Q&A: The equipment world's biggest splash of 2011

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According to Golf Datatech, white clubs now account for one of every five woods sold, which includes the TaylorMade R11 driver. TaylorMade executive vice president Sean Toulon and chief technical officer Benoit Vincent sat down with PGATOUR.COM's Brian Wacker discuss the club's success, what players thought of it when they first saw it and where they think equipment is headed.

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PGATOUR.COM: Who came up with the idea for the R11 and the white clubhead?

SEAN TOULON: Me! BENOIT VINCENT: Me! (simultaneously)

TOULON: Technically, R&D comes up with the new features and this club had an interesting new feature on the bottom with the adjustable sole plate technology. When you change one thing, other things change -- when you change the loft, the face angle automatically changes. ASP was a way for us to get the face angle back to what we wanted without changing the loft.

This concept is something we've been working on for 10 years. But the decision to make it white, that was not me, that was not Benoit. That was a group of people. There was an early decision made that it can't be black because we know what's going to happen. It's going to sell a little better than the R9, which sold a little better than the R7. But we felt like it was underperforming. On top of that it wasn't just a shameless act of self promotion -- there's real genius in the decision to make it white.

PGATOUR.COM: What was the initial reaction from players? What was the process?

TOULON: Early on when players would come through and we'd talk to them. We started the process in 2006. We painted some heads red and yellow and white and orange and black and we put them in front of them. Kenny Perry loved the yellow one. They were so open to it; it was just something that had been there four years prior. We went through a bunch of colors. There were a lot of people inside the building who were really afraid of white. None of them were players.

We were at our big photo shoot at THE TOUR Championship and we had 11 or 12 players. They came in one by one. Martin Kaymer: 'I think the white is very interesting.' And he's not someone who switches. Kenny Perry: 'I think it's awesome.' Sean O'Hair at first said, 'I think it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen.' Then he hit about 10 shots and thought it was the greatest driver he ever hit. Jason Day, off the charts good; Justin Rose, off the charts good; Paula Creamer, off the charts; Natalie Gulbis the same. We knew there was going to be no issue from the TOUR player. We know it's going to be best performing driver we've ever made, we know the TOUR players are going to play it because they like the way it performs and they like the way it looks. It's going to be so incredibly visible the PGA TOUR is going to look like the TaylorMade tour.

PGATOUR.COM: So naturally you didn't have any trouble selling it to the average guy?

TOULON: We believe in the pyramid of influence. We know for sure if the club performs, the best players will play it. If we make our success more visible to the average golfer, that was going to be magical.

VINCENT: We hear all the time 'How come people accept it so easily?' Remember when the driver head went from small to big? And there were metal woods vs. wood woods? When it works, people will put it in their bag. When it doesn't work, it goes away.

PGATOUR.COM: Break down as simply as you can then the scientific impact of a white clubhead and the adjustable sole plate technology of the R11.

VINCENT: It's extremely difficult for us to fit TOUR players. They always complain about something; they complain about alignment a lot. When we launched the white Ghost putter in May 2010, we started to have a lot of performance comments we're not used to, like, 'I can see the lines on my putter better,' and 'I can see the putter head in my stroke,' and 'I can see the loft.' So we had performance attributes linked to the color. During the summer we realized that. When you have white, you get more color in your eyes because white reflects 100 percent of the light so it's easier to see an object in space.

TOULON: That's something that's easy for people to say, 'C'mon.' But the benefit is very real. That's not coming from us, that's coming from Sean O'Hair and Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer.

VINCENT: The second biggest advantage was you saw the contrast. When you put a dark surface to a light surface, the top line popped up much better and you get aligned better. The third thing was the hot spot. The white color overpowered the reflection. When you think about wood woods, they were light woods. We went grey with steel then we made a mistake for 10 years going with black. Now we're finally where we should be. What were doing is helping the set-up and helping you align the golf club. Put a white driver and black driver in the shade and you'll see the difference. That's what we think the white head brings from a performance standpoint. In the ASP, the technology we put in the driver was pretty simple. We wanted to adjust launch angle and spin rates. The problem we had was when you change one aspect, you affect another. It's a domino effect. We've been dealing with this problem since we've been in golf.

PGATOUR.COM: Do you think we'll see more white drivers in the future?

TOULON: We hope so. If [other manufacturers] can get past the ego of it looks like we followed TaylorMade, it will be awesome for the game and the industry. I hope they do. We have encouraged all of our competitors to do it.

VINCENT: They will for sure go to a lighter color. Who has a small-headed driver anymore? Are they going to go all the way to white? I don't know.

PGATOUR.COM: Why haven't we seen more white putters or other clubs?

TOULON: The only reason you wouldn't see it in putters or metal woods more is because the other companies are afraid it would further validate us, which it probably will.

PGATOUR.COM: So what's next then if white has solved all our problems?

TOULON: You don't think were actually going to answer that do you? Let me tell you what I think the result is going to be over the next three years. We know how to make a driver go 25 yards farther than they do today. We have a method in how we can get there. I think a lot of people are saying there's no place left to go, the USGA has put us in this box and we're done. That couldn't be further from the truth. The USGA could make our jobs easier, but I think we're actually better and have performed at this pace because we've been able to think our way through the roadblocks. There's lots of room to go forward.

PGATOUR.COM: So where is that line in the sand?

VINCENT: In the '90s, we were all designing the same club. In the R11, we're trying to create something that's radically different. It's a whole different product.

TOULON: The beautiful thing is it's what we know today but it's not at all what we'll know tomorrow or five years from now. I was on a panel once and the great architect Kyle Phillips was on it and he was talking about how we're making their lives difficult. Well I remember reading a book that was written in 1920 and there was a passage saying the ball goes too far and the equipment companies are taking all the skill out of the game, but thankfully they've reached their limit. You could look at it two ways. You can say there's no place else to go, or you can go find a place to go. That's what drives us.