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Burner Irons a “Hit”
When I first heard about the new Burner irons for 2009 by TaylorMade-adidas Golf, the buzz was
they hit the ball further – a lot further…like 30 yards more with a 3-iron.
OK, sounds just like one the tried and true marketing lines paraded out to hype a new driver and
since we don’t usually think about extra distance being a primary selling point for irons, I was
intrigued.
After some investigation and “trial by fire” the truth came out. The Burner 09 irons do hit it longer
which raised two questions, why and how. The why is simple; except for the maybe the top 5% of
players, golfers think they hit the ball longer than the do in fact. And for the typical player’s iron play
he needs help with not only distance but accuracy. For most iron makers accuracy plus
‘forgiveness’ were the prime movers since distance wasn’t stressed as a big selling point.
TMaG turned the usual thinking around. They set out to design irons to give the average golfer
better accuracy, the correct trajectory, additional forgiveness on off-center hits and the big change -
more distance.
It was obvious to accomplish this they needed to take a drastically different approach. First the
TMaG team created a 4-iron meeting specific trajectory and distance performance criteria then
designed the other long irons around the 4-iron model. Based on the long iron performance
middle irons were done as a group and then a group for the short irons keeping the club length
and head weighting consistently changing to achieve the proper distance and trajectory gaps.
Dr. Benoit Vincent, chief technical officer for TMaG further described the ‘how’, "We felt that if we
could make a long-iron that was far easier to hit than any other, we'd learn a lot about how to
make the middle- and short-irons easier to hit, too. We spent a great deal of time in the beginning
deconstructing conventional long-irons and re-thinking how we might reconstruct them in a new
and different way. We'd given the previous Burner irons longer, lighter shafts and Inverted Cone
Technology, but we knew we could do more. We realized that tweaks weren't enough, that we had
to redesign the club completely. We realized that each grouping of irons – the short-irons, middle-
irons and long-irons – had to be treated separately and differently, because each one is a different
animal."
The bottom line the Burner 09 irons were each designed separately with the performance
mirroring the design criteria: better distance – more control. An astute player will realize part of
these results are achieved by using slightly longer shafts and making some of the lofts stronger
than typical but on the other hand maybe typical iron lofts and shaft lengths have been wrong all
these years.
What TMaG says:
-Thinning the clubface as much as possible to make it more flexible and faster for higher COR
(coefficient of restitution).
-A custom 450 stainless steel alloy is used for added strength, allowing 1.9 mm thickness across
most of the face.
-Incorporating Inverted Cone Technology into the back of the clubface to promote increased ball-
speed on off-center hits.
-Increasing the size of the head by expanding the perimeter, which helps increase the MOI to a
higher level than any previous TaylorMade iron.
-Increasing the width of the sole (unusual for a long-iron) to pull the CG location low and far-back
away from the clubface.
-Increasing the degree of offset to make it easier to square the face at impact.
-Thickening the top-line to give the appearance of more mass behind the ball at address, to
inspire more confidence.
-Outfitting it with a lightweight, longer-length shaft and lightweight grip.
MSRP for the Burner 09 set with steel shafts is $840 and with graphite shafts $1,080, however
street prices right now are about $700 and $900 respectively.
Adjustable clubs are all the rage.
When I first heard about the new Burner irons for 2009 by TaylorMade-adidas Golf, the buzz was
they hit the ball further – a lot further…like 30 yards more with a 3-iron.
OK, sounds just like one the tried and true marketing lines paraded out to hype a new driver and
since we don’t usually think about extra distance being a primary selling point for irons, I was
intrigued.
After some investigation and “trial by fire” the truth came out. The Burner 09 irons do hit it longer
which raised two questions, why and how. The why is simple; except for the maybe the top 5% of
players, golfers think they hit the ball longer than the do in fact. And for the typical player’s iron play
he needs help with not only distance but accuracy. For most iron makers accuracy plus
‘forgiveness’ were the prime movers since distance wasn’t stressed as a big selling point.
TMaG turned the usual thinking around. They set out to design irons to give the average golfer
better accuracy, the correct trajectory, additional forgiveness on off-center hits and the big change -
more distance.
It was obvious to accomplish this they needed to take a drastically different approach. First the
TMaG team created a 4-iron meeting specific trajectory and distance performance criteria then
designed the other long irons around the 4-iron model. Based on the long iron performance
middle irons were done as a group and then a group for the short irons keeping the club length
and head weighting consistently changing to achieve the proper distance and trajectory gaps.
Dr. Benoit Vincent, chief technical officer for TMaG further described the ‘how’, "We felt that if we
could make a long-iron that was far easier to hit than any other, we'd learn a lot about how to
make the middle- and short-irons easier to hit, too. We spent a great deal of time in the beginning
deconstructing conventional long-irons and re-thinking how we might reconstruct them in a new
and different way. We'd given the previous Burner irons longer, lighter shafts and Inverted Cone
Technology, but we knew we could do more. We realized that tweaks weren't enough, that we had
to redesign the club completely. We realized that each grouping of irons – the short-irons, middle-
irons and long-irons – had to be treated separately and differently, because each one is a different
animal."
The bottom line the Burner 09 irons were each designed separately with the performance
mirroring the design criteria: better distance – more control. An astute player will realize part of
these results are achieved by using slightly longer shafts and making some of the lofts stronger
than typical but on the other hand maybe typical iron lofts and shaft lengths have been wrong all
these years.
What TMaG says:
-Thinning the clubface as much as possible to make it more flexible and faster for higher COR
(coefficient of restitution).
-A custom 450 stainless steel alloy is used for added strength, allowing 1.9 mm thickness across
most of the face.
-Incorporating Inverted Cone Technology into the back of the clubface to promote increased ball-
speed on off-center hits.
-Increasing the size of the head by expanding the perimeter, which helps increase the MOI to a
higher level than any previous TaylorMade iron.
-Increasing the width of the sole (unusual for a long-iron) to pull the CG location low and far-back
away from the clubface.
-Increasing the degree of offset to make it easier to square the face at impact.
-Thickening the top-line to give the appearance of more mass behind the ball at address, to
inspire more confidence.
-Outfitting it with a lightweight, longer-length shaft and lightweight grip.
MSRP for the Burner 09 set with steel shafts is $840 and with graphite shafts $1,080, however
street prices right now are about $700 and $900 respectively.
Adjustable clubs are all the rage.