The Taylor Made 420 Burner: An Improvement, But a Ways to Go
Written: May 20 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Looks good, nice ball flight, decent distance
Cons: Little feel, wicked mis-hits
The Bottom Line: An improvement over most Taylor Made drivers, but not yet ready to make it's way into my bag.
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| hwz1's Full Review: Taylor Made Burner 420 Titanium Driver |
My dislike for the Taylor Made drivers is widely known among those who read my golf epinions. However, Taylor Made is doing it's best in order to get back in my good graces with the Burner 420.
I spent a weekend hitting the 420 and found that it worked for me. What does "work for me" constitute? A number of aspects that I will get into below.
1. The club is pleasing to the eye. Most of the newer Taylor Made drivers appear to be so big that you wonder if Rosanne is attached to the club head. This one is still big, but more rounded and I believe that makes it appear less large. Hence, for the first time in a long time, a Taylor Made club passed my "easy on the eyes test".
2. The club produces a good ball flight. Another problem I have always had with the Taylor Made clubs is a high ball flight. When I mean high flight, I mean towering. I do not want towering from a driver. If I need towering I can adjust ball position or tee height. What I want is a high line drive and the 420 is the first Taylor Made to produce that shot in a while.
3. I could work the ball fairly well. I had no trouble hitting a fade and little hitting a draw (My natural shot). I could hit the low ball and with the adjustments mentioned above, I could hit the towering tee shot. Again, an improvement over previous models.
4. The 420 produced a decent amount of distance. While nothing that will make you jump for joy, the 420 resulted in extra yardage for the simple reason that the ball flight was good. I might have lost a yard or two in carry, but more than made up for it with the increase in roll.
I doubt that I could list four "major" positives with any previous Taylor Made drivers. Now I can confidently state that Taylor Made is making strides with their some of their drivers. However, I am still far from sold on the other models and the 420 does still have a few drawbacks.
1. The club does not produce a great deal of feel. I could tell if I hit it off the toe or low on the club face, but these were obvious mis-hits. I had a hard time determining what happened when I did not miss by a lot. I need to know where I missed a shot- even if it is fractionally- and the 420 does not provide a great deal of feedback.
2. My mis-hits were really bad with the 420. Now I do not know if I was swinging poorly since it is early in the season (Yes it is almost June, but in the northeast it has felt more like March for the entire spring), or if the club had something to do with the poor results. My guess is that the shaft needs to be tweaked. Either way, I have not experienced such wild mis-hits with any other club.
3. Forget about hitting it off the fairway. Now this problem is not unique to the 420, but to all larger drivers. However, the problem still applies to the 420. You simply have too big of a club head to hit it off the kind of a lie that you will find on the fairway.
So, will I keep the 420 in my bag? The simple answer is not yet. I am closer to adding a Taylor Made driver than I have been in over a decade, but not yet ready to do so. The company has made a number of improvements, but I need to see a few more until I am satisfied. The 420 is a solid club, but I am looking for the perfect driver.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hwz1
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Location: Philadelphia, PA
Reviews written: 845
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Just got a big promotion that will move my new wife and I to Atlanta.
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