TaylorMade Golf has expanded its Tour Preferred line of clubs with the addition the r7 425 TP, a new 425cc driver featuring TaylorMade's renowned Movable Weight Technology that includes specific elements targeted at highly skilled players.
The company is also rolling out its r7 425 driver, a new addition to the r7 family of drivers that also includes the original r7 quad, the r7 quad TP and the r7 quad ht. The r7 425 TP model carries a suggested retail price of $1,000 per club, while the r7 425 models retail for $500 per club.
The r7 425 TP features 28 grams of movable weight divided between two widely spaced TaylorMade Launch Control (TLC) ports, allowing for a lateral shift in the center of gravity position of up to 5 millimeters, company officials explained.
Robot testing indicates that the 425 TP delivers a lateral trajectory change of up to 13 yards when the TLC cartridges are configured to promote the maximum amount of either draw or fade. Likewise, players can configure the cartridges to increase or decrease their spin rate to control the height of their tee shots.
Compared to the original r7 quad, the r7 425 TP promotes a wider change in trajectory in terms of both height and lateral movement. In addition, it is designed with a slightly open face angle, to meet the demands of tour players.
In all, the new r7 425 TP driver incorporates four TLC ports and includes 12 TLC cartridges: two 2-gram, one 4-gram, two 6-gram, two 8-gram, one 10-gram, two 12-gram and two 14-gram. By inserting differently weighted cartridges into the ports in different configurations, players can change the center of gravity location to promote a broad range of launch conditions.
The 425 TP also includes a TLC cartridge tool specially engineered to install and remove the cartridges; a TLC Trajectory Wheel for assistance with configuring cartridges to achieve specific types of trajectories; a Movable Weight Technology manual; a red TP TLC case for storing cartridges; and a headcover featuring TaylorMade's proprietary magnetic-closure system.
The 425 TP couldn't have been created without TaylorMade's Ultra-Thin Wall (UTW) technology, a casting process that allows the clubhead walls to be just 0.6mm thick -- fully 40 percent thinner than the walls of most competitive drivers, officials said, and 25 percent thinner than the walls of the original r7 quad and r7 quad TP. The saved weight contributes to the discretionary weight necessary to incorporate 28 grams of movable weight into the 425cc clubhead.
Like all TaylorMade r7 and r5 drivers, the r7 425 TP is built using Pull-Face Construction, wherein the clubface is made separately from the clubhead. That allows TaylorMade to cold-roll the clubface out of exceptionally strong titanium, resulting in an exceedingly fast, flexible and light clubface that bumps up against the USGA's limit for spring-like effect.
The 425 TP also features TaylorMade's Inverted Cone Technology (ICT). The Inverted Cone, which is milled directly onto the inner side of the clubface, increases the size of a club's COR Zone, which is the portion of the clubface that delivers high coefficient of restitution: more than .800. ICT allows a larger area of the face to deliver consistently higher ball velocity, resulting in consistently longer drives.
The r7 425 TP, which includes TaylorMade's TP logo on the toe, is available in 8.5-, 9.5- and 10.5-degree lofts, and in X, S and R shaft flexes. The r7 425 comes in the same lofts and flexes.
The more basic r7 425 incorporates four TLC ports, and includes four TLC cartridges: two 2-gram and two 12-gram. The array of cartridges allows the choice of six CG positions, and gives golfers a choice of six launch conditions.
Compared to the r7 quad, the r7 425 is set up to promote a higher trajectory when the cartridges are configured to deliver a high and neutral ball flight. And because the 425's TLC ports are spaced wider apart, it promotes significantly more draw when the cartridges are configured to promote more draw, and slightly more draw when the cartridges are configured to promote a draw.
The 425 also includes a TLC cartridge tool specially engineered to install and remove TLC cartridges; a TLC Trajectory Wheel for assistance with configuring cartridges to achieve specific types of trajectories; and a Movable Weight Technology user manual.
The r7 425 also features UTW technology, Pull-Face Construction and Inverted Cone Technology.
