WORD OF MOUTH IS DRIVING NEW TWIST FACE TECHNOLOGY
When Dustin Johnson boomed a drive nearly 433 yards, coming up six inches short of the cup on the par-4 12th hole during the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii earlier this month, golfers everywhere quickly got tuned into Twist Face technology.
There’s plenty of buzz around Twist Face, a multi-curved face design featured on TaylorMade’s M3 and M4 drivers, at the PGA Merchandise Show at the Orange County Convention Centre.
The buzz will only get noisier when the technology hits the market in mid-February. Results don’t lie. And it’s not just the Dustin Johnsons of the golf world who are going to benefit from the Hammerhead technology that creates a huge sweet spot and enhances ball speed and forgiveness across the face of the club. Sounds pretty sweet, eh?
“We still believe in the pyramid of influence,” said Brian Bazzel, TaylorMade’s vice-president of product creation. “It’s an aspirational sport and there’s nothing more aspirational than watching Dustin Johnson hit. If we can make products for the best players in the world, I know we can make products for everybody else. Let’s be honest, there are more 30-handicap players buying our products than Dustin Johnsons. It has to work and it has to work great for the average player and the high-handicap player.
“No matter what level you are, this new technology with Twist Face in the drivers is really going to help people hit the golf ball straighter and longer. We were studying how golfers were mis-hitting shots. We could see how the club was coming into impact, when the ball was leaving and where the ball was ending up. What we found was there was a flaw in the standard curvature that’s been designed in drivers for quite some time. We changed that curvature and called it Twist Face. The simplest way to describe it is, no matter where you’re hitting it on the face, we’re going to provide you a more accurate golf club. It’s game improvement for every golfer.”
So Twist Face? Catchy, right? Where did it come from?
“RocketBallz, the name, came from our R and D group," Bazzel said. “Twist Face came from people in the halls calling it twisty face. One of the things we loved about Twist Face is we felt people would remember it.”
TaylorMade has some powerful clout behind its products, which also includes well-received iron sets, putters and golf balls that are chipping away at Titleist’s market share. Besides Johnson, the company’s stable of professional tour players includes Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Justin Rose, Jon Rahm, Tiger Woods and Paula Creamer.
“It’s been incredible to watch … what DJ did in Hawaii, to see a 433-yard drive that almost goes in a hole, the display of shotmaking to win there,” Bazzel said. “Then there’s Jon Rahm winning in the desert (at the CareerBuilder Challenge). Again, his stats were off the chart, straight and long.
“You can’t script this. When they left the golf course, the first thing they talked about in the news conference was Twist Face. We can predict that we’re going to provide them with better performance, but we can’t predict some of those incredible shots those superheroes are making.”
TaylorMade’s Canadian president Dave Bradley says the company has the power "of some of the most iconic players on the PGA Tour who are performing well with our new products mixed with the heritage of metal wood innovation that goes back to 1979. We’re becoming probably a more complete TaylorMade brand than we ever have been, not just reliant on a couple of categories of business.”
In 2017, TaylorMade and Adidas split globally. A separate TaylorMade legal entity was set up in Canada and it moved into new corporate offices last month.
Back to equipment. While the company’s irons are also making a big dent in the market, the HiToe wedge and Spider putters are also producing.
Said Bazzel: “Rahm won with the Hi-Toe wedge, Rose won with the Hi-Toe wedge, DJ won with the Hi-Toe wedge, McIlroy has one in the bag. This wedge hasn’t even come out yet. They’re loving the look — it has a copper look to it — and the performance is fantastic. Spider putters are the hottest putters on tour right now.”
Then there are the golf balls, specifically the TP5 and TP5X.
Said Bazzel: “It’s the reason why McIlroy came over to our company. He loved the woods, but he fell in love with the golf ball. Under Rahm’s contract, he didn’t need to switch golf balls, but he switched right away. Now look at him, he’s No. 2 in the world. You have DJ, No. 1 in the world, playing the golf ball. There’s no better validation than those guys.” WEATHER MEN: Columbia’s new outerwear line OutDry, expected in the next few months, is perfect for golfers who want to stay dry in the rain. The Men’s Downpour jacket, short sleeve 1/2-zip and pants are not only waterproof, they’ve also got technology that makes sure they stay that way. Explained Scott Rossi, Columbia’s OCS business development director for the Northeast Region: “Most outerwear, the membrane is on the inside and the fabric is on the outside. What happens is the fabric on the outside slowly deteriorates and the inside deteriorates because it’s sweating. For the first time ever, Columbia has the membrane on the outside and on the inside. They have the nice breathable material.” Already on the market and perfect for Canadians is the Omni-Heat Regulation, which reflects heat back inside.