THE TRUTH: Are TaylorMade Drivers REALLY getting Better?

In this video Rick Shiels compares several TaylorMade Golf drivers from over the last 20 years.

Rick hits shots with the TaylorMade Golf Burner Driver, the TaylorMade Golf M2 Driver, the TaylorMade Golf SIM 2 Max Driver and the TaylorMade Golf Qi35 Driver.

Is it really worth updating your golf driver? Watch till the end to find out!

►Zen Green Stage: https://tinyurl.com/3fkefdrp

►Become a FREE SUBSCRIBER to RICK SHIELS now
http://bit.ly/SubRickShielsGolf

►Become a FREE SUBSCRIBER to RICK SHIELS Golf Show podcast now
https://www.youtube.com/@RickShielsGolfShow

►Become a FREE SUBSCRIBER to H.I.T Review channel now
https://www.youtube.com/@HITGolfReviews

► Book me on cameo to do a personalised video for your friends or family
https://www.cameo.com/rickshielsgolf

►Official apparel partnership Lyle & Scott:
GOLF

► Hit #Subscribe & #HitTheBell so you don’t miss out on any new videos!
———————————————————————————–
►My Links:
Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/RickShielsPGA/
Twitter ► http://bit.ly/RickShielsTwitter
Instagram ► http://bit.ly/RickShielsIG
Web ► http://www.rickshielsgolf.co.uk/
———————————————————————————

Hi I’m Rick Shiels, welcome to my channel RickShielsPGAGolf. This YouTube channel is designed to help you play better golf, also to help you enjoy your golf more!

I specialise in golf club reviews, golf club unboxing, golf club news, golf club head to heads, and all about golf clubs.

I also want to make you play better golf by providing coaching video on all topics about golf, how to fix your slice, fix your hook, help you drive the golf ball longer, hit your irons more pure, hit your irons closer to the hole and help you draw and fade your golf shots.
I will also help you lower your score by chipping better by stopping you duff and thin chips, pitch the ball closer and also create backspin. Also I will provide you help to putt better and hole more putts!

On this channel I also make fun and entertaining golf content based on crazy and sometimes “gimmicky” golf clubs. I like to cut through the marketing hype about products and I like to give you the honest truth about golf equipment.

If you enjoy the channel make sure you hit subscribe and also tap the notification bell so that you are always notified when I release a new video.

okay so I’ve raided the store room and I’ve picked out some iconic tailor made drivers from the last almost 20 years Let’s test them and see how much of a difference has actually been made I’m going all the way back to here 2007 with the burner driver which I honestly think is one of the best tailor made drivers they’ve ever brought out We’re going to go from there to the M2 which again was an iconic driver Iconic It really was We’re going to go SIM 2 That was kind of that next kind of iteration that step up And then we’re going to go this year’s brand new Qi35 Guys welcome to the Hit channel If you’re not subscribed yet make sure you do I’m going to hit a bunch of shots with each one of these drivers Um I’ve tried to spec them up as close as I can nine and a half degrees of loft in extra stiff shafts across the board Um and like I say we’re gonna start off with this So this driver was the bee’s knees back in 2007 If you look at it I mean it’s there’s no adjustable weights You couldn’t change the loft sleeve I mean it is as simple as drivers could be Kind of miss these days I really do Um iconic in its looks Obviously Burner is a name that’s been with Tailor Made for many many years This kind of top almost T-shape here was the fir not first but obviously Tailor made had white drivers white and yellow drivers all these other things But it’s kind of this time where it’s really symmetrical on the top and I really like the design on the top and very much a shaft tech story about the shaft This is a super fast shaft um to help generate more club speed and hit the ball further Now I’m very intrigued I’m very very intrigued to see what these numbers look like stacked up against the current drivers as we go up every kind of what’s the jumps maybe every six seven years or so the next actually from this to the M2 it’s quite a big jump but let’s whack a few of these first let’s give it a whirl I am super excited about hitting this and this is a real walk down memory lane the tailor made burner what a be okay tailor made burner Gorgeous looking driver I’m not going to dive into any numbers I’m just going to hit a bunch of shots then move on to the next driver It’s a little bit towed in That’s the first thing I’m noticing It’s a little bit more kind of aiming left I almost need to hover the club and sit it a touch open for my personal liking Oh how good did that feel solid really really solid Look at flight as well Just nice little high draw So really nice No wonder this driver was so popular back in the day We’ll dive into numbers a little bit later but really really nice start Another good one Just seems like I don’t know Oh simple simple times Yeah I’m not thinking have I got the right loft Should I change the weight cuz I cuz I can’t So I have to use what’s there And there’s something quite reassuring about that oddly enough Okay let’s say a bunch more Put it in the bag They’re saying put it in the bag Really really nice [Music] Pretty solid Okay let’s go one more with the tailor made burner and then we’ll move up go forward in time to something a little bit more modern Oh that’s the worst shot It’s hit That’s the worst one Just a just I was I’m always when I’ve set up to the ball I’m always fighting with that club face It’s definitely more naturally towed in Some good numbers though We’ll uh we’ll save that for a bit We’re going to now move this the M2 the infamous favorite club of all time of yours Um probably the M2 driver
I mean just like the best of the best of the best tailor made have brought out in my opinion This one has definitely seen better days It’s been used a lot Uh 9 and a half standard loft This is where now you could change the loft sleeve The M1 if you remember in this kind of track here used to have a slidable weight or did have a slidable weight The M2 didn’t It was kind of a more simple idea but weirdly more popular And the idea with this had that speed pocket behind the club face to help almost like that kind of trampolining effect to get more ball speed Central gravity was back With the M1 the weight was further forward so you get a little bit of a low spin but it was almost slightly too low spin If you remember the kind of M1 M2 era came just after the SLDR era where the ball was really low spinning with that driver So it was kind of blending multi- material You got the the carbon crown but they’ve kind of glossed it over this kind of contrast on the crown as well which was so iconic in the in the time Um just amazing Now interestingly over the years that white border just got smaller and smaller and smaller as the carbon crown kind of took over a bit more Um but yeah iconic iconic driver I just love how symmetrical it was as well Just like such a really nice simple design Simple but yet modern So I mean it still looks modern now It’s unbelievable right um what is interesting one of the little cheat codes a lot of these brands started to do was make drivers a little bit longer Yeah that’s just a fraction longer So I’m going to guess I’m going to get a little bit more club head speed from this sits really square [Music] Little fad one but unbelievable feel Really really nice Like really solid Again we’ve had quite a jump there in time frame That was a 9year jump between the burner and the M2 That is so good That is so good I mean Rory recently came out and even said “What’s your favorite ever club?” And he actually said this club Like this was his favorite ever driver It’s a shame He said “It’s a shame you can’t still use it.” Um yeah that was No wonder that was unbelievable Oh I mean it’s just printing fairways Look at that [Music] [Music] I mean was this was was this the peak was this was this where innovation stopped for drivers begs the question doesn’t it i mean this is so so good Has things have things changed that much dramatically since this let’s find out Let’s move into Sim 2 Okay so Sim 2 the big story was there’d been few quite a few years of little changes tailor made I say little for tailor made So they brought out twist face That was the way they kind of bulge and roll That was a couple of generations before this They brought in speed injection which where they could actually inject a foam behind the face to make it even faster Actually move that towards the toe on this model because the ones previous actually had almost screw ports in the face They brought in this inertia generator this kind of shaping of the head that made it even more aerodynamic coming down Like this is almost a blend of four or five iterations and then it came to this And also this was the last titanium face driver Tailor May brought out before they moved to carbon Let’s see how the sim 2 performs And also something I didn’t mention this was brought out in 2021 So what we should see here from that kind of burner to the M2 to now this we should see gains in distance consistency ball speed etc etc And that’s something I’m really intrigued to see You know this from 2016 to 21 it’s like six years you know five years sorry You should expect a decent jump in distant gains [Music] That is nice Different sound to the M2 [Music] Okay so that’s SIM two hit So we’ve done three so far We’re now moving on to the latest and greatest All of this bits of technology all has led up to this current model Tailor Made Qi35 So apart from the obvious color difference they went for more of a space age look this time with Qi35 It was the Are we up to like the third or fourth iteration of a carbon face as I said Tim Sim 2 is the last titanium face They then switched to carbon face This is this kind of new technology that’s making it even faster off the face is what Taylor made a claim in With the Qi35 you actually see little nuances of all of those drivers I’ve almost tested like you see this kind of flared out approach that you saw on the Sim 2 You see this carbon crown that’s now been fully extended fully wrapped around Uh this is the standard model So you can only really change two weights weight at the front weight at the back Um you can change the loft sleeve obviously I mean it’s apart from like the cosmetics and visually it’s changed but surely technology has also come on leaps and bounds Again this is a further 4 years more advanced technology compared to the SIM 2 Okay so looks wise behind the ball I mean obviously it’s got that kind of space age gray Looks very modern Quite a different shape to all of them The back the back edge like this le this back edge here sits much closer to the ground It’s like they’ve curved the back at the top of the driver so it almost hugs the ground a little bit more I’m sure that’s a aerodynamic story Right All that being said that’s a pretty straight drive I don’t know if I crushed every bit of it Yeah it wasn’t nailed nailed but super straight [Music] [Music] Okay so the results are in and this was a really interesting test Not only was it a nice walk down memory lane and certainly took this original burner and like the M2 or a driver but just to see how much technology has changed like is the ball actually factory going further is it easier to hit is it going straighter i think this is a a good little experiment Let’s kick things off with the Tailor Made Burner from all the way back in 2007 Interestingly I normally carry the ball about 280 or just under about 280 is my is my normal average The Terade Burner was average carrying 262 yards Like 18 yards less distance than what I’d normally want to see Total distance 280 yards Ball speed just under 155 Interestingly swing speed was slowest out of all of them And I do feel like it’s a little bit down to the length of the shaft It’s a little bit shorter So Tailade Burner really solid looked good felt good Slight left bias but all in all really solid driver Then we jump to M2 What a driver Now we saw a huge leap in distance but we also talking nine years difference in uh age between the two drivers I always think if you can jump by about two yards one and a half to two yards per year you’re doing good So the Tailor Made M2 average carry distance on this review was 276 yards Solid Really solid 295 yards total distance 157 ball speed 2,400 spin Like tick tick tick tick tick Club head speed 110 miles per hour Really good Looks good Feels good Sounds good And in this actual test it was the straightest hitting driver Impressive Very impressive If you’ve got an M2 and you’re still rocking it stick with it Then we jump to SIM two So it wasn’t a massive jump in age It was from 2016 to 2021 So still five years M2 we saw the carry distance go up but not by a massive amount On average 279 yards That kind of sits with where I normally hit the ball 2,400 spin 159 miles per hour ball speed Everything again was brilliant Slight left bias for me but that is a little bit of what I do anyway um looks clean behind the golf ball Out of all of these drivers probably my least favorite looking but that’s down on opinion So you would imagine as we’ve seen from burner to M2 there’s a distance increase From M2 to SIM 2 there was a distance increase From SIM 2 to Qi35 there was actually a slight decrease I fully expected the average carry distance to about 282 and it could be maybe on a different hit or a different day but on today’s test this was average carrying 277 yards of 2,400 spin 158 ball speed Interestingly very interestingly one of the straighter hitting drivers So I definitely found I was hitting it nice and straight but wasn’t as long as the Sim 2 Wild isn’t it wild But I would say the story around Qi35 isn’t about distance this year It’s not claiming to be ridiculously longer It is claiming to be a more forgiving driver As you can see if you’ve got one of these older drivers certainly M2 Sim 2 etc you are on for a winner because they are incredible drivers and you maybe even pick pick one up secondhand It just shows that technology doesn’t always mean massive lump jumps uh leap forward but as a trend distances are getting further as driver technologies get better That is a trend guys Thanks for watching Stay tuned Lots more to come And that was a fun little test experiment with these incredible tailor made drivers