TaylorMade M5 Driver Review
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What we say...
TaylorMade’s M5 Driver features 10% more carbon fibre, a T-Track sliding weight system and uses speed-injected resin to tune every face to within 2-3% of the legal limit.
TaylorMade’s new M5 driver is designed for ultimate personalisation. Like its predecessor (the M3), TaylorMade’s latest technology is all about positioning every driver face on the edge of the legal limit for face flex.
Until now, it hasn’t been possible for the brand to create drivers that hit the limit consistently, so club engineers and the factories that produce our drivers work within tolerances, and have to dial back face flex so all drivers produced are within the rules, which are very tight. It means no ‘hot’ drivers creep onto the illegal side, but also means many golfers end up playing with drivers not optimised to the full extent of the rules – TaylorMade reckon 70% of retail drivers fall outside the ‘hot range’ usually reserved for the pros.
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When the limit was originally introduced, it was seen as the way to keep a lid on how far golfers hit a ball. Ever since though, golfers have bought drivers thinking they were sat on the limit of the rules, with a face spring of 0.830 COR (coefficient of restitution). That simply hasn’t been the case. Until the M5 and M6 drivers, say TaylorMade.
What is speed injected twist face?
They reckon across the board production methods have made picking the hottest driver for club golfers a lottery. But for 2019, no matter whether you’re Rory McIlroy or a weekend warrior, they’re removing the luck element and creating a level playing field. And they’re able to do it thanks to new speed injected TwistFace technology, which TaylorMade say will position every driver face on the edge of the rules.
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Every TaylorMade M5 driver head starts ABOVE the legal limit and is then speed injected with resin in to two ‘turning ports’ on the face to get it to within 2-3% of the legal limit, with the goal being to remove the element of luck and make every driver as close to the limit as possible. There’s also a 66% larger sweetspot, 10% more carbon fibre, a more flexible hammerhead slot and a T-Track sliding weight.
“By creating a face that’s faster than the legal limit, we’re able to dial back every single head (using some very complex algorithms) with speed injected resin so each is right at the limit of the rules,” said Brian Bazzel, VP of Product Creation, Metalwoods.
“The resin stiffens specific areas of the face. Essentially the technology allows us to control face flex vary accurately, like nothing we’ve done before, it means every face can be taken closer to the limit of the rules.”
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TaylorMade M5 Review: TG Verdict
The M5’s T-Track sliding weight system offers 20g of mass to position to personalise spin, launch and shot shape. And that’s a lot of weight to put low and forward in a driver head (600rpm and a degree of launch change in fact) if you really want to chase low spin and distance at all costs. Just remember this reduces forgiveness.
M5 is much more than just a low spin option, too. Rory, Rahm and Tiger have all gone M5 for their own bags, which reinforces our opinion that it’s a brilliant option. Vast amounts of tuning options takes M5 to a different level for serious players.
TaylorMade M5 Driver: What You Need To know
The face of the TaylorMade M5 driver, which is thinner and faster with a 66% larger sweetspot than the M3, is actually initially designed ABOVE the legal limit before going through the tuning process: Two new ‘tuning ports’ on the face are injected with the appropriate amount of resin (ensured by a proprietary algorithm) to systematically dial in the speed for each driver face to get to within 2-3% of the legal limit.
There’s also 10% more carbon fibre (than the M3) and a T-Track sliding weight system with 20g of mass (giving 1° launch and 600 RPM backspin difference) to dial in and personalise spin, launch and shot shape on the TaylorMade M5 driver with 1770 unique CG configurations.
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Twist Face technology means there’s more loft in the high toe and less in the low heel, which produces more consistent spin results and better accuracy from where golfers most commonly mis-hit.
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“We’ve softened Twist Face a little, which was at the request of Tiger Woods,” says Brian Bazzel, VP Product Creation for TaylorMade.
“Where M3 and M4 needed a 2° open face angle to look square, M5 and M6 are much more like 1 – 1.5°, we’ve also tweaked the top edge so it looks a little straighter too.”
Finally, a more flexible Hammerhead sole slot helps produce a larger sweetspot, preserving more ball speed on off centre hits. There’s also a 435cc M5 Tour driver head (9° and 10.5° lofts) available for golfers who prefer a more compact appearance at address.
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TaylorMade M5 Driver: Key Features
Speed Injected Twist Face – a new Twist on Twist FaceTM
TaylorMade engineers say that they have developed ‘a new path to performance’ with Twist Face technology for their M5 Driver thanks to what they are calling a ‘Speed Injected Twist Face’. There are four key features to the design of Speed Injected Twist Face that allow TaylorMade to maximise ballspeed and allows every M5 & M6 driver to be precision-tuned with a new, rigorous process to maximise speed to the allowable limit.
- Ultra-thin Titanium face with redesigned Inverted Cone Technology (ICT)
- Reengineered, more-flexible Hammerhead 2.0 slot
- Internal support foam with variable amounts of injected resin
- A proprietary algorithm to tune each head
Every M5 & M6 driver head is inspected, measured, and tuned for maximum speed and to ensure conformity: Whereas current drivers have a level of variation from one to the next, TaylorMade’s new engineering and development processes effectively deliver a level of precision that ensures every golfer gets a hot & fast driver head.
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How does the TaylorMade M5 compare to other leading drivers?
The drivers have been designed with a thinner, more flexible face, in fact, initially designed above the legal limit before going through the tuning process, a process in which resin is injected to ensure maximum speed for each head. The injection process utilises two new tuning ports on the face of the driver (both M5 & M6 models) and a proprietary algorithm to ensure the appropriate amount of resin is used, systematically dialing in the speed for each driver face.
Watch: Best 2019 Low Spin Driver Test
A significant benefit of the thinner, faster face design is that it provides the M5 and M6 drivers with faster off-center COR, effectively increasing forgiveness. The new face design is optimised with up to a 20% reduction in thickness that results in a 66% larger sweetspot in the M5 drivers over the M3 and more than 100% larger than the original M1 in 2015.
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M5 Driver: Inverted T-Track
TaylorMade first shifted the paradigm of adjustability with the introduction of the original T- Track in the M1 driver. In subsequent models in 2017 & 2018, the sliding weight system evolved into the Y-Track, which allowed for more than 1,000 unique CG configurations, which more than doubled the number attainable in the 2017 M1.
In the TaylorMade M5 & M5 Tour drivers, a new Inverted T-Track makes personalisation more intuitive and simplified than ever and allows the golfer more precise CG adjustability with 1770 unique CG configurations; made possible through the allowance of 20 grams (two 10g weights) of moveable weight to be utilised for both the benefit of heel to toe control as well as front to back CG adjustment.
Though there are 1770 unique settings, the adjustability process has been made incredibly intuitive with high/low & draw/fade settings. The front-to-back CG shift allows the golfer to fine-tune their ball flight through launch angle and backspin. The flat curvature of the front/back track provides the lowest CG possible regardless which weight setting fits the golfer best; this promotes high launch and low spin in any of the M5’s weight configurations.
It also provides a wide range of MOI options—position both weights all the way forward for the lowest CG projection to maximise speed with very low spin, push the weights all the way back into both sections of the Inverted T-Track and maximize MOI and ballspeed protection on mishits. The result gives the golfer up to one degree of launch angle and 600rpm of spin change as well as 25 yards of left-to-right adjustability.
For even further personalisation, the 2° loft sleeve allows for the adjustment of the loft, lie angle and face angle of the driver; and when combined with the Inverted T-Track, makes the M5 the company’s most customisable driver in company history.
M5 Driver: Carbon Composite Crown & Sole
TaylorMade’s composite technology has been in development for more than fifteen years. In the M5 & M6 drivers and fairways, TaylorMade ushers in the 4th consecutive generation of its carbon composite technology. TaylorMade engineers were able to incorporate composite panels that continue to unlock performance with a more efficient mass distribution compared to a traditional metalwood construction.
The use of composite crown and sole panels save weight from the traditional construction of drivers and fairways. This increased discretionary weight is used to create an
optimised centre of gravity to deliver a hotter trajectory with increased forgiveness. The 2019 M5 & M6 have also increased the overall composite crown footprint by 10%.
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M5 Tour Driver
Following the success and increased demand for a sub-460 cc version over the last three years, the M5 will again be available in a smaller model – the M5 Tour. Featuring the
same Speed Injected technology as the M5 driver, the M5 Tour driver utilises
a compact 435cc head with optimised aerodynamics for improved workability and maximum clubhead speed. While retaining all of the same key technologies as its larger 460cc counterpart, the M5 Tour driver is designed for the player who seeks more workability with less spin and prefers a more compact look at address.
