TaylorMade driver fitting opportunity

[Birchy]

Well the new beast has just been delivered :whoo:

You know that means a trip to the driving range tonight :swing:

You ever seen anybody hit 100 drivers one after another at the driving range? Yep that will be me

 

[john0]

Time to update your sig then :thup:

 

[Cheifi0]

Well the new beast has just been delivered :whoo:

You know that means a trip to the driving range tonight :swing:

You ever seen anybody hit 100 drivers one after another at the driving range? Yep that will be me

I thought that was range protocol looking forward to seeing you bomb a few on Sunday!

 

[Birchy]

I thought that was range protocol looking forward to seeing you bomb a few on Sunday!

It is for us who like to hear a big boom every 2 mins. Some of the more serious members of the forum wont agree

Yeah i was really impressed with it tonight. It has improved my ball flight a lot and will help me get more yards over the ground rather than stopping very quickly.

Not decided whether he is coming on Sunday yet though. Im not sure if he is ready for the heat of the winter links OOM battle yet. I might stick with the old faithful as i need to get myself back into the game, played crap in it so far :rofl:

 

[G1BB0]

pfffft get the new big dog out on sunday.

He who dares Rodney

 

[Siren]

Get the big dog out and go for it, if youve played rubbish so far then things can only get better!

GL Birchy :fore:

 

[mab]

Excellent news Scott, excellent news.

Mine has also arrived, but don't think I'll get to the range until later this week. Playing Saturday morning and potentially Sunday as well, so it should get a good outing this weekend. :fore:

 

[FairwayDodger]

Sooner you put it in play the sooner you'll be able to rely on it.

Go for it!!

:whoo:

 

[bluewolf]

Not decided whether he is coming on Sunday yet though. Im not sure if he is ready for the heat of the winter links OOM battle yet. I might stick with the old faithful as i need to get myself back into the game, played crap in it so far :rofl:

Get it in play matey.. You've already got some serious catching up to do this year....

 

[mab]

The SLDR will be getting an outing later this afternoon for 6 holes and then joining me for 18 holes tomorrow morning. To say I'm excited is something of an understatement.

I shall let you all know how it goes. Surely 12* is going to help my inconsistency and broader driver woes... it's practically a 3 wood isn't it!?

 

[Birchy]

The SLDR will be getting an outing later this afternoon for 6 holes and then joining me for 18 holes tomorrow morning. To say I'm excited is something of an understatement.

I shall let you all know how it goes. Surely 12* is going to help my inconsistency and broader driver woes... it's practically a 3 wood isn't it!?

You tell yourself whatever you need to get it to work mate! Rest of your game is very very good!

Hope it makes the difference :thup:

 

[mab]

You tell yourself whatever you need to get it to work mate!

Shhhh, my brain might read that!

 

[mab]

Played 6 holes last night and around 30 holes today, so the SLDR has had a decent outing.

Overall, I think this is a very good driver. Whilst there are an insane number adjustability options overall, I find the ability to fine tune really useful. I have lowered the 12* loft by one click (0.5*) and am playing the sole weight all the way towards fade, which has helped me to reduce albeit not irradicate my round destroying snap hook. So, straightness wise, it was particularly decent for me this afternoon as we got to know one another a little better.

Distance wise, I do find this head a little... strange. Take my closing two holes this afternoon, holes 17 and 18. I hit 2 drives off the 17th tee and both missed the sweet spot but not by a horrendous amount, and they carried in the region of 200yards (total distance 205 yards). I hit 3 drives off the 18th tee, all of which were good strikes out of the middle; one shot was with 3 wood and was a total distance of 230 yards, whilst both drives with the driver were 255 yards. Whilst I wasn't able to see the 3 balls land, there was only limited roll today so the carry distance of the SLDR shots would have been a minimum of 240 yards… which I'm very happy with given my c.100mph swing speed.

However, a difference of 40 yards of carry between the sweet spot and narrowly missed sweet spot I think is quite harsh. I believe forward CoG results in less forgiveness on miss hits; out of the middle and you're as long as / longer than anything else on the market, but miss the middle and you are penalised.

I'd love to pick up a new Adams XTD head at some stage to do a direct comparison (it takes the same adaptor as the SLDR, so a true head-to-head test could be performed). Adams states that their new XTD driver gives significantly greater ball speed across the face compared with their previous LS driver (read more forgiving with greater distance on off centre strikes) so it would be interesting to see whether the SLDR has an advantage out of the middle and XTD has an advantage on off centre contact.

Overall a good day and I'm pleased with the SLDR.

 

[Birchy]

Played 6 holes last night and around 30 holes today, so the SLDR has had a decent outing.

Overall, I think this is a very good driver. Whilst there are an insane number adjustability options overall, I find the ability to fine tune really useful. I have lowered the 12* loft by one click (0.5*) and am playing the sole weight all the way towards fade, which has helped me to reduce albeit not irradicate my round destroying snap hook. So, straightness wise, it was particularly decent for me this afternoon as we got to know one another a little better.

Distance wise, I do find this head a little... strange. Take my closing two holes this afternoon, holes 17 and 18. I hit 2 drives off the 17th tee and both missed the sweet spot but not by a horrendous amount, and they carried in the region of 200yards (total distance 205 yards). I hit 3 drives off the 18th tee, all of which were good strikes out of the middle; one shot was with 3 wood and was a total distance of 230 yards, whilst both drives with the driver were 255 yards. Whilst I wasn't able to see the 3 balls land, there was only limited roll today so the carry distance of the SLDR shots would have been a minimum of 240 yards… which I'm very happy with given my c.100mph swing speed.

However, a difference of 40 yards of carry between the sweet spot and narrowly missed sweet spot I think is quite harsh. I believe forward CoG results in less forgiveness on miss hits; out of the middle and you're as long as / longer than anything else on the market, but miss the middle and you are penalised.

I'd love to pick up a new Adams XTD head at some stage to do a direct comparison (it takes the same adaptor as the SLDR, so a true head-to-head test could be performed). Adams states that their new XTD driver gives significantly greater ball speed across the face compared with their previous LS driver (read more forgiving with greater distance on off centre strikes) so it would be interesting to see whether the SLDR has an advantage out of the middle and XTD has an advantage on off centre contact.

Overall a good day and I'm pleased with the SLDR.

Funny you should say that Mark as i noticed a very similar thing today whilst out and about trying the new big dog.

I noticed that the drives out of the middle were a good 10-15 yards further than out of the sweet spot on my old driver. This is good for me as i do tend to hit the driver very consistently and out of a similar spot on the driver face.

However i did try a few shots off a few tees and different setups which resulted in a few off centre hits and they were a good way shorter. This in deffo not a driver for forgiveness!

When im on my game with this club i will get the rewards so im really happy with that, i will back myself to hit enough out of the middle to get its worth but we will see :thup:

 

[mab]

However i did try a few shots off a few tees and different setups which resulted in a few off centre hits and they were a good way shorter. This in deffo not a driver for forgiveness!

This is hilarious! Basically, what you're saying Scott, is that you had to physically try and miss the sweet spot or mess with the driver settings to the point the club didn't work for you in order to test how forgiving it is on off-centre strikes! For me and most others, our standard play allows for that test without having to engineer it!

I would expect this to be an excellent driver for you. It's really long out of the middle and the consistency of your driving suggests you hit it out of the centre the vast majority of the time.

For someone like me, a poor driver of the ball, I do wonder whether or not a driver this unforgiving is the best option. Realistically, I should be using my 3 wood off most tees and only using driver when I need that extra 25 yards… and this driver would likely work well with that approach to the game. Problem is that I find myself pulling driver more frequently than that and a little more forgiveness, given my competence with the big dog, would be happily taken.

I know I'm looking for the best of both worlds, which most likely doesn't exist. I'm going to keep my eye out for an Adams XTD head and hopefully do a direct comparison between the two using the exact same shaft. I'd take 5 yards shorter out of the middle for significant forgiveness benefits on off-centre strikes, that's for sure.

I do love the ball flight with this club, though. It get's up quickly with a high launch but flattens out beautifully with the low spin. If I could only improve my consistency of ball striking with the driver...

 

[BTatHome]

Did you not hit any poor shots in the fitting?

 

[mab]

Did you not hit any poor shots in the fitting?

Oh, absolutely - I hit plenty of poor shots during the fitting.

The aim of the fitting process was to determine a combination of head loft, head settings and shaft selection which improved the launch conditions compared with my existing driver. However, we didn't go any further than that... for example using impact tape and a selection of varying shaft lengths to determine which length and shaft combo allowed me to strike the centre of the face more frequently.

I firmly believe that I'd be a more consistent ball striker with a shorter shaft in the region of 44" with a negligable detrimental impact on distance, which would then need a bit of tweaking during the club build phase to get back the 7-8 swingweight points lost by shortening the driver by 1.25". But that wasn't part of the fitting process.

As I wrote in my earlier write-up, I wouldn't say I was 'optimised' during this fitting... rather the best shots with the SLDR were better than the best shots with my previous driver plus the average was also improved, but I still hit a number of horrendous drives.