TaylorMade talks working with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy
The brand also shares its early success story of Twist Face in its new M3 and M4 drivers.
TaylorMade has shared with us a recent podcast where its Vice President of Tour Operations Keith Sbarbaro discussed the unique nature of fitting with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
Sbarbaro, who works day-to-day with the likes of Woods, McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Justin Rose and Jon Rahm to name just six high-profile players, also touched upon the impact of Twist Face in the brand's successful M3 and M4 drivers.
Here are some of the highlights from the podcast, in the words of Sbarbaro...
Every guy on Tour needs to be handled a little bit differently. I mean, they all don't play the exact same specs. They all present the club differently. Each player is unique, but the advantage I have is that I've been working with a lot of them for so many years that I just kind of know what they want before we even get to an event.
NEW: TAYLORMADE M3 DRIVER REVIEW
You look at Rahm, Dustin, Rory, Tiger, Rose, and Day... they all hit the driver so well that it makes my job fairly easy just to dial them in. However, each guy still operates differently.
Once Rory and Rahm find something they like, they almost never switch. DJ, on the other hand, will tinker a little—he's already played both the M3 and M4 drivers this season.
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Looking at last year, he won three or four tournaments in a row with one driver, and two events later, he switched heads into a different driver. Dustin is not afraid to switch something on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or even Sunday if he thinks it’s better.
When we first start fitting these guys, I like to start with whatever shaft they had been playing previously—because if you start changing heads and shafts, you start questioning if it's the head or the shaft that's causing different performance.
NEW: TAYLORMADE M4 DRIVER REVIEW
It all comes down to the player. I'm never looking to fix something that's not broken, but if Dustin isn't driving it well, he's going to call me and say, "Hey, I need some drivers. I need to work this week," and I will ask him a few questions to see what's going on.
From there, I will try to diagnose the issue and send him a few options to adjust his flight or spin or whatever it is he's trying to fix.
We take every player and every build on a case-by-case basis and work through it on the spot.
Andy first joined the brand on a month's work experience back in April 2011, and he now assumes the Editor role. When Andy joined GolfMagic it was a small site with potential.
