News

An Opinion on TaylorMade 2009 R9

Published

17 years ago

Jan 22, 2009

Just recently, TaylorMade previewed their 2009 launch. Unable to see this for myself, I got the following review from someone that was in attendance:

Something told me as I made my way from L.A. to Carlsbad that in no way was I about to be shown another typical new club launch. Not that TaylorMade ever disappoints. Alright, I know they do like to release new models quite frequently. However, I have never felt such an electric atmosphere from a club manufacturer. Where were the claims of added distance for the new R9 woods? Larger face? Increased sweet spot? No, this was definitely different – not only a club that is long, but one that can totally adjust to your swing, really?

Exactly 10 feet in front of me sat a bag of promise the new R9 line of woods, Rescue, and Burner irons. Appearance for me is spot on, the woods look great -and how about being able to not only adjust the club in 8 positions, but to also disperse weight and change shafts! Sign me up! As we talk specs and the clubs are being passed around I am mentally already on the range shaping shots with ease, wrench in hand, moving weights and changing shafts, imagining color combos – you name it.

The driver at 420 cc does not look like it is lacking in size compared to the other 460 heads I have been hitting. Actually, it just looks right. We touch on the R9 fairway, another nice looking wood also offering the adjustability, but without the movable weight and again I cannot find a lot aesthetically wrong with setup since you can do so much with adjustment. If anything was making me skeptical it was the Burner irons. Hearing that the Tour guys would play an iron that is not what we consider a standard players iron would take a lot of convincing. Yes, even more than Nick Price’s praise on YouTube.

Some of the best news for hybrid users is that the Rescue will be returning to its roots and not trying to do more than possible leaving a lot of us baffled at which model to buy. There will be just two models including a TP version. The presentation was awesome and Dr. Benoit Vincent, TaylorMade’s chief technical officer is not your typical club designer/doctor. This gentleman actually has a sense of humor and personality to go along with a great team of engineers.

Next, we are off to the Kingdom and go through a complete driver simulation showing each setup and the ability to tailor the flight of the shot while Iron Byron hits the balls at 160 mph. Even with a stiff wind the results are impressive with the balls landing in a very consistent pattern backing up their claim of 75 yards of adjustability from left to right on each of the greens and good distance. The Burner irons are next and we consistently see a 5 mph ball speed advantage over a competitors irons increasing distance anywhere from 12-15 yards.

A little lunch and we are ready for the range. First off let me start with my specs – 10 hdcp., swing speed avg. 118, very fast transition, and usually hit a slight fade. I start off with a Burner 7 iron and after adjusting to the added length I am able to hit some really good shots, the ability to work this club is great, toe and heel shots are beyond respectable with the trajectory mid-high. Appearance-wise these are definitely not going to be confused as a blade, but for some reason they look very good at address and the feel is hot due to them being able to increase M.O.I. by thinning down the face. The lower irons have a bit larger of a head, but nothing too overwhelming and as expected could not be easier to hit, hybrids watch out. I would have liked to hit these in an x-stiff with a heavier shaft, but other than that if I could set aside my ego. I could easily see these in my bag.

There were no Rescues available so I moved on to the R9 fairway wood 15 degree non-TP with a stiff shaft and it felt close to the R7, but obviously with the ability to open the face -2 to +2 degrees the playability is even more enhanced. My best setting was at neutral which looked slightly closed, but was assured that it did sit square, it is just too hard to argue with the designer. Nice piercing trajectory but again, I would have loved to hit this with a different shaft. The results were still pretty impressive.

Next, the R9 TP Driver with the Motore in a 9.5 stiff 65g set again at neutral with the weight set to counter my draw. I am in no way an easy person to impress, but I must say that the amount of adjustability with this driver is insane. The ball flight was mid-high, but with no ballooning and carry seemed on par with almost all of the latest drivers. There was no Trackman on the range at the time. The wrench included allows you to change the shaft and move weights but there is not a way to adjust the driver without loosening the screw. I know it would have been nice to have some numbers. By the way, Jim Flick just happened to be watching everyone hit along with the Tour fitters and designers so, uh, no pressure. The sound was just right somewhat muted but let you know when hit on the sweet spot. The Motore is a phenomenal shaft very stable and provides good feedback; no other combos were available so the verdict is still out on the Matrix, Fubuki, and Voodoo shafts in this head. With some tweaking this technology should allow all golfers to take a huge step in the right direction with respect to their game and scores even when swings are less than perfect. It looks like 2009 will be an expensive year for the club ho in all of us.

Here are a few of the day’s pics – you can find more in the forums:

News

WITB Time Machine: Phil Mickelson’s winning WITB, 2021 PGA Championship

Published

5 days ago

May 13, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

Phil Mickelson made history at the 2021 PGA Championship on Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course. At 50, he became the oldest player to win a major, breaking Julius Boros’s record. Starting the final round with a slim lead, Lefty faced tough competition from Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen. He pulled ahead with key birdies and a standout 366-yard drive on the 16th hole. Finishing 6 under par and two shots ahead, Mickelson claimed his sixth major and second PGA Championship. Many saw his win as an inspiring comeback, showing that experience and determination can still lead to victory in professional golf — and, sometimes, age is just a number.

Driver: Callaway Epic Speed Triple Diamond (6 degrees @5.5 , green dot cog)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X (47.9 inches)

2-wood: TaylorMade “Original One” Mini Driver (11.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X

4-wood (Sunday only): Callaway Mavrik Sub Zero (16.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 8 X

Irons: Callaway X Forged UT (16) (Thursday-Saturday), Callaway X21 UT Proto (19 degrees @20.5, 25), Callaway Apex MB ‘21 (small groove) (6-PW)
Shafts: (16) MCA MMT 105 TX, KBS Tour V 125 S+

Wedges: Callaway PM Grind ’19 “Raw” (52-12@50, 55-12, 60-10)
Shafts: KBS Tour V 125 S+

Putter: Odyssey Milled Blade “Phil Mickelson”
Grip: SuperStroke Pistol GT Tour

Ball: Callaway Chrome Soft X (Triple Track)

Grips: Golf Pride MCC

More photos of Phil Mickelson’s WITB here.

News

2026 PGA Championship betting odds

Published

6 days ago

May 12, 2026

Gianni Magliocco

Scottie Scheffler leads the betting ahead of the second major championship of the year, with the World Number One a +345 favorite to get his hands on a second PGA Championship.

Rory McIlroy who won the Masters back in April is a +800 shot to complete half of the calendar slam at Aronimink Golf Club this week, while Jordan Spieth can be backed at +5900 to become a career grand slam winner.

Here is the full betting board for the 2026 PGA Championship courtesy of DraftKings.

Scottie Scheffler +345 – (Check 0ut his WITB here)

Rory McIlroy +800 – (Check out his WITB here)

Jon Rahm +1300
Cameron Young +1500
Bryson DeChambeau +1700
Xander Schauffele +1850
Matt Fitzpatrick +1950
Ludvig Aberg +2000
Tommy Fleetwood +2600
Collin Morikawa +3500
Brooks Koepka +3900
Justin Rose +4300
Russell Henley +4600
Si Woo Kim +4700
Justin Thomas +4800
Robert MacIntyre +5300
Patrick Cantlay +5300
Viktor Hovland +5400
Tyrrell Hatton +5500
Jordan Spieth +5900
Sam Burns +6000
Hideki Matsuyama +6200
Adam Scott +6400
Rickie Fowler +7000
Chris Gotterup +7400
Patrick Reed +7400
Min Woo Lee +7800
Ben Griffin +8000
Sepp Straka +8400
Shane Lowry +9000
Akshay Bhatia +9200
Maverick McNealy +9200
Joaquin Niemann +9200
Jake Knapp +9200
Jason Day +9600
Kurt Kitayama +10000
J.J. Spaun +10000
Harris English +10500
Nicolai Hojgaard +11000
Gary Woodland +11000
David Puig +11000
Michael Thorbjornsen +12000
Jacob Bridgeman +12000
Keegan Bradley +12500
Corey Conners +14000
Alex Fitzpatrick +15000
Sungjae Im +15500
Sahith Theegala +15500
Harry Hall +15500
Alex Noren +16000
Thomas Detry +16500
Marco Penge +16500
Kristoffer Reitan +17000
Alex Smalley +17000
Wyndham Clark +17500
Sam Stevens +17500
Keith Mitchell +17500
Daniel Berger +18500
Ryan Gerard +20000
Nick Taylor +20000
Rasmus Hojgaard +21000
Dustin Johnson +21000
Pierceson Coody +23000
Aaron Rai +24000
Jordan Smith +24000
Angel Ayora +24000
Bud Cauley +25000
Matt McCarty +26000
Jayden Schaper +26000
Brian Harman +27000
Taylor Pendrith +27000
Ryan Fox +27000
J.T. Poston +27000
Cameron Smith +29000
Ryo Hisatsune +29000
Michael Kim +29000
Max Homa +29000
Denny McCarthy +29000
Tom McKibbin +30000
Rico Hoey +32000
Matt Wallace +32500
Ricky Castillo +33000
Haotong Li +33000
Michael Brennan +34000
Max Greyserman +36000
Stephan Jaeger +37500
Christiaan Bezuidenhout +37500
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen +39000
Aldrich Potgieter +40000
Andrew Novak +42000
Patrick Rodgers +42500
Daniel Hillier +42500
Max McGreevy +46000
Billy Horschel +48000
Chris Kirk +48000
Ian Holt +49000
Casey Jarvis +49000
William Mouw +50000
Steven Fisk +50000
John Parry +50000
Nico Echavarria +52500
Garrick Higgo +52500
John Keefer+55000
Matthias Schmid +57500
Austin Smotherman +57500
Sami Valimaki +60000
Andrew Putnam +60000
Lucas Glover +62500
Daniel Brown +62500
Jhonattan Vegas +75000
Emiliano Grillo +80000
Mikael Lindberg +85000
Adrien Saddier +100000
Bernd Wiesberger +100000
Elvis Smylie +110000
Stewart Cink +130000
Kota Kaneko +130000
David Lipsky +150000
Chandler Blanchet +150000
Andy Sullivan +150000
Joe Highsmith +180000
Adam Schenk +200000
Travis Smyth +200000
Davis Riley +225000
Martin Kaymer +400000
Brian Campbell +400000
Padraig Harrington +450000
Kazuki Higa +450000
Jordan Gumberg +450000
Ryan Vermeer +500000
Austin Hurt +500000
Tyler Collet +500000
Timothy Wiseman +500000
Shaun Micheel +500000
Y.E. Yang +500000
Michael Block+500000
Mark Geddes+500000
Luke Donald+500000
Bryce Fisher+500000
Jimmy Walker +500000
Jason Dufner +500000
Jesse Droemer +500000
Jared Jones +500000
Garrett Sapp +500000
Francisco Bide +500000
Zach Haynes +500000
Paul McClure+500000
Derek Berg +500000
Chris Gabriele +500000
Braden Shattuck +500000
Ben Polland +500000
Ben Kern +50000

Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2026 PGA Championship

Published

7 days ago

May 11, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

GolfWRX is on site for the second major of 2026: The PGA Championship from Aronimink in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

The tournament’s location, just outside Philadelphia, and its status as a major championship mean GolfWRXers are in for a treat: WITBs from a strong field, custom gear celebrating the PGA Championship, and the rich culture of the City of Brotherly Love — we have noted a relative absence of cheesesteak-themed items thus far this week, but most of the rest of the usual suspects are well represented.

Check out links to all our photos below.