Tour Burner Review

[venturagolfer87]

best range session EVERRRRR

so i picked up my tour burner 10.5 stiff today an immediately took it to the range to try out. i also had my normal gamer (425 tp 9.5*, V2 Stiff) to have a head to head comparison to see if i had made the right choice in pulling the trigger on the TB, and seeing which one i would use for an important tournament this weekend. the driving range at my home course has a constant right to left wind, and can go from a calm breeze to some steady hard blowing (that's what she said...). anyways, when i play on the course, i average around 270-285, with at least 15 yds of that being carry. the farthest green at the range is in the back left, and is about 255 yds from the tees to the flagstick. with my 425 tp, i hit a consistent mid trajectory fade, but was getting so much spin that when i went for that green, the ball would get swallowed up in the wind and fall woefully short, usually around the 215-220 yd mark which was very frustrating. so i pull out the tour burner, and first swing, was a bit towards the toe, but ends up being a nice high draw that seems to stay in the air forever, but not in the bad, ballooning way. this thing got up quickly and then just hung like it was on the string, long flat trajectory. anyways, it lands about 5 yds right of the flagstick, pin high, and takes a huge bounce over the green. the majority of my swings were like this....now, this was the test, i then started hitting fades. the fades were going just as high as the draws, and were landing at the front of the green, and would take big bounces up to the flagstick and then roll over the green, so i'm guessing that with the fade going against the right to left wind, it was carrying about 250. my normal 425 tp/V2 combo tended to be very spinny at times, and into the wind i'd be lucky to get 245-250 total distance, let alone carry alone. the initial launch of the tour burner was higher than the 425, but then it leveled out quickly, but then appears to hang in the air at the same height for ever and then comes back down at a very shallow descent angle. now, all this splendidness was happening in my first 15-20 swings, so i wasn't going at it very hard. when i DID start going at it harder, it seemed like i started actually hitting it STRAIGHTER, and farther. i believe i hit about 4 or 5 balls in a row that carried OVER the 255 yd green. i couldn't tell exactly how far over it went, because there's a downhill slope in the back, but after it landed i did see it come back up after a big bounce. this was again with fades, and with draws i couldn't even see where they were landing.

now, today i had also brought to the range, a medicus powermeter, which i had gotten for free for trying out the medicus powermax weighted driver for 30 days. for those who don't know what it is, it's a device that clamps around the shaft of a club at the grip end and measures clubhead speed. when i measured it with the 425, i was averaging about 97-98 mph, and i hit 2 that were 101 mph. with the tour burner, i think i was under 100 mph twice, and they were both 99 mph. i'm sure the lighter shaft and extra inch and a half of shaft may have had a hand in this, but choke down at least an inch on the grip all the time and the powermeter weighs enough to make the club at least a couple grams heavier, so i don't think that was it. i believe it just came from having confidence that i could go after it as hard as i possibly could and not have to be afraid of going wide right or low and way left.

that brings me to another thing about this club. there have been some who have complained that the club looks very shut. first of all, i have a theory that it is all an optical illusion, because the 425 which is 2* open, doesn't really look open at all, it looks pretty square. online it says that the tour burner has a square face angle, and on mine, that is exactly how it looks, DEAD SQUARE. i don't know if it was because it was 10.5* as opposed to 9.5*, because on the demo day when i tried out the 9.5 i noticed that it did appear SLIGHTLY closed, although i was able to hit both fades as well as draws with it as well.

the stock shaft is very good considering it's not a major OEM shaft, just the 60g re*ax superfast that is designed by fujikura. with the .350 tip, it feels very stable, not whippy at all considering its very light weight. i just recently got a good deal on a new, pured graphite design ys-6+ .350 tip shaft, so after the tournament i'm going to swap it and see if it will enhance the performance of this already amazing driver.

hopefully this review is detailed enough so that people can get a good idea of the sheer excellence of the driver. it is very low spin, but high launch, which is good when you play in windy conditions. my home course is a "links" style course with very firm fairways, and 2 of the 3 longest holes are into the wind. and while this driver is high launch, the extremely low spin helps the ball to just pierce straight through the wind with very little interference.

one sidenote though, that hasn't been mentioned i don't think. with my 425, i often teed the ball where one third to one half of the ball was above the clubhead. when i tried that with the tour burner however, it had such little spin that the ball would often knuckle, so i found that teeing the ball so that it was flush, to just a hair above the sweet spot gave me the best and most consistent performance and trajectory. my typical swing flaw is that i rush the downswing and come in a tad steep, and that was the main problem with the 425, the already slightly high spin head would end up leaving me with nothing but 99 red balloons. i did have a couple of these quick, steeper swings with the tour burner, and it seemed to have very little effect, it almost seemed like a shot with one of those steeper swings, at least from a ballflight standpoint, had the same spin on it as a flushed 425. to make a very long story not as long, THIS DRIVER IS STAYING IN THE BAG FOR QUITE A WHILE. i should warn those reading this though. this driver will not suit everyone. typically, this driver will only work for those who want to hit it extremely long and extremely straight, if you don't like any of those, than i'm afraid you're a bit S.O.L. cheers!

-John

[poloshankey]

so i picked up my tour burner 10.5 stiff today an immediately took it to the range to try out. i also had my normal gamer (425 tp 9.5*, V2 Stiff) to have a head to head comparison to see if i had made the right choice in pulling the trigger on the TB, and seeing which one i would use for an important tournament this weekend. the driving range at my home course has a constant right to left wind, and can go from a calm breeze to some steady hard blowing (that's what she said...). anyways, when i play on the course, i average around 270-285, with at least 15 yds of that being carry. the farthest green at the range is in the back left, and is about 255 yds from the tees to the flagstick. with my 425 tp, i hit a consistent mid trajectory fade, but was getting so much spin that when i went for that green, the ball would get swallowed up in the wind and fall woefully short, usually around the 215-220 yd mark which was very frustrating. so i pull out the tour burner, and first swing, was a bit towards the toe, but ends up being a nice high draw that seems to stay in the air forever, but not in the bad, ballooning way. this thing got up quickly and then just hung like it was on the string, long flat trajectory. anyways, it lands about 5 yds right of the flagstick, pin high, and takes a huge bounce over the green. the majority of my swings were like this....now, this was the test, i then started hitting fades. the fades were going just as high as the draws, and were landing at the front of the green, and would take big bounces up to the flagstick and then roll over the green, so i'm guessing that with the fade going against the right to left wind, it was carrying about 250. my normal 425 tp/V2 combo tended to be very spinny at times, and into the wind i'd be lucky to get 245-250 total distance, let alone carry alone. the initial launch of the tour burner was higher than the 425, but then it leveled out quickly, but then appears to hang in the air at the same height for ever and then comes back down at a very shallow descent angle. now, all this splendidness was happening in my first 15-20 swings, so i wasn't going at it very hard. when i DID start going at it harder, it seemed like i started actually hitting it STRAIGHTER, and farther. i believe i hit about 4 or 5 balls in a row that carried OVER the 255 yd green. i couldn't tell exactly how far over it went, because there's a downhill slope in the back, but after it landed i did see it come back up after a big bounce. this was again with fades, and with draws i couldn't even see where they were landing.

 

now, today i had also brought to the range, a medicus powermeter, which i had gotten for free for trying out the medicus powermax weighted driver for 30 days. for those who don't know what it is, it's a device that clamps around the shaft of a club at the grip end and measures clubhead speed. when i measured it with the 425, i was averaging about 97-98 mph, and i hit 2 that were 101 mph. with the tour burner, i think i was under 100 mph twice, and they were both 99 mph. i'm sure the lighter shaft and extra inch and a half of shaft may have had a hand in this, but choke down at least an inch on the grip all the time and the powermeter weighs enough to make the club at least a couple grams heavier, so i don't think that was it. i believe it just came from having confidence that i could go after it as hard as i possibly could and not have to be afraid of going wide right or low and way left.

 

that brings me to another thing about this club. there have been some who have complained that the club looks very shut. first of all, i have a theory that it is all an optical illusion, because the 425 which is 2* open, doesn't really look open at all, it looks pretty square. online it says that the tour burner has a square face angle, and on mine, that is exactly how it looks, DEAD SQUARE. i don't know if it was because it was 10.5* as opposed to 9.5*, because on the demo day when i tried out the 9.5 i noticed that it did appear SLIGHTLY closed, although i was able to hit both fades as well as draws with it as well.

 

the stock shaft is very good considering it's not a major OEM shaft, just the 60g re*ax superfast that is designed by fujikura. with the .350 tip, it feels very stable, not whippy at all considering its very light weight. i just recently got a good deal on a new, pured graphite design ys-6+ .350 tip shaft, so after the tournament i'm going to swap it and see if it will enhance the performance of this already amazing driver.

 

hopefully this review is detailed enough so that people can get a good idea of the sheer excellence of the driver. it is very low spin, but high launch, which is good when you play in windy conditions. my home course is a "links" style course with very firm fairways, and 2 of the 3 longest holes are into the wind. and while this driver is high launch, the extremely low spin helps the ball to just pierce straight through the wind with very little interference.

 

one sidenote though, that hasn't been mentioned i don't think. with my 425, i often teed the ball where one third to one half of the ball was above the clubhead. when i tried that with the tour burner however, it had such little spin that the ball would often knuckle, so i found that teeing the ball so that it was flush, to just a hair above the sweet spot gave me the best and most consistent performance and trajectory. my typical swing flaw is that i rush the downswing and come in a tad steep, and that was the main problem with the 425, the already slightly high spin head would end up leaving me with nothing but 99 red balloons. i did have a couple of these quick, steeper swings with the tour burner, and it seemed to have very little effect, it almost seemed like a shot with one of those steeper swings, at least from a ballflight standpoint, had the same spin on it as a flushed 425. to make a very long story not as long, THIS DRIVER IS STAYING IN THE BAG FOR QUITE A WHILE. i should warn those reading this though. this driver will not suit everyone. typically, this driver will only work for those who want to hit it extremely long and extremely straight, if you don't like any of those, than i'm afraid you're a bit S.O.L. cheers!

 

-John

WOW John...sound like you really found the right combo. Congrats. You made a great point. The sweet spot in the Tour Burner is actually lower than the sweet spot on most oversize drivers today. The best results will definitely be when the ball is teed accordingly. Too high above the sweet spot and the spin will be decreased considerably, resulting in "knuckle balls" that will wobble in the air and fall to the ground suddenly. The modern-day "super long" tees are not required at all with this driver. The proper tee height is fairly low for today's standards for all those that ground the club at address.

[venturagolfer87]

so i picked up my tour burner 10.5 stiff today an immediately took it to the range to try out. i also had my normal gamer (425 tp 9.5*, V2 Stiff) to have a head to head comparison to see if i had made the right choice in pulling the trigger on the TB, and seeing which one i would use for an important tournament this weekend. the driving range at my home course has a constant right to left wind, and can go from a calm breeze to some steady hard blowing (that's what she said...). anyways, when i play on the course, i average around 270-285, with at least 15 yds of that being carry. the farthest green at the range is in the back left, and is about 255 yds from the tees to the flagstick. with my 425 tp, i hit a consistent mid trajectory fade, but was getting so much spin that when i went for that green, the ball would get swallowed up in the wind and fall woefully short, usually around the 215-220 yd mark which was very frustrating. so i pull out the tour burner, and first swing, was a bit towards the toe, but ends up being a nice high draw that seems to stay in the air forever, but not in the bad, ballooning way. this thing got up quickly and then just hung like it was on the string, long flat trajectory. anyways, it lands about 5 yds right of the flagstick, pin high, and takes a huge bounce over the green. the majority of my swings were like this....now, this was the test, i then started hitting fades. the fades were going just as high as the draws, and were landing at the front of the green, and would take big bounces up to the flagstick and then roll over the green, so i'm guessing that with the fade going against the right to left wind, it was carrying about 250. my normal 425 tp/V2 combo tended to be very spinny at times, and into the wind i'd be lucky to get 245-250 total distance, let alone carry alone. the initial launch of the tour burner was higher than the 425, but then it leveled out quickly, but then appears to hang in the air at the same height for ever and then comes back down at a very shallow descent angle. now, all this splendidness was happening in my first 15-20 swings, so i wasn't going at it very hard. when i DID start going at it harder, it seemed like i started actually hitting it STRAIGHTER, and farther. i believe i hit about 4 or 5 balls in a row that carried OVER the 255 yd green. i couldn't tell exactly how far over it went, because there's a downhill slope in the back, but after it landed i did see it come back up after a big bounce. this was again with fades, and with draws i couldn't even see where they were landing.

 

now, today i had also brought to the range, a medicus powermeter, which i had gotten for free for trying out the medicus powermax weighted driver for 30 days. for those who don't know what it is, it's a device that clamps around the shaft of a club at the grip end and measures clubhead speed. when i measured it with the 425, i was averaging about 97-98 mph, and i hit 2 that were 101 mph. with the tour burner, i think i was under 100 mph twice, and they were both 99 mph. i'm sure the lighter shaft and extra inch and a half of shaft may have had a hand in this, but choke down at least an inch on the grip all the time and the powermeter weighs enough to make the club at least a couple grams heavier, so i don't think that was it. i believe it just came from having confidence that i could go after it as hard as i possibly could and not have to be afraid of going wide right or low and way left.

 

that brings me to another thing about this club. there have been some who have complained that the club looks very shut. first of all, i have a theory that it is all an optical illusion, because the 425 which is 2* open, doesn't really look open at all, it looks pretty square. online it says that the tour burner has a square face angle, and on mine, that is exactly how it looks, DEAD SQUARE. i don't know if it was because it was 10.5* as opposed to 9.5*, because on the demo day when i tried out the 9.5 i noticed that it did appear SLIGHTLY closed, although i was able to hit both fades as well as draws with it as well.

 

the stock shaft is very good considering it's not a major OEM shaft, just the 60g re*ax superfast that is designed by fujikura. with the .350 tip, it feels very stable, not whippy at all considering its very light weight. i just recently got a good deal on a new, pured graphite design ys-6+ .350 tip shaft, so after the tournament i'm going to swap it and see if it will enhance the performance of this already amazing driver.

 

hopefully this review is detailed enough so that people can get a good idea of the sheer excellence of the driver. it is very low spin, but high launch, which is good when you play in windy conditions. my home course is a "links" style course with very firm fairways, and 2 of the 3 longest holes are into the wind. and while this driver is high launch, the extremely low spin helps the ball to just pierce straight through the wind with very little interference.

 

one sidenote though, that hasn't been mentioned i don't think. with my 425, i often teed the ball where one third to one half of the ball was above the clubhead. when i tried that with the tour burner however, it had such little spin that the ball would often knuckle, so i found that teeing the ball so that it was flush, to just a hair above the sweet spot gave me the best and most consistent performance and trajectory. my typical swing flaw is that i rush the downswing and come in a tad steep, and that was the main problem with the 425, the already slightly high spin head would end up leaving me with nothing but 99 red balloons. i did have a couple of these quick, steeper swings with the tour burner, and it seemed to have very little effect, it almost seemed like a shot with one of those steeper swings, at least from a ballflight standpoint, had the same spin on it as a flushed 425. to make a very long story not as long, THIS DRIVER IS STAYING IN THE BAG FOR QUITE A WHILE. i should warn those reading this though. this driver will not suit everyone. typically, this driver will only work for those who want to hit it extremely long and extremely straight, if you don't like any of those, than i'm afraid you're a bit S.O.L. cheers!

 

-John

WOW John...sound like you really found the right combo. Congrats. You made a great point. The sweet spot in the Tour Burner is actually lower than the sweet spot on most oversize drivers today. The best results will definitely be when the ball is teed accordingly. Too high above the sweet spot and the spin will be decreased considerably, resulting in "knuckle balls" that will wobble in the air and fall to the ground suddenly. The modern-day "super long" tees are not required at all with this driver. The proper tee height is fairly low for today's standards for all those that ground the club at address.

 

true dat. i actually usually prefer to tee balls lower than what is recommended, i used to tee it level with the sweet spot when i had the '07 burner and with my superquad, but since the 425 seemed the spin more, it kinda forced me to get used to teeing it higher to somewhat take some of the spin off, but now that i'm back to teeing it how i like, it seems to give me even MORE confidence with this club, which can and hopefully will be a scary thing for my playing partners this weekend.

[lotbean21]

Great review.

 

I have the 10.5 stiff aswell and it is a great club.

I also agree that bizarrely that the harder you hit it, within reason, the straighter it goes.

The stock shaft is very good and not as bad as some people would have you believe.

 

What I like about the 10.5 over lower lofted models is that it is more versatile for 3/4, 1/2 and punch shots on those 200 yard plus par 3s into the wind: you can choke down and get the ball easily on or around the green. I have found that the extra loft makes these type of shots much easier.

 

The only negative aspect I have found with some of the tour balls that I still get a little too much spin. I have tried loads of different golf balls recently and have found that the best results come with balls such as NXT Extreme, Callaway Big Bertha. These balls seem to generate a lot less spin with the driver than tour balls, even the TM LDP red. The Callaway IX and ProV1x have provided decent results with the driver for me so far, but not as good as the NXT extremes and Big bertha. Obviously using "low spin" balls compromises the short game.

[venturagolfer87]

Great review.

 

I have the 10.5 stiff aswell and it is a great club.

I also agree that bizarrely that the harder you hit it, within reason, the straighter it goes.

The stock shaft is very good and not as bad as some people would have you believe.

 

What I like about the 10.5 over lower lofted models is that it is more versatile for 3/4, 1/2 and punch shots on those 200 yard plus par 3s into the wind: you can choke down and get the ball easily on or around the green. I have found that the extra loft makes these type of shots much easier.

 

The only negative aspect I have found with some of the tour balls that I still get a little too much spin. I have tried loads of different golf balls recently and have found that the best results come with balls such as NXT Extreme, Callaway Big Bertha. These balls seem to generate a lot less spin with the driver than tour balls, even the TM LDP red. The Callaway IX and ProV1x have provided decent results with the driver for me so far, but not as good as the NXT extremes and Big bertha. Obviously using "low spin" balls compromises the short game.

 

well with low compression, extremely lower spin surlyn type balls, the spin will be dramatically less. i've been playing taylormade balls since they came out, and i remember a long while ago before i learned (or realized) how to hit it long, i only averaged around 215-220 yard drives, and i decided on a whim to buy a sleeve of nxt extremes before a round and tried them out. i believe that in that round the shortest drive i hit was about 258, and i hit two that were over 280. at the time that was amazing to me. nowadays i get pissed if i hit a ball less than 240, but those balls are made for distance and that's pretty much about it. what i like about the tp red, and even the tour ix, which is an amzing ball in the wind, very similar to the tp red, is that they have low spin as well as control and spin around the greens. the tour ix might even be just slightly better than the tp red in the wind, but it doesn't spin nearly as much as the tp red with wedge shots, which may or may not be a good thing depending on where you play. so far with the TB i've only hit range balls and tp reds, after this weekend i'll try it out with tp black, tour ix, and maybe a prov1x if i find one laying around.

[Falang_Golfer]

Whoa, you carry the ball 15 yds and then roll it 260!!?? That's amazing! :friends:

 

Seriously though, nice review. I keep trying not to buy another driver and the Burner 10.5 is #1 on the list. You are not helping...

[buztech]

I enjoyed the review.. thanks, great job... I have been playing the Superquad, it sounds I have to check out the Tour Burner...

 

Does the TB have Draw biased? I need it since I tend to slice/fade the ball...

[eRod v1.0]

I enjoyed the review.. thanks, great job... I have been playing the Superquad, it sounds I have to check out the Tour Burner...

 

Does the TB have Draw biased? I need it since I tend to slice/fade the ball...

 

According to this, yes it does have draw bias.

 

[venturagolfer87]

I enjoyed the review.. thanks, great job... I have been playing the Superquad, it sounds I have to check out the Tour Burner...

 

Does the TB have Draw biased? I need it since I tend to slice/fade the ball...

 

According to this, yes it does have draw bias.

 

 

if it does, i haven't been able to notice it, it's a lot more subtle than the '07 burner or the superquad, in that they're both 1* closed, while the tour burner has a square face angle. my normal trajectory with is a baby cut, and i mean BABY cut, but hitting a bigger fade or a draw for that matter is very easy to do. it's kind of ironic, really, that a club can be so easy to hit straight yet be extremely versatile. if i had 200 more dollars and 5 strokes less off my handicap i'd probably have sprung for the even more versatil-er(?) tour burner tp.