My first experience with the new M2 came during a special product preview of the new M Family hosted by Pacsports Philippines at the Southlinks Golf Club for the media and TaylorMade’s local brand ambassadors. Already being a fanatical owner of the original M1, I took the opportunity to acquaint myself with the 2017 M2.
It was quite the revelation. It wasn’t the best time for me since I was nursing a soft tissue injury in my chest sustained in a car accident. But injured or not, I wasn’t about to pass up a chance to experience the new M Family on a golf course. In my short time with the M2 on Southlinks’ tight fairways, I barely missed a fairway. Playing the M2 was a matter of point and shoot; just make sure you’re pointed in the right direction and pull the trigger. Presto! Another fairway hit.
I made up my mind then and there that I had to have one. Now I’ve never gotten on well with the stock shaft offerings. While they’re fine for 95 percent of the golfing public, they were never quite right for me. Stock shafts force me to slow down my swing and swing smoothly. While not entirely a bad thing, they just don’t have the headroom for the times that I really want to let one rip. Not that my swing speed is up there with that of a touring professional. Far from it.
At my advanced status in life, I consider myself lucky to be able to maintain a swing speed of 98 miles to 100 miles per hour. Really, it’s more a matter of feel. I load the shaft considerably through my transition and lose feel of the clubhead when using lighter shafts.
I was therefore heartened to discover that TaylorMade offers premium shaft upgrades at little or no extra cost. I did a lot of research before pulling the trigger. I tried as many of the shafts in TaylorMade’s web site as I could; borrowing friends’ clubs and trying demos and after much soul searching, I settled on the Graphite Design Tour AD TP.
After conferring with Pacsports Philippines’s Randy Rana, I put in the order for my M2; 9.5 degrees of loft, the Graphite Design Tour AD TP would be 45.5 inches long and the grip would have three wraps of tape under the grip to fit my pudgy mitts. Now all I had to do was wait for the club to make its way to our shores from TaylorMade’s Carlsbad headquarters.
I took delivery of the M2 just in time for the Philippine Seniors and Mid-Amateur Championships at Mount Malarayat Golf and Country Club in Lipa City, Batangas. It was worth the wait. I loved the look of it. Its large footprint inspires confidence as you set it down behind the golf ball. It was every bit as easy to hit as I remembered. My fellow competitors in the Senior Open were suitably impressed with the accuracy and length of my drives and although I did deserve some credit, the confidence that the TaylorMade M2 gave me was in no small part responsible for my results off the tee.
The M2 uses a new multimaterial construction and advanced shaping by way of a breakthrough design technique called “Geocoustic”. Along with the new Geocoustic design, the M2 driver houses a newly designed Speed Pocket that is three times more flexible than its predecessor to improve on the already impressive performance of its predecessor.
The new Geocoustic feature combines geometry and acoustical engineering to unlock more forgiveness and best-in-class sound. The new breakthrough in geometry is the sunken sole portion of the driver. This section utilizes an ultra-light, thick-thin 9-1-1 Titanium, a design that enabled engineers to free-up volume, while not raising the center of gravity. The Geocoustic feature makes the structure stiffer and easier to manage vibrations caused at impact. With this added stiffness, minimal sound ribs were needed to create best-in-class sound and feel of the M2.
The freed-up volume allowed engineers to make the driver’s head larger, both the visible footprint as well as the club’s face (7 percent), ultimately making the driver not only appear more visibly forgiving, but feel more forgiving at the same time.
I’m a believer. The latest version of TaylorMade’s M2 sounds the business; it sounds and feels powerful at impact. It’s louder than its predecessor and even more forgiving. Slight mishits still found the fairway, and center hits ended a long way down the fairway. Being able to order the M2 (or M1, for that matter) with the shaft of your choice makes the deal sweeter still.
If you’re in the market for a new driver, the TaylorMade M2 should definitely be on your shortlist.
Image credits: Mike Besa