Ties TaylorMade’s r7 Limited as the No. 1 Driver Model with 13 in Play; TaylorMade Tour Reps Blown Away by Rapid Acceptance of Revolutionary New Metalwood with Flight Control Technology
CARLSBAD, Calif. (January 22, 2009) – In what was supposed to be a “soft tour launch” of TaylorMade’s new R9™ driver on the PGA Tour, 13 tour players put the revolutionary new product in play immediately, making the driver the No. 1 played model at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.*
Pat Perez Plays the R9 Driver”We define a soft tour launch as making a limited amount of a new product available at a given event to tour pros who express interest,” said Paul Loegering, TaylorMade-adidas Golf Tour manager. “We are absolutely blown away by the number of players who switched to the R9 driver after working with it for only two days. They love the amount of influence that TaylorMade Flight Control Technology and Movable Weight Technology have on ball flight.”
After two rounds at the Bob Hope, TaylorMade-adidas Golf Tour Staff professional and new R9 user Pat Perez set a 36-hole tournament record, and currently sits atop the leader board at -20. “I nailed every single fairway during my practice round with the R9 driver,” said Perez. “This club is a machine and I didn’t even think twice about putting it in the bag.”
At the European Tour’s Commercialbank Qatar Masters, three TaylorMade Tour Staff professionals put the R9 driver in play for the first time: Sergio Garcia, currently the No. 2 player in the world, Darren Clark and Paul McGinley.
“In our company’s history we have never had a driver become the number one model played in its first week on tour,” said Chuck Presto, TaylorMade-adidas Golf senior vice president of global sports marketing. “This speaks volumes about the performance of the R9.”
What sets the R9™ driver apart from all other drivers is that it incorporates TaylorMade’s new Flight Control Technology, or FCT for short. With a simple twist of a wrench, FCT allows you to change the R9’s face angle, loft and lie angle. How does FCT work? It starts with a small metallic sleeve positioned over the tip of the shaft. The shaft is secured to the clubhead with a specially made bolt in the bottom of the clubhead. The FCT bolt is designed to be retained in the well to eliminate the chance of losing it. The sleeve, made of high-strength 7075-T6 aluminum alloy, is ringed around the bottom with small teeth, which tightly mesh with a second ring of matching teeth within the hosel. You can change the clubhead’s characteristics (face angle, loft, lie) by loosening the FCT bolt, removing the shaft from the head, rotating the sleeve and shaft into a specified position, then locking them into that position within the head with the FCT bolt.
The R9 driver also incorporates TaylorMade’s Movable Weight Technology™ (MWT®). The clubhead features three weight ports and comes equipped with one 16-gram and two 1-gram weights. Put the heavy weight in the heel port to promote a draw, in the toe port to promote a fade, and in the middle port to promote a straight flight.
The combined effect of FCT and MWT gives golfers an amazing amount of influence over their trajectory, and gives the R9 driver a tremendous advantage over other drivers. TaylorMade testing indicates that the R9 driver promotes up to 75 yards of side-to-side trajectory change, depending upon how the clubhead characteristics are set and the weights are configured.
Learn more about the R9 driver, R9 fairway woods and Rescue® 2009 hybrid, all of which feature Flight Control Technology.
The new R9 driver and TaylorMade’s r7® Limited driver tied as the No. 1 model with 13 each in play. Overall, TaylorMade drivers were played by 58 different players – almost double the amount of the nearest competitor.
The R9 driver becomes available to the public in March.
* Darrell Survey driver model count for the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic
About Taylor Made Golf Company, Inc. dba TaylorMade-adidas Golf Company
TaylorMade Golf has led the golf industry’s technological revolution since the company was founded in 1979. TaylorMade metalwoods, irons and putters have been used to win hundreds of professional golf tournaments around the world. In 1998, TaylorMade became a wholly owned subsidiary of the adidas Group. adidas Golf creates high-performance, technology-infused golf apparel and footwear worn by hundreds of professional golfers around the world. Ashworth, which became a brand of the TaylorMade-adidas Golf Company in 2008, creates relaxed, lifestyle-oriented golf apparel synonymous with authenticity and quality. Learn more about TaylorMade-adidas Golf and its brands at (866) 530-TMAG (8624) or www.tmag.com, www.taylormadegolf.com, www.adidasgolf.com, www.ashworthinc.com, and www.taylormadegolfpreowned.com.
About the adidas Group
The adidas Group is one of the global leaders within the sporting goods industry, offering a broad range of products around three core segments such as adidas, Reebok and TaylorMade-adidas Golf. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the Group has more than 33,000 employees and sales of ?10.3 billion.
Contact:
TaylorMade-adidas Golf
Public Relations Department
Christa McNamara
Tel: 760.918.6466
email: christa.mcnamara@tmag.com
