The naysayers were wrong. Many predicted, in 2011, that a white driver wouldn’t fly given golf’s conservative roots. But, fly, it did. TaylorMade’s R11 turned the golf biz on its ear and precipitated an unprecedented run for the company. TaylorMade would never go back to the days of black drivers, would it? Sure, it would. The fully loaded, adjustable R1 Black has all the bells and whistles as the original R1 but in a more conventional-looking, toned-down package. The only difference, really, is its paint job. Both versions pack in a ton of adjustability features for loft (8° to 12°), face angle (4° open to 4° closed), and shot shape (removable 1-gram and 10-gram weights).

Why black, why now? “We want to stay connected with authentic, low-handicap golfers,” says Tom Kroll, product evangelist, at TaylorMade Golf. “We get a lot of feedback from people saying they want to play a black-headed R1. We want to give them what they say they want.” Understood. We all know golfers who won’t try a club based simply on appearance. 

One more thing: The R1 Black will be available in limited quantities only. "They'll account for less than 20% of all R1’s built this year," adds Kroll. "Once they’re gone, they’re gone, and we have no plans to do a second ‘limited edition’ run."

R1 Black will be at retail starting on Monday, June 10. Both the R1 and R1 Black are $399.

Finally, the R1 Black will debut on the PGA Tour next week at the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn.

RELATED: ClubTesters review the TaylorMade R1 Driver

RELATED: More TaylorMade equipment news, reviews on Golf.com

CLICK HERE for Equipment news, photos, ClubTest reviews, custom clubs, more

(Photos: Courtesy of TaylorMade)

Cobra broadened its fashion-forward offerings to include a limited run of 1,800 green-headed AMP Cell drivers.

Starting on March 15, the green monsters ($399; each one marked with 1-1,800 on the sole for authenticity) will be available with a green grip, a Mitsubishi Diamana Blue Board graphite shaft, plus a matching head cover and wrench. The club's adjustable hosel has six loft settings: 8.5°, 9.5°, 9.5° Draw, 10.5°, 10.5° Draw and 11.5°.

Its elliptical club face has "dual roll" -- it's flatter below the center line of the face -- to increase launch without increasing backspin. In addition, an elliptical pad behind the face improves ball speed on low-heel and high-toe shots.

RELATED

CLUBTEST REVIEWS: Cobra AMP Cell, AMP Cell Pro, AMP Cell Offset Drivers

VIDEO: Testers review the Cobra AMP Cell Pro drivers

MORE COBRA: Cobra Homepage on Golf.com

(Photos: Courtesy of Cobra)

On Tuesday, Nike Golf published two images of its yet-to-be-released driver on the company's Facebook and Twitter feeds, giving its followers a glimpse of the red-crowned club. Nike is unveiling the driver on Monday, Nov. 5.

RELATED: Nike Homepage | See-Try-Buy: 3 Steps to Your Perfect Set

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At the PGA Tour's John Deere Classic and the European Tour's Scottish Open this week, Ping staff players will get their first chance to try to the company's newest driver, the Anser.

The 460-cc, matte-black, titanium Anser is Ping’s first adjustable driver, allowing golfers to add or take away .5° of loft.

While the club should be in pro shops in mid-August, Ping declined to reveal pricing information, but did say it will be available in 8.5°, 9.5°, 10.5° and 12° versions.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Ping clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

ClubTest 2012: Drivers: Regluar golfers tell you what they think 

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There was a time when drivers were like Model T Fords—you could have one in any color your liked as long as it was black. But with the release of a Sunday Orange version of its AMP driver, Cobra has added yet another hue to the rainbow of driver options.

The special edition AMP driver, inspired by Cobra staffer Rickie Fowler's love for wearing orange on Sundays, comes standard with the same shaft Fowler uses—an orange Mitsubishi Diamana White Board. An orange Lamkin 3Gen grip completes the monochromatic look,

 The 460-cc titanium head is identical to the previously released AMP driver and features a face that is slightly asymmetrical and designed to be more forgiving on shots hit high in the toe and low in the heel areas. The head can also be adjusted into one of three different face-angle settings using a torque wrench to help players create more of a draw or fade bias.

The Sunday Orange edition AMP will be available in July at select Cobra retailers. You can also buy the club on golf.com. The company is only making the club in right-hand models in 9.5° and 10.5° lofts and the price will be $499. 

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Cobra clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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If you wanted to buy a Model T from Henry Ford, he'd sell it to you in any color you wanted, as long as it was black. In recent years, golf companies have started offering white drivers, as well as clubs with bright orange, red and green trim, but Callaway's new udesign personalization and customization engine is a quantum leap forward.

Golfers can now go to callawaygolf.com/udesign and create a customized Callaway RAZR Fit driver, choosing from one of four lofts and eight colors.

But the personalization doesn’t stop there. Using udesign, you'll also be able to choose from more than 100 customized shaft options, in lengths ranging from 2 inches longer than standard to 2 inches shorter than standard. You can pick any of the 24 different grips currently available and have up to eight wraps of tape added underneath the grip.

According to Callaway, there are more than 70,000 possible clubs combinations.The image below shows the website's interface.

In a release, Jeff Colton, Callaway's senior vice president of global brand and products, said, "The opportunity to design your very own driver in the colors of your favorite team, alma mater or whatever you happen to feel looks best has never been offered on a mass scale. Our research and instincts show that this level of personalization and customization is what golfers want, and we’re excited to be the first brand in golf to offer it.”

Phil Mickelson, in Callaway's PGA Tour van last week at Augusta National, held a RAZR Fit designed in blue in honor of his beloved San Diego Chargers.

According to Callaway, Alvaro Quiros requested a RAZR Fit in every color so that he can match his driver with his apparel.

While the standard RAZR Fit driver retails for $399, customized RAZR Fit drivers will cost $50 more, with certain customized shaft and grip options pushing the price even higher. Orders created in udesign will begin shipping May 1.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Callaway/Odyssey clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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Lots of companies make adjustable drivers, but no company has embraced adjustability more than TaylorMade.
 
Since the 2004 release of the r7, a black driver trimmed in yellow and red, the company's flagship driver has always been adjustable. For 2012, that trend continues with the release of the white-crowned R11S on Feb. 3.
 
The R11S is not radically different from last season's top-of-the-line TaylorMade model, the R11, but there are a few evolutionary differences.
 
Last season's R11 featured a 440-cc head, but the R11S hits the USGA's maximum legal size, 460cc. TaylorMade says the bigger head combined with better aerodynamics make the R11S a little longer than the R11, and it has a slightly-larger sweetspot. The club should also do a better job of helping golfers maintain ball speed on mishits.

While last season's R11 had a red adjustable plate on the sole that allowed golfers to choose from three face angles, the R11S has five settings: Neutral, Open, Closed, Slightly Open (Open+), and Slightly (Closed+).
 
The adjustable sleeve that connects the shaft to the head can be set in a Neutral, Higher or Lower setting. The Higher setting adds 1.5° of loft (transforming a 9° driver into a 10.5° driver) while the Lower setting decreases loft by 1.5°.
 
"In many cases a golfer may not be able to see that much of a difference with the smaller sleeve [used on the R11], but the larger sleeve is going to give them the ability to dial in that launch condition to be exact without changing the spin rate," says Tom Olsavsky, TaylorMade's senior director of product creation.

Click here to watch an exclusive video of Olsavsky talking about the R11S. 

There are also two weight ports in the R11S—one in the heel and one in the toe—which can hold the one- and the 10-gram weights that come with the driver. Positioning the 10-gram weight in the heel encourages a draw while screwing it into the toe should help you hit a fade.
 
There are 80 different ways you can set up the R11S, and according to TaylorMade, the club offers 140 yards of left-and-right adjustability.
 
"All in all, the package is going to give the golfer a little higher launch and less spin than the original R11, which should translate to more distance," says Olsavsky.
 
The R11S will come standard with an Aldila RIP Phenom 60 shaft for $399. The R11S TP, which features the same head but one of 25 upgraded shaft options, will cost $499.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about TaylorMade clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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After walking through the glass doors of TayorMade's Carlsbad, Calif., headquarters, I was asked to sign a document forbidding me from writing about the stuff I was about to see. Forty-five minutes later, every eye in the second-floor conference room was focused on me. Sean Toulon, the company's executive vice president, asked, "So David, what do you think?"
 
I'd just been shown a new line of clubs that would be joining the R11 and Burner families.
 
For an internal sales meeting, Toulon had starred in a video with Nick Faldo that lampooned one of the company's TV ads, so I knew he'd go the distance to get a laugh. Part of me thought the name I'd just seen was a joke.
 
Glancing at my watch, I played it straight,. "Sean, I don't think I'll ever forget the time and place where I first heard about RocketBallz."

David Dusek

TaylorMade RocketBallz driver

But RocketBallz is no joke, and clubs bearing RBZ on their sole will start arriving in pro shops near you in early February. (According to TaylorMade, the engineers who developed the line said the 3-wood "hit the ball like a rocket." Having a little fun, they etched "RocketBallz" into their prototypes, and the name stuck.)
 
TaylorMade's goal for the RocketBallz drivers—there are two, a Tour version and a Speed version—is to deliver some of the R11's adjustability at a lower price. Get ready to hear the catch phrase "Adjustability at $299" a lot.

(Click here to watch an exclusive video about the RocketBallz driver.) 

Using an included torque wrench, golfers can remove the head of the RocketBallz driver and re-attach it in any one of eight settings to change the face angle and effective loft of the club.
 
The RocketBallz driver does not have moveable weights or an adjustable sole plate like the R11. However, it's light and designed to help golfers generate more clubhead speed.
 
Tom Olsavsky, TaylorMade's senior director of product creation, says, "The aerodynamics of a driver are critical because you are trying to develop the maximum amount of speed with the minimal amount of effort." According to Olsavsky, the RocketBallz head is 1-2 mph quicker through the air than the Burner SuperFast 2.0, and the club weighs less than 300 grams when fitted with it's stock shaft, a 50-gram Matrix OZIK XCon 5.
 
Like every wood and rescue club in TaylorMade's 2012 line, the crown of the RocketBallz driver is white. According to the company, the combination of a black face and matte-finished white crown makes it easier to align the club and square it to your target.
 
The screw in the back of the club is not adjustable. This weight cartridge is designed to lower the head's center of gravity and promote a higher ball flight with less spin.
 
The Tour version of the RocketBallz driver has a slightly smaller head than the Speed version, and it comes with neutral weight bias instead of the Speed version's draw bias. The Tour model also has a slightly deeper face and comes standard with a 60-gram Matrix OZIK XCon 6 shaft.
 
A room full of TaylorMade executives weren't looking at you the first time you heard about the RocketBallz driver, but I bet you'll remember the name too.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about TaylorMade clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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Adjustable drivers have been around for years, and lots of golfers like them because they allow you to tweak things like the loft, face angle, lie angle, and weight distribution. However, one of the biggest names in golf equipment, Callaway, hasn't offered one. Until now.
 
In late January 2012, Callaway will release the RAZR Fit driver, which was quietly made available to tour pros during the PGA Tour's Fall Series. It's already found a home in the bags of Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson.

 
"We wanted the adjustability to be easy for the consumer to use and to matter, so when a golfer makes a change we want him to be able to notice a change in the ball flight," says Luke Williams, Callaway Golf's global director of woods and irons.
 
Out of the box, the RAZR Fit will come with a neutral face angle, but you can open the face 2.5° or close the face 1.5°using a torque wrench to unscrew the head from the shaft and re-attach it in one of three different settings.
 
The RAZR Fit comes with a 12-gram weight in the toe area and a 2-gram weight in the heel, but using the same torque wrench, the weights can be switched to increase the draw bias of the club.
 
In addition to being Callaway's first adjustable driver, the RAZR Fit is also the first driver to feature Callaway's newest face, which is dubbed "Speed Frame." It's an optimization of the hyperbolic face pattern that Callaway has been using for several years, but the company says it should help golfers maintain more ball speed when they hit outside of the sweet spot.
 
"The center of the face tends to be the hottest spot on a driver, and that's capped by the USGA," Williams says. "So what we want to do is make the areas around the center behave more like the center of the face."
 
The crown of the RAZR Fit is made from Forged Composite, a unique carbon material that first appeared in last season's RAZR Hawk and Diablo Octane drivers. By melting millions of carbon fibers, Callaway engineers can press and mold the carbon material into very precise shapes and designs; in the case of the RAZR Fit, Forged Composite has been used in the crown to make it thinner and lighter. This allowed Callaway designers to add weight to the bottom and back sections of the club to lower the center of gravity.
 
The RAZR Fit will come with an Aldila RIP NV shaft and should cost about $399 when it arrives in pro shops.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Callaway clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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Paint, graphics and clever designs mask the fact that your driver is not made from a single piece of material. The face, the part that actually hits the ball, is welded to the body, and in many cases the crown is yet another separate piece.
 
According to Dave Glod, founder and owner of Tour Edge Golf, welding is fine but the process adds weight to the club and makes some areas too rigid. So instead of welding the pieces of the new Tour Edge XCG5 driver together, his company is brazing them. The brazing process chemically bonds the titanium crown of the club to the body so no welding is necessary.
 
In this video, Glod explains the process:

 

According to Tour Edge, the combination of no welds and the super-light titanium crown allowed designers to create six Weight Pads that concentrate more mass in the bottom and rear sections of the club. This added weight lowers the center of gravity and helps to create a higher ball flight.
 
Tour Edge also claims that because there are no welds to stiffen the edges of the face, which has been made 12 percent larger than its predecessor, the XCG4, the XCG5 driver should help golfers maintain ball speed on mis-hits and increase forgiveness.

To help golfers increase swing speed, the top of the XCG5 slopes down from the face to the rear section for improved aerodynamics. But for players who really want to squeeze out every last bit of power, Tour Edge is making a super ultra-light version of the club available that features a 40-gram Graphite Design Tour AD shaft and a lightweight Winn Lite Exotics grip. The whole club weighs in at a scant 271 grams. Slightly heavier stock shafts—including a 50-gram Fujikurea Blur and a 60-gram Aldila RIP Sigma—are also available.
 
Look for the Exotics XCG5 in pro shops now for about $329.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Tour Edge clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith. 

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Late at night, after everyone else has left the Huntington Beach, Calif., headquarters of Cleveland Golf, the engineers and clubs designers must be using a Wayback Machine to go back in time.
 
Last season they released the Mashie, a retro-looking hybrid with an unfinished crown. Sure, it's made of stainless steel, but the Mashie looks like something your great-grandfather used, right down to its pom-pom-topped knit headcover.
 
If you liked the Mashie, check out the Classic, which Cleveland plans to release in early 2012. The Classic is made using a modern material, in this case titanium, but it's the club's old-school look that will get everyone talking.

  
With a mahogany-colored crown, a brass-colored sole (complete with a "1") and a faux face insert designed, the Classic looks like a driver Ben Hogan or Byron Nelson might have used. 

Even the script "Classic" on the crown, which should help golfers position the ball in the sweet spot at address, harkens back to a time when swings were homegrown and clubs were hand-carved.

But while the Classic’s retro styling recall the Golden Age of America car culture, under the hood the Classic is a thoroughly 21^st century club. Nate Radcliffe, Cleveland Golf's metalwoods development manager, said there is a lot of technology built into the Classic. 

"It's got the biggest face of any driver we've ever made," Radcliffe said. "It's deeper and it has more surface area. That gives it a lot of forgiveness. It's also got variable face thickness, and the thin areas around the outside of the face really help you maintain ball speed when you hit the ball off the center."
 
Two versions of the Classic will be available, one weighing 270 grams and the other weighing 290 grams, a trend Cleveland established when it made three versions of the Ultralight drivers, each tipping the scale at a different weight. The idea is to offer drivers that appeal to a broader range of players; slow swingers will be able to swing the lightest models faster for added power, but hard-hitters will get a little more stability from the slightly heavier models.
 
The stock shaft for the Classic driver will be a Miyazaki C. Kua and you should start to see the club in your local pro shops in late January for about $299. 

Click here to watch a video featuring Cleveland Golf's Nate Radcliffe discussing the Classic driver.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Cleveland clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith. 

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The ultimate boxer would be as quick as welterweight champ Manny Pacquiao but would hit like heavyweight titleholder Wladimir Klitschko. Golf club makers have a similar goal when it comes to making drivers: build something that's light and easy for the average player, but make it pack a wallop.

With its new CG Black driver, Cleveland Golf hopes that it has created this combination for players whose swing speed is less 100 mph.

The CG Black features a head that is aerodynamically shaped to slip easily through the air, with a crown that slopes down in the back section more sharply than last season's Launcher Ultralight drivers. Cleveland's head of metalwood development, Nate Radcliffe, says that the shape of the crown decreases the club's drag throughout the downswing, which in turn helps players generate more clubhead speed.

At the same time, the 460-cc head has one of the lightest and thinnest faces Cleveland Golf has ever designed. Radcliffe says the faceplate is very thin on the perimeter, which not only saves more weight, but also broadens the CG Black's sweetspot.

Add to that mix a new Golf Pride grip that Cleveland says is half the weight of a typical grip and a special edition Miyazaki C. Kua Gold shaft and you've got a driver on Weight Watchers.

However, Cleveland put a little bit of that saved weight back into the head, adding a weight screw to the back of the sole plate. By adding weight to this key area, Radcliffe says the CG Black should naturally hit the ball on a higher launch angle to maximize carry distance, which is essential for slower-swinging golfers who want more distance.

"The overall package is a club that is designed to generate speed and be really easy to hit," says Radcliffe.

That's music to the ears of distance-hungry golfers looking to land a few haymakers on their opponents.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Cleveland clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith. 

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Lucas Glover put Nike's VR Pro Limited Edition Forged driver in his bag at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August. Anthony Kim started using one at the PGA Championship, and Paul Casey also switched to the club late this season.

Soon you'll be able to try the club, as the VR Pro Limited Edition will begin popping up in pro shops starting Nov. 1.

Like the current version of the VR Pro driver (VR is short for Victory Red), the Limited features a red channel that goes around the sole of the club that allows the face to flex back slightly at impact. According to Nike, this broadens the sweet spot and helps maintain ball speed on off-center hits.

There are some notable differences between the VR Pro Limited and its predecessor:

1. It has an updated face. According to Robert Boyd, a long-term research manager for Nike Golf, the company used computer simulations to engineer the new NexCOR face was engineered to work more in conjunction with the channel. "Because of the shape of the head and the shape of the channel, the geometry on the back of the face has to actually change a little bit," he says. The NexCOR face is thinnest in the center and slightly thicker in the heel and toe areas.

2. It's not adjustable. Last season's VR Pro came with Nike's STR8-Fit system, which allows players to set the club into one of 32 different positions to change the face angle and loft. VR Pro Limited does not have STR8-Fit, so the shaft is glued into the hosel and can't be adjusted.

3. It's smaller. Last season's VR Pro has a 460 cc head, but the VR Pro Limited Edition, designed for better players who like to shape their tee shots, has a head that measures 430 cc. That's not a big difference, but it's enough to produce a lower ball flight and less spin.

The VR Pro Limited will be offered in 8.5-, 9.5- and 10.5-degree lofts and will come standard with a Mitsubishi Rayon 'ahina shaft for $419.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Nike  clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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During World War II, the United States Army used massive 155 mm Gun M1 cannons that could hit enemy targets with a 94-pound shell from 14 miles away. Nicknamed “Long Tom,” they were serious heavy hitters. This fall, Cobra Golf will release two new drivers inspired by those cannons—the Long Tom and the limited-edition Long Tom RAW—for golfers who want serious firepower on the tee.

Measuring four feet in length (the USGA length limit is 48” for all clubs except putters), the face of each Long Tom driver is made from a new titanium alloy that is stronger than previous materials used by Cobra. This alloy makes the face thinner, and in the process, creates 20 grams of discretionary weight that has been redistributed low and deep in the 460-cc head. This discretionary weight lowers the center of gravity and helps to create a higher launch and, according to Cobra, more distance.

Like last season’s S3 driver family, Long Tom drivers also feature an elliptically shaped sweet spot that helps to maintain ball speed on shots hit in the low-heel and high-toe areas, where Cobra says players mis-hit most often.

Weighing in at a scant 269 grams, the Long Tom will come standard with a Grafalloy Blackbird shaft. Grafalloy says that a unique black paint on the Blackbird improves aerodynamics. Even the club’s grip, a Winn Ultra Light/Shorty, is geared toward adding yardage—it's so small that you can't choke down on the club!

While the standard, all-black Long Tom driver will be released in late November for $349, there will be 500 limited-edition Long Tom RAW drivers sold by authorized Cobra dealers starting in mid-October for $499 each.

Straight from the factory floor, the Long Tom RAW is unfinished, with no paint or cosmetic treatments. Aside from the titanium alloy, the only marks on the clubhead are testing measurements and the club’s serial number.

You may fire when ready.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Cobra clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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Depending on the player, spin can either be a blessing or a curse off the tee. For slow-swinging players, adding a little more spin can increase carry and overall distance. But for heavy-hitters, too much spin can balloon tee shots and cost serious yards.

Bridgestone prides itself on making spin-killing drivers for better players and the company is set to release two new offerings for fast-swingers.

The J40 445 (below) is made by fusing four pieces of titanium and repositioning the discretionary weight saved in the process to the perimeter of the head to increase the moment of inertia. Coupled with a face that is thicker in some areas and thinner in others to expand the sweet spot, the 445-cc head produces a mid- to high-launch with low spin for longer drives.

The J40 430 (below) has a slightly smaller head but uses the same four-piece construction and face technology. While it's still forgiving on mis-hits, accomplished players should be able to maneuver the ball off the tee more effectively with the 430-cc head. The ball flight of the J430 is also lower than the J40 445's and it produces even less spin.

"In the J40 445, we've made forgiveness the most important aspect of the driver design," says Corey Consuegra, Bridgestone Golf's club manager. "With the J40 430 we focused our efforts on workability and control. We now have high-launch, low-spin offerings for two very different types of players, both of whom value increased distance and consistency."

Look for the J40 445 in 9.5°, 10.5° and 12° lofts in pro shops starting in October. The J40 430 comes out in January, 2012, and will be offered in 8.5° and 9.5° heads. Both will come standard with a Project X graphite shaft and cost $399.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Bridgestone clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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