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Surprise, surprise. TaylorMade has released a new set of Burner Irons. The new 2009 models distinguish themselves from last year's with more distinct distance gaps between the long and middle irons. The iron triads were designed so you get long and forgiving long-irons, long and accurate middle irons and accurate and responsive short irons.

The soles of the long irons were increased to move the center of gravity back, the toplines were progressively thickened to put more mass behind the ball at address, and the size of the head was increased with the idea of increasing the moment of inertia.

And, of course, the new Burner Irons feature TaylorMade's Inverted Cone Technology.

But what gets me about the new "Burners" is the name. These irons are Burners. Last year's were Burners. My brother owns a set of burners from fifteen years ago. Taylormade needs to develop a numbering scheme to help me keep all of these sorted out. Maybe these could be the Burner 5.0, or Burner 2009—or something.

At any rate, the entire press release follow:

TaylorMade-adidas golf has taken the wraps off a new iron destined to shake up the golf world. It's called Burner® 09, and it's the most dynamic looking, best performing iron ever to bear the name TaylorMade.

"During the past few years we've cultivated a trend of convincing golfers of all types that we're more than a metalwood company," said Sean Toulon, TaylorMade's executive vice president of innovation. "The new Burner 09 iron will continue that trend. However it's not just going to change minds, it's also going to blow them away. The performance is that remarkable."

Every club – long-irons, middle-irons and short-irons – earned high marks for distance, accuracy and forgiveness during TaylorMade testing. Likewise its revolutionary design, featuring a futuristic blend of curves, angles and lines, is completed with a dark, almost sinister finish. More important, each one of these sleek machines performs like nothing else.

"Our performance goal was to create an easy-to-launch iron that delivered ‘meaningful distance,'" said Toulon. "What do we mean by that? Longer distance that's consistent from club to club, for one thing. We wanted to make sure that every club was consistently longer than the club before it, and that the distance gaps between each iron are even, because it doesn't help if you hit the 6-iron 15 yards longer than your 7-iron, but only hit the 4-iron five yards longer than the 5-iron. Meaningful distance also has a lot to do with control. Extra yardage with your irons doesn't mean anything if you're missing greens with crooked shots or hitting low bullets that skip hard and roll over the back. To deliver meaningful distance, the 2009 Taylormade Burner Irons had to promote high, straight, long-carrying, soft-landing ball flight. There could be no sacrifice in the quality of launch angle, spin-rate, peak height and landing angle in our pursuit."

TaylorMade's R&D team began the search for meaningful distance with long-irons. "We felt that if we could make a long-iron that was far easier to hit than any other, we'd learn a lot about how to make the middle- and short-irons easier to hit, too," said Dr. Benoit Vincent, TaylorMade's chief technical officer. "We spent a great deal of time in the beginning deconstructing conventional long-irons and re-thinking how we might reconstruct them in a new and different way. We'd given the previous Burner irons longer, lighter shafts and Inverted Cone Technology, but we knew we could do more. We realized that tweaks weren't enough, that we had to redesign the club completely. We realized that each grouping of irons – the short-irons, middle-irons and long-irons – had to be treated separately and differently, because each one is a different animal."

Long-irons, middle-irons and short-irons were all designed separately
TaylorMade's iron-creation team started with the 4-iron and the goal to make it forgiving and long. That was made possible by:

* Thinning the clubface as much as possible to make it more flexible and faster for higher COR. A custom 450 stainless steel alloy is used for added strength, allowing 1.9 mm thickness across most of the face.
* Incorporating Inverted Cone Technology into the back of the clubface to promote increased ball-speed on off-center hits.
* Increasing the size of the head by expanding the perimeter, which helps increase the MOI to a higher level than any previous TaylorMade iron.
* Increasing the width of the sole (unusual for a long-iron) to pull the CG location low and far-back away from the clubface.
* Increasing the degree of offset to make it easier to square the face at impact.
* Thickening the top-line to give the appearance of more mass behind the ball at address, to inspire more confidence.
* Outfitting it with a lightweight, longer-length shaft and lightweight grip.

TaylorMade tests indicated many players gaining as much as 15 yards in distance with the Burner 09 4-iron compared to their current 4-iron, including tour professionals.

"The result blew us away," said Bret Wahl, TaylorMade's senior director of iron development. "We created a 4-iron that's as easy to hit as our Rescue clubs and which promotes greater accuracy. We applied these same principles to the 3-iron and 5-iron and got the same result, and that's how we succeeded in what are by far the easiest-to-hit long-irons that we've ever created. They deliver the highest MOI of any by TaylorMade. That, combined with their thin, fast 1.9 millimeter face, also makes them exceptionally long. It's important to note that the thin face saves approximately 10 grams, which is redistributed to the perimeter to contribute to the high MOI."

Middle Irons
The middle-irons started with the 7- and the goal to make it accurate and long. That was made possible by:

* Thinning the clubface to promote higher COR, though not quite as thin as with the long-irons.
* Incorporating Inverted Cone Technology into the back of the clubface to promote increased ball-speed on off-center hits.
* Expanding the size of the head.
* Incorporating a sole nearly as wide as that in the long-irons to pull the CG low and far-back from the clubface.
* Thickening the topline, though not as thick as that in the long-irons.
* Outfitting it with a slightly longer-length shaft and lightweight grips.

The result is an incredibly long, easy-to-control 7-iron. These principles were successfully applied to the 6- and 8-irons and the mid-irons were complete.

Short-Irons
With the short-irons, we started with the 9- and a desire to make it accurate and responsive. We also wanted to make sure the short-irons were long enough to fall in line behind the middle-irons without leaving a distance gap between the 9-iron and the 8-iron. The new Burner short-irons deliver the acute responsiveness, feel, control and playability we sought from the beginning. We kept the clubheads relatively compact, thinned the clubface (though not as much as in the middle-irons) and thinned the topline. The sole is slightly thinner than in the middle-irons and long-irons, but not by much, and the topline is thinner. The undercut cavity allows more weight to be moved into the perimeter of the head.

Throughout the development of the short-irons, their shaping remained critical. "Short irons don't have to look clunky to deliver accuracy, feel and forgiveness," said Wahl. "It was important to us to incorporate performance technology into the Burner short-irons while still giving them the shape of a precision club."

Improved SuperFast Technology
With the new Burner irons, the typical conventions of club length, swing weight and overall club weight were redefined, as was the mass property progression from club-to-club, dimensional progression from club-to-club and head shape. The point being that we literally re-invented how we go about designing a set of irons.

The combination of elements that gives the Burner irons meaningful distance is being called SuperFast Technology, something that means a lot more in these irons than it did in previous models. That's because engineering these irons in three separate pods opened new doors to distance – meaningful distance. SuperFast Technology now incorporates progressive COR, progressive MOI, and progressive shaft-length, starting from the short-irons up through the long-irons. It also includes ultra-light shafts and grips. That promotes faster ball speed and more forgiveness as we progress from a lot of loft (short-irons) to a little loft (long-irons), and is critical to enabling the longer irons to deliver the type of ball flight and distance that they're intended to.

Additional Technologies
In contrast to the many differences in each of these irons, several elements remain constant, and which are also critical to the unique overall performance of the set. One is that each iron incorporates a Multi-Functional sole with beveled edges and of a relatively consistent thickness. "This sole is specially designed to reduce turf resistance through impact, helping the bottom of the club to glide through impact and apply maximum force to the ball," said Brian Bazzel, TaylorMade manager of iron development. "Keeping the sole relatively thick from club to club allows for a deep and low CG in every iron, making it easier to launch the ball high and long, especially with the long-irons."

Another consistent element is the Inverted Cone Technology located in the back of each Burner's cavity, which helps expand the size of the clubface area that delivers high ball speed. That promotes longer distance on off-center hits, resulting in more consistent distance from shot to shot to shot.

Also located in the back cavity is TaylorMade's new sound-managing cavity badge, which utilizes a multi-layer construction composed of carbon composite, aluminum and ABS polymer. The badge is affixed to the back of the clubface with a thin visco-elastic layer; together these elements combine to soften the sound and vibration of impact to promote the kind of soft feel that forged irons are known for delivering.

Fascinating Story, Fantastic Shelf Appeal, Phenomenal Performance
The story behind the new Burner irons development offers a telling glimpse into the creative way TaylorMade finds new ways to create better equipment. The result is an iron that looks like no other iron and which performs like no other iron. "The new Burner irons are astonishingly long, straight and easy to launch, and will be played by everyone from tour pros to 29-handicaps," said Toulon. "It's the next great iron from TaylorMade."

The new Burner ironsare available in full sets that include 4-iron through attack wedge. Burner 3-iron, sand wedge and lob wedge are also available. All clubs offered in left-handed with the exception of the lob wedge.