Is Taylor Made M1 the best driver of 2016?

    Taylor Made M1 has been in the hands of PGA pros for almost 6 months now. TM staff tour pro Jason Day swears by it, whereas fellow staff pros Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia, prefer the M2. What can we make of this?

    The M1 tests off the charts compared to other Taylor Made drivers in all areas; distance, accuracy, forgiveness and playability. Testers love the look of the club and say that, when hit on the screws, has as solid a feel as any other TM driver they have ever tested. Having two different head sizes will obviously appeal to a full array of golfers. The shafts offered by TM are numerous, again covering the spectrum as far as individual preferences. All of this before we get into the actual technology and adjustability of the M1.

    The M in M1 stands for Multi-Material and is crucial to the high performance of this driver. It is a proprietary 7 layer Carbon composite crown that is made to be very thin, very light and very strong. What this means is that there is weight saved to distribute elsewhere in the club head. Where did it go? 25 grams of it went into the new “T-Track System”.

    The “T-Track System” is designed in such a way that 25 grams of weight can be moved multi-directionally on the sole giving golfers the ability to shape both their trajectory and direction. There is a front and a back track on the sole, one moves north/south while the other moves east/west. The front track gives the golfer as much as a 20 yards left or 20 yards right draw/fade adjustment. The back track alters your launch angle as much as 3 degrees and reduces ball spin accordingly.

  • Front Track: One – 15 gram weights to provide multiple draw, neutral and fade settings
  • Back Track: One – 10 gram weight adjusts for multiple high, medium and low launch and spin settings
  • The other area of adjustment is the loft sleeve. The loft sleeve allows more adjustment within the loft of your chosen club (+/- 2 degrees) than anything else on the market. When you add up the variables available; T-Track settings, the lofts available, the loft sleeve adjustments and the two head sizes, you get a whopping 12,960 possible combinations you can get with the M1!

    The M1 is available in RH (lofts; 8.5, 9.5, 10.5 and 12 degrees) and LH (lofts; 9.5 and 10.5 degrees). The 430cc head is only available in RH, lofts of 8.5, 9.5 and 10.5 degrees. The M1 is not available in a ladies version at this time.

    Now that you have all of this information, it is up to you. It comes down to how much you want/need the adjustability that the M1 can give you. Tour players have for years been adding or detracting weight from their club head in an effort to shape their shots, so it goes without saying that there is at least some benefit to this process. The question is…are you someone who wants to not only try this, but monitor it properly to find out what is best for you? The club fitter you employ when you purchase a driver such as this can only do so much. The rest is up to you.