TaylorMade M4 Fairway Wood Review

Published: 02 January 2018 Last updated: 03 August 2018

At a glance
TG Rating 5 out of 5
Owner Rating Not yet rated
RRP £229.00

What we say...

The new TaylorMade M4 Fairway Wood boasts higher inertia and more forgiveness

Details

RRP £229 (£279 Tour).
Lofts: 15° (3), 16.5° (3HL), 18° (5), 21° (5HL), 24° (7HL). LH 15° (3), 16.5° (3HL), 18°(5).
Shaft: Fujikura Atmos Red.

The new TaylorMade M4 Fairway Wood has a bigger sweetspot than its predecessor (the M2), resulting in greater forgiveness and higher inertia for a better performing product.

TaylorMade calls this their ultimate distance fairway wood, with a multi-material construction, Speed Pocket, a new face material and a new split-weight mass pad that separates weight at the outward extremities of the head to preserve ball speed on off-centre shots.

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TaylorMade M4 Fairway Review: You Should Know

TaylorMade’s most forgiving fairway woods have set the ball speed benchmark pretty much since the RocketBallz. Their engineers know a thing or two about rinsing ball speed and distance out of golfers swings, and they say the M4s longer speed pocket, internal split pad weighting reduces twisting so even more energy is transferred to the golf ball. Geocoustic engineering means the super sleek and slick aerodynamic head sounds and feels great.

TaylorMade M4 Fairway Review: We Say

Wow, wow, wow. We don’t often see a club stand head and shoulders above the competition nowadays, as the tech used by most brands is so good, but the M4 stole the show when it came to fairway wood performance for 2018. Wind the clock back to our driver test and none of our testers quite got their best results using the M4s stock Atmos shaft, but the case was very different when it came to fairways.

We reckon it’s exactly why TaylorMade have chosen the Atmos, because more golfers get fitted for a driver, butless botherwhen itcomes to fairway woods. M4 was the only club our test pro reached 150mph ball speed with (Cobra F8 was second with 149mph), and incredibly for our pro it was 9 yards further than the next longest fairway he hit, which is a significant gain considering the quality competition. M4 performed similarly well for the amateurs too, posting on extra 5 yards carry on average over the competition.

TaylorMade M4 Fairway Review: Verdict

If you’re looking to buy any new fairway woods in 2018 we reckon you’d be foolish to not look very closely at the M4, it was a revelation throughout our testing. The slightly wider footprint is forgiving, the speed pocket and fast face tech are super powerful and there’s enough lofts to cover off gaps between your driver and irons (and eliminate hybrids) if you really want too.

TaylorMade M4 Fairway: Key Features. Read below to find out all about the multi-material construction, new face technology, geocoustic sole and why there is no twist face in the latest M4 Fairway from TaylorMade.

TaylorMade M4 Fairway Review: Multi-Material Composition for more forgiveness

In the new TaylorMade M4 fairway, TaylorMade’s ultimate distance fairway has been made even more forgiving. They’ve taken everything they’ve learned from the use of multi-material composition, Speed Pocket, Geocoustic Technology and ICT integration to deliver a remarkably high- performing complement to the M4 driver.

The new M4 fairway wood delivers maximum distance and forgiveness by way of a larger sweet spot and more optimal launch conditions, while a new split-weight mass pad separates the weight at the outward extremities of the head to preserve ballspeed on shots hit off-center.

Brian Bazzel, VP of Product Creation at TaylorMade, said: “The M2 today is a rocket ship – they are shallower, low profile, go farther more often which is made possible through the speed pocket, it’s made possible through moving the CG down with carbon fibre and the fluted hosel.”

“What’s different in this is that we’ve split the mass internally, all the mass we’ve taken out of the M2 we’ve split it up and that’s allowed us to make the sweetspot bigger. What was an incredible fairway wood with the M2, this is better because it has higher inertia and more forgiveness.”

TaylorMade M4 Fairway Review: New Face Material

The new TaylorMade M4 Fairway Wood has a brand new face material, named Ni-Co C300, which is both stronger and thinner to improve both durability and speed.

TaylorMade’s proprietary Inverted Cone Technology (ICT) is also part of their new M4 Fairway wood to increase the higher-COR area of the clubface, which will minimize ballspeed losses on off-center impacts delivering more distance more often.

“The material of the face has changed; its actually a stronger (that Ni-Co c300) and durability and speed have been improved. We are offering it in two styles, both an M4 and M4 Tour which has has a deeper face and smaller head (roughly 15cc difference) and a rounder curvature on the head.”

Playability through Geocoustic Technology

A large footprint and low-profile shape makes the new TaylorMade M4 Fairway easy to launch and easy to play. The sole, which is more curved to give a higher frequency, is shaped for optimal playability and improved sound & feel.

Tour version

In addition to the M4 fairway, TaylorMade is also introducing the M4 Tour fairway, which features a smaller head size (156cc versus 175cc) with a slightly deeper face, designed for better players who prefer a more compact look, lower launch and more workability.

They also have ladies all across the M4 line.

Why is there no Twist Face in the fairway wood?

Brian Bazzel: “We are still studying and trying to figure out if there is, in the smaller area that people hit fairway woods, is there a new contoured face that could improve the straightness of fairway wood shots. We’ve got a lot of flexing going on with the speed pockets so there’s a lot of dynamics and we don’t haphazardly put technology in products so we vet them out.”

“It was three or four years ago that we discovered the problem. It was 3 or four years it took to not only confirm the problem was there, create a solution, test the solution and put it in a product today that works better than anything else out there. And when you think of a lot of the technology that is in the products today, innovative technologies, you say where did that start –and a lot of them started at TaylorMade because we vet these things out and try to stay ahead of the curve, but we’re simply not there yet with fairway woods.”

NEXT: TaylorMade M3 and M4 Range revealed; Drivers, Irons, Fairways and Hybrids