And By Matt DeLancey
Senior Writer, GolfWRXcom

TaylorMade has extended the family of their popular R9 series to include new irons and woods aimed at the advanced player looking to play something that is more along the lines of what the PGA professionals play. The demand made by the consumer on online golf forums for this type of club continues to grow and the major equipment companies have started to listen to these demands.

The R9 SuperDeep is a gorgeous all black 460cc low spin, mid launch driver designed for the aggressive high launch and high spin golfer. Like the rest of the R9 family it includes moveable weight technology (MWT) via two weight ports and flight control technology (FCT) to allow for 448 launch condition combos.

At address the first thing I noticed was how traditional and compact the club looks for a 460cc driver. The face of the SuperDeep has been stretched to lower spin and maximize performance by sacrificing some MOI and forgiveness, but improving shot shaping. This is truly a throwback driver and for those TaylorMade loyalists it is hard not to feel some familiarity to some of the all time greats such as the 300 Tour, R510TP, and R7 425 TP.

Right off the shelf the R9 SuperDeep comes stock with a 70 gram S and X flex, 60 gram in regular flex, Aldila R.I.P. shaft with the Reverse Interlaminar Placement technology that provides low torque for increased tip stability. The weights are positioned 16 in the toe and 1 in the heel to promote a slight fade bias, but reversing the weight to the heel aids in clubhead rotation promoting a draw and reducing a slice. What becomes evident on hitting the sweet spot is the tremendous amount of trampoline effect created by the ultra thin wall technology.  

I started with the stock weight set up and was hitting a slight fade with the FCT in the neutral position. After a few trials I found that the 16 gram weight in the heel, 8 gram in the toe, and driver head slightly open to be my ideal set up. This produces a very slight draw that hit the ground running.  For the record I am a higher swing speed player whose misses can be quite erratic, but felt confident enough to really get after the ball and my results just kept getting better.  This driver is not for everybody, but for a player that hits the ball with a tremendous amount of spin and high launch this is one of the best drivers on the market for both playability and distance.

The R9 SuperDeep TP driver is available in three right-handed lofts (8.5, 9.5, and 10.5) and one left-handed loft (9.5). Three R.I.P. shaft options are the R (60 grams), S (70 grams), and X (70 grams). My shafts from an R9 TP also fit the SuperDeep and SuperTri drivers as well. You also get a TP case with an R9 torque wrench (to adjust the FCT position and remove and install MWT weights) and eight MWT weights: 1-gram, 4-gram, 6-gram, 8-gram, 10-gram, 12-gram, 14-gram, and 16-gram.

For pictures and more discussion on the SuperDeep follow this link and get in the conversation: 

http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/349603-taylormade-r9-superdeep-in-hand-pics/