Tiger Woods

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Drawing on Inspiration from Company’s First Metalwoods, New Model Incorporates Many of Company’s Most Iconic Product Innovations in a Mini Driver for the Modern Generation

CARLSBAD, CALIF. (April 16, 2019) – TaylorMade Golf Company, an industry leader in product innovation and technology, today announced Original One Mini Driver, a new metalwood that pays homage to the brand’s storied history and utilizes many of the most important product technologies in the company’s long lineage of industry-leading metalwood performance.

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 “In 1979, golf was changed forever with the introduction of the Pittsburgh Persimmon™ – the original metalwood. For the past 40 years, TaylorMade has continued that legacy of innovation with game-changing technologies, engineered to help golfers perform at their best. The Original One Mini Driver incorporates that heritage of innovation with key performance technologies, packed into a confidence-inspiring shape that delivers on distance, forgiveness and accuracy.”

Tomo Bystedt, Senior Director, Product Creation

EVOLUTION OF THE MINI DRIVER

TaylorMade first entered the category with the introduction of SLDR® Mini in 2014 and enhanced the product the following year with the faster, higher-launching AeroBurner™ Mini – both utilizing predominantly steel in their construction. While both offered the company’s Speed Pocket™ technology, Original One Mini Driver is designed to deliver a new level of speed, forgiveness and visual appeal never-before seen in this category.

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UNDER THE HOOD OF THE ORIGINAL ONE MINI DRIVER

With Original One Mini Driver, engineers have utilized key product technologies found in many of the company’s most notable metalwood offerings intended to deliver a faster, more forgiving and adjustable product. It all starts with a revolutionary tri-material construction, comprised of a titanium body, 50g steel sole plate and TaylorMade’s instantly-recognizable carbon composite crown. The combination of these three materials creates an ultra-low CG for distance and playability.

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Additional features in Original One Mini include:

  • Loft Sleeve™ with ±2° loft adjustability
  • Twist Face™ Technology to provide the ultimate path to straight distance
  • Inverted Cone Technology to promote ball speed on off-centre hits

WHO IS ORIGINAL ONE MINI DRIVER FOR?

Like its predecessors, the Original One Mini Driver is targeted at golfers of all skill levels. It has been engineered to provide an option off the tee that delivers the accuracy and control of a fairway wood but with more distance and forgiveness. Faster swing speed players may additionally benefit from ease of use off the turf with Original One Mini Drivers’ combination of a medium face depth with ultra-low centre of gravity location for extreme distance and excellent playability from fairway lies.

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WHERE THE MINI DRIVER FITS INTO THE BAG

From a performance perspective, the Original One Mini Driver with its 275cc head (9% larger than AeroBurner Mini) will fit directly between a driver and a fairway wood. Some golfers will opt to play the club in addition to their current fairway woods, while others may choose to replace a longer fairway wood that was mainly being used off the tee. Most golfers will still keep the regular driver in the bag as the club that ultimately delivers the most distance.

SPECIFICATIONS, PRICING & AVAILABILITY

Available for preorder starting today, April 16 and at retail beginning May 1, the Original One Mini Driver ($499.99 CAD) will be offered in 11.5° or 13.5° lofts and come equipped with Mitsubishi’s Diamana F Limited shafts in 55g (R), 65g (S) or 75g (X) flexes at 43.75” at a D3 swing weight. The stock grip is Golf Pride MCC Decade grips in black & blood orange. The Original One Mini Driver will also be available through TaylorMade’s custom program, allowing for numerous additional custom shaft and grip options.

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Ace. By definition according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is defined as

“a person who excels at a particular sport or other activity.”

When it comes to the game of golf there is no doubt in my mind (or any golf fan or observer for that matter) that Eldrick Tiger Woods is an ace. But the term ace has another reference. An ace is also the term that dates back to World War I for a fighter pilot that collects five confirmed kills (shoots down 5 enemy aircraft during aerial combat). By this definition, Tiger Woods is also an ace as with his victory on Masters Sunday became an Ace of Augusta National Golf Course and The Masters Tournament. Only Mr. Jack Nicklaus has more with 6 victories at Magnolia Lane.

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One Day!!

Before I continue I just wanted to reiterate a few things. These are things that some of my regular readers already know about me but some newcomers may not. Admittedly, I have never been much of a Tiger Woods fans as I readily admit in this Tweet from today.

However, what you also need to know is that I’ve never disputed that he’s been the greatest of this generation. I’ve always admired Tiger’s command of the game, his dominance over his competition of this generation (and at times golf course architects) and the fact that he brought golfers to the game of golf who in all likelihood would have never picked up a golf club in the first place. The reality is that nobody has ever nor will anyone move the needle like Tiger has. It’s because of Tiger that his peers play for millions of dollars. One other thing that I wanted to point out is that I never wrote off Tiger like so many of my contemporaries have… I said well in advance of his showings in 2018 that it was inevitable that he’d be back.

It’s been often said that you have to sink to the very depths of rock-bottom before you can truly rise again. While I’m not going to beat the living daylights out of this subject let’s just quickly summarize some of the events that have transpired with Tiger that led to today’s comeback.

  • The passing of his father (Earl)
  • The issues at home with ex-wife Elin and the infamous 9-iron incident (not discounting other family issues that we didn’t know about that occurred behind closed doors)
  • His driving while impaired (which I was very unaccepting and critical of. There’s never a good excuse for this)
  • Multiple back surgeries
  • Hater’s hating and writing him off (I’m sure that didn’t bug him… but I don’t know him)
  • The short game yips (which ties in to above)

And I’m certain that there are points that I’m leaving out. Basically, Tiger Woods ran a gauntlet to get him to this particular point in time… and history.

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Frustration at the 2018 Open Championship at Carnoustie

Golf and Tiger fans alike saw the signs of great things to come over several events in recent history. Sure there was his recovery from injury following the most recent procedures on his back. The world was buzzing over social media every time Tiger picked up a wedge, or a driver and showed us a video of him swinging it. There were signs of competitive progress when he finished 9th in an abbreviated field at the 2017 Hero World Challenge. That single event would springboard Tiger to several top finishes in 2018. Events like his 12th place finish at the Honda Classic. Later that month his T-2 at the Valspar Championship and then a T-5 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. The month of May saw a Top-10 at The Player’s Championship. July saw even more progress and more encouraging signs of Tiger returning to form with top finishes at the Quicken Loans National and The Open Championship at Carnoustie. The PGA Championship at Bellerive in August fans were witness to another top finish in a Major Championship which led us into the Fed Ex Cup Playoffs. It was at the Tour Championship when he won his 80th title and everyone was saying that he was back. As far as I’m concerned at the time his form was back but he wasn’t.

That changed on April 14th, 2019 on Masters Sunday. Overall, the 2019 Masters Tournament was as exciting as it gets. The number of player’s that were in contention every day of the tournament was staggering and names like Fleetwood (my pick… didn’t turn out), Langer, Corey Conners, DeChambeau, Koepka, and Woods that were there after the first round. After Round 2 we saw DeChambeau slide out and making moves were Adam Scott, Jason Day and Francesco Molinari. When the dust settled after Round 3 we saw a lurking Tiger waiting to pounce on the field, Tony Finau, Brooks Koepka, and Ian Poulter very in contention which further set up the exciting finish on Sunday.

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Jubilation

I’m not going to give a recap of the final round because we all know what happened but let’s just say that Sunday was a day that was very different on so many levels. With severe weather threatening Augusta, Georgia the tee times were moved up in an effort to avoid the dreaded Monday finish. It was a fantastic decision made by The Masters Tournament Committee and it was a day like we have never seen before. We had previous major champions in contention (Molinari and Koepka both of whom outlasted Woods in major’s in 2018) at the top of the leaderboard. According to reports, after bogeying the 4th and 5th hole it was his caddie (Joe LaCava) that woke him up.

“Never lose the tenseness, but be loose out there. Don’t carry the weight of the world on your shoulders.” – Caddie Joe LaCava to Tiger Woods

On the 15th hole, Woods catapult into the lead and the rest is history. Then came the magical walk up the 18th, the final putt and the roars that shook the fabrics of the Earth. Making it even better was that his mother, daughter, and son were there to be in his arms after that final putt. The way that life intended it to be. Exultation. Redemption. Accomplishment.

Like I said in my Tweet. “If you don’t truly appreciate this for what it truly is. You have no soul”. Many of us have been through our own trials and tribulations. I have and continue to do so after my stroke in September. Recently, I played my first round of golf since that stroke. While it wasn’t the same thing from an accomplishment level as what Tiger just did I understand what it means to fight, grind, scratch, and claw your way back.  It’s because of his fighting and grinding why I appreciate this win more than any of Tiger’s previous 80. Congratulations Tiger! Now you’re back.

Tiger’s Winning WITB

M5 Driver | 9°

M5 Fairway | 13°

M3 Fairway| 19°

P•7TW Irons | 3-PW

Milled Grind Wedges | 56° & 60°

Golf Ball – Bridgestone Golf TOUR B XS

 

 

Until The Next Tee!!

#fightandgrind #seeuonthenexttee

 

 

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Designed to Meet the Demanding Performance of Tiger Woods and Engineered with Advanced TaylorMade Technologies & Processes, P•7TW Represents the Company’s Most Premium & Precise Irons Set to Date

 

CARLSBAD, Calif. (April 8, 2019) — TaylorMade Golf Company announced today the highly anticipated release of P•7TW, a premium players iron set designed and crafted in collaboration with Tiger Woods. P•7TW irons combine the inherent minimalism of precision forged muscle back blade-style irons with technology and exactness of TaylorMade’s Milled Grind sole and tungsten weighting for flight control and unique feel specific to Tiger.

“Consumers have never had the opportunity to play irons like mine…until now.”

Tiger Woods
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Performance Through Precision

No player on the planet scrutinizes golf equipment quite like Tiger Woods so the design and creation of his irons presented a significant challenge for the design team. With Tiger’s keen discernment top of mind, TaylorMade’s team spent countless hours unpacking decades of learnings from Tiger and Mike Taylor’s previous design experiences, all of which have led Tiger to the high level of performance and craftsmanship he demands today. Utilizing this critical information, the team spent hundreds of hours testing, relentlessly fine-tuning and creating nine design iterations through years of development to create the perfect set of irons for Tiger. When players look down at each individual iron, they’re looking at the culmination of every range session, event, victory and major championship from Tiger’s illustrious career.

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P•7TW irons were not crafted as a set — rather, each head has been individually and meticulously engineered to meet the highest of performance demands. TaylorMade’s R&D and product creation teams studied decades worth of club specifications and worked directly with Tiger to refine every sole, every contour and every groove. With an emphasis on precise trajectory control, incredible workability and smooth turf interaction, each iron has been meticulously shaped to meet Tiger’s discerning eye. Each P•7TW iron utilizes many of the same design elements such as blade lengths, face height, CG progression, sole geometry, score lines, and tungsten weighting, etc., that Tiger himself has in the bag.

“It’s no longer necessary to try to blend a set together from 50 different clubs; we’re able to replicate each one with consistency, from club to club, set to set, every single time.”

Tiger Woods

TaylorMade’s Thumbprint: Milled Grind Soles

In the past, Tiger would need up to eight “identical” hand-crafted builds of each iron in order to find just one that he could put in play. Now, utilizing the same machining process used for TaylorMade’s Milled Grind and Hi-Toe wedges, P•7TW irons feature fully milled soles (for the first time ever in a TaylorMade iron) to eliminate variations head-to-head and set-to-set— ensuring absolute precision in every individual piece.

“With Milled Grind, knowing that I’m getting essentially the same set that I just wore out is huge. I no longer have to hit hundreds upon thousands of golf balls to find a set.”

Tiger Woods
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Tungsten Weighting

It is not widely known that Tiger uses precise amounts of tungsten weighting behind the sweet spot of his irons to improve their feel and performance. In golf, tungsten is typically used to achieve a specific CG location—however, Tiger Woods is no typical player. Instead, by optimally placing tungsten within the head of each P•7TW iron, they deliver a unique blend of feel, flight, and control for Tiger to play his best.

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A Premium Experience

Golfers will begin their journey with P•7TW with a premium unboxing experience. Constructed from carefully selected materials, every detail of the P•7TW box has been carefully considered to unveil these irons in a way that pays tribute to the heartfelt collaboration of Tiger Woods and TaylorMade Golf.

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Specifications, Pricing & Availability

Available for preorder starting today and available for custom order deliveries beginning May 1, the P•7TW($2,599.99 CAD) in Tiger’s specifications come 3-PW (RH) and equipped with True Temper Dynamic Gold S400 Tour Issue shafts and Golf Pride’s Tour Velvet Cord grips. The P•7TWis available through TaylorMade’s custom program, allowing for numerous additional custom shaft and grip options.