TaylorMade Burner 2.0 Driver Review – Good for High Handicappers & Forgiving?

The TaylorMade Burner 2.0 isn’t exactly a fresh face on the golf club scene; but it does make some nice improvements over the original Burner driver. But will it be good for high handicappers? Find out in the following review.

The TaylorMade Burner 2.0 debuted back in 2011 so it’s now over a decade old. With all the technological advancements in golf club manufacturing over the last decade, it’s hard to imagine that a driver from a bygone era can have any value today.

But after not having played the TaylorMade Burner 2.0 for so long and then testing it again in 2022, we were instantly brought back to a golden era of golf clubs. The TaylorMade Burner 2.0 features a whit on black finish that used to be pretty popular.

And while it lacks a lot of the adjustability features that TaylorMade drivers from that period had, it was designed to be very light.

The TaylorMade Burner Driver Family

The family really only consists of the original Burner and the TaylorMade Burner 2.0 drivers.

The goal with the TaylorMade Burner 2.0 was to make the original Burner lighter and more wieldy. The original Burner was released in 2009 and two years later, TaylorMade saw fit to tweak the design of the head.

Whereas the original Burner driver was beefy and unapologetically burly, the TaylorMade Burner 2.0 is a bit more refined and elegant. However, both drivers feature a 460cc head.

Is it Good for High Handicappers?

One of the best things that the TaylorMade Burner 2.0 will do for you as a high handicapper is increase your swing speed.

It should be noted that the total overall weight of the club is 279 grams. The redesigned shape of the head allowed developers to thin out the inner walls to just 0.6mm in some portions. This is part of what makes the TaylorMade Burner 2.0 so light.

Our testers noticed an average increase in swing speed of 3 mph when using the TaylorMade Burner 2.0 driver. Some testers saw 4.2 mph increases. The TaylorNade Burner 2.0 also has a deep face which helps preserve ball speed on low-face shots.

All that is simply the long way of saying yes, it is good for high handicappers in some elemental ways. The expansive face was a nice touch too but we noticed that it only really helped in hi/low-face shots.

Lateral mis-hits were still spinning off into an embarrassing oblivion but you can’t win ‘em all.

Is it Forgiving?

Again, we have to refer back to lateral mis-hits.

Shanking was still a problem for some of our testers when using the Taylormade Burner 2.0 driver. On pure shots though, the Taylormade Burner 2.0 produces very little spin which allows the ball to hang in the air for longer.

That coupled with the faster swing speed will really help you get your distance up without much effort. There are no adjustable weights but the CG placement of this driver is already nice and low which we know a lot of high handicappers will appreciate.

Differences Between the TaylorMade Burner 2.0 and M4 Drivers

The M4 is another blast from the past; but at least it’s a more recent past.

The TaylorMade M4 driver has a couple of more modern features like twist face technology and the Speed Pocket. The twist face is a slight curvature that helps reduce side spin. The Speed Pocket is a channel bored low into the face to increase face flex and ball speed on low-face shots.

The M4 has a better overall sound but feels heavier in the hands than the TaylorMade Burner 2.0. Our testers were getting better distance with the TaylorMade Burner 2.0 than the M4.

Available Shafts

• TaylorMade Reax graphite shaft
• Aldila NV 65 graphite shaft
• Aldila RIp Tour 60 graphite shaft
• TaylorMade Matrix Ozik Xcon graphite shaft

Is the Taylormade Burner 2.0 Driver Worth it?

If your main issue seems to be swing speed and long game spin, then the TaylorMade Burner 2.0 will be worth it.

It may not be the most inherently forgiving driver on the market but at least you can get it for a very affordable price these days. It usually retails for just over $100. So we would say it’s at least worth a look.