Sorry for not posting yesterday… tis the season for being busy. I was also trying to a) get my stolen car back from the police… and b) figure out what to do with my stolen car when it’s damaged beyond repair. Merry Christmas to me I guess! Anyways… enough whining… we have golf equipment to talk about! We’ll continue our 2006 preview with a look ahead at TaylorMade Golf.
The Company
TaylorMade Golf seems to be the technological leader in golf right now. They’re getting really good at creating new clubs and then making sure that every golfer on the planet knows about them. The latest technology they are pushing is the idea of removable weights… with the R7 driver leading the way. It looks like 2006 will be another big year for the R7 name and TaylorMade will continue to build on the idea of removable weights. The company will stay clear of the composite craze… they are able to create very thin titanium walls and don’t see a need to use composite material. I like that the R7 name will move ahead in 2006… customers are starting to really catch on to the name and what it represents. The Maxfli brand (that falls under the TaylorMade umbrella) should continue to grow and TaylorMade hopes to get some of their PGA staff players using Maxfli golf balls.
The Products – What We Know
TaylorMade has given us a bit of a sneak peak at the 2006 line. They bumped ahead the release of their R7 425 and R7 425TP drivers in time for Christmas and dropped the price on the current R7 clubs. The release date was bumped back due to an issue with the shaft preparation. Taylor Made delayed the release by about 10 days to rectify the situation. Nice to see the company taking this kind of initiative so close to Christmas. We’ll see a second version of the R7 driver (R7 460) early in 2006, but this doesn’t mean the end of the R5 driver. It will stick around for most of 2006 at the lower price tag. Keeping with woods… watch for a couple of new R7 fairway woods in March or April. We’ll see both a stainless steel R7 wood and another titanium R7 wood in the spring. These will bump the R5 and V Steel fairway woods from the line.
The TaylorMade iron line is very solid right now so don’t expect to see too many changes here. The R7 XD and R7 CGB MAX irons were released late in 2005 and these join the OS, LT and TP clubs already in the mix. The company has all the bases (and price points) covered and golfers have taken a liking to the new offerings.
The RAC TP wedge was also released in the fall and it will carry over into 2006. The Rossa putters featuring AGSI were hot in 2005 and these will also move forward.
The company hopes to continue to grow the Maxfli ball line in 2006. The Red Max and Ice golf balls were released late in the year and watch for the line to continue to expand as next season rolls on. There aren’t too many specifics here… yet.
Products – What Might Be On The Way
TaylorMade always has something on the go and this usually leads to speculation. We’ve had a few emails about the blade irons (MB) that Retief Goosen has been using and it looks like we may see these at a retail level as early as April. Rumors are also leading us to believe that there will be another finish offered in the RAC TP wedges… probably satin. This would be a nice complement to the current black TP wedges. The other big rumor surrounds a TP verison of the new R7 460. It would only make sense that this driver would be made available in a TP version and it looks like this club will be an April release as well. Wow… lots of stuff in April!
We’ve talked a bit about the possibility of a TaylorMade golf ball and I think this is something that could be coming down the pipe eventually. The company now has Maxfli behind anything they do and the TaylorMade marketing machine would really help in making it a success. We’ll have to wait and see here I guess.
It should be another exciting year for TaylorMade Golf and it will be fun to see what they come up with. Just when you think you have figured them out… something new pops up! We’ll continue our look at other companies in the coming weeks and we’ll also have our 2006 predictions in there too. Thanks for the email… SirPutts is off on a mini vacation for a few days so I’ll do my best to keep up. A big hello to our friends over at Victory Dry Goods … thanks for your emails! Be sure to check these guys out if you’re after any sort of promotional products. Have a great day and we’ll talk to you soon!