Attractive, well-built and forgiving. But we're here to talk about the new 2017 'M' Series range from Taylormade Golf.
Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few years, you may of heard of the Taylormade M1 Driver. It's Roughly a year old, and it reached distances that I could only of dreamed of = largely down to an extremely low-spinning ball flight.
My experience for GolfBox Reviews left me utterly speechless and I purchased one within that week. The thing is, i'm not hear to 'blow smoke' up the backside of Taylormade. I actually struggled with the 2016 M1. I think it was mainly down to me getting too greedy with the spin-rates (idiot). As toe and heel strikes would struggle to achieve a thousand RPM. Which is beyond ridiculous! (Tour Average is about 2,685 RPM)
The low spin 'addiction' proceeded to get out of control, to a point where the ball didn't have enough energy to stay in the air and consequently struggled to carry 100 Metres (I later labelled this the 'dead bird' flight). Don't get me wrong, the good strikes carried well over 310 Metres and would roll forever. This would only fuel my stubborn-self, and I would continue to hit ZERO fairways in a round, deal with the 'dead flight' flight, just to taste that 330 Metre drive. (Which happened once in a blue moon).
Anyway, a Year on and where is my 2016 M1 Driver?! Yep, you guessed it, It's still in my bag. I have killed things with it; lost money because it, and my confidence was shattered too.
To add insult to injury, I did take note that very few players on Tour gamed the M1 and instead used the more forgiving M2 version. I regretted my decision as soon as I heard this. I mean, If these players were struggling with it, WHAT WAS I MEANT TO DO WITH IT!? Even though, friends and colleagues have found success with the 2016 version. The factor here, is that they are sensible and have control of their 'inner spin demons'.
At this point of my blog, I probably have multiple Taylormade Reps on the verge of calling me to give me an 'ear full'. Well, hold-fire just a sec! See my 2017 review below.
Let's go straight into it. The 2017 M1 Driver is easily one of the best drivers I have ever hit. And no, i'm not going to make the same mistake and leave with a Driver that scares every underground creature. I legitimately averaged around 2000-2500RPM, which is still Low but controllable. All of a sudden I felt 'FORGIVENESS', whilst also being able to achieve 325 Metres in carry. Perfect!
To cut a long story short, the New M1 performs and feels like last years M2 with an added 'boost'. The New Taylormade M2 is now the Taylormade 'M3' and should really only target golfers that are struggling with distance and launch. Because of this, we should see very few people on Tour playing the M2.
However, a new M2 D-Type (M3) model is targeted at golfers that struggle with the slice - due the more offset and forgiving technologies included.
2017 improvements include: a longer, more personalised T-Track system; 43% more Carbon Fiber with 6-Layers of Multi-Material. All of these things help Forgiveness, Ball speed and overall aesthetics.
SEE THE YOUTUBE REVIEW BELOW
ALSO...SEE THE CALLAWAY GBB EPIC DRIVER VS TAYLORMADE M1 DRIVER REVIEW BELOW