We’ve been talking a lot lately about the best clubs for the money… in an attempt to expand our horizons to include clubs that offer the average golfer decent performance and great value.
Not every golfer needs or can afford the latest and greatest in golf equipment but it’s nice to know that these folks can still go to their local shop and find a club that fits their budget and helps their game. The TaylorMade R580XD is a club that fits the bill here… it combines great performance with exceptional value.
The R580XD was once “the” driver for TaylorMade but has now taken a backseat to the R7 and R5 drivers. Instead of scrapping the club, TaylorMade moved it to a lower price point. The biggest technology featured in the R580XD is probably Inverted Cone Technology. I won’t get into a long winded explaination of Inverted Cone Technology so here it is in a nutshell… it makes the club more forgiving and it makes the club perform better on miss hits. This 440CC titanium club also features a Tuned Weight Cartridge in the sole which lowers the club’s center of gravity and also allows the folks at TaylorMade to tweak the head to create the optimal swingweight. The club has a fairly deep face and the 440CC is not really that noticeable when looking down on the club. The stock shaft (M.A.S.2 graphite) is a good option for the majority of golfers and TaylorMade has a great custom department for those who want to upgrade.
It was pretty hard to find people that didn’t like this club and it has been a huge success at my shop. The R580XD is long, forgiving and really easy to hit. It is tough to find too many other drivers in this price range that can stack up to the R580XD. The R580XD is the biggest and most forgiving of the R500 Series drivers and is designed for a mid to high handicap. Some better players that tested this driver had a tough time working the ball but there are other TaylorMade driver options for those folks. The biggest downside I can think of concerns the way this club went though it’s retail life cycle. I know a lot of customers that felt pretty ripped off after spending some serious cash on this driver when it first came out… only to see it drop in price in a relatively short period of time. It was one of the better drivers on the market and probably could have stayed “current” for a bit longer. But that’s in the past and this is now… and this club is one of the best bangs for the buck. If you are looking for a driver but are on a bit of a budget… you’d be stupid not to at least look at this one.
Overall Rating – 90%
Target Handicap – Mid to High
Ball Flight – High
Offset – None
Stock Shaft – M.A.S.2 graphite