Good Looking Club: TaylorMade R11 Driver

Golfers who are really into gear have been buzzing for weeks on message boards and blogs about white drivers.

One simple move to start back -- the one on the previous two pages -- will get your swing in sync. The first thing you should move in your backswing is the clubhead. With a subtle clockwise rotation of your left forearm, start the clubhead away from the ball, without moving your hands from their address position, and let your right wrist cock.

Like the r7 and R9 drivers, the taylormade r11 driver features weight ports-one in the heel and one in the toe-that allow for a draw or fade bias. The R11 comes with a10-gram screw and a 1-gram screw. Positioning the 10-gram weight in the heel promotes a draw, while putting it in the toe encourages a fade. According to TaylorMade, the movable weights provide up to 25 yards of right-and-left adjustability.

"The satin white finish, along with the black face, creates the maximum contrast between face and crown to help you align the club more easily," says Tom Olsavsky, TaylorMade's director of product creation (metal woods). Olsavsky adds that the white finish helps to reduce the hot spots and glare often created on glossy-topped drivers.

As soon as the clubhead moves, feel as if you're pushing down on the end of the grip with the heel pad of your left hand, so that the butt of the club points to the ground. It should feel as though the end of the grip is pointing straight down before your hands get past the outside of your thigh on the way back.

Rumors have been swirling over the past few months that TaylorMade was planning to release a white driver, but many those rumors failed to mention the R11's new level of customization. In previous models, TaylorMade's torque wrench was used to adjust the face angle, which automatically changed the club's loft as well. In the taylormade r11, loft and face angle are adjusted independently.

The adjustable soleplate can be rotated into one of three positions to determine face angle at address (2•° open, 2•° closed or neutral). This combines with "movable weight" technology and "flight control" technology to create the company's most adjustable driver to date. Now you can adjust face angle and loft independently of one another.

What an awesome looking driver head! Very cool engineering - The white color is interesting -I suspect it will appeal to a small number.