TaylorMade SIM Max irons Review
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At a glance
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What we say...
TaylorMade’s new SIM Max Irons feature a bigger sweetspot and a new ECHO Dampener to eliminate vibration to enhance playability for the average club golfer
The new SIM Max irons replace TaylorMade’s M6, and are directly aimed at club golfers who want distance with forgiveness.
This has been achieved with a deep cavity back to ensure playability, and a new polymer ECHO dampener behind the face eliminates vibrations. It does its job so well, in fact, that SIM will be the only 2020 cast iron masquerading as a forged model.
A fluted hosel removes inefficient mass from the neck; Speed Pockets in the soles of the 4-8 irons maximise ball speed for shots hit lower on the face; and progressive inverted cone technology helps minimise sidespin on mishits with the longer irons, helping promote straighter shots.
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What you need to know about the TaylorMade SIM Max iron
There’s a bigger sweetspot
By thinning face thickness by 17% over M6, and using progressive inverted cone technology in the longer irons (where shots are often hit more towards the toe) TaylorMade say the SIM’s sweetspot has effectively grown by 40%.
Sound machine
TaylorMade compared the sound frequencies of a SIM Max with a tour level P760 forged players’ iron. Incredibly, the two were virtually identical, which translates to good feel, too.
Shock absorbers
ECHO is TaylorMade’s biggest ever polymer damper. Its concertina design means there are multiple contact points behind the whole length of the face. TaylorMade say vibration channels give space for the damper to flex without impeding face flex.
Joined-up thinking
Speed Bridge gives more rigidity to the topline, making it behave like a hinge, flexing and rebounding at impact, improving ball speeds. It also helps eliminate harsh vibrations, improving sound and feel.
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TaylorMade SIM Max iron: Verdict
This is the year when brands are talking more than ever about dialling clubs into the particular sound and feel frequencies that golfers love. If you lay the impact sound of the SIM Max over TaylorMade’s forged tour-level P760 iron, the pair are almost indistinguishable.
For golfers, that means SIM Max is a cast iron that sounds like a forged model, and that is why the SIM will be a huge success in 2020. They offer something most cast irons struggle to match.
In our eyes the SIM Max doesn’t have a ridiculously wide top edge or tall face height (to improve face flex), or masses of offset, so they’re a really good-looking game-improvement model.
Without the strongest lofts they might struggle to compete on pure launch monitor numbers (the SIM Max OS will), but for sensible golfers who know the importance of optimal numbers for launching, flighting and descending shots on to a green, we reckon the TaylorMade SIM Max is a very reliable and consistent iron to have in your golf bag.
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An iron for everyone: Where do the SIM Max irons fit into TaylorMade’s 2020 iron line-up?
TaylorMade P-7TW / TaylorMade P760 / TaylorMade P790 / TaylorMade P790 Ti / TaylorMade SIM Max / TaylorMade SIM Max OS
