When TaylorMade-sponsored golfers Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, and Tiger Woods begin their first rounds at the Masters today, they will be carrying drivers intentionally manufactured to be illegal when they leave the factory floor.
The clubs in their bags, however, have all now been finely tuned to be within the sport’s limits. Most drivers are made to be just shy of the rule prohibiting an elasticity rating higher than a .83 COR (coefficient of restitution). Because of inherent deviations in the manufacturing process, designing for the maximum carries risk of exceeding it slightly.
With its new M5 and M6 line of metalwoods, TaylorMade aimed just beyond that limit, and then adjusted each club back down into the legal range.