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TaylorMade SLDR Driver - Review Thread

SuperStroke
blugold said:
A lot of pros will lower the loft to keep the face open while still having their optimal loft.
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Right. I don't see why that logic shouldn't apply to an amateur like myself, or anyone else for that matter. I enjoy and gain a lot seeing how pros tweak their clubs. It has helped me squeeze more out of all my SLDRs, which is why I am passing it on. Thought that's what a forum was for.
 
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Went back out to play a quick 9 before dark because I can't get enough of this driver. Tonight I drew a dot on my ball with a dry erase marker and discovered I was hitting a tad high on the clubface. I lowered the tee so a quarter of the ball was above the top line. The face is so tall that it's hard to resist teeing up the ball too high. I was able to hit a fade a little easier.

Playing at a LONG course tomorrow. Should be the best test yet for this driver.
 
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Played one of the toughest courses in Michigan today and the driver came through in spades again. 9* is the magic setting for me and I still keep the sliding weight centered. I was able to hit a draw for the first time on the range and used it on course twice. Just take the club back a little inside and the beast produces a nice draw. Tough to do when there is so little spin. I can put this club to bed and focus on course management now which is nice luxury the SLDR driver affords that my R11 didn't.
 
ehamady.6 said:
Played one of the toughest courses in Michigan today and the driver came through in spades again. 9* is the magic setting for me and I still keep the sliding weight centered. I was able to hit a draw for the first time on the range and used it on course twice. Just take the club back a little inside and the beast produces a nice draw. Tough to do when there is so little spin. I can put this club to bed and focus on course management now which is nice luxury the SLDR driver affords that my R11 didn't.
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I find that the lower spin helps control the ball much better than the R11/R11s/R1 i am also able to place it more easily the only driver that was as workable was my R11s V2 but the dime size sweet spot makes it difficult to hit some days
 
Brianbigoats said:
I find that the lower spin helps control the ball much better than the R11/R11s/R1 i am also able to place it more easily the only driver that was as workable was my R11s V2 but the dime size sweet spot makes it difficult to hit some days
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Can you explain this further? The part about lower spin helping control?

Based on the rest of the post and the "more workable" it kind of goes against what is said earlier so genuinely curious.
 
JB said:
Can you explain this further? The part about lower spin helping control?

Based on the rest of the post and the "more workable" it kind of goes against what is said earlier so genuinely curious.
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I find that the lower spin that this driver gives my produces less big misses for me i am able to put the ball in the general area i am after and if i do impart an side spin it is very low and cause my misses to be not as far from my target line.

for workablity i was comparing my ablity to put the ball where i was aming with the movement i am after the SLDR was much easier for me to do that with than the other three drivers
the R11s V2 is a very strange creature for me it is one of the longest easiest to control driver if my swing is clicking but if my timing is just off by a little it would be a horriable day with the driver The SLDR give me the same feel and control as the V2 just the bad swings for me are not as penalizing

I hope that explaines some of your question
 
TaylorMade SLDR Driver - Review Thread

I see exactly the same as Brianbigoats. I'm only in the early stages of working with the SLDR and will post more detailed thoughts soon but I'm seeing exactly these results and it's great!! :)


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Fascinating stuff guys. Definitely not what I saw during our testing, but glad its working for you.
 
JB said:
Fascinating stuff guys. Definitely not what I saw during our testing, but glad its working for you.
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I think this is one of those Drivers that just seems to fit some swings but not others
 
I went to GolfUSA yesterday, and was able to demo many drivers from this year's offering. I was surprised how little a difference I saw (in the results) between my driver and most of the clubs currently on the market. I understand that most of this can be attributed to my familiarity with my current driver (cobra ZL 8.5* with 62g stiff VooDoo shaft). I also understand that while I tried a multitude of shaft offerings and loft settings in each club, there is no way I could try them all, and perhaps this is why I couldn't make some of the clubs work better than my old driver.

All of that said... the two clubs that really shined (for me) were the X2 Hot Pro 9.5* with the Fubuki shaft of the BB, and the SLDR 10.5* with either the 57speeder or the adila tour green 65. Since this is the SLDR thread I will concentrate more on the SLDR than the former driver. I found it weird that the Adila tour green 65 worked very well in the SLDR, but I couldn't figure it out as well in the x2.

First of all I will apologize. I should have paid the $25 and gotten the results so I could post them here... next time i'll give it a shot. The thing that impressed me most was the distance control. I had heard (perhaps wrongly) that this head was not incredibly forgiving, so the results came as somewhat of a surprise. While slightly, less forgiving than the x2 hot pro horizontally (for me) all of the balls still found the virtual fairway and held less than 10 yards off center line on average. (And yes, the simulator was working as I snap hooked another driver 90 yards off target left... yeah it was that bad. The driver will remained nameless *cough* TMs lighter/worse selling partner *cough*) More impressive that all of the balls except one (I hit 10) were in 5 yards of each other (distance wise)... even on mishits. "What about the 'one'?" you might ask. That one was a monster where I had 17.3*launch and just UNDER 1800rpm (The club fitter, JR, told me that was about perfect as TMs optimal stats are 17* and 1700 rpm). The result was a drive that went about 19 yards further than my average, and dead straight.

The other thing that impressed me was the carry.

Full disclaimer: I know my 8.5* driver is too low. I used to have a SS of about 108, but a shoulder injury and an out-of-shape rallo have left me at about 98ish according to the simulator yesterday. So what used to be about 250ish carry and 265-70ish distance has gone WAY downhill... I am now dependent on roll-out, and there is nothing more frustrating than hitting one in the rough with 215-220 of carry then ZERO rollout...

So anyway... back to the carry. The 10.5* SLDR proved to be the ideal setting for my swing while targeting the 17* 1700rpm mentioned earlier. Throwing out 'the one' I was averaging 250ish yards of carry, even with the mishits. Compare that to the cobra where recently I'd be lucky to hit one over 250 total. If numbers are to be trusted, this is truly a lower spinning driver. I was surprised that I didn't hit one over 2600rpm, and most were in the lower 2200ish range. To put it in perspective my cobra was usually around 3100rpm. All of this happened with me having a lower SS with the SLDR, as mentioned earlier it may be because I'm used to the cobra so I can get after it a little more. Hopefully if I purchased a slider I'd gain some MPH after the comfort level rose.

When Taylormade came out with the SLDR I thought it looked cheap. I didn't buy in to the 'loft up' campaign, and I wasn't too excited about the offering. I know I'm late to the party, but I'm starting to buy in to the hype a little bit. At the end of the day, if you are looking for a new driver, you need to try this one. When you do... make sure you get fitted, and make sure it's by a professional.

Understatment of the year : I came away impressed, and if there is a price drop (or if I can't take it anymore) I'm going to buy one!
 
Rallo I have the tour green in my SLDR it seems like a very nice combo Mid low launch and nice and straight
 
Brianbigoats said:
Rallo I have the tour green in my SLDR it seems like a very nice combo Mid low launch and nice and straight
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i really liked that combo! Glad to hear you are liking it too... Did it cost you extra over the speeder 57? If so i may have to go again and investigate these shafts with due diligence.
 
rallo said:
i really liked that combo! Glad to hear you are liking it too... Did it cost you extra over the speeder 57? If so i may have to go again and investigate these shafts with due diligence.
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I found mine aftermarket (ebay) to get one from TM you have to get the TP plus pay $100 upcharge
 
Played 18 today on a really tight course, out of bounds markers everywhere. I used to tee off with my 3 wood on most of the holes, but my SLDR driver hits so straght and long that I never pulled the 3 out of the bag. It's an absolute joy to hit.
 
I have a TM fitting tomorrow. Maybe someone there can figure out how to make me do anything besides hit a pull hook with this thing.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk.
 
Yesterday ended on a very promising note. To start the round, I was fighting old swing habits and really didn't make one good swing. But standing on the 10th tee I just acted like I was starting a new round. Closed my stance a little and set up with the ball a little more towards the middle of my stance and really focused on swinging through the ball and not trying to over swing. My last 5 drives were worlds better. Got a couple out there around 280 with the longest being 295. Right now I have the loft set at 12* and I'm one notch towards draw and I think that's where I'm going to keep it.
 
ehamady.6 said:
Went back out to play a quick 9 before dark because I can't get enough of this driver. Tonight I drew a dot on my ball with a dry erase marker and discovered I was hitting a tad high on the clubface. I lowered the tee so a quarter of the ball was above the top line. The face is so tall that it's hard to resist teeing up the ball too high. I was able to hit a fade a little easier.

Playing at a LONG course tomorrow. Should be the best test yet for this driver.
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I read this post and wanted to make sure I teed the ball a little lower to see if I had the same results. And I did. I have always played a fade and it's what I'm most comfortable playing. And by teeing it lower, I was able to play more of a power fade and not a slice. I'm glad you posted this because I had been teeing it a lot higher and was not making great contact
 
PhillyV said:
I read this post and wanted to make sure I teed the ball a little lower to see if I had the same results. And I did. I have always played a fade and it's what I'm most comfortable playing. And by teeing it lower, I was able to play more of a power fade and not a slice. I'm glad you posted this because I had been teeing it a lot higher and was not making great contact
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Glad that helped. The club's loft will do the work.
 
ehamady.6 said:
Glad that helped. The club's loft will do the work.
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At first I thought the club wasn't. 7* and 8* launch angles had me thinking teeing it up would help. But what I noticed was my swing plane was so flat and then extremely over the top leading to all sorts of issues. A small stance correction and takeaway fix and I was back to hitting the high climbing ball flight I saw last fall
 
I love that climbing flight.
 
PhillyV said:
It's addicting
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Watching what happens when it lands tells me that it isn't a ballooning flight either. I'm a sucker for mid/high ball flights
 
Some pretty awesome knowledge dropped regarding CG and its actual effects today via THP TV with TO. Might be worth a look to everyone, never hurts to expand knowledge.
 
I've watched the video. It's hard to dispute a great mind. Even though I'm a "most golfer" the SLDR works really well for me. Which is really important. So I'm happy
 
blugold said:
I've watched the video. It's hard to dispute a great mind. Even though I'm a "most golfer" the SLDR works really well for me. Which is really important. So I'm happy
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Sometimes all the knowledge, science, and fact has to take a backseat to real world results. It's weird and I don't really understand how it happens but good on you for finding something that works and sticking with it.
 
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