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
00:10video
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
00:39give 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 recognised 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
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01:46comment down below so anything you'd like me to review.
01:52So that was the answer with driver so you had a lot of these people with were struggling with spin
01:57now
01:57lofted up so their launch was higher but the spin was still under control so that was really the birth
02:02of what we now know as optimal driving conditions of high launch and low spin. But onto the fairways and
02:08hybrids 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
02:29quite a lot
02:30and generated an awful lot of spin so this SLDR range was absolutely perfect and for ages he had the
02:36full
02:37complement 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
02:50and I
02:50recently caught up with him at the Live Golf JCB UK event and here's what you had to say about
02:55his
02:55hybrid. You want to go to the hybrid? Yeah let's move down then so perfect so we're going through
02:59we've got driver three we're into the hybrid now we've got a really old model here 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
03:07say
03:072013. 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 shaft over the years but the head still looks pretty good
03:22this is a club that I trust the most I know exactly what it does and I think when Taylor
03:27brought out the SLDR woods they were the best woods the last 15 years but obviously the drive
03:34industry would I mean I don't have them anymore they don't do them anymore so we need to move
03:38on. That's what you used I think US Open wasn't it Pinehurst remember SLDR driver Fairway was this
03:43in the bag that week? It was in the bag since 2013 I never took it out I tried a
03:47few other hybrids
03:48but they were not as good as this one. It's pretty strong this it's base loft of 17 degrees you've
03:52got
03:53it on the lower loft sleeve setting as well so it's depending where this is a one and a half
03:57or a two degree sleeve this could be 15 15 and a half degrees so it's quite strong. It's a
04:01strong
04:01hybrid but I would say I can I can take maybe 15 20 yards off it so you know I
04:09can still hit it high
04:10and soft so that's why even though it says lower and has very little loft for a hybrid but I
04:15can still
04:15hit those soft fades into the green. A versatile old favorite. That's what Martin Keimer thinks of this
04:21hybrid but I want to know what I think of the hybrid so I've come out to the practice ground
04:25I've bought my full swing kit launch monitor I just want to get some numbers and get some shots away
04:29and 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
04:51it 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
04:57and what I was getting out of that from a data point of view it seems a little bit spinnier
05:01than I
05:01thought but that's generally my sort of the way I err I'm a bit of a high spin player so
05:05I was getting
05:06kind of 4,800 revs per minute out of that with a 109 foot apex my average carry was about
05:13238 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 Keimer is he had his in a very
05:30very 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
05:41I'm really keen to do that
05:42now and see what the data sets
05:52so
06:00so
06:02so
06:02so
06:02so
06:04so
06:23well that was some really interesting data on a nudge that loft sleeve about firstly in the lower
06:28setting or the Martin Keimer setting as I'm going to call that my carry distance didn't change at all it
06:32was
06:32identical 238 yards but with a significantly different flight so 76 feet of peak height compared
06:40to that 109 in the standard setting and basically a thousand revs left less spin so 3810 revs per minute
06:48so as you can imagine from that you've probably seen from the traces a significantly more piercing ball flight
06:54and the total distance was up significantly there about 15 yards further so that's a really interesting
07:00weapon say on a links course or in the wind to be able to bring the flight down like that
07:03and take the spin off
07:04that 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
07:11half loft number
07:12my carry distance went up quite considerably so 10 yards further nearly 250 248 yards peak height as you would
07:19imagine 115 feet
07:21but the spin didn't get out of control it was only 100 revs more than when it was in the
07:25standard setting so
07:27but again that could be a real weapon for me if I was playing somewhere with a lot of forced
07:31carries into
07:32par fives over water where I need a steep descending angle but without the spin getting out of control
07:37that higher loft setting could be really really useful so a very very versatile setting
07:42and something I've always loved about that tailor-made loft sleeve the ability to personalize that golf club
07:47well I really really enjoyed that essentially what I found here is a great feeling a great sounding and great
07:53performing hybrids
07:54almost three hybrids within one just tuning that loft sleeve about really manipulated that ball flight
08:00that peak height and that spin number so it's a really really versatile club I think if I was going
08:05to use it
08:06I would probably have it in that Kymer setting the lower I really enjoyed that piercing ball flight with very
08:11little spin
08:12that's going to really sort of navigate its way through any headwind and give me that roll out that I
08:16like
08:16and sort of driving iron style performance
08:19but as always the purpose of these videos is to find out whether some of these older products have a
08:23place in today's game
08:24and I think just by virtue of the fact that Martin Kymer and multiple major champion is still using it
08:29that should be validation enough but from what I found there as well
08:32for £64.99 all of the launch monitor numbers are comparable with anything else I've tested in the hybrid range
08:38recently
08:39so I think there is some genuine value to be had
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