IJGA Newsletter: The Oaks February 2020 | Page 5

the muted feel and sound. As a Club Maker, I utilize the use of Hot Melt “Rat Glue” quite often with my students, to dampen sound and increase head weight. This Mavrik has the feel and sound of a driver with Hot Melt from the factory. Which in my opinion is great! The reviews are in and it looks like Callaway came out with a winner for 2020. TaylorMade SIM- Ahhh, TaylorMade. For a while a few companies were absolutely saturating the market with equipment, one of those was TaylorMade, and Callaway is a close 2nd. The reason I prefaced this at the beginning is that TaylorMade is at the PGA show this year, but decided to skip the show in 2019. I believe they are trying to get into the black after years of bad management and it seems to be working with new management running a lean ship. Now, on to the SIM Driver. TaylorMade is claiming “In our limitless pursuit to help golfers improve, we’ve discovered the new shape of driver performance. An asymmetric sole design and powerful new Inertia Generator combine to increase aerodynamics and speed at the most critical stage of the swing”. They are also keeping their Speed Injected Twist Face technology in the SIM. So from the quote it seems they focused on aerodynamics and head shape to achieve their goals for the SIM. I will say that their business practices could be better, but TaylorMade consistently produces “Hot” Drivers year after year. I imagine this will be no exception. As of today we are waiting on our SIM demo’s, so I can’t give a first hand review as of yet. But I’m willing to bet the SIM will beat out the M5, M6 line which were fantastic. Some of TaylorMade’s tour staff have been playing the SIM for weeks, it’s always a good sign for manufacturers to see Tour Staff adopting early to new product, which is not always the case. Some key points of the new SIM: “Our obsession with helping golfers improve has driven us beyond the traditional. We have reinvented the shape of the driver to deliver both Speed and Forgiveness through advanced aerodynamics combined with a high-MOI multi-material construction” 1. Revolutionary asymmetric sole shape to reduce drag at the most critical part of the swing and improve aerodynamics 2. Redesigned Inertia Generator places weight at the extreme low-and-back portion of the club for enhanced forgiveness 3. Speed Injected Twist Face is designed to improve ball speed across the face and increase accuracy on mis-hits I hope this has given you a little insight into two popular new golf products for 2020 and encourage you to see your local certified Club Fitter to improve your game and make your rounds more enjoyable. - Kristofer Sirak 5