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CARLSBAD, Calif. -- TaylorMade's new R9 irons are designeded to deliver modern performance and enhanced distance in a more classic package.
"The R9 irons are aimed at the technician, and so are rendered in a player's shape with a clean and conventional look," said Harry Arnett, TaylorMade's senior category director of metalwoods, irons and balls. "However, a ridiculous degree of performance-enhancing technology is packaged within each oversized clubhead. The result is an iron that's phenomenally easy to play despite its classic appearance, and extremely controllable and accurate as well."
Like the Burner irons, the new R9 long irons and middle irons were designed separately from the short irons to optimize performance in each club. The result is that the 3-iron through 6-iron are extremely long and easy to hit, and the short-irons are engineered to promote great feel, control and accuracy.
Each R9 long iron and middle iron (3- through 6-) houses a large and fully enclosed compartment positioned behind the clubface, underneath the cavity badge. Called the Velocity-Control Chamber (VCC), it makes it possible for a large area of the ultra-thin (2.0 mm) clubface to exist unsupported. TaylorMade officials call it a wrap-around clubface because, they say, it acts like a face that wraps around the topline and the leading edge, which gives the face more freedom to flex and reflex at impact, much like a thin-faced driver.
The VCC makes it easier to launch the ball with the long and middle irons, yet TaylorMade engineers have gone to great lengths to ensure that the R9 irons deliver controlled power by incorporating Inverted Cone Technology on the inner side of the clubface. In addition to promoting higher ball speed on off-center hits, the Inverted Cone has been carefully calibrated to eliminate "hot spots" so that ball speed is consistent across the clubface, resulting in consistent distance control in all of the R9 irons.
Although these long and middle irons don't immediately appear to be perimeter-weighted, they are, given that the VCC is occupied by a nearly weightless foam as well as a silicone shock absorber positioned directly behind the center of the face; both serve to absorb unwanted impact vibration. The foam starts as a powder sealed within the VCC; heating the clubhead turns the powder to foam that expands to completely fill all open areas of the chamber, ensuring that the sound and feel at impact is soft and consistent across the face.
The short irons are engineered to deliver increased playability, control and feel in the scoring zone. The simple, straightforward teardrop shape and clearly delineated leading edge make it easy for any player to aim. Each compact clubhead incorporates a deep undercut cavity and broad, low-CG sole that makes it easy to make solid, spin-inducing contact to get the ball in the air and stop it quickly upon landing.
The R9 short irons also incorporate a vibration-quieting layer sandwiched between the back side of the clubface and the thin, protective black badge in the cavity. The vibration-quieting is a visco-elastic adhesive made by 3M that also absorbs unwanted sound. The result is a solid sound and feel. Additionally, at the bottom of each short iron cavity (hidden behind the badge), more weight has been concentrated at the heel and toe to more stability and forgiveness on mis-hits.
TaylorMade's research and analysis has helped its engineers create soles that interact optimally with the turf to promote crisp club-to-ball impact. The trick, they said, is in how the edges of the sole are contoured, or beveled. The sole of every R9 iron is specially beveled to reduce turf resistance, helping the bottom of the club glide through impact and apply maximum force to the ball.
The R9 irons come equipped with KBS 90-gram steel shafts, available in S and R flexes. KBS, which is quickly growing in popularity on the PGA Tour, incorporates several new enhancements into its steel shafts to promote improved performance. One is that the wall thickness of each shaft increases proportionately as the shaft diameter decreases, which promotes added stability.
The KBS steel shafts in the R9 irons are a lighter version of its popular tour shaft to promote greater swing speed, higher launch and increased distance. In addition, the KBS shafts in the R9 irons share a structure and step pattern with the tour shaft that promotes tighter dispersion for greater consistency and control.
The R9 iron is also available in one graphite shaft model, the Fujikura Motore, in 75-grams in S flex, 65-grams in R flex and 55-grams in M flex.
The standard set of R9 irons includes 3-iron through pitching wedge and carries a suggested retail price of $999 with steel shafts and $1,249 for graphite shafts. An attack wedge and sand wedge are available separately. The R9 irons are now available.
- PGA.com
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