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This hybrid was launched a little over 10 years ago and even against today's competition it stacks up pretty well. In fact, there's a case for it to be crowned one of the best golf hybrids ever made. It's no surprise to see it still feature in the bag of a multiple major champion! Joe Ferguson puts this iconic hybrid to the test on the range to see how it performs and whether there's value to be had on the second hand market should you be shopping for a new club in this area of the bag.
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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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01:41Retro Review Series please hit the like button it really helps us out. Subscribe to the channel and
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
05:53so
05:56so
05:56I
05:56I
05:56I
06:14I
06:14I
06:14I
06:23Well, that was some really interesting data when I nudged that loft sleeve about, firstly
06:27in the lower setting, or the Martin Keimer setting as I'm going to call that, my carry
06:31distance didn't change at all, it was identical, 238 yards, but with a significantly different
06:37flight, so 76 feet of peak height compared to that 109 in the standard setting, and basically
06:431,000 revs less spin, so 3,810 revs per minute, so as you can imagine from that, and you've
06:50probably seen from the traces, a significantly more piercing ball flight, and the total distance
06:55was up significantly there, about 15 yards further, so that's a really interesting weapon,
07:00say on a Lynx course or in the wind, to be able to bring the flight down like that and
07:03take the spin off, that could be a real weapon for me, then when I changed it up, and I
07:08tuned
07:08it up by a degree and a half to that 18, 18 and a half loft number, my carry distance
07:13went up quite considerably, so 10 yards further, nearly 250, 248 yards, peak height as you would
07:19imagine, 115 feet, but the spin didn't get out of control, it was only 100 revs more than
07:24when it was in the standard setting, so, but again, that could be a real weapon for me,
07:29if I was playing somewhere with a lot of forced carries into par 5s over water, where I need
07:33a steep descending angle, but without the spin getting out of control, that higher loft setting
07:38could be really, really useful, so a very, very versatile setting, and something I've
07:42always loved about that tailor-made loft sleeve, the ability to personalise that golf club.
07:47Well, I really, really enjoyed that, essentially what I found here is a great feeling, a great
07:52sounding, and great performing hybrids, almost three hybrids within one, just tuning that loft
07:57sleeve 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
08:06have it in that Kymer setting, the lower, I really enjoyed that piercing ball flight with
08:11very little spin, that's going to really sort of navigate its way through any headwind
08:14and give me that rollout that I like, and sort of driving iron style performance, but as
08:19always, the purpose of these videos is to find out whether some of these older products
08:22have a place in today's game, and I think just by virtue of the fact that Martin Kymer,
08:27a multiple major champion, is still using it, that should be validation enough, but from
08:30what I found there as well, for £64.99, all of the launch monitor numbers are comparable
08:36with anything else I've tested in the hybrid range recently, so I think there is some genuine
08:40value to be had.
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