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Worldwide Golf Shops INSIDER PODCAST #312! In this installment, we chat with Matt Bovee, Senior Manager of Product Creation for TaylorMade Golf. 

Matt gives us insight on the 2020 P Series Irons, including the new P770 irons, P7MC Irons and P7MB Irons, which types of players would benefit most from playing each model, and what went into designing every club in this lineup.

Take a listen to the latest installment of the INSIDER Podcast. To read more about the new 2020 P Series lineup, click here!

Transcript 

Tom Brassell 

Welcome to the Worldwide Golf Shops Insider Podcast.  Episode 312. Hello Everyone, Tom Brassell here. Thanks so much for joining us. We love having you if you’re a rookie, first-timer or you’re a long time veteran, or maybe somewhere in the middle, it doesn’t matter. We’re just glad that you joined us in our special guest today. Joins us from adding California. He’s been. He’s been on the show before. He is over product creation. He’s the category lead for the Iron category.  From TaylorMade Golf, Mr Matt Bovee, Matt, thanks so much great to have you with us again. 

Matt Bovee 

So great to be back there anytime you guys wanna talk golf. You know I’m all about it. 

Tom Brassell 

Well, what’s nice is when we talk with you about golf, that always means there’s something new and exciting that you guys have been working up. And in this case it’s the Iron, said all new P7 series and 770. Share with us a little bit about the development and what all went into this behind the scenes. 

Matt Bovee 

Oh wow, so yeah lot went into designs. You know from a development standpoint, in each one kind of has their own narrative on story. You know you talked about the P7 and P7 MC. Those two designs are geared for the better ball strikers of the world, right? We designed those four tour players. And of course, if we’re designing it for the best players in the world, we’re gonna reach out. We’re going to get their feedback.  If you want to make sure that they’re going to perform exactly like they, they want them to, so the P7 MB that is our new muscleback blade replacements, so that will be replacing P730 for anyone who is familiar with our previous lineup, and the P7 was built off of Dustin Johnson’s prototype, so it shares a lot of similarities with the club that he’s been playing.  And of course, inspired by what he likes to look down at. And then Rory provided some feedback as well, which changed the offset of the iron. And then of course we have that beautiful new design on the back which is so different from anything we’ve done in the past. That’s different from any blade I’ve ever seen to be honest, and the feedback about this has just been phenomenal. 

Tom Brassell 

For those who can’t see it, as we talked describe it. 

Matt Bovee 

So the P7B uses what we started calling a faceted back bar geometry. There’s this point in that. Oh that’s been kind of raised up in three surfaces. Come and meet at this point, like a facet of a diamond, and the reason we the reason we did this was ultimately all blades have more mass.  In the toe, than in the heel.  You have to offset the weight of the hosel in order to keep the center of gravity around’s interface tour players like it a little bit. He’ll side of this interface, but if you want to get it right, you know where they want it. You gotta have more mass in that. Oh, but we wanted to do it in a way that was different and visually intriguing, so we took that point and we created a third dimension. Most blades you see they’re very 2 dimensional.  In terms of like design geometry very cleaner, this is totally the opposite and it created something that reflects the white light. Excuse me in such a way that’s really captivating, but at the same time it’s like elegant and timeless. It’s a very unique design. 

Tom Brassell 

And you said DJ is influenced from what I was reading. He likes it just a little longer. Blade length, right? 

Matt Bovee 

When you compare it to the 730, Yep, uh, he so this blade length is 1.4 millimeters longer than the 730, but it is a constant blade link throughout the set that’s very common with with blades, right? They’re all about consistency, but the 730? Really? That’s a smaller blade in the whole, in the spectrum of irons. That was a shorter blade length, and it wasn’t just DJ, we heard it from others who are players and and I would say even you know local pros. The term we use a staff rose to where it was just a little intimidating to look down at, specially in the long guys. So we wanted to bump that bleeds out a little bit and give players something that was a little bit more well rounded from a visual perspective. 

Tom Brassell 

The Next up is the P7MC muscle cavity iron right? 

Matt Bovee 

Yes, muscle cavity. That’s right. This particular design was built from feedback that we got around the 750 tour. Players honestly love the 750 guys like John Rahm are so enamored with this club and he’s not the only one right. Matt will play 750 and Colin who just won the PGA PGA.  Not too long ago, he also plays 750 so a lot of players they just love that single piece forge construction with a little bit of forgiveness. We got a lot of questions about, you know. Are you guys going to come out with another one of those? When can we replace this? So we took that feedback and in combination with some market feedback and we created the P7MC. 

Matt Bovee 

Because there’s such a cult classic like following around the 750, we kept that address, shape and sole geometry exactly the same. So when you look down at 7 and see it’s just like looking down at the 750 and it was designed to perform very, very similar as well. But the big change comes when you look at the back of the iron. We redesigned the back bar geometry to put more mass behind this interface. Where impact is happening and that gives golfers a more solid feel.  Even in 750 had, which was undeniably a great feeling on it. 

Tom Brassell 

And you said Jon Rahm had a lot to do with this one, correct? 

Matt Bovee 

Well Jon, he he really likes the 750 and and you know to be honest the fact that he feels so strongly about them was a big reason as to why we kept that shape the same again. You know we’re designing these clubs for the best players in the world and we have certain tour players in mind. If it expands beyond that which it naturally will because what they like to look down at is what other good golfers like to look down at and the performance characteristics are very similar in terms of what they demand. So it’s going to propagate from there. But John was definitely a big influence, and why we kept the MC the way we did. 

Tom Brassell 

So we got very very minimal offset. A narrow top edge right making this thing look real clean. 

Matt Bovee 

That’s correct, so both very traditional from the address, minimal offset on both. The MV has less offset and a slightly thinner top line. The EMT’s got a little bit more offset. You’re still, it’s not. It’s not a lot in a slightly thicker top line. These two irons were designed to pair together should players want to create a combo set and it goes with this third eye, and that I’m sure we’re going to get into as well, but we wanted to create something that just visually flowed together a little bit better than we had been in the past, both from address. 

Tom Brassell 

It was just going to ask you that met some of the players do pare some of these together and mix these up, correct? 

Matt Bovee 

Absolutely Colin Morikawa another good example right? He plays a four and five iron in the P750 and then he is down into the 730 in the six to the wedge. I anticipate him to do the exact same thing with the MBS.  And the MCS, Rory before he switched into the MBS, he was playing 7 3 and 4 iron. He sensed switched to a full set of MBS because these are a little bit easier to hit than the seven 30s. That’s a natural byproduct of having a slightly longer blade length is there’s going to be a little bit more stability built into the club, but I mean it’s all relative right then? The yeah. It’s still a blade. It’s a butter knife. You could spread, you know your peanut butter on toast in the morning with this thing. So when you miss it, you’re gonna know. But it’s a little bit easier to hit some of 7:30. 

Tom Brassell 

Let’s go down to the P770 because these are great looking irons as well. Talk about these. 

Matt Bovee 

So the 770s again were born from some market feedback that we got around P760 and also just the phenomenal response that we’ve had to 790. It continues to be the number one players distance irons in the category. It honestly has redefined this area of club design and everybody’s chasing after it and the the secret here is, I mean, it’s not really so much a secret is you gotta create an iron that has as much performance in it as possible, as great sound and feel and looks visually stunning to wear any level of player would be proud to have it in the bag, so we wanted to take this recipe and we wanted to put it into a shape that was a true player shape. Something that would be on tour even throughout the full set. 

So we took all that performance and we shoved it into this compact shape and that’s how we created P770. So from address you’re going to see again, minimal offset and a fairly thin top line, so it’s got a little more offset than the P7MC does, and it’s got a little bit thicker top line, and it has a little bit thicker top line because of the player demographic. 

But also because it’s a full hollow body set, so it’s a forged hollow body construction just like the P790, and that allows us to build in a lot of ball speed. A lot of forgiveness, and with this particular iron you’re going to get more launch and more spin than you do out of the 790, so it’s geared towards better players. 

And what do you like to see with their ball flight? But it still got the performance aspect to have some forgiveness to have some extra ball speed. Whether you just want a little more distance. How to say the top end of your set right? You want it to be a little bit easier to hit? Or maybe you know you’re an aspiring golfer that’s at low low to mid single digit. You can play 770 through the entire set. Maybe you’ve been a good ball striker your whole life and you’re just fighting father time, but you don’t want to go to a bigger club head. That’s what 770 is all about. Performance in a smaller shape. 

Tom Brassell 

So you get the P7 MBS, the MCS and the 770s. Also, some new utilities. Can you share with just just touch on those? If you would man? 

Matt Bovee 

They’re new for the family this year. These are replacing the gap of models that we had come out with previously. We learned a lot from Japa and also from the 790 UDI designs that have been so immensely popular on tour. An honestly in the marketplace. As a as a driving iron, we’ve incorporated those into the same there. 

Matt Bovee 

They’re both a little bit cleaner to look down at their a bit more traditional than, say, Gaper was honestly very, very beautiful irons. The UTI has got a little bit more launch and a little bit more spin built into it than the 790 to help differentiate those two, so you’re getting a little bit more distance, but you’re getting a higher peak Titan. Higher spin than you are to 790. That means it’s gonna be. 

Matt Bovee 

A little bit easier to play off the deck as well for anyone who’s looking for a little bit of extra help in the long irons and then the D hy uses a little bit wider sole. It’s more forgiving. Again designed to fill the gap in the top side of your set, you know you gotta ask yourself what is the longest iron you feel comfortable hitting and from there. 

Matt Bovee 

You gotta look at OK, what’s the the shortest metalwood? I feel comfortable heading it’s going to be a different answer for everybody, but filling in that Gap and being able to hit your yardages. Whether it’s the UDINGHY or like the new SIM Max Rescue which has been so immensely popular. You gotta look at those clubs and I guarantee there’s an option in their four players go get fit. 

Matt Bovee 

Test him out, hit your numbers. Ultimately going to play better golf. 

Tom Brassell 

Man, we talk about it all the time. As as we close this out, but the importance of being fit and you talked about some of the best players in the world. Mixing these clubs in their bags and their. I mean they’re not doing this on a whim. They’re taking a ton of time doing it. Talk about. 

Tom Brassell 

Talk about the importance of just the average golfer there. Aspiring golfer getting fit. Taking the time to make sure you got the right stuff in your bag. 

Matt Bovee 

Yeah, I mean it’s there’s really no reason not to in today’s world with the amount of Technology we have, like virtually every retail golf shop has a, you know, launch monitor of some kind you can go in. You get real time feedback about what’s going on with your swing. 

Matt Bovee 

That’s going to really help you optimize the performance of the clubs. For one, being able to pair that shaft with the head for your tempo, your angle of attack, all those things immensely important, but also just to understand your yardages too. I mean like being able to navigate around the course and have the right clubs for your course is is extremely. 

Matt Bovee 

Important, you know the best players in the world. Obviously they’re gonna get set, but there’s this misconception that like, oh, I’m not good enough to get fit. You know, I’m not consistent enough to get fit generals when they watch you swing and they’re taking a look at your numbers are able to navigate around that they can see you know what your tendencies are. An really give you a set up that’s going to. 

Matt Bovee 

Better prepare you for success on the golf course and let’s face it, there’s also, you know these aren’t necessarily cheap purchases. You’re investing in your game. You’re going to use these for multiple years. You take the take the extra you know 30 minutes to an hour, go in, get fit, and just really get dialed in. Your swing is different from my swing is different from the weekend warrior swing and their solutions out there for everybody. 

Matt Bovee 

And a lot of them were at no upcharge right through TaylorMade we have a ton of options for shafts graphite, ansteel that you can do at no upcharge, so it’s really just about getting fit. Is finding the right clubs for your game. 

Tom Brassell 

It’s an investment of your time for an investment that you’re making. I kind of heard you say that between the lines. 

Matt Bovee 

Yeah, I mean why? Why would you go do that? 

Matt Bovee 

It’s just it’s so readily available now. It used to be the case where it was hard to find hard to do. There’s a lot of Guesswork in there, maybe just get locked in life, but even that, like lie angle length and we’ve actually started incorporating the ability to adjust loft in your SIM Max iron so you can really get that launching or dialed in for you. Maybe you need a little help get involved in the air. Maybe you scoop it. 

Matt Bovee 

And you need a little bit stronger loss, right? We have all of those options available for golfers now. 

Tom Brassell 

Matt’s always great catching up with you. Thanks so much for the time. I know, you’re know you’re busy out there in California. Final final words for our listeners as we close this one out. 

Matt Bovee 

Hey, you know golf is back and it’s just fantastic seeing this fast major. We got the most incredible stretch of golf coming up. 

Matt Bovee 

And rounds played or up people are out there enjoying golf. I love to see it, you know. And obviously this fall launched for us has been spectacular column with his win at the PGA and the momentum and the buzz around these new irons is just is absolutely beautiful. So you know, get out there. Whether you’re looking for new clubs, not just get out there and play and have fun. 

Tom Brassell 

Matt, thanks so much for joining us great having you. 

Matt Bovee 

Yeah, we’ll talk again. 

Tom Brassell 

There’s the line in a nutshell. The all new P7 Line. That’s the P7MB MC and 770 irons, along with the new utility hybrids to SIM Utility hybrids, all new from TaylorMade golf. Make sure you heard Matt say it. 

Tom Brassell 

Make sure to go out and get fit. For these, you’ve got the best players in the world and they’re not playing these irons for the most part, top to bottom and their set their mixing and matching and that works best for them. It can work as well for you. Take the time any Worldwide Golf Shops, retail locations. Invest the time to get fit for these irons.  And see what they can do for your game, ’cause they’re absolutely fantastic. Special thanks to Matt Bovee for joining us today and to your listeners, and we’ll do it again next time. We have another episode of the Worldwide Golf shops insider podcast here worldwidegolfshops.com, so long everyone.