00:00Retro review time today again and whilst I've got one that technically is retro over 10 years old
00:05it's still in the bag of a multiple major winner. More on that in a moment but as always this video
00:10is in association with Golf Clubs for Cash, one of the leading retailers of pre-loved equipment
00:16so if you're looking for value in the second-hand market please go and check those guys out on their
00:20website and in the new Golf Clubs for Cash app. You'll find some great deals and they provide us
00:25with some absolute gems to test. Now those in the know will remember this the TaylorMade SLDR hybrid
00:31as maybe the rocket ship of all hybrids. Now I paid just $64.99 for this iconic hybrid and to give you
00:39a bit of context this whole SLDR, incredibly popular SLDR range of drivers, fairways and hybrids
00:45was actually a bit of a mistake. It was TaylorMade's first foray into creating the lowest spinning
00:51products possible by pushing that CG right the way forward and boy oh boy did it work.
01:00So the problem if there was one with this SLDR range of drivers, fairways and hybrids was that
01:05basically no one could get it in the air so even tour feedback it was just too piercing there wasn't
01:11enough spin on the ball so TaylorMade reacted really cleverly and swiftly with the introduction
01:16of their loft up campaign. So TaylorMade recognized what essentially was a mistake and they reacted
01:22with a brilliant brilliant marketing campaign which essentially encouraged people into higher
01:27lofts than they were ordinarily used to. So if you were being fitted into an SLDR driver at that time
01:31and your standard loft would have been about nine degrees then you might have been in an 11 degree or
01:35even a 12 degree head with SLDR. Right sorry to interrupt if you are enjoying this video and you like the
01:41retro review series please hit the like button it really helps us out. Subscribe to the channel and comment down
01:46below so anything you'd like me to review.
01:48So that was the answer with driver so you had a lot of these people with were struggling with spin now
01:57lofted up so their launch was higher but the spin was still under control so that was really the birth
02:01of what we now know as optimal driving conditions of high launch and low spin. But onto the fairways
02:08and hybrids now these suited brilliantly a specific type of player that might have some excessive spin
02:14would often balloon their fairways and hybrids before. All of a sudden this low spin profile
02:18produced some absolute rockets and one of those players in particular was two-time major champion
02:23Martin Keimer. So at his peak Keimer was a serial fader of the golf ball. He hit down on it quite a lot
02:30and generated an awful lot of spin so this SLDR range was absolutely perfect and for ages he had
02:36the full complement of driver fairway wood and hybrid in his bag including his 2014 players championship
02:43and US Open wins. Now believe it or not to this day Keimer still has the hybrid in his bag and I
02:50recently caught up with him at the live golf JCB UK event and here's what you had to say about his
02:55hybrid. You want to go to the hybrid? Yeah let's move down then so perfect so we're going through we've got
02:59driver three we're into the hybrid now we've got a really old model here which I love this one
03:02we've got a tailor-made SLDR and this has been in your bag for quite some time and may I say you look
03:07after it 2013 so we're past the decade now may I say you're looking after it very well it's not
03:13looking too bad is it? We changed the shaft two or three times because obviously you know they can
03:17a few things happen to the shafts over the years but the head still looks pretty good
03:21this is a club that I trust the most I know exactly what it does and I think when tailor-made brought
03:27out the SLDR woods they were the best woods the last 15 years but obviously the drive-in three
03:34wood I mean I don't have them anymore they don't do them anymore so we need to move on. That's what
03:38you used the I think US Open wasn't it Pinehurst remember SLDR driver Fairway was this in the bag
03:44that week? It was in the bag since 2013 I never took it out I tried a few other hybrids but they
03:48were not as good as this one. It's pretty strong this it's base loft of 17 degrees you've got it on the
03:53lower loft sleeve setting as well so it's depending where this is a one and a half or a two degree
03:57sleeve this could be 15 15 and a half degrees so it's quite strong. It's a strong hybrid but I would
04:02say I can I can take maybe 15 20 yards off it so you know I can still hit it high and soft so that's
04:12why even though it says lower and has very little loft for hybrid but I can still hit those soft fades
04:17into the green. A versatile old favorite. That's what Martin Keimer thinks of this hybrid but I want to know
04:22what I think of the hybrids. I've come out to the practice ground I've bought my full swing kit launch
04:26monitor I just want to get some numbers and get some shots away and get my initial impressions.
04:43Well that was really interesting I really enjoyed testing that I've actually used this product
04:47before in my own bag so it's a bit of a trip down memory lane for me and I had it in the standard
04:52setting there and this is the two hybrid it's 17 degrees base loft and that's what I left it at
04:57there and what I was getting out of that from a data point of view it seems a little bit spinnier than
05:01I thought but that's generally my sort of the way I err I'm a bit of a high spin player so I was getting
05:06kind of 4,800 revs per minute out of that with a 109 foot apex my average carry was about 238 yards
05:14in terms of the unquantifiables the feel was just as solid as I remember there was no sense of
05:19tinniness or clanginess just a real solid fud and I really like the way it frames the golf ball
05:25at address but one thing I did notice when I spoke to Kymer is he had his in a very very strong loft
05:31and with these loft sleeves from TaylorMade this is a one and a half degree sleeve I can actually take
05:36this from 17 all the way down to 15 and a half or up to 18 and a half so I'm really keen to do that
05:42now and see what the data says
06:12well that was some really interesting data when I nudged that loft sleeve about firstly in the
06:27lower setting or the Martin Kymer setting as I'm going to call that my carry distance didn't change
06:32at all it was identical 238 yards but with a significantly different flight so 76 feet of peak
06:39height compared to that 109 in the standard setting and basically a thousand revs left less spin so
06:453810 revs per minute so as you can imagine from that and you've probably seen from the traces a
06:52significantly more piercing ball flight and the total distance was up significantly there about 15 yards
06:57further so that's a really interesting weapon say on a Lynx course or in the wind to be able to bring
07:02the flight down like that and take the spin off that could be a real weapon for me then when I
07:06changed it up and I tuned it up by a degree and a half to that 18 18 and a half loft number my carry
07:13distance went up quite considerably so 10 yards further nearly 250 248 yards peak height as you
07:19would imagine 115 feet but the spin didn't get out of control it was only 100 revs more than when it was
07:25in the standard setting so but again that could be a real weapon for me if I was playing somewhere
07:30with a lot of forced carries into par fives over water where I need a steep descending angle
07:35but without the spin getting out of control that higher loft setting could be really really useful
07:39so a very very versatile setting and something I've always loved about that tailor-made loft sleeve the
07:45ability to personalize that golf club well I really really enjoyed that essentially what I found here is
07:50a great feeling a great sounding and great performing hybrids almost three hybrids within one just tuning
07:57that loft sleeve about really manipulated that ball flight that peak height and that spin number
08:02so it's a really really versatile club I think if I was going to use it I would probably have it in
08:07that Kymer setting the lower I really enjoyed that piercing ball flight with very little spin that's
08:12going to really sort of navigate its way through any headwind and give me that rollout that I like
08:16and sort of driving iron style performance but as always the purpose of these videos is to find out
08:21whether some of these older products have a place in today's game and I think just by virtue of the fact
08:26that Martin Kymer and multiple major champion is still using it that should be validation enough but from what I
08:31found there as well for $64.99 all of the launch monitor numbers are comparable with anything else
08:37I've tested in the hybrid range recently so I think there is some genuine value to be had
08:42you
08:48awesome
08:50fun
08:53fun
08:54fun
08:56fun
08:59fun
09:00fun
09:00fun
09:04fun
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