Jessica: Here on Inside Golf Magazine, we understand that sometimes it’s difficult to decide which irons are right for your game. To help answer the question of what golfers should play and learn a bit more about gaming improvement iron technology, we decided to visit on of the industries leaders in golf club design and innovation, Taylor Made. Today I’m Carlsberg, California at the kingdom and joining me is Brian Bazzel, Taylor Made’s manager of iron creation.
Brian: It’s nice to have you here Jessica.
Jessica: Thank you so much, I’m really excited about this topic today. Tell me what exactly a game improvement iron is.
Brian: Well I love to tell you about the 2 game improvement irons I have which are the burner and burner super launch and then prove to you why is modern game improvement irons are different than your old traditional game improvement irons. So behind this you could see we’re actually testing on track man measuring the launch angles and spin rates as well as ball speeds that you get off of an iron like this versus an old traditional iron.
Jessica: So Brian tell me what is the track man data telling us about these clubs?
Brian: Well Charlie is actually hitting the burner irons right now and what you’ll see here is a fairly traditional launching old spinnery but with much more ball speed the way that you’ll see in a traditional game improvement iron. So for us, the real improvement and enhancement is to be able to get to a very similar max height but the difference is that it’s going to be flying further down range and so that now in 6 irons is going to go 3, 4, 5, 6 yards further than the average or older iron.
Jessica: So Brian what technology did you incorporate with this club as oppose to the earlier burner models?
Brian: We have a very thin face. We couldn’t do that before in an iron. Its much like a metal wood and with that enable us to do is get more ball speed. The player gets more ball speed and distance from that. And then we utilize the weight we saved and we put it around perimeter to make it easier to hit, to make it more stable.
Jessica: So what is the difference between these 2 models, because I can see that the sole of the super launch is much thicker?
Brian: With the super launch we went after the mid high handicap player here so you need a wider sole to get the center of gravity, lower and further back to enable the ball to get up higher. So first Charlie had the burner iron and now he’s testing out the burner super launch, with the track man it showing us is that he’s really getting the ball up to a higher trajectory that he did with the burner irons. For Charlie who has no trouble getting the ball in the air, he will probably gravitate towards the more boring flight like the burner irons but for somebody who has trouble getting in the air, the super launch iron is going to be the iron for them.
Jessica: So basically what you’re saying Brian is that even players with slower swing speeds can still hit the ball just as far and get the trajectory that they want to.
Brian: Yeah that’s the magic I mean a lot of players swing slow down over time and if you can just take the swing that you have and actually get the distance that you used to have, that’s the beauty right?
Jessica: Brian and I headed to Shadow Ridge Country Club where some of the members were invited to try the new burner and burner super launch irons.
Pat: I was hitting the super launch out here on the testing area and didn’t see any distance or any improvement with the short iron but said I want the 7 and the 5, those are amazing, distance wise.
Chuck: My ball flight when I’m swinging because I’ve gotten older as I find it it’s a little bit flatter which isn’t really good because you need to come down sometimes at the whole residence, hit and run. So I liked this feel when I was out there because I was getting the loft that I needed.
Tony: The one thing that I noticed right off the bat is the, like that and so you get a little bit softer landing.
Jessica: Brian after talking to the new guys on the range, it’s really apparent the game improvement irons offer benefits for both high and low handicappers.
Brian: You know if they can get over that ego and actually get some of the performance benefits that this irons provide, they’re going to play better so it’s just a matter of trying and experiencing it.
Jessica: It seems like some of the older guys especially were having a lot of success with the super launch, what is it about that technology that you think is really working well for them?
Brian: What they can gain from the super launch iron is dramatic with the thinner face for sure they’ll get more speed without doing anything differently, there are a lot of smiles out there I mean it was fun to watch and hit it.
Jessica: Oh they’re thrilled. They’re shooting their age again.
Brian: Glad I’m not that but we’ll see.
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