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MyTaylorMade+ – A New Digital Golf Ecosystem

Tuesday, 18 January 2022

MyTaylorMade+ represents a significant overhaul of what was TaylorMade’s MyRoundPro App. If you’re not familiar with MyRoundPro, it was TaylorMade’s foray into sensor-less shot/round tracking. With the rise of mostly automated shot-tracking platforms like Arccos and ShotScope, unless you’re willing to go full DECADE, entering every shot by hand is neither appealing nor necessary. Golfers should want more.

With that in mind, MyRoundPro needed to evolve.

Where evolution might creep towards revolution is a new structure which arguably makes TaylorMade the first golf company to offer a rundle.

What’s a rundle, you might ask?

Rundle was coined by NYU Professor Scott Galloway as shortcode for recurring subscription bundle. Even if you’ve never heard rundle before, you’re almost certainly familiar with the concept. If you have an Amazon Prime account, you’re already part of rundle culture. The same is true for many users of Apple products as well.

The idea is that you take a bunch of things people want— in our Amazon Prime example, it’s free shipping and access to TV, movies and music—and bundle them in a package that’s so appealing consumers will happily pay a subscription fee to maintain access.

Of course, when your products are largely tangible things like golf equipment, creating a subscription-based model is a bit of a challenge. In the days when TaylorMade was releasing a new driver every few months, a subscribe-and-save option would have made sense. With reliably subdued one-year cycles now the norm, what would be the point?

Enter MyTaylorMade+.

TaylorMade describes MyTaylorMade+ as “a mobile subscription app inspired by the Tour experience but designed for every golfer who is serious about playing better golf.”

Words. But what do they mean?

Remember, MyTaylorMade+ is effectively a rundle so it means you should expect a bundle’s worth of compelling features. The good news here is that, with the free version of the new app, you still get some pretty cool stuff without the annoyance of having to pay for it.

Here’s the rundown of what’s bundled in the MyTaylorMade+ app.

Exclusive Instructional Content

I don’t want to oversell this. It’s a bit like a YouTube library’s worth of swing tips and instructional videos rolled under the TaylorMade logo (fun fact: TaylorMade’s logo is often referred to as the “T-bug”). The operative word, I suppose, is “exclusive.” Content will come from people like Me and My Golf, Rick Sessinghaus (Collin Morikawa’s coach), TaylorMade fitting expert Chris Trott, fitness coach Ashton Roberts and others. Recommendations will be tailored to the individual golfer.

GPS and Digital Scorekeeping

Think of this as OG MyRoundPro … sorta.

If you’ve entered two “advanced rounds” (shot by shot) in MyRoundPro over the last year, you’re grandfathered in so you can keep tracking full rounds without a subscription. If you’re new to the app, the free version will limit you to scorekeeping only.

The good news is you’ll still have access to GPS functionality (worth the price of admission) and you’ll still have the ability to maintain a handicap through the app.

Access to Expert Club Fittings

The popularity of virtual club fitting exploded during COVID so it’s not particularly surprising to see it integrated in a proprietary app. In addition to virtual fittings, you can schedule an in-person fitting with a TaylorMade fitting expert and (surprise, surprise) you can purchase clubs directly through the app.

Club Recommender

This one is straightforward. Users have the option of entering previous fitting data or answering a few questions and the app will make a recommendation for a driver and shaft pairing. On its surface, it’s not a particularly compelling feature—pretty much every manufacturer’s website offers the same functionality—but, as you’ll see, with either of the paid subscriptions, it gets a bit more interesting.

Free Shipping

Finally, regardless of whether you’re using the free version of MyTaylorMade+ or paying for the additional features, one of the rundle benefits available to all users is free ground shipping on all orders from TaylorMadeGolf.com.

That’s what everybody gets. From here, subscription-based models kick in but TaylorMade believes the benefits are compelling enough that you won’t mind paying for them.

Champion Tier

The Champion subscription ($12.99 monthly/$119.99 annually) includes all of the above but adds a handful of additional features.

Member Shop

The Champion tier gives users access to what TaylorMade is calling the Member Shop. It’s basically a suite of three features, any one of which you might find justifies the cost of admission.

Early Access and Exclusive Product Drops

More clearly, you get early access to some stuff and exclusive access to others. TaylorMade isn’t ready to kick over the traditional retail cart just yet so don’t expect to buy a new driver or the next set of P-series irons before everyone else. That said, things like new finish options on existing products, limited-run headcovers and other potentially cool merch will likely land in the app before being offered anywhere else.

Tour Trash Sweepstakes

As an unrepentant gear nerd/whore, I think this is the coolest benefit offered by the MyTaylorMade+ app. The background is this: the guys in TaylorMade’s Tour Operations department build a whole lot of stuff for Tour pros to try and, despite a multitude of videos that suggest otherwise, most of it doesn’t go straight in the bag.

What do you do with the leftovers?

Trash ‘em? Sell them on eBay?

Nah.

Champion tier MyTaylorMade+ users will have the option to enter recurring sweepstakes to win Tour Trash—the misfit toys that PGA TOUR pros ultimately didn’t want.

How cool is that?

Try, Then Buy

Another compelling feature for MyTaylorMade+ Champion tier members is basically Dollar Driver Club, TaylorMade Edition.

Members can spec out any driver from the TaylorMade catalog (any driver, any head) and it will be built to spec and shipped to you free of charge. Demo it for two weeks. If you love it, keep it and TaylorMade will bill you.

If you don’t love it, send it back (return label provided) and repeat the process (as many times as you like) until you’ve found the perfect driver. You can only demo one at a time but, otherwise, there’s no cap on the number of drivers you can try while your subscription remains active.

Personalized Performance Insights

Round tracking on a shot-by-shot basis was stripped from the free version but it’s been improved and rolled into the Champion-level membership.

In addition to shot tracking (manually entered), the app tracks key stats (Strokes Gained, fairways hit, etc.) and will create personalized insights to help you improve your game.

Out of the gate, the information should prove useful. What’s coming in future updates could make MyTaylorMade+ the hub of your digital golf ecosystem.

That’s a lot, but wait, there’s more … (if you’re willing to pay more to get it).

Legend Tier

The MyTaylorMade+ Legend tier ($24.99/month, $239.99/annually) takes all the features of the Champion rundle and builds on it with the addition of personalized instruction.

We’re not talking about stock drill videos anymore. Your Legend subscription gives you access to full-on virtual coaching with a PGA teaching professional.

Upload your swing video and a real human coach will give you a breakdown of your swing (what’s good, not so good) and work with you to develop a roadmap for improvement, one swing fault at a time. Once you complete the prescribed lesson, your coach will evaluate your progress and decide whether more work is needed or if you’re ready to move on to the next area needing improvement.

As with the Try Then Buy option, instruction is unlimited for the duration of the subscription. Whether that’s worth an extra $120 a year is obviously an individual decision but I can tell you that it’s less than what many pay for a single lesson. It’s certainly a value relative to in-person instruction.