanna bet how many hours before we have video tutorial on how to remove the resin?

People always gonna find a way to cheat

BostonWRX · January 3, 2019

Disappointed in shaft options for that price point.

Where are the shaft options?

bladehunter · January 3, 2019

1.55 smash ? Lol kingdom monitor on peds ?

blink3665 · January 3, 2019

For my particular purposes I'm less concerned about cheating and more concerned about the resin moving around. Wonder what the melting temp on the resin is. I try not to, but I've been known to have to leave my clubs in the car after an early morning (pre work) round. I assume that the resin is thick enough that I don't have to worry about it melting? More like speed foam and less like hotmelt. I'm assuming that's the case because it would be a major QA nightmare if that's not the case.

TK3309 · January 3, 2019

I was very fortunate to be invited out to the TaylorMade 2019 Product Launch, along with jll62, to view the new lineup. It was a whirlwind 2 days that flew by. Our experience kicked off Wednesday night with the keynote presentation giving us the first glimpse at the new products. The following day was spent at the Kingdom and TaylorMade HQ. The morning consisted of a deep dive into the new products and Q&A with product development at The Kingdom. In the afternoon we were able to get our hands on the new product and start testing. Read along for my fitting experience.

EVERYBODY GETS FASTER. That is what TaylorMade is claiming with the 2019 M5 and M6. With manufacturing tolerances, it was very difficult to have every head at, or near the legal COR limit. It was just not possible. TaylorMade started asking themselves how they could live in the space between legal limit and “Tour Spicy Heads” and make every head as close to the legal limit as possible.

The way to get the heads as close to the legal limit as possible is to make the head illegal and then bring it back to conforming. To do that, resin is added behind the face to bring the club head back under the COR limit where the screws are on the face. The max amount inserted into a head is 1-2g, so it is a very minimal amount. This is NOT speed foam. With the COR limit being pushed to the limit, the sweet spot on the M5 and M6 drivers grew 66%.

The question was posed how durable the screws on the face are and if there would be any performance hindrances while making impact on the screws. TaylorMade tested the screws and there were no issues with durability and hitting it on the screws as opposed to hitting it anywhere else on the face. Also, Twist Face will again be incorporated in both the M5 and M6 drivers. The feedback and testing were so positive they do not see a driver that won’t have Twist Face technology moving forward.

DRIVING FITTING
I currently game a TaylorMade M3 9.5 with a Fujikura Motore Tour 7.2X set in the lower position. I prefer the lower setting because I like way the club sits at address. I was fit into the Motore Tour shaft a while back and have not found anything that has beat it out. My swing speed is 113, ball speed 165ish and my driver length off the tee is typically in the 285-295 yard range.

I initially wanted to try a couple other shafts besides the Atmos which is most comparable to my current shaft. I started with the M5 460 9.0 with the HZRDUS Smoke and the Pro Orange to start out. The M5 460 set up great and I really liked the matte black carbon finish on top. I was consistently getting numbers in the 165-167 ball speed range, but I could tell both shafts weren’t a fit for me.

I then switched into the Atmos 6X and I had a feeling this was going to be the right fit since I had been fit into my current setup for a while now. The first shot with the Atmos ball speed went up to 169 which was already a 4mph increase from my current setup. I was repeatedly getting 169mph ball speed and it became a fun game with the fitters trying to push to the 170mph ball speed mark. A few shots in I hit 170 ball speed, but my spin numbers were still a bit high. RPM was around 2600. We toyed with some of the weight configurations and settled on 1 weight completely up front and the other was in the way back toe for fade.

I have always been a bit of a high spin player, but I play the TP5 because I love the feel and spin around the green. The TP5 gives me the window I like to see with all my clubs and more of a lower flight. I was hitting all my initial shots with the 2019 TP5 and my fitters Joe and Tommy (awesome guys) said I need to give the TP5X more of a shot. I switched to the TP5X and was hitting 172 ball speed instantly! Total yardage of 300 yards and I was up 7mph at this point with just the combination of the 2019 ball and M5 head. The spin was in a respectable spot (2400 range) and launch at 13 degrees with the M5 460 9.0 but Joe insisted, “Hold on one second let me grab something”, and he came back 2 minutes later with a M5 Tour 9.0 head.

The M5 Tour is a 435cc head and it was the only one they had on site at The Kingdom. None of the Tour players had hit the M5 Tour at this point. Joe said, “Let’s try the M5 Tour to bring that spin down”. Until the original M1, I played a smaller headed driver for years. Right away looking down I thought it looked great. It is a compact, pear shaped head. It did look small after being used to the 460cc head for years now. First shot with the M5 Tour resulted in these numbers...

175 ball speed and spin down to 1939! Like I noted earlier I’m typically shy of 300 yards and can push it to 300 when I catch one perfectly. I have never seen numbers like this in my life and I’ve been fitted multiple times.

The M5 Tour has improved aerodynamics resulting in more speed and I saw the benefits instantly. My miss is typically low on the face too, so that is another positive for me with the M5 Tour head. I was worried about forgiveness, but I hit 15 shots with this setup to really test it and saw no downfall from forgiveness compared to the 460cc. I was repeatedly getting 174-175mph speed and spin in the 2000-2100 range.

In the matter of 30 minutes I went from my M3 with a very similar shaft (down from 7x to 6x though), new TP5X ball and the new M5 Tour head and gained 10mph ball speed! I know people might think that’s impossible saying I wasn’t optimized before, but I was darn close in my prior fittings. I would agree that the TP5 was a bad fit for me with the driver before. My shaft change was minimal, the new ball promoting ball speed is no joke (also tested with 6 irons and saw similar gains) and if you’re a high spin player, the M5 Tour head is a must try. I would attribute the M5 technology to a 3mph gain, M5 Tour head for 3mph, 2019 ball 2mph, and another 2mph with a touch lighter shaft.

The one negative I did see with both the M5 and M6 was the standard length coming in at 45.75”. All manufactures are moving to a longer stock shaft but I don’t think the average golfer needs a driver that long and can only be a hinderance. Make sure when getting fit, to get fit for the proper length.

FAIRWAY WOODS
Both the M5 and M6 fairway woods will have Twist Face technology. TaylorMade went through extensive testing to get the Twist Face correct as the fairway wood was a much different animal than the driver in getting the Twist Face correct. The driver incorporates one degree of twist in the face, the fairway woods will have 1.5 degrees of twist. The Twist Face in the fairways results in a reduction of 15 yards of left to right on shots hit off center.

The M5 line will feature a titanium head which I think will be a very welcome addition to the lineup. Along with the new titanium head the M5 3 wood will feature a new movable weight system which is a 65g steel movable weight. The movable weight makes up 30% of the total head weight. In the morning I held the weight not in the club and it’s incredible just how heavy it is. There are 7 different positions the weight can be moved to; neutral, 3 fade positions and 3 draw positions. The new M5 fairway line doesn’t have a HL option because the new titanium head promotes a higher launch. There will be a 14 degree (Rocket), 15 degree and an 18 degree option in the M5. The M6 will be avaialbe in 14 (Rocket), 15, 18, 21 and 24 degrees.

FAIRWAY WOOD TESTING
As I do with my driver, I play my fairway wood on the lower setting because I like the look of a more open club face at address. I currently play a M1 2017 HL set to lower so it’s at 15 degrees of loft. I started with the M5 3 wood 15 degree head set 2 clicks open to about 14 degree. At the start I moved the 65g weight all the way to the fade position just to test. My 2017 M1 has the weight one click toward fade. It was incredible how much influence the weight had on the shape of the shot. I hit a couple and they were all a slice. We moved it just to one click toward fade after that and it dialed in to about a 5 yard fade I liked to see. The amount of influence the new 65g weight is like nothing I have experienced with a club yet.

Right now, I hit my 3 wood 250 yards but I was seeing 260 yards consistently with the M5. I was very impressed with the feel, turf interaction and how straight I was hitting the M5 once the weight settings were adjusted. The only shaft available to me was a Tour AD-GP 7x which fit well for me, but I was surprised at how stout it was. It was an easy decision for me with the fairway as I knew right away I’d be getting a 15 degree M5 head and using my old Speeder 757 shaft that I’ve had in my fairway wood for years.

For fun my fitters Joe and Tommy said let’s try the Rocket head. It was a missile off the club. If you’re someone who likes to hit fairway woods off the tee and hit them better than drivers, the Rocket is the club to test. With the loft sleeve set to lower, I was seeing 272 yards carry and 286 yards total! For me personally that shot doesn’t fit into what I need in a 3 wood, but it was incredible the numbers I was seeing with a fairway wood.

It was a bit of a surprise seeing a $399 price tag for the M5 fairways. I wasn’t expecting a $100 increase and I can see how that could turn people off, but with the addition of Twist Face, a titanium head and the 65g movable it’s hard to offer that type of high end product without a price increase. Add in the 12 different loft sleeve adjustments and there isn’t another fairway wood on the market with this much adjustability. You won’t walk away disappointed from the M5 and M6 fairways after you test.

For my full review including the new TP5 and TP5X check it out here. https://community.ta...ience/ba-p/4746

Thanks for that review! How did the feel of the M5 Ti fw compare to the M1 you play?

Definitely had a more crisp feel to me with the titanium head. Not a ton different but it was noticeable in a good way.

ctay61983 · January 3, 2019

Anyone else see the obvious issue with producing an illegal club, then use resin to make it legal again?

How many clubs with the resin removed will we see out there in the wild? There will be no way to see that from the outside of the club. Probably won't be an issue on PGA Tour but on smaller national tours or even my own hobby tour with the boys :-)

Edit: Wanna bet how many hours before we have video tutorial on how to remove the resin?

I read the article from that other site and that was the only thing I was thinking about. I think they may have done it on purpose knowing how easy it'll be to adjust without being easily detected.

Lemonde · January 3, 2019

Rory and DJ using the 460 for the added forgiveness but these 12 handicaps on WRX are shouting they need the smaller tour head because it fits their eye better.
Not to mention pros aren't chasing 1800 spin like a lot of us are for some reason. Many of them find 2,500 to be optimal to keep it in the fairway.

Agree. Now I’m waiting for the in-depth review of the m5 tour! I do like how one of the reviews said the m6 fairway looks a little bigger. I found the m4 to be too small

TK3309 · January 3, 2019

For my particular purposes I'm less concerned about cheating and more concerned about the resin moving around. Wonder what the melting temp on the resin is. I try not to, but I've been known to have to leave my clubs in the car after an early morning (pre work) round. I assume that the resin is thick enough that I don't have to worry about it melting? More like speed foam and less like hotmelt. I'm assuming that's the case because it would be a major QA nightmare if that's not the case.

This won't be something you'll have to worry about. It is a very minimal amount of resin that is put into the face. I'll try and grab a picture of what the resin looks like inside the head.

radiman · January 3, 2019

Rory and DJ using the 460 for the added forgiveness but these 12 handicaps on WRX are shouting they need the smaller tour head because it fits their eye better.
Not to mention pros aren't chasing 1800 spin like a lot of us are for some reason. Many of them find 2,500 to be optimal to keep it in the fairway.

Agree. Now I’m waiting for the in-depth review of the m5 tour! I do like how one of the reviews said the m6 fairway looks a little bigger. I found the m4 to be too small

Looks like the M6 actually has a little bit deeper face than the M5 too.

http://www.golfwrx.com/538690/taylormade-goes-titanium-twist-face-for-m5-m6-fairway-woods/

mBiden2 · January 3, 2019

I was very fortunate to be invited out to the TaylorMade 2019 Product Launch, along with jll62, to view the new lineup. It was a whirlwind 2 days that flew by. Our experience kicked off Wednesday night with the keynote presentation giving us the first glimpse at the new products. The following day was spent at the Kingdom and TaylorMade HQ. The morning consisted of a deep dive into the new products and Q&A with product development at The Kingdom. In the afternoon we were able to get our hands on the new product and start testing. Read along for my fitting experience.

EVERYBODY GETS FASTER. That is what TaylorMade is claiming with the 2019 M5 and M6. With manufacturing tolerances, it was very difficult to have every head at, or near the legal COR limit. It was just not possible. TaylorMade started asking themselves how they could live in the space between legal limit and “Tour Spicy Heads” and make every head as close to the legal limit as possible.

The way to get the heads as close to the legal limit as possible is to make the head illegal and then bring it back to conforming. To do that, resin is added behind the face to bring the club head back under the COR limit where the screws are on the face. The max amount inserted into a head is 1-2g, so it is a very minimal amount. This is NOT speed foam. With the COR limit being pushed to the limit, the sweet spot on the M5 and M6 drivers grew 66%.

The question was posed how durable the screws on the face are and if there would be any performance hindrances while making impact on the screws. TaylorMade tested the screws and there were no issues with durability and hitting it on the screws as opposed to hitting it anywhere else on the face. Also, Twist Face will again be incorporated in both the M5 and M6 drivers. The feedback and testing were so positive they do not see a driver that won’t have Twist Face technology moving forward.

DRIVING FITTING
I currently game a TaylorMade M3 9.5 with a Fujikura Motore Tour 7.2X set in the lower position. I prefer the lower setting because I like way the club sits at address. I was fit into the Motore Tour shaft a while back and have not found anything that has beat it out. My swing speed is 113, ball speed 165ish and my driver length off the tee is typically in the 285-295 yard range.

I initially wanted to try a couple other shafts besides the Atmos which is most comparable to my current shaft. I started with the M5 460 9.0 with the HZRDUS Smoke and the Pro Orange to start out. The M5 460 set up great and I really liked the matte black carbon finish on top. I was consistently getting numbers in the 165-167 ball speed range, but I could tell both shafts weren’t a fit for me.

I then switched into the Atmos 6X and I had a feeling this was going to be the right fit since I had been fit into my current setup for a while now. The first shot with the Atmos ball speed went up to 169 which was already a 4mph increase from my current setup. I was repeatedly getting 169mph ball speed and it became a fun game with the fitters trying to push to the 170mph ball speed mark. A few shots in I hit 170 ball speed, but my spin numbers were still a bit high. RPM was around 2600. We toyed with some of the weight configurations and settled on 1 weight completely up front and the other was in the way back toe for fade.

I have always been a bit of a high spin player, but I play the TP5 because I love the feel and spin around the green. The TP5 gives me the window I like to see with all my clubs and more of a lower flight. I was hitting all my initial shots with the 2019 TP5 and my fitters Joe and Tommy (awesome guys) said I need to give the TP5X more of a shot. I switched to the TP5X and was hitting 172 ball speed instantly! Total yardage of 300 yards and I was up 7mph at this point with just the combination of the 2019 ball and M5 head. The spin was in a respectable spot (2400 range) and launch at 13 degrees with the M5 460 9.0 but Joe insisted, “Hold on one second let me grab something”, and he came back 2 minutes later with a M5 Tour 9.0 head.

The M5 Tour is a 435cc head and it was the only one they had on site at The Kingdom. None of the Tour players had hit the M5 Tour at this point. Joe said, “Let’s try the M5 Tour to bring that spin down”. Until the original M1, I played a smaller headed driver for years. Right away looking down I thought it looked great. It is a compact, pear shaped head. It did look small after being used to the 460cc head for years now. First shot with the M5 Tour resulted in these numbers...

175 ball speed and spin down to 1939! Like I noted earlier I’m typically shy of 300 yards and can push it to 300 when I catch one perfectly. I have never seen numbers like this in my life and I’ve been fitted multiple times.

The M5 Tour has improved aerodynamics resulting in more speed and I saw the benefits instantly. My miss is typically low on the face too, so that is another positive for me with the M5 Tour head. I was worried about forgiveness, but I hit 15 shots with this setup to really test it and saw no downfall from forgiveness compared to the 460cc. I was repeatedly getting 174-175mph speed and spin in the 2000-2100 range.

In the matter of 30 minutes I went from my M3 with a very similar shaft (down from 7x to 6x though), new TP5X ball and the new M5 Tour head and gained 10mph ball speed! I know people might think that’s impossible saying I wasn’t optimized before, but I was darn close in my prior fittings. I would agree that the TP5 was a bad fit for me with the driver before. My shaft change was minimal, the new ball promoting ball speed is no joke (also tested with 6 irons and saw similar gains) and if you’re a high spin player, the M5 Tour head is a must try. I would attribute the M5 technology to a 3mph gain, M5 Tour head for 3mph, 2019 ball 2mph, and another 2mph with a touch lighter shaft.

The one negative I did see with both the M5 and M6 was the standard length coming in at 45.75”. All manufactures are moving to a longer stock shaft but I don’t think the average golfer needs a driver that long and can only be a hinderance. Make sure when getting fit, to get fit for the proper length.

FAIRWAY WOODS
Both the M5 and M6 fairway woods will have Twist Face technology. TaylorMade went through extensive testing to get the Twist Face correct as the fairway wood was a much different animal than the driver in getting the Twist Face correct. The driver incorporates one degree of twist in the face, the fairway woods will have 1.5 degrees of twist. The Twist Face in the fairways results in a reduction of 15 yards of left to right on shots hit off center.

The M5 line will feature a titanium head which I think will be a very welcome addition to the lineup. Along with the new titanium head the M5 3 wood will feature a new movable weight system which is a 65g steel movable weight. The movable weight makes up 30% of the total head weight. In the morning I held the weight not in the club and it’s incredible just how heavy it is. There are 7 different positions the weight can be moved to; neutral, 3 fade positions and 3 draw positions. The new M5 fairway line doesn’t have a HL option because the new titanium head promotes a higher launch. There will be a 14 degree (Rocket), 15 degree and an 18 degree option in the M5. The M6 will be avaialbe in 14 (Rocket), 15, 18, 21 and 24 degrees.

FAIRWAY WOOD TESTING
As I do with my driver, I play my fairway wood on the lower setting because I like the look of a more open club face at address. I currently play a M1 2017 HL set to lower so it’s at 15 degrees of loft. I started with the M5 3 wood 15 degree head set 2 clicks open to about 14 degree. At the start I moved the 65g weight all the way to the fade position just to test. My 2017 M1 has the weight one click toward fade. It was incredible how much influence the weight had on the shape of the shot. I hit a couple and they were all a slice. We moved it just to one click toward fade after that and it dialed in to about a 5 yard fade I liked to see. The amount of influence the new 65g weight is like nothing I have experienced with a club yet.

Right now, I hit my 3 wood 250 yards but I was seeing 260 yards consistently with the M5. I was very impressed with the feel, turf interaction and how straight I was hitting the M5 once the weight settings were adjusted. The only shaft available to me was a Tour AD-GP 7x which fit well for me, but I was surprised at how stout it was. It was an easy decision for me with the fairway as I knew right away I’d be getting a 15 degree M5 head and using my old Speeder 757 shaft that I’ve had in my fairway wood for years.

For fun my fitters Joe and Tommy said let’s try the Rocket head. It was a missile off the club. If you’re someone who likes to hit fairway woods off the tee and hit them better than drivers, the Rocket is the club to test. With the loft sleeve set to lower, I was seeing 272 yards carry and 286 yards total! For me personally that shot doesn’t fit into what I need in a 3 wood, but it was incredible the numbers I was seeing with a fairway wood.

It was a bit of a surprise seeing a $399 price tag for the M5 fairways. I wasn’t expecting a $100 increase and I can see how that could turn people off, but with the addition of Twist Face, a titanium head and the 65g movable it’s hard to offer that type of high end product without a price increase. Add in the 12 different loft sleeve adjustments and there isn’t another fairway wood on the market with this much adjustability. You won’t walk away disappointed from the M5 and M6 fairways after you test.

For my full review including the new TP5 and TP5X check it out here. https://community.ta...ience/ba-p/4746

Amazing write up! I’m def going to have to give the M5 tour head a shot since my spin is usually around 2800-3000.

Did they by chance show you the custom shaft options that they are going to offer?

lvmike · January 3, 2019

I was very fortunate to be invited out to the TaylorMade 2019 Product Launch, along with jll62, to view the new lineup. It was a whirlwind 2 days that flew by. Our experience kicked off Wednesday night with the keynote presentation giving us the first glimpse at the new products. The following day was spent at the Kingdom and TaylorMade HQ. The morning consisted of a deep dive into the new products and Q&A with product development at The Kingdom. In the afternoon we were able to get our hands on the new product and start testing. Read along for my fitting experience.

EVERYBODY GETS FASTER. That is what TaylorMade is claiming with the 2019 M5 and M6. With manufacturing tolerances, it was very difficult to have every head at, or near the legal COR limit. It was just not possible. TaylorMade started asking themselves how they could live in the space between legal limit and “Tour Spicy Heads” and make every head as close to the legal limit as possible.

The way to get the heads as close to the legal limit as possible is to make the head illegal and then bring it back to conforming. To do that, resin is added behind the face to bring the club head back under the COR limit where the screws are on the face. The max amount inserted into a head is 1-2g, so it is a very minimal amount. This is NOT speed foam. With the COR limit being pushed to the limit, the sweet spot on the M5 and M6 drivers grew 66%.

The question was posed how durable the screws on the face are and if there would be any performance hindrances while making impact on the screws. TaylorMade tested the screws and there were no issues with durability and hitting it on the screws as opposed to hitting it anywhere else on the face. Also, Twist Face will again be incorporated in both the M5 and M6 drivers. The feedback and testing were so positive they do not see a driver that won’t have Twist Face technology moving forward.

DRIVING FITTING
I currently game a TaylorMade M3 9.5 with a Fujikura Motore Tour 7.2X set in the lower position. I prefer the lower setting because I like way the club sits at address. I was fit into the Motore Tour shaft a while back and have not found anything that has beat it out. My swing speed is 113, ball speed 165ish and my driver length off the tee is typically in the 285-295 yard range.

I initially wanted to try a couple other shafts besides the Atmos which is most comparable to my current shaft. I started with the M5 460 9.0 with the HZRDUS Smoke and the Pro Orange to start out. The M5 460 set up great and I really liked the matte black carbon finish on top. I was consistently getting numbers in the 165-167 ball speed range, but I could tell both shafts weren’t a fit for me.

I then switched into the Atmos 6X and I had a feeling this was going to be the right fit since I had been fit into my current setup for a while now. The first shot with the Atmos ball speed went up to 169 which was already a 4mph increase from my current setup. I was repeatedly getting 169mph ball speed and it became a fun game with the fitters trying to push to the 170mph ball speed mark. A few shots in I hit 170 ball speed, but my spin numbers were still a bit high. RPM was around 2600. We toyed with some of the weight configurations and settled on 1 weight completely up front and the other was in the way back toe for fade.

I have always been a bit of a high spin player, but I play the TP5 because I love the feel and spin around the green. The TP5 gives me the window I like to see with all my clubs and more of a lower flight. I was hitting all my initial shots with the 2019 TP5 and my fitters Joe and Tommy (awesome guys) said I need to give the TP5X more of a shot. I switched to the TP5X and was hitting 172 ball speed instantly! Total yardage of 300 yards and I was up 7mph at this point with just the combination of the 2019 ball and M5 head. The spin was in a respectable spot (2400 range) and launch at 13 degrees with the M5 460 9.0 but Joe insisted, “Hold on one second let me grab something”, and he came back 2 minutes later with a M5 Tour 9.0 head.

The M5 Tour is a 435cc head and it was the only one they had on site at The Kingdom. None of the Tour players had hit the M5 Tour at this point. Joe said, “Let’s try the M5 Tour to bring that spin down”. Until the original M1, I played a smaller headed driver for years. Right away looking down I thought it looked great. It is a compact, pear shaped head. It did look small after being used to the 460cc head for years now. First shot with the M5 Tour resulted in these numbers...

175 ball speed and spin down to 1939! Like I noted earlier I’m typically shy of 300 yards and can push it to 300 when I catch one perfectly. I have never seen numbers like this in my life and I’ve been fitted multiple times.

The M5 Tour has improved aerodynamics resulting in more speed and I saw the benefits instantly. My miss is typically low on the face too, so that is another positive for me with the M5 Tour head. I was worried about forgiveness, but I hit 15 shots with this setup to really test it and saw no downfall from forgiveness compared to the 460cc. I was repeatedly getting 174-175mph speed and spin in the 2000-2100 range.

In the matter of 30 minutes I went from my M3 with a very similar shaft (down from 7x to 6x though), new TP5X ball and the new M5 Tour head and gained 10mph ball speed! I know people might think that’s impossible saying I wasn’t optimized before, but I was darn close in my prior fittings. I would agree that the TP5 was a bad fit for me with the driver before. My shaft change was minimal, the new ball promoting ball speed is no joke (also tested with 6 irons and saw similar gains) and if you’re a high spin player, the M5 Tour head is a must try. I would attribute the M5 technology to a 3mph gain, M5 Tour head for 3mph, 2019 ball 2mph, and another 2mph with a touch lighter shaft.

The one negative I did see with both the M5 and M6 was the standard length coming in at 45.75”. All manufactures are moving to a longer stock shaft but I don’t think the average golfer needs a driver that long and can only be a hinderance. Make sure when getting fit, to get fit for the proper length.

FAIRWAY WOODS
Both the M5 and M6 fairway woods will have Twist Face technology. TaylorMade went through extensive testing to get the Twist Face correct as the fairway wood was a much different animal than the driver in getting the Twist Face correct. The driver incorporates one degree of twist in the face, the fairway woods will have 1.5 degrees of twist. The Twist Face in the fairways results in a reduction of 15 yards of left to right on shots hit off center.

The M5 line will feature a titanium head which I think will be a very welcome addition to the lineup. Along with the new titanium head the M5 3 wood will feature a new movable weight system which is a 65g steel movable weight. The movable weight makes up 30% of the total head weight. In the morning I held the weight not in the club and it’s incredible just how heavy it is. There are 7 different positions the weight can be moved to; neutral, 3 fade positions and 3 draw positions. The new M5 fairway line doesn’t have a HL option because the new titanium head promotes a higher launch. There will be a 14 degree (Rocket), 15 degree and an 18 degree option in the M5. The M6 will be avaialbe in 14 (Rocket), 15, 18, 21 and 24 degrees.

FAIRWAY WOOD TESTING
As I do with my driver, I play my fairway wood on the lower setting because I like the look of a more open club face at address. I currently play a M1 2017 HL set to lower so it’s at 15 degrees of loft. I started with the M5 3 wood 15 degree head set 2 clicks open to about 14 degree. At the start I moved the 65g weight all the way to the fade position just to test. My 2017 M1 has the weight one click toward fade. It was incredible how much influence the weight had on the shape of the shot. I hit a couple and they were all a slice. We moved it just to one click toward fade after that and it dialed in to about a 5 yard fade I liked to see. The amount of influence the new 65g weight is like nothing I have experienced with a club yet.

Right now, I hit my 3 wood 250 yards but I was seeing 260 yards consistently with the M5. I was very impressed with the feel, turf interaction and how straight I was hitting the M5 once the weight settings were adjusted. The only shaft available to me was a Tour AD-GP 7x which fit well for me, but I was surprised at how stout it was. It was an easy decision for me with the fairway as I knew right away I’d be getting a 15 degree M5 head and using my old Speeder 757 shaft that I’ve had in my fairway wood for years.

For fun my fitters Joe and Tommy said let’s try the Rocket head. It was a missile off the club. If you’re someone who likes to hit fairway woods off the tee and hit them better than drivers, the Rocket is the club to test. With the loft sleeve set to lower, I was seeing 272 yards carry and 286 yards total! For me personally that shot doesn’t fit into what I need in a 3 wood, but it was incredible the numbers I was seeing with a fairway wood.

It was a bit of a surprise seeing a $399 price tag for the M5 fairways. I wasn’t expecting a $100 increase and I can see how that could turn people off, but with the addition of Twist Face, a titanium head and the 65g movable it’s hard to offer that type of high end product without a price increase. Add in the 12 different loft sleeve adjustments and there isn’t another fairway wood on the market with this much adjustability. You won’t walk away disappointed from the M5 and M6 fairways after you test.

For my full review including the new TP5 and TP5X check it out here. https://community.ta...ience/ba-p/4746

Thank you! Really nicely done! I appreciate the detail, breakdown of each component, and what you think made a difference.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that you got to hit the M5 Tour and found no big difference in forgiveness. That’s the one I have my eye on due to being a high spin guy. I’ve been wavering on getting the M3 440 but think I’ll wait now.

Thanks again for a well put together review.

Lemonde · January 3, 2019

I was very fortunate to be invited out to the TaylorMade 2019 Product Launch, along with jll62, to view the new lineup. It was a whirlwind 2 days that flew by. Our experience kicked off Wednesday night with the keynote presentation giving us the first glimpse at the new products. The following day was spent at the Kingdom and TaylorMade HQ. The morning consisted of a deep dive into the new products and Q&A with product development at The Kingdom. In the afternoon we were able to get our hands on the new product and start testing. Read along for my fitting experience.

EVERYBODY GETS FASTER. That is what TaylorMade is claiming with the 2019 M5 and M6. With manufacturing tolerances, it was very difficult to have every head at, or near the legal COR limit. It was just not possible. TaylorMade started asking themselves how they could live in the space between legal limit and “Tour Spicy Heads” and make every head as close to the legal limit as possible.

The way to get the heads as close to the legal limit as possible is to make the head illegal and then bring it back to conforming. To do that, resin is added behind the face to bring the club head back under the COR limit where the screws are on the face. The max amount inserted into a head is 1-2g, so it is a very minimal amount. This is NOT speed foam. With the COR limit being pushed to the limit, the sweet spot on the M5 and M6 drivers grew 66%.

The question was posed how durable the screws on the face are and if there would be any performance hindrances while making impact on the screws. TaylorMade tested the screws and there were no issues with durability and hitting it on the screws as opposed to hitting it anywhere else on the face. Also, Twist Face will again be incorporated in both the M5 and M6 drivers. The feedback and testing were so positive they do not see a driver that won’t have Twist Face technology moving forward.

DRIVING FITTING
I currently game a TaylorMade M3 9.5 with a Fujikura Motore Tour 7.2X set in the lower position. I prefer the lower setting because I like way the club sits at address. I was fit into the Motore Tour shaft a while back and have not found anything that has beat it out. My swing speed is 113, ball speed 165ish and my driver length off the tee is typically in the 285-295 yard range.

I initially wanted to try a couple other shafts besides the Atmos which is most comparable to my current shaft. I started with the M5 460 9.0 with the HZRDUS Smoke and the Pro Orange to start out. The M5 460 set up great and I really liked the matte black carbon finish on top. I was consistently getting numbers in the 165-167 ball speed range, but I could tell both shafts weren’t a fit for me.

I then switched into the Atmos 6X and I had a feeling this was going to be the right fit since I had been fit into my current setup for a while now. The first shot with the Atmos ball speed went up to 169 which was already a 4mph increase from my current setup. I was repeatedly getting 169mph ball speed and it became a fun game with the fitters trying to push to the 170mph ball speed mark. A few shots in I hit 170 ball speed, but my spin numbers were still a bit high. RPM was around 2600. We toyed with some of the weight configurations and settled on 1 weight completely up front and the other was in the way back toe for fade.

I have always been a bit of a high spin player, but I play the TP5 because I love the feel and spin around the green. The TP5 gives me the window I like to see with all my clubs and more of a lower flight. I was hitting all my initial shots with the 2019 TP5 and my fitters Joe and Tommy (awesome guys) said I need to give the TP5X more of a shot. I switched to the TP5X and was hitting 172 ball speed instantly! Total yardage of 300 yards and I was up 7mph at this point with just the combination of the 2019 ball and M5 head. The spin was in a respectable spot (2400 range) and launch at 13 degrees with the M5 460 9.0 but Joe insisted, “Hold on one second let me grab something”, and he came back 2 minutes later with a M5 Tour 9.0 head.

The M5 Tour is a 435cc head and it was the only one they had on site at The Kingdom. None of the Tour players had hit the M5 Tour at this point. Joe said, “Let’s try the M5 Tour to bring that spin down”. Until the original M1, I played a smaller headed driver for years. Right away looking down I thought it looked great. It is a compact, pear shaped head. It did look small after being used to the 460cc head for years now. First shot with the M5 Tour resulted in these numbers...

175 ball speed and spin down to 1939! Like I noted earlier I’m typically shy of 300 yards and can push it to 300 when I catch one perfectly. I have never seen numbers like this in my life and I’ve been fitted multiple times.

The M5 Tour has improved aerodynamics resulting in more speed and I saw the benefits instantly. My miss is typically low on the face too, so that is another positive for me with the M5 Tour head. I was worried about forgiveness, but I hit 15 shots with this setup to really test it and saw no downfall from forgiveness compared to the 460cc. I was repeatedly getting 174-175mph speed and spin in the 2000-2100 range.

In the matter of 30 minutes I went from my M3 with a very similar shaft (down from 7x to 6x though), new TP5X ball and the new M5 Tour head and gained 10mph ball speed! I know people might think that’s impossible saying I wasn’t optimized before, but I was darn close in my prior fittings. I would agree that the TP5 was a bad fit for me with the driver before. My shaft change was minimal, the new ball promoting ball speed is no joke (also tested with 6 irons and saw similar gains) and if you’re a high spin player, the M5 Tour head is a must try. I would attribute the M5 technology to a 3mph gain, M5 Tour head for 3mph, 2019 ball 2mph, and another 2mph with a touch lighter shaft.

The one negative I did see with both the M5 and M6 was the standard length coming in at 45.75”. All manufactures are moving to a longer stock shaft but I don’t think the average golfer needs a driver that long and can only be a hinderance. Make sure when getting fit, to get fit for the proper length.

FAIRWAY WOODS
Both the M5 and M6 fairway woods will have Twist Face technology. TaylorMade went through extensive testing to get the Twist Face correct as the fairway wood was a much different animal than the driver in getting the Twist Face correct. The driver incorporates one degree of twist in the face, the fairway woods will have 1.5 degrees of twist. The Twist Face in the fairways results in a reduction of 15 yards of left to right on shots hit off center.

The M5 line will feature a titanium head which I think will be a very welcome addition to the lineup. Along with the new titanium head the M5 3 wood will feature a new movable weight system which is a 65g steel movable weight. The movable weight makes up 30% of the total head weight. In the morning I held the weight not in the club and it’s incredible just how heavy it is. There are 7 different positions the weight can be moved to; neutral, 3 fade positions and 3 draw positions. The new M5 fairway line doesn’t have a HL option because the new titanium head promotes a higher launch. There will be a 14 degree (Rocket), 15 degree and an 18 degree option in the M5. The M6 will be avaialbe in 14 (Rocket), 15, 18, 21 and 24 degrees.

FAIRWAY WOOD TESTING
As I do with my driver, I play my fairway wood on the lower setting because I like the look of a more open club face at address. I currently play a M1 2017 HL set to lower so it’s at 15 degrees of loft. I started with the M5 3 wood 15 degree head set 2 clicks open to about 14 degree. At the start I moved the 65g weight all the way to the fade position just to test. My 2017 M1 has the weight one click toward fade. It was incredible how much influence the weight had on the shape of the shot. I hit a couple and they were all a slice. We moved it just to one click toward fade after that and it dialed in to about a 5 yard fade I liked to see. The amount of influence the new 65g weight is like nothing I have experienced with a club yet.

Right now, I hit my 3 wood 250 yards but I was seeing 260 yards consistently with the M5. I was very impressed with the feel, turf interaction and how straight I was hitting the M5 once the weight settings were adjusted. The only shaft available to me was a Tour AD-GP 7x which fit well for me, but I was surprised at how stout it was. It was an easy decision for me with the fairway as I knew right away I’d be getting a 15 degree M5 head and using my old Speeder 757 shaft that I’ve had in my fairway wood for years.

For fun my fitters Joe and Tommy said let’s try the Rocket head. It was a missile off the club. If you’re someone who likes to hit fairway woods off the tee and hit them better than drivers, the Rocket is the club to test. With the loft sleeve set to lower, I was seeing 272 yards carry and 286 yards total! For me personally that shot doesn’t fit into what I need in a 3 wood, but it was incredible the numbers I was seeing with a fairway wood.

It was a bit of a surprise seeing a $399 price tag for the M5 fairways. I wasn’t expecting a $100 increase and I can see how that could turn people off, but with the addition of Twist Face, a titanium head and the 65g movable it’s hard to offer that type of high end product without a price increase. Add in the 12 different loft sleeve adjustments and there isn’t another fairway wood on the market with this much adjustability. You won’t walk away disappointed from the M5 and M6 fairways after you test.

For my full review including the new TP5 and TP5X check it out here. https://community.ta...ience/ba-p/4746

Awesome write up!

Agree. I guess we do have a review of the 435 Tour!

jll62 · January 3, 2019

Along with TK3309, I was also invited out to TaylorMade for the product launch. Here's my experience from the trip.

November 13, 2018 was like any other normal work day, until I received this Twitter DM from Ryan at TaylorMade: “Hey Jesse, how's it going? Quick question...how do you fancy a trip to Carlsbad on 11/28-11/30 to see all the 2019 equipment on our dime?…”

Say what?! After taking a couple minutes to compose myself, I replied back that I was interested. I had a phone call with Ryan later in the day where he revealed that I was being invited out to the 2019 internal product launch. This consisted of a keynote event on the evening of 11/28, followed by a full day of product deep dives and an opportunity to test the product at The Kingdom. In other words, a dream trip for any TaylorMade fan.

In exchange for this access, I was asked only to share my experience of the trip and the 2019 equipment (good or bad) on the TaylorMade Community. Ryan also invited my friend Tony to the event. He’s a fellow TaylorMade brand loyalist and it was great to have someone else along with whom to share the experience.

There are far too many details for me to share everything that was discussed during the trip, so I’m going to focus on the areas I felt were the ones with the biggest impact, and also the equipment with which I spent the most time. We were unlucky and received a lot of rain on the day of The Kingdom experience, so we didn’t get as much time to hit all the gear as we would have liked. Thankfully, the weather did break in the afternoon which allowed us to do a fitting with the driver and experience some of the other product.

Keynote

If you’ve ever seen an Apple product launch event, this was like that. A large event room at the La Costa Resort had been turned into a small theater setting for the Keynote, complete with a big stage and three large screens backing the stage. I took a sit in the front row and was captivated by the energy and passion of everyone who presented. It’s clear TaylorMade believes they have some game changing technology being released in 2019.

Speed Injected Twist Face

Spend enough time discussing golf equipment online and you’re bound to read the common narrative that yearly product release cycles are mostly marketing driven with no actual advancements in performance. The evidence used to support such claims are often statements claiming it is impossible to gain speed because driver performance has been maxed out for years due to the COR limit. I’ll admit, even I believed center of face performance was close to maximum due to manufacturing tolerances preventing companies from pushing closer to the limit. I assumed future driver advancements would come mostly from increasing speed on off-center strikes. But I was wrong.

With the M5 and M6 drivers, TaylorMade figured out a way to bring drivers right up to the limit, not by tightening production tolerances, but rather by building them over the legal limit and then bringing them back below the limit via a post construction tuning process. The idea is simple conceptually, but one that presented many engineering challenges.

The first part, building a hotter driver, required the face to be made 20% thinner, a redesign of the Inverted Cone Technology (ICT), and a reengineering of the Hammerhead slot from the M3/M4 so that it was more flexible. The second part, bringing the heads back into conformance, is done by individually testing each the head after construction, feeding that data into a proprietary algorithm that determines exactly how much resin to inject behind the face to slow it down to the limit. Finally, each head is then tested again to ensure it is conforming.

This is all seems so obvious in hindsight, but it’s a brilliant leap of ingenuity. Of course you’d do it this way. Rather than spend millions of dollars to chase tighter manufacturing tolerances, just accept them as they are and modify each head to account for the variations at the end of the process.

In addition to the obvious benefit of having a head that’s right up to the max limit of driver performance for center strikes, a side-effect of this technology is that ball speed on off-center hits has increased due to the changes required to make the face hotter. The net effect is a larger sweet spot and higher performance across all the face. Everybody gets faster.

The average consumer may be asking what the benefit of this is to them. For the past fifteen years, the heads that make their way to retail are a bit of a grab bag. You might get one thats average, might get one that’s a little hotter than average, or you may get one that’s even slower than average. There’s no way of knowing. All you knew was that your head was going to be conforming, but it was almost certainly not going to be right up at the limit of performance.

Those who are plugged into the equipment scene know that Tour heads are spec sorted and only the hotter legal heads end up in the hands of Rory, DJ, Tiger, etc. With the Speed Injected Twist Face system, now you know that the driver you’re buying off the rack is going to be just as hot as the heads that make their way to the Tour. When Tiger signed with TaylorMade, he found a 2016 M2 that he loved and called his “snowflake”. With this new face tuning system, now everyone can have a snowflake.

Does it work?

So all of the the tech behind the new drivers is fascinating, but the important question is did I gain ball speed? Are TaylorMade’s claims legit? Did I get faster? I had some issues during my fitting, but the data shows I got faster.

For some background, my gamer is a TaylorMade M3 9.5, with a Graphite Design Tour AD GP-6s shaft, playing at 44.5”. My swing speed is 105 mph and my ball speed is consistently between 154-155 mph on center strikes, with the occasional 156-157 mph on pure strikes. For the testing, I selected an M5 460 9.0 head with a GP-6s shaft, hoping to do as close to an apples-to-apples test with my gamer as possible. Unfortunately, the only GP-6s shaft available played at 45.5”, which is too long for me.

I started the testing by hitting the 2019 TP5x (more on that later) with the M5 GP-6s combo at its full length. This didn’t go so well. Nearly every shot was struck low on the heel side due to the longer shaft. I expected the numbers to be awful, but after five balls TrackMan reported an average swing speed of 105.5 mph and average ball speed of 154.7 mph. Those are center strike numbers for my M3, so I was a little surprised.

Next I tried choking up an inch on the club, but that was even worse than full length because I lose my sense of feel when choking up (the extra shaft behind the hand feels like a counterbalance). The five shots we recorded were all centered, but struck low on the face. Here again, however, the numbers were surprising: 105.3 mph average swing speed, 154.5 mph average ball speed. Essentially, they were also numbers I see with center strikes on my M3.

At this point, I’ll admit to being a little frustrated because I wasn’t able to get a great sense of the club’s performance due to the shaft being too long. Another fitter with whom I’d spoken to earlier must have sensed my frustration because he stopped over and asked how everything was going. When I explained the shaft length situation he said to hold tight and he soon returned with an Atmos Blue 7S that played 44.5”. The change was immediate on the first ball struck with that shaft.

My strike location with the Atmos instantly reverted back to my normal spot: ever so slightly toward the high toe side of center. On the five recorded shots, my swing speed averaged 105.1 mph and the average ball speed jumped to 156.9. The Atmos wasn’t a great fit due to it being a 70g shaft, but it did its job and the shaft length centered the strike location.

So what’s the verdict? My mis-hits with the GP-6s would not have had that much ball speed with my gamer, so it’s clear that off-center hits have increased ball speed. On the center strikes with the Atmos Blue, I gained a solid 2-3 mph in ball speed. This may not seem like much, but 3 mph more ball speed would translate to approximately 6 yards carry distance on the course. When you’re on the margins and well optimized already, 6 yards a small but not insignificant addition. I’d pay a lot of money for a legit 5-10 yard increase and M5 seems to have delivered that on the low end.

I saw enough to believe the hype and I’m looking forward to testing the M5 head-to-head against my gamer.

M6 Driver

Even though I didn’t hit the M6 due to time constraints caused by the weather, I feel like this is going to be a smash hit. The Inertia Generator on the sole allows for the CG to be placed very low and way back in the head. Combine that with Speed Injected Twist Face and you have a recipe for an extremely long, extremely forgiving driver.

Fairway Woods

As anticipated, both the M5 and M6 fairway woods now feature Twist Face. The geometry of the twist had to change to account for the difference between fairway woods and drivers, but the performance aspects are similar to the drivers. During testing, M3 fairway woods had an 18 yard left-to-right dispersion, while M5 with Twist Face had a 3 yard left-to-right dispersion for the same test.

The other major feature of the M5 is the change to a titanium body construction, which allows for a massive 65g moveable weight on the sole. That weight accounts for 30% of the body weight of the head, so you are able to significantly change the CG of the head in ways that were not possible before. In my brief time testing the M5 FW, moving this weight affected ball flight by a good amount, something I hadn’t seen with other moveable weight systems on fairway woods.

Last, but not least, we get a strong 3-wood back this year! Both the M5 and M6 will have a 14-degree model called a Rocket. I’m a fan of strong 3-woods, so I’ll be putting this in the bag for the 2019 season.

Golf Balls

“TaylorMade is a ball company.”

This is the message that was made clear from the opening of the Keynote through the fitting at the Kingdom. If anyone had questions about TaylorMade’s commitment to the golf ball industry, worry no more. TaylorMade is thrilled with the on course performance and retail success of the TP5/TP5x, and they’re not slowing down in 2019.

So, how do you improve what is arguably the best ball in golf? Coming into the event I expected we’d see improved TP5x feel around the greens, hopefully a little more green side spin, and possibly improved cover durability. We’re getting all that, plus more. More distance. I was not expecting more distance.

In 2019, TaylorMade is introducing a new material they’re calling High-Flex Material (HFM). This material is new to the golf ball industry and is something they’ve been working on for the past four years. Don’t let the name fool you, as this material is actually less flexible than what was previously used. The material has a higher flex modulus, or in layman’s terms, a higher resistance to bending. Essentially it acts like a stiffer spring, allowing the outer layers of the ball to store more energy. This allows TaylorMade to utilize a soft core system and reduce spin on driver and iron shots, but still have high rebound velocity off the club face. HFM is 30% stiffer than the material they were using in the previous ball, so more of the energy from impact is converted to ball speed.

Finally, a new paint system has been developed that significantly improves scuff and shear resistance. The ball engineers developed a cart path test that allowed them to simulate the effects of a ball bouncing on a cart path and the difference in scuffing between the old TP5/TP5x and 2019 TP5/TP5x was dramatic.

Claims over Gains

There was a slide at the end of the ball presentation that stated, “Gains over Claims. No Ballsh*t.” It’s a catchy and clever bit of marketing, but it’s also accurate. The days of making big claims are over. In 2019, if your product doesn’t live up to the hype, the word will get out quickly.

To show the performance of the 2019 TP5/TP5x, TaylorMade conducted field tests with consumers who considered themselves loyalists of the Pro V1 and Pro V1x. For the purposes of this test, a loyalist was someone who had been playing their ball for the past seven years without any desire to switch. When testing the 2019 TP5/TP5x, these consumers saw an increase of 5 yards off the driver and 7.9 yards off of irons. That’s no ballsh*t.

The TaylorMade ball engineers had a similar test set up in one of the Kingdom’s hitting bays for us to try. We were asked to hit 3 balls with a P760 6-iron using a Pro V1/V1x and then another 3 balls using a 2019 TP5/TP5x (both balls chosen based on user preference). All shots were measured using a GC Quad. I had just come inside from 40 minutes of hitting balls on the range, so I was loose and ready to go. For me, the 2019 TP5x had a conservative 4 mph ball speed gain over the Pro V1x, but it also stopped quicker due to the higher flight.

The performance of the TP5x is measurable. To bring this consumers, TaylorMade has hired 55 ball fitters across the country for 2019 to conduct similar tests that will show how the TP5/TP5x is a better ball for most players.

Conclusion

I can’t thank TaylorMade enough for inviting me out to the launch. Having the opportunity to sit down with the people responsible for these amazing products was an experience I’ll never forget. I believe that the inject face technology is a game changer to which all other OEMs will have to respond. Having a driver at the legal limit will be come table stakes going forward.

From a personal perspective, I enjoyed the opportunity to meet a number of folks from TaylorMade with whom I’ve interacted on social media over the years. Introducing myself as, “Jesse Larson, from Twitter” was a bit strange, but everyone reacted with the same enthusiasm to meet me as I had for meeting them. It was a surreal feeling, but very cool all the same.

Finally, if you have any questions, please drop me a comment. I’ll be happy to share anything I can regarding my experience with the 2019 equipment.

jokerusn · January 3, 2019

Thanks for that review! How did the feel of the M5 Ti fw compare to the M1 you play?

Definitely had a more crisp feel to me with the titanium head. Not a ton different but it was noticeable in a good way.

Good to hear. I love that crisp feel over thuds.

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