Equipment
2013 TaylorMade RocketBladez Tech Specs & Video
The best part of TaylorMade’s RocketBladez irons isn’t the long distances that they fly, according to TaylorMade engineers. It’s the consistent distance that the irons fly on mishits.
TaylorMade has made long-flying irons in the past, one of their most popular being the two-year-old Burner 2.0 irons. But those and other “game-improvement” irons haven’t been popular with better players because they tend to cause problems with distance control. Irons such as the Burner 2.0s have what’s called a hotspot, a place above the center of the clubface that when struck with clean contact causes shots to fly longer-than-anticipated distances. This is bad because unlike drivers, skilled golfers aren’t trying to hit their irons as far as possible. They’re trying to hit them a controlled distance.
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Click here for more discussion in the “Tour/Pre-release equipment” forum.
Bret Wahl, TaylorMade’s vice president of R&D for irons, said that he and his team have spent the last five years designing irons with a higher coefficient of restitution, or COR. A high COR is achieved by making clubfaces thinner, increasing the spring-like effect and making the ball fly farther. But even though engineers were able to increase speed on shots hit on the center of the clubface, they struggled to add a similar amount of speed to mishits, especially shots hit on the stiff, lower portion of the face that is attached to the leading edge of the club.
The performance of the lower portion of the clubface is important for golfers because according to a TaylorMade study 72 percent of shots are struck below the center of the clubface. That means that almost three-quarters of all golf shots are not hit with optimal speed.
Last year, TaylorMade released its RocketBallz fairway woods and hybrids, the first of the company’s clubs to include its “Speed Pocket,” a slot on the bottom of the sole near the leading edge that increased COR. This added speed and forgiveness to the clubface, especially on shots struck below the center where the Speed Pocket functioned to make the lower portion of the clubface more flexible.
RocketBladez bring Speed Pocket technology to irons, and like the RocketBallz fairway woods and hybrids before them, the company is promising more speed and forgiveness. How much speed and forgiveness a golfer will get, however, depends on which model of RocketBladez irons they choose.
RocketBladez Tour Irons
TaylorMade’s two most popular irons on the PGA Tour are the company’s Forged MB and CB models, thick-faced irons that provide slow speeds on center strikes. But even though they lack the speed of distance irons on shots hit on the center of the face, the MBs and CBs are more consistent than other models on slight mishits and have no hotspots.
According to Gary Gallagher, market manager for metal woods for TaylorMade, there was no desire on Tour for substantially longer-flying irons. That’s why instead of giving RocketBladez Tour irons the “full steroid” treatment that designers gave the non-Tour RocketBladez, engineers held back, only adding “a quarter of a steroid” to their ingredient list.
The RocketBladez Tour irons were designed to mimic the aesthetics of the Forged CBs. They have thin soles, a small amount of offset and similar blade lengths and toplines. But the Speed Pocket in the sole increases the COR to 0.819, adding at least 1 mph of ball speed to center strikes and making the sweetspot of the RocketBladez Tour five times larger than the Forged CBs (note: TaylorMade defines the sweetspot as the area of the clubface where there is less than a 1 mph drop off in speed).
Like the RocketBallz fairway woods and hybrids, the Speed Pocket increases ball speed as well as launch angle, which gives Tour players two options with RocketBladez Tour irons. They can:
- Hit the RocketBladez Tour irons higher and a little further than their current irons (the current average off added distance according to Gallagher is 8 yards).
- Bend the lofts stronger, giving them an iron that flies as high as their current model but goes substantially further.
The RocketBladez Tour 3 iron through 7 iron are cast from 17-4 stainless steel, which adds the necessary stiffness for construction. To make the irons feel softer, the Speed Pocket is filled with a special polyurethane developed by 3M that still allows the pocket to flex and reduces vibrations. It also limits debris that could enter the pocket.
The Speed Pocket is not used in the 8 iron, 9 iron, pitching wedge and “attack wedge,” however, because Gallagher said the speed pocket becomes less active and thus less important as loft is added to the club. Since the short irons are slotless, they can be cast from a softer material, 431 stainless steel. The distance gap between the 7 iron and 8 iron is bridged gradually by varying the different variables of the irons — mainly loft, face thickness and the depth of the speed pocket throughout the set.
RocketBladez Irons
Click here for more photos of the RocketBladez irons
The RocketBladez (non-Tour) irons lose the wacky geometry of last year’s RBZ irons in favor of a more traditional game-improvement iron shape, resembling the Burner 2.0 irons at address. They have the same COR as the Tours, but they have thicker soles, thicker top lines, more offset and a longer blade profile to support a deeper center of gravity (CG) position. This makes makes them more longer and more forgiving than the Tours and 5 mph faster than the Burner 2.0s, which accounts for double-digit distance gains.
Like the Tours, the RocketBladez employ a slot in the 3 through 7 irons and no slot on the 8 iron, 9 iron, pitching wedge and A-wedge. They are also available in a 55-degree sand wedge and 60-degree lob wedge that use TaylorMade’s ATV sole grind. Take a look at the specs below for more information.
Click here for more discussion in the “Tour/Pre-release equipment” forum.
This week, we have our Tour Photographer, Greg Moore, on the ground at the OccuNet Classic at Tascosa Golf Club in Amarillo, Texas, for the 14th event of the 2026 Korn Ferry Tour season. With that, we see some great things in the Lead Tape Report as we roll into Amarillo.
Joel Thelen
Monday Qualifier, Joel Thelen is in the field this week. He has played on the Korn Ferry Tour for a full season in 2023, and he is back in action this week. A couple of clubs caught my eye this week in his bag.
First off: His trusted Titleist 816 H2 hybrid. This club came out in October of 2015, and it still remains strong in the bag. Also, take a look at this Odyssey White Hot OG 7, putting a capital S in the 7S model. This custom neck has some impressive lean for an arm-lock-style putter. The bottom of the putter is covered in tape for optimal weighting.
Mitchell Meissner
Taking a look at Mitchell Meissner’s bag this week, we have some great lead tape coverage. Top to bottom working from fairway metals, irons, and wedges. We can see on the short irons and wedges that there is tape at the base of the grip, adding a little counterbalance. Along with that, some tape on the short irons and wedges as well. Moving to his putter, he rolls the Odyssey 7 Bird putter. Meissner putts left-handed and strikes the ball right-handed.
Bud Cauley had >14 clubs in his bag when photographed prior to the Memorial Tournament.
Driver: Titleist GTS2 (8 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X
3-wood: Titleist GTS3 (15 degrees, B1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Chemical Tensei 1K Pro Red 70 TX
7-wood: Titleist GTS3 (21 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Chemical Tensei 1K Pro Red 80 TX
Irons: Titleist U505 (3), Titleist 620 MB (4-9)
Shafts: Fujikura Ventus Black HB 8 X, True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM11 (48-10F, 52-12F, 56-14F), WedgeWorks (60-K*)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putters: Scotty Cameron Tour Prototype, Scotty Cameron GOLO 6.3 Prototype
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Align
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
In our forums, one user has offered up a prompt for the true sickos, inviting fellow forum members to share every set of irons they’ve ever owned. As to be expected, this is a lengthy forum topic.
@Lamosteve began:
Can you name every set of irons you’ve owned? Here’s mine
Spalding Dots
Spalding Eclipse
Ram Lazer FX
Lynx Parallax
Mizuno EZ Comp
Ben Hogans
Cleveland CG Red
Taylor Made R9s
PING i20
PING iE1
Taylor Made M6
Our members in the forum have been offering up their own collections. Here are a few posts from the thread, but make sure to check out the entire discussion and have your say at the link below.
- macedan: “Started with a hand-me-down Golden Bear set from my brother when I was in high school, never really played more than once a year or got into the game until about summer of 2017. First purchased a set of Cleveland CG4’s (I actually really miss this set sometimes, soft & not terribly large for a GI iron), moved into Nike Vapor Fly’s by the end of the year. Those lasted until spring of 18 when I decided I wanted new, so I traded them in for TM Rbladez. Honestly, although I liked the Rbladez, poor decision on my part, I think this was really about the only time so far that after a week or two I was kicking myself for not staying with what I had. Rbladez stayed with me until late last summer when I switched to P790’s and (knock on wood) I am hoping this will be my longest lasting set.”
- JimmyC59: “MacGregor Jack Nicklaus Triple Crown. Palmer The Standard. Still play these.”
- jgrzask: “Tommy Armour 845u
Mizuno MP-32
Mizuno MP-33 (2 sets)
Bridgestone J33cb – still own
Srixon i-302 (2 sets) – still own
Tourstage X-Blades – still own
Mizuno Hot Metal – still own
Nike Forged Blades – still own
Titleist 714 AP1 – still own
Cobra Forged SS – still own”
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john
Jan 3, 2013 at 6:42 pm
Just received a flyer from my local golf store abot a pre-order for rocketbladez max irons. Speed slot is in all clubs from 4-AW. Anyone heard of this or seen the sceps?
rod
Jan 9, 2013 at 4:04 pm
just 3-7 iron for the slot.
Falcon
Dec 16, 2012 at 7:25 pm
was in Bangkok recently…accidentally got to shoot on a swing simulator…i normally hit my 7 iron 150 yards on average with my R11 irons with KBS 90 R…the fitter gave me a japanese manufactured forged cavity blade with a Miyazaki C. Kua shaft…first shot went 170 yards…i was dumbfounded…then hit a few more and similar result…then bought a set of Rocket Bladez and had the same miyazaki shafts installed..and now my buddies are utterly confused how on earth i manage to hit so much longer
paul
Nov 27, 2012 at 4:27 pm
I just tried these at my local golf shop and i didn’t find the distance to be a huge gain. maybe 1 club over my current Adams a1s but the ball took off a lot faster and higher. mishits low on the face were still very good. Distance control was very good. i hit my first 5-6 shots within 2 yards of each other. i don’t think these live up to the hype but i will buy a set when i can afford new clubs in a few months.
Jeff
Nov 24, 2012 at 3:23 am
I just tested the new rocketbladez against my i20s. Rocketbladezs launched 2 degrees higher, spun between 800 to 1200 rpm less had a 10 foot higher peak trajectory and had a 2 degree steeper descent angle comparing an i20 5 iron to a rocketbladez 6 iron both having similar lofts. Both were roughly the same max distance but my thin mishits were 50 percent closer to my max distance with rocketbladez. My i20 6 iron has 3.5 degrees more loft than rocketbladez 6 iron and the same peak trajectory but was about 12 yds shorter with about 1500rpm more spin. I would like to try the rocketbladez with a dynamic gold to see if it performs better than the rocket fuel shaft. Either way distance is increased with the .819 cor face but the distance consistency is what will sell this club to mid and low handicappers.
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Lee
Nov 14, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Just love the 6 iron comparison chart on the TM website – 6.9 yards longer than Ping i20. Considering the RocketBlade has a loft of 26.5 and the Ping i20 30 degrees aren’t we comparing a 5 iron with a 6! Then of course where it matters the scoring clubs we get larger loft spacings to fit them in. I guess the good thing is you don’t need the 3 & 4 now as they really equal 2 & 3 and you can adjust the bottom of you’re bag accordingly.
Justin
Nov 15, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Lee, you are correct seeing the difference in lofts, but what I’ve heard is that even though it’s a lower loft the ball flys higher than say a pings 6 iron for example.
NG
Nov 15, 2012 at 8:54 pm
Agree. Lee, if you had of watched the video attached to this you would find that there are many variables to determine what loft you place on each iron…you can’t and can never just compare lofts! Why does someone hit a 12 degree driver further than a 10 degree…have a think about it buddy
paul
Nov 13, 2012 at 2:36 pm
“more longer”…
Christian
Nov 17, 2012 at 12:45 pm
Correction, it “makes makes them more longer”
stephen
Nov 13, 2012 at 11:41 am
Why would you launch a product that can’t be bought for 3 months? I would like to try the tour version but would normally have my next seasons equipment in the bag over the winter to get used to it.
chris
Nov 15, 2012 at 11:54 am
Steven … I agree with you completely. I do a Super Bowl trip to Vegas end of January/early February and almost always the new stuff comes out a week later. Why not release before the holidays and take advantage of the buying season? Idiots….
Al
Nov 17, 2012 at 2:28 pm
Another expert with insults and all of the answers. Just maybe these companies pay a bunch of people a bunch of money to do their marketing analysis and it has been determined that holiday releases do not have maximum effect on sales. They likely have determined that the lemmings will fall for the marketing hype at another time of year and make their annual game-changing purchase.