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Worldwide Golf Shops INSIDER PODCAST #328! In this installment, we chat with the Vice President at TaylorMade Golf Company, Mr. Brian Bazzel! Brian talks TaylorMade Golf’s new SIM 2 Family of Drivers, Fairways, Hybrids, and Irons! Please Enjoy this INSIDER Podcast.

Taylormade SIM 2 Driver

• New Forged Ring Construction: Forged Ring Construction is the key that unlocks a new dimension in distance and forgiveness. Forged from a lightweight and high strength aluminum that is milled to an exacting shape, it unites a massive rear weight, a full carbon sole, crown and a new milled back cup face. Creating a driver designed for increased stability and forgiveness, giving golfers the confidence to take on any tee shot. 
• SIM Inertia Generator: The asymmetric Inertia Generator is designed to provide faster club head speed through advanced geometry and aerodynamic analytics. A full lightweight carbon sole enables the redistribution of mass for a deeper center of gravity and enhanced forgiveness.
• Speed Injected™ Twist Face™: Improves ball speed by calibrating each head to the threshold of the legal speed limit with corrective face curvature also protecting against heel and toe mis-hits.
• Thru-Slot Speed Pocket: Our most flexible Speed Pocket™ design engineered to maximize ball speeds and produce additional forgiveness on low face strikes.
• Split Mass Weighting: Designed to enhance forgiveness while allowing for pinpoint target swing weights during custom assembly.

Shop TaylorMade Golf’s SIM 2 Family at www.worldwidegolfshops.com

Podcast Transcript

And welcome to the Worldwide golf Shops Insider Podcast episode 328.  Hello everyone Tom Brassell here.  Thanks so much for joining us. We’re so glad that you did and today is a great day because we’re joined with our good friend from out in TaylorMade Golf out in Carlsbad CA. 

Mr Brian Brazzell,  Brian, David Abeles was singing your praises a couple episodes ago. We’re so glad you’re with us.  Can’t wait to get started. 

Yeah, it’s awesome time.  Thanks for having me on.  Appreciate it. It’s exciting times. 

Yeah, well I’m looking at the TaylorMade website right now and it sure looks nice. 

It’s the whole new family of products before you take us through it. 

Why don’t you kind of start with what went into this?  This is pretty Cool. 

Well, yeah, I mean we we, you know we’re looking at things really pretty far out.  Three to five years.  And you know, within two years we start to solidify what we might do.  And in this particular case what’s unique about it is that we kind of had to to break it all apart, so to speak. Almost deconstruct. This July. However, to advance the performance and we started to look at things like hey, what about what material could be used for this part of the club and what process can we do to make that part?  And ultimately you know of course our goal is to just make these products perform better, make the driver go longer, straighter, farther, more forgiving. The things that all golfers need.  What but to do it in this case?  What was unique is that we kind of had to again deconstruct it. Work on the little parts, and then sort of put it back together, which is what what really you know is in the SIM 2. 

You started with drivers. Let’s go ahead and dive into there because there are three different drivers, but talk a little bit about what you guys did technology wise. 

Well, of course you know we don’t.  We build off of the things that we’ve done really well and SIM, of course radically changed the geometry.  The shape of the driver to improve the aerodynamics and improve that forgiveness.  And so we’re getting we’re getting more speed and getting more forgiveness on off center strikes.  But with SIM 2 again, we we now what was. 

This titanium head with carbon on the Crown in this radical shape.  We kind of took that apart. 

Took the back perimeter of the driver.  Detached it so to Speak. And then constructed that back perimeter out of aluminum.  A forged aluminum ring that’s milled or CNC machine, so it’s precise.  It’s lighter than titanium, allowing us to save weight, which is a high part of the driver and reposition that down.  And in this case back, which adds to the stability and forgive. 

Yes, and so we wanted to maintain that that high Crown that speed, but we wanted to provide golfers more forgiveness.  So now you have a titanium face.  You have a carbon Crown which we’ve had, which is super lightweight.  And then you’ve got this forged aluminum. 

It’s blue all the way across the perimeter of the back.  This ring.  And then a full carbon sole. 

And then you Add all that all that save weight, and we put a really heavyweight in the bottom back part of the driver, and again the stability goes up.  The sweet spot gets bigger.  These are the things that you know.  It’s really going to help.  Golfers play better. 

You know, like you said, it helps golfers play better, but also what’s unique about it is you have the best players in the world play in this talk about with the feedback you’ve gotten from some of your tour staff on this club. 

Well, sure, I had the fortunate opportunity to sit in front of these guys in November and share with them how we kind of reconstructed this driver.  And then of course, they’re blown away. 

Their kids in a candy store.  So are you looking at these things so they don’t get to see behind the hood all the time?  And so there, you know, they wonder intrigued by what we’ve done, but you know, more importantly, they want to go out and hit it.  And so I I, I walked him through it. 

We went out on the range, you know, Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson?  Or, you know, Tommy Fleetwood, who’s now you know on staff, does Matt Wolf these guys, phenomenal athletes and they they fell in love with the look it fell in?  Love the sound ’cause the one question we get, you know when, especially when you’re walking through the the idea of kind of breaking this apart and putting it back together.  What is it going to sound like?  And they were blown away by how strong stable it felt in in just that sound.  The acoustics.  It does play a role into how you, you know how you like the driver do, does it look good?  Does it feel good?  It’s so important to those guys. 

Well, there’s three drivers.  SIM 2 SIM, 2 Max and SIM 2 Max D Talk briefly on those. 

Yeah, sure, so until two, essentially that’s our lowest spinning package. 

It’s it’s slightly caters to the better player, but it as well as players that certainly spin the ball quite a bit more.  It does have a little bit more speed.  You’re going to see more ball speed over the original SIM and a slightly larger face.  And then since you have the Max is our most stable product, it’s the highest inertia.  If you hit it off center, it really wants to to hold together there and and that is, you know, up the gut for the majority of the players, the Sim 2 Max and then the Sim 2 Max D which is the D stands for.  Draw so for those who kind of, you know slice or or fight Fade and want to draw a little bit more It’s designed with that draw biased in it.  It’s super forgiving as well has all the same technologies but just caters a little bit more to somebody who’s fighting the fight. 

Well, with those three, it’s so important to make sure you go and get fit for this driver. 

Don’t just grab what you think you need. Take some time and get fit for it. 

I couldn’t agree more. I mean, every player has their own signature swing.  It’s like a thumbprint, and if you just, you know so many golfers say I can’t.  You know I’m not good enough.  I’m not consistent enough.  Well, you’re probably more consistent than you think.  And just spend the extra time you know golf equipment is not, Keep an invest into a fitting in your.  It’s going to pay off tenfold. 

It’s like we said coming in it’s a family of clubs. Let’s touch on the fairways and hybrids a little bit. ’cause these things look beautiful.  They really do behind the ball. 

Yeah, definitely. So again, multimaterial.  We’ve shaped them beautifully, does the same to this into Max and since you’ve XD as well and there’s you know you’ve got a lot of technology packed in it.  You’ve got twist face in in the face as well.  We do it in the driver.  I didn’t mention that, but you got speed pockets.  They go through the sole.  It breaks the bottom of the head up so that you get.  More flex and rebound.  You got a carbon Crown and then you’ve got this V Steel soul which helps for playability that comes.  Just wants to kind of go through the turf and get out really quickly.  And then in this case we’ve kind of reshaped that the steel so a little bit to improve again once more how quick it kind of goes through the turf.  In addition that we we. 

Without the SIM 2 in particular, we’ve got a special place, almost like a craft titanium face. It’s called Zetec titanium. It’s very, very strong and we shrunk that head a little bit. It’s 170 CCS, so slightly better player. But you get that that high launch low spin with the 80 gram steel soleplate.  So it’s a premium fairway wood.  It has an adjustable loft sleeve so you can really dial that product in.  So even though it’s smaller than the original SIM, it’s actually higher in the inertia. It’s actually more stable. And see how we’re using basically all the bells and whistles to provide.  That very would performance and then it’s into Max.  We increase the size of it, increase the size of the head, increase the stability of that head.  So you’re going to get a little bit higher flight out of the Sim 2 Max and you’re going to get maximum forgiveness. 

And of course, like I said in the driver, the type you get the draw.  We have the SIM two rescue and the SIM 2 Max rescue as well. 

In the in the hybrid and I assume a little higher ball fight on the on the Max.  Is that the same? 

It’s a little bit different, and so the the SIM two maxes is similar to the original SIM backs. Which was, you know, kind of turned heads. It flies high.  It’s got a high launch, slightly lower spin, very forgiving, a little bit fairy would like.  But you know a little bit more draw biased, whereas the SIM two and we didn’t have a SIM rescue.  If you recall, the SIM two is kind of its unique creature, it’s it’s all black it’s.  Kind of mirror black and a matte black and it has an adjustable loft.  Even it has a little bit more of an iron like shape to it and that one flies equally as high as him to Max, but it has a lower launch in a higher spin, which is a little bit more of what the better players were looking for.  They’re looking for a little bit more of an iron flight.  And a little bit more of a fade bias. Yes, so two uniquely different looking and.  Performing products with him too and some Max rescues. 

Brian, before I let you go boy, these are some nice looking irons. I gotta have you talk about the irons a little bit.  Awesome looking.

Yeah, so very clean contemporary design and say goodbye to the cavity back. These are cap back construction. It’s really cool that we’ve been able to sort of take the badging. That’s usually typically in the cavity in the back of the iron and move that off the face. And so now you’re going to get that great speed, even even the sweet spot is getting bigger and lower in the head where most shots are hit in an iron, especially with the mid handicap. So higher handicap player, you’re going to get more speed. A bigger sweet spot and you get this really clean look in the cavity back design.  So it’s almost like these.  You know many metal wood so to speak, but.  Really solid feeling.  We’ve got the what we call an echo damper in the the center of the head. 

It’s even softer than the original SIM, so you get that really solid feel and then what’s unique to TaylorMade?  Is that through slot speed pocket in the sole? It basically, you know, unlocks the bottom the soul so it can kind of flex and rebound almost like a diving board or a flipper on a on a on a game. You know it’s basically gonna flex rebound low on the face which is again you need to tailor made so.  We’ve got great looking irons, both SIM 2 Max and some two Max OS which is oversized. 

Personal question, when you first hit the irons, what did you feel different? 

Yeah, well, it’s explosive. First and foremost that that’s the first word that comes to my mind when you hit these irons. I think they look better in your bag and just again from a design. 

I’m kind of a design freak as well as a performance junkie here, but I would say clean and explosive. Certainly you want to get fit as well for the irons with your gapping, ’cause you can take it. I’m sure out to what 4 iron or so and then you’ve got your hybrids behind it. 

Yeah, so again, yeah I think take the time you know lie angle is so key if you know you really wanna get the right shaft the length, the flex, the right grip that feels good in your hands. 

Get the right lie angle and then if you have that extra time you’ll get the gapping right to your point. You know find the right iron and then the rescue that goes with it and the fairway. 

But and make sure it all fits in the bag. 

And now is the perfect time ’cause right now available for pre-order and these will be in your bag. I think it’s mid. It was at the 19th of February, is that right? Correct? 

So we just we just opened the doors and almost broke the system yesterday. So. They are already in high demand. I love it but but yeah, on on February 19th is when they’re officially sort of going to be able to be in the hands of golfers. 

Hey Brian, thanks so much for your time. Can’t can’t thank you enough. Just some final words for our listeners. From you out there in TaylorMade. 

Well, I wish everybody could come here to to headquarters of the Kingdom, experience our brand and our people. But we try to put that all in our equipment so appreciate the support, time and and draw and try the product. So I think you’ll love him. 

Brian, thanks so much my friend. 

Take care.  Be careful there. 

It’s the all new SIM two line from TaylorMade Golf that’s shape in Motion SIM to make sure to give it a shot. Go to any worldwide golf shops. Retail locations. Give him a try, then invest the time to get custom fit for the right drivers. Fairways hybrid. And irons to go in your bag. Don’t assume take the time. Invest the time and get fit and then on the 19th of February you can have these new clubs in your bag. Well special thanks to Brian Bazell at TaylorMade for joining us and to you our listeners and we’ll do it again next time we have another episode of the worldwide golf shops. 

Insider podcast, here at worldwidegolfshops.com so long everyone.