TaylorMade-Adidas Golf has just announced the latest addition to the company’s impressive lineup of golf clubs.  Following up on the release of the new Tour Burner, the company will be releasing a pair of 2008 Burner Fairway woods.

Every bit the little brother of the Tour Burner Driver that hit store shelves in April, the new fairway woods borrow their triangular design from the bigger club.  Like the driver, both feature TaylorMade’s SuperFast Technology which seeks to increase swing speed through significant reduction in both shaft and grip weight.

Also like the big Burner, both of the new fairway woods feature Dual Crown and Ultra-Thin Wall technology.  Both design elements help to reduce the weight of the clubhead, allowing TaylorMade to place discretionary weight exceptionally low and deep in the clubface (sound familiar?).

TaylorMade reports that the center of gravity in the new Burner Fairway is 35% lower than comparable previous Burner fairway woods.

With the 2008 Burner Fairway, TaylorMade is following the industry trend of releasing two reasonably unique, yet similarly designed clubs to satisfy the needs of a variety of golfers.

The head of the High Launch model offers the largest size and footprint of any TaylorMade steel fairway club produced to date.  It also boasts a 6% MOI improvement over previous models.

The Tour Launch model features a more compact head design that should appeal to better players (and hacks like me who just like small-headed fairway clubs).  The center of gravity is also positioned a bit more forward for those players who don’t need extra help getting the ball up in the air.

The new Burners have two design points that, I think, warrant further discussion.  I’ve already mentioned the SuperFast Technology, but the really interesting point is the Ultra-ultra-ultra lightweight shaft in the High Launch model.  Consider this; the Burner Fairway grip weights 44 grams.  The shaft on the HL model weighs a toothpick-like 49grams.  Contrast that with the 70 gram shaft on the Tour model, and it should be pretty clear that TaylorMade is targeting two vastly different audiences with these clubs.

The other interesting point differentiating the 2 Burner Fairway clubs is the variation in the lofts between the Tour and HL models.  The HL 3-wood has the industry standard 15° loft.  The Tour model is slightly stronger at 14.5°.  The same holds true of the 5-wood (18° vs. 17.5°).  Additionally, the HL will be available in a 21° 7-wood model, while the Tour Model will offer a 13° Tour Spoon (which the rest of the world calls a strong 3-wood).

What interests me is that TaylorMade has essentially taken the opposite approach that Titleist did when differentiating between its 906F2 (low-handicapper), and 906F4 (mid/high-handicapper) fairway clubs.  The lofts on the 906F4 series are .5° weaker than their 906F2 counterparts.

Basically TaylorMade has chosen to make their better players club more strongly lofted, while Titleist chose to make their clubs for the average player more weakly lofted.  I’m in no position to say one way is better or worse than the other (having actually hit neither).  I’m simply pointing out the differences and saying “hey, check this out”.

The 2008 Burner Fairways we’ll be available through TaylorMade retail partners beginning later this month.  MSRP is $240 per club.

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