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TaylorMade SLDR Driver - Review Thread

SuperStroke
Played this driver today with a couple of awesome THPers. To say I am a bit rusty would be an understatement. I have played very little golf over the last few months and was excited to put this new driver in play. Have tested it on the range, but that has been the extent of it. Mine is 12* with a Matrix Red Tie playing at 45" and set to standard with the Slider at standard as well. Actually, it is 1 tick up from 12* in loft, as that is where it came to me at. I was fit for this driver and shaft combination.

On the range I was comparing my Classic XL Custom with this and distance seemed similar. I will say without a shadow of a doubt that when I miss the sweet spot with this driver the Classic is much longer. However that being said, when hit on the button, the SLDR performed incredibly well today. Driving as much as 15 yards past our normal area of carry and with damp fairways getting virtually no roll out.

I played it from hole 7 on and my score says I played worse since I had two birdies in the 1st 7 holes and none the rest of the round, but none of that had anything to do with the driver. I pulled it 6 times and 4 of the 6 were very long and straight. One I just missed (and I mean just missed) the sweet spot towards the toe and the ball traveled a bit off line and there was a noticeable loss in distance. This surprised me considering how I barely missed this ball. The other one I missed a bit low on the club face and the distance loss was pretty large.

Overall I was incredibly impressed with the forward CG in terms of distance when well struck. I am going to keep it in play for a bit and continue to monitor results.
 
JB said:
Played this driver today with a couple of awesome THPers. To say I am a bit rusty would be an understatement. I have played very little golf over the last few months and was excited to put this new driver in play. Have tested it on the range, but that has been the extent of it. Mine is 12* with a Matrix Red Tie playing at 45" and set to standard with the Slider at standard as well. Actually, it is 1 tick up from 12* in loft, as that is where it came to me at. I was fit for this driver and shaft combination.

On the range I was comparing my Classic XL Custom with this and distance seemed similar. I will say without a shadow of a doubt that when I miss the sweet spot with this driver the Classic is much longer. However that being said, when hit on the button, the SLDR performed incredibly well today. Driving as much as 15 yards past our normal area of carry and with damp fairways getting virtually no roll out.

I played it from hole 7 on and my score says I played worse since I had two birdies in the 1st 7 holes and none the rest of the round, but none of that had anything to do with the driver. I pulled it 6 times and 4 of the 6 were very long and straight. One I just missed (and I mean just missed) the sweet spot towards the toe and the ball traveled a bit off line and there was a noticeable loss in distance. This surprised me considering how I barely missed this ball. The other one I missed a bit low on the club face and the distance loss was pretty large.

Overall I was incredibly impressed with the forward CG in terms of distance when well struck. I am going to keep it in play for a bit and continue to monitor results.
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Dont be so modest, you hammered the SLDR today. Absolutely hammered it.
 
Had a decent day at the range...well, started decent. Hitting great draws, moved the sliding weight about two notches toward the fade side and set the loft 1* lower, started hitting some dead straight shots. Slight pull, but dead straight. Should have quit there, but since I'm kinda trying to decide which driver to bag, I switched out with my other driver, and started hooking the ball. Unfortunately, I kind of started experimenting with whether that was both drivers and my swing got out of whack. Combine that with messing around with tee height and address position, and well, this happens:

kmsi.jpg


So yeah, I'm pretty pissed with myself. The worst part is that, before I started screwing around too much, I was absolutely destroying the ball. Ah, well. Unless it starts impacting performance, I'm going to try not to worry too much.
 
Paladin said:
Had a decent day at the range...well, started decent. Hitting great draws, moved the sliding weight about two notches toward the fade side and set the loft 1* lower, started hitting some dead straight shots. Slight pull, but dead straight. Should have quit there, but since I'm kinda trying to decide which driver to bag, I switched out with my other driver, and started hooking the ball. Unfortunately, I kind of started experimenting with whether that was both drivers and my swing got out of whack. Combine that with messing around with tee height and address position, and well, this happens:

kmsi.jpg


So yeah, I'm pretty pissed with myself. The worst part is that, before I started screwing around too much, I was absolutely destroying the ball. Ah, well. Unless it starts impacting performance, I'm going to try not to worry too much.
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Oh man. That's such a bummer. But it shouldn't impact performance
 
War Eagle said:
Dont be so modest, you hammered the SLDR today. Absolutely hammered it.
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I appreciate that. I thought it was one of my better driving days. Sadly with golf, I am still thinking about the ones that slightly missed and how penile it was. I think the next few rounds will be really telling.
 
JB said:
I appreciate that. I thought it was one of my better driving days. Sadly with golf, I am still thinking about the ones that slightly missed and how penile it was. I think the next few rounds will be really telling.
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I know it is early but would you say it is similar to the J40 as far as distance loss on a miss?
 
Howzat said:
I know it is early but would you say it is similar to the J40 as far as distance loss on a miss?
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Yes. Its the closest thing I can compare it to, but I think its better high on the club face, and worse low on the club face. Far worse low on the club face.
 
JB said:
Yes. Its the closest thing I can compare it to, but I think its better high on the club face, and worse low on the club face. Far worse low on the club face.
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So you didnt see the penalizing on mis hits to the extent war eagle saw?
 
mikedean441 said:
So you didnt see the penalizing on mis hits to the extent war eagle saw?
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Hard to say. I was not missing much today and I believe was a little closer to the "button" than he was. I will also say that he puts a bit more side spin on his tee shots than I do.

But as mentioned, when I did miss the distance loss was dramatic.
 
Sounds like I need to avoid this driver like the plague. I prefer to wear out every inch of my driver face evenly...
 
It seems like everyone who has tried this driver has had the same forgiveness issues. Does anyone have any idea what would make a driver less forgiving across the face, but so incredibly good when hit dead center? Is it a matter of the forward center of gravity on the SLDR?
 
I have played the R1 all summer with a Speeder TS 6.3 X shaft. One rainy afternoon, I headed over to the local Golfsmith to try out the SLDR. My R1 is set at 10* so I started with the 10.5 and stock stiff shaft. The results were really good but not as good as my R1/Speeder combo. The sales guy suggested going to the 12* head and it really came to life! Again with the stock shaft, was equal to the numbers I got with my R1. I switched out the stock shaft with my Speeder and picked up ball speed and additional carry.

Recently picked up a gently used 12* with Oban Kiyoshi white 65 05 and wish it was spring already!
 
jt2929 said:
It seems like everyone who has tried this driver has had the same forgiveness issues. Does anyone have any idea what would make a driver less forgiving across the face, but so incredibly good when hit dead center? Is it a matter of the forward center of gravity on the SLDR?
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Forward CG in my opinion.
Coupled with very low spin.
 
I agree with JB. Moving the CG forward makes the toe and heel that much further away from a normal sweet spot
 
jt2929 said:
It seems like everyone who has tried this driver has had the same forgiveness issues. Does anyone have any idea what would make a driver less forgiving across the face, but so incredibly good when hit dead center? Is it a matter of the forward center of gravity on the SLDR?
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Kind of reminds me of the R9 Super Deep. Not sure about forward weight alone being the cause.
 
jt2929 said:
It seems like everyone who has tried this driver has had the same forgiveness issues. Does anyone have any idea what would make a driver less forgiving across the face, but so incredibly good when hit dead center? Is it a matter of the forward center of gravity on the SLDR?
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Lateral forgiveness, as a hi-cap golfer, is a swing-issue, for the most part. I mean, plus-minus the real, true sweet spot, IMO.

You put the COG so close to the point in impact, you're going to impact lateral forgiveness. That's just physics. The heaviest part of the driver is close to the point of impact. That means more force (speed X mass) is closer to the point of impact. Thus, more distance when it's good. Thus, shots on the screws are really long and really straight.

On the other hand, the club head wants to travel along the path of its heaviest point. That's momentum. So as we move that swing-weight, we're changing the heaviest point of the driver. When we can make it coincide with our swing path, the result is dynamite. But when it's wrong, due to our swing path being off or the point of impact being wrong, the path is going to be working against the point of impact. The swing weight, the loft selection affecting the face angle, and our swing path, will all combine to create a new angle of impact relative to swing path, with means a new shot trajectory.


For the record, this is some of the biggest headache Taylor Made faces relative to something like Cobra's Amp Cell. I messed around with the Amp Cell's loft a fair amount today, and while I saw different distances and heights, my shot shape stayed the same. Cobra can beat simplicity of adjustment like a dead horse, and win every time.

Until Taylor Made can explain its changes in loft and how they affect the face angle and shot shape, they stand to lose out to simpler methods of adjustment. It's one thing to walk into your local shop with a launch monitor and say, "I want an SLDR, I want it with the best possible settings, and I'm not leaving until I get it there!" It's entirely possible you'll get better distance and direction due to the technology hidden with the head regardless of the adjustable weight and shaft. But really wringing all there is to get out of this head (and I think there's a long based on my straight shots today) requires a lot of dedication to a consistent swing and an understanding of how the weight and loft affects the shot shape.
 
I had the opportunity to hit Rpbgator's SLDR yesterday and compared it to the R1 Black I had in the bag.

- SLDR was definitely lower spin than the R1.
- SLDR was more forgiving in some cases, but I think it's a result of imparting less spin on the ball.
- SLDR's face felt and sounded way thicker than the R1.
- SLDR head is heavier than the R1 head.
- R1 felt longer for me and felt less like a knuckle ball.

I can see how the SLDR is favored by some of the tour pros.

I think I'd rather stick with the R1 based on the 5 or so shots I hit with the SLDR. Time may change that though.
 
Except for the issue of Forgiveness, could not agree more.

mrvandelay said:
I had the opportunity to hit Rpbgator's SLDR yesterday and compared it to the R1 Black I had in the bag.

- SLDR was definitely lower spin than the R1.
- SLDR was more forgiving in some cases, but I think it's a result of imparting less spin on the ball.
- SLDR's face felt and sounded way thicker than the R1.
- SLDR head is heavier than the R1 head.
- R1 felt longer for me and felt less like a knuckle ball.

I can see how the SLDR is favored by some of the tour pros.

I think I'd rather stick with the R1 based on the 5 or so shots I hit with the SLDR. Time may change that though.
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Testers are doing a great job so far. I really want to hit this driver. The reviews have been very interesting. The one concern is the lateral forgiveness. My miss is usually a little towards the heel but it doesn't seem like many of the testers have that kind of miss.
 
So I was feeling pretty despondent yesterday after a crappy range session where I was hooking the ball all over the place, so I got on Youtube and, for the first time ever, looked for ways to stop a golf ball from going so far to the left. Turns out I had finally made my grip too strong, and simply wasn't turning my body far enough at the top. In other words, I was hooking the ball due to a problem that was also causing me to lose clubhead speed. So I warmed up focusing on a slow, easy, but very full backswing leading into the swing, and went back to greatly improved contact.

Then came time to get on the course to play 9 holes. I'm not sure quite how to describe how well I was hitting the ball with words, or the distances I was getting...but when I hit the ball well off the tee, this is what I'm thinking about:

just_the_m65_atomic_cannon_shooting_a_nuclear_artillery_shell_no_fake-66042.gif


And by and large, that's how things were going. 230+ total distance was common, not big numbers, but great for me. Good trajectory. Good accuracy, 4 of 7 fairways, the first cut once, and a particularly poorly aimed drive made its way into the dirt. Nice to take my second shot from green stuff. Would have had a much better score if not for how badly I played my long irons.

Still, this driver is simply outstanding. I really, really like it.
 
It's pretty remarkable what the right shaft will do for you. Having experienced a fitting with the SLDR and finding a great shaft pairing in the AD-Di 7x, I really thought the SLDR was a 'better' option regardless of shaft, and a 'great' option with the right shaft.

Trackman did a nice job of proving just how valuable the right shaft is. Messing around with a variety of shafts at a local shop, I was spinning upwards of 5600rpm and a few in the 3500 range, with lots in between. It's a fair assessment to say that whatever my swing is doing down into the ball is a bit of a flaw, but knowing there are options for me out there that limit the spin to around 2500 make me believe I can play my 'flaw' thanks to the improvements being made by these companies. Something I am not all that often able to say about driver heads, and certainly very rare at 9.5* of loft.
 
Canadan said:
It's pretty remarkable what the right shaft will do for you. Having experienced a fitting with the SLDR and finding a great shaft pairing in the AD-Di 7x, I really thought the SLDR was a 'better' option regardless of shaft, and a 'great' option with the right shaft.

Trackman did a nice job of proving just how valuable the right shaft is. Messing around with a variety of shafts at a local shop, I was spinning upwards of 5600rpm and a few in the 3500 range, with lots in between. It's a fair assessment to say that whatever my swing is doing down into the ball is a bit of a flaw, but knowing there are options for me out there that limit the spin to around 2500 make me believe I can play my 'flaw' thanks to the improvements being made by these companies. Something I am not all that often able to say about driver heads, and certainly very rare at 9.5* of loft.
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I was hitting it at 10.5 with the stock stiff and was averaging 2800 I believe. My best was hit was 2200 if I recall correctly.


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mayday1775 said:
I was hitting it at 10.5 with the stock stiff and was averaging 2800 I believe. My best was hit was 2200 if I recall correctly.


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Those are great spin rates!!! Anything under 3000 is a game changer for me, sadly. Seeing the numbers I did in Florida during my fitting were shocking to me.
 
mayday1775 said:
I was hitting it at 10.5 with the stock stiff and was averaging 2800 I believe. My best was hit was 2200 if I recall correctly.


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Keep in mind that lower is not always better. Its about finding a medium to maximize with the rest of your launch and ball flight characteristics. For some reason on the internet (and this is not directed at anybody), people crave a low low low low number, when in reality many are robbing themselves of distance by going too low for their swing.
 
TaylorMade SLDR Driver - Review Thread

JB said:
Keep in mind that lower is not always better. Its about finding a medium to maximize with the rest of your launch and ball flight characteristics. For some reason on the internet (and this is not directed at anybody), people crave a low low low low number, when in reality many are robbing themselves of distance by going too low for their swing.
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What I was fighting was the decent angle. I was getting a 13ish launch, but was dropping like a rock at 45+ I actually saw the best avg hits at 3000. I was hitting alittle high too at around 120 ft peak, but he didn't have any of the low launch shafts with the TM tip.


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