When a manufacturer gets put up for sale the alarm bells start ringing, especially with the players, as those lucrative performance bonuses start to disappear when the accountants plead poverty. At this stage you will start to see players switching clubs to bag some easy cash, others will move as the research and development programmes will be put on hold.
Well this is the normal scenario as it has played out with the likes of Slazenger, Maruman and plenty of other well known brands over the years but TaylorMade seems to have broken the ‘For Sale’ mould as their M2 driver continues to dominate the bags of the leading professionals free to tee it up with whatever they want.
There looks to be a void of Nike players on the open market sampling other brands and it was interesting to see that their leading staff player, Rory McIlroy, has been playing the TaylorMade M2 for a while. Having said that, he could probably launch it 300 yards with most drivers on the market at the moment. But considering he could play any brand, he’s opted for one that wouldn’t be paying him a great deal or even anything.
Then you have the DP World Tour Championship winner, Matt Fitzpatrick, who isn’t regarded as a long hitter but was triumphant in the European Tour’s season-ending event at Jumeirah Golf Estates’ Earth Course, which is geared up to reward the bombers.
At the Championship he averaged 298.3 yards all week and was 16th in overall driving distance against the elite field. To put that in perspective, that’s on average two yards further than Kaymer, six yards longer than Westwood and eight yards past Cabrera Bello – and these players are all regarded as long hitters. I know Fitzpatrick has been working hard this season on his leg and core strength to boost the power delivery in his swing but by shifting to the TaylorMade M2 he’s found a good 10 yards off the tee.
Ever since TaylorMade launched the R7 Quad back in 2004, with the movable weight technology, I’ve always wanted to get on with the brand, mainly down to the gadget use and tinkering appeal. To be able to play around with a club to rectify any flaws is a huge bonus. However, I always felt that although the club evolved from the R9 to the R15, one negative characteristic was always present and that was dramatic loss in distance from heel strikes. The clubs were unbelieveable from the sweet spot and it’s no wonder the Tour pros made them the number one driver on Tour but for mere mortals like myself I had to opt for a more forgiving club.
The M2 has tried to rectify this fault with a higher Moment of Inertia and redesigned Speed Pocket, so it has to be their most forgiving performance driver to date. The M1 is less forgiving and geared for the Tour players who hit the centre for fun but interestingly the most prefered model on Tour is the M2.
With the 2017 TaylorMade M2 driver set to hit the shelves early next year, the 2016 M2 driver could be a great buy if you can pick one up for a good price.
Change for 2017 M2
TaylorMade has yet to announce the new drivers, but it looks like the company has made some noticable changes that look to be geared around rectifying the age old problem of performance from off-centre hits. The images show they are looking to boost consistency by moving the removable weights to the rear portion of the sole and move the centre of gravity back. It looks like the adjustablee hosel and Speed Pocket will remain the same as the outgoing model. But, having hit the M2 I’m in agreement with the saying ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.
No doubt the 2017 model will be at a higher price point than this year’s M2 and we also need to find out when the 2017 M2 will make it to the shelves in the UAE.
