Was This The Best Golf Hybrid Ever Made? | Golf Monthly Retro Review - video Dailymotion

Golf Monthly

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.

Transcript

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

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Was This The Best Golf Hybrid Ever Made? | Golf Monthly Retro Review

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