Canary_Yellow
Journeyman Pro
Ive been meaning to get on here and post a proper review ever since I left Wentworth on Friday afternoon but it's been a very busy few days, however slightly late, here it is!
Firstly, I'd like to say a massive thank you to the guys at GM for giving me and the other gents this opportunity - it certainly lived up to my expectations. Secondly, an equally massive thank you to taylormade for putting this on - the facility at Wentworth really is something else. The knowledge shown by Tom was fantastic, Ive had a driver fitting previously and thought the fitter knew his stuff, but Tom takes it to another level. Absolutely brilliant and a real pleasure to listen to. I learned more about my swing in one hour with Tom and a trackman than I have n months of lessons, very informative stuff.
Moving onto the detail - the SLDR is a great looking club, in my opinion it's a better looking club than recent taylormade offerings and it sits beautifully at address and really inspired confidence. The noise it makes is also superb - i noticed this particularly while waiting for my fitting in the bay next door while dufferman and junior striped it!
It's more than fair to say that I've really struggled with my driver of late, in particular ive been struggling to get the ball out on a decent trajectory and really get it out there. My swing speed is roughly 95 mph which i consider to be reapectable, but I haven't been converting that into the distance that one would expect - in the range of 200 total distance. With the SLDR I was putting it out there to c.250 total distance - a massive improvement and a much better ball flight. Tom identified quickly that my current driver has a low launching shaft and that (although suited me when I had my previous fitting) no longer suited me having made changes to how I swing. This raised an interesting point for me - I've worked hard over the past 12 months to improve my swing, however as I've improved my iron striking, my driving has suffered and this change has left me with a driver shaft that doesn't really do what I need from it. I'll certainly be keeping my eye on this going forward as my swing continues to develop.
Unfortunately however, and this is really down to some things I should and will tweak in my swing (coming a bit too far from the inside and delofting the club) the SLDR didn't really workout for me. Set to maximum loft, I could get a great distance and trajectory, but this required it to be set to the fade setting and as a result I was pushing / blocking the ball a little. I was disappointed because I felt that this was a failing of my swing rather than a failing of what is clearly a tremendous golf club. It did however spark an interesting debate about whether moving the centre of gravity forward is right for everyone - I'm no expert on the physics of the driver and spin etc, however the consensus was that if you struggle to launch the ball, moving the centre of gravity forward might not be great news as it perhaps makes it harder to launch given the lower spin rates.
That the SLDR wasn't for me only really became apparent when Tom set up an RBZ Stage 2 for me to try - my goodness what a club that is! I was effortlessly launching it high into the Wentworth sky! I preferred the appearance of the SLDR, but the result couldn't be argued with - slightly less distance with the RBZ but a much better dispersion.
Fortunately for me Jess from TaylorMade has offered to give me the RBZ rather than the SLDR based on the results of the fitting! Although over the weekend I had started to convince myself that I could hit the SLDR with a little work on my swing - ultimately I think I am better off using the right club for me now rather than what might be the right club for me in the future!
It was great to meet Neil and Paul, and I can't thank them enough for this opportunity, and it was also great to meet Dufferman and Junior. Finally, thanks once more to Tom and Jess for sorting this out and leaving me with a driver that I cannot wait to get to grips with! The SLDR is a great club, no doubt about it, it really does get the ball out there, for me though, the RBZ is the one!
Firstly, I'd like to say a massive thank you to the guys at GM for giving me and the other gents this opportunity - it certainly lived up to my expectations. Secondly, an equally massive thank you to taylormade for putting this on - the facility at Wentworth really is something else. The knowledge shown by Tom was fantastic, Ive had a driver fitting previously and thought the fitter knew his stuff, but Tom takes it to another level. Absolutely brilliant and a real pleasure to listen to. I learned more about my swing in one hour with Tom and a trackman than I have n months of lessons, very informative stuff.
Moving onto the detail - the SLDR is a great looking club, in my opinion it's a better looking club than recent taylormade offerings and it sits beautifully at address and really inspired confidence. The noise it makes is also superb - i noticed this particularly while waiting for my fitting in the bay next door while dufferman and junior striped it!
It's more than fair to say that I've really struggled with my driver of late, in particular ive been struggling to get the ball out on a decent trajectory and really get it out there. My swing speed is roughly 95 mph which i consider to be reapectable, but I haven't been converting that into the distance that one would expect - in the range of 200 total distance. With the SLDR I was putting it out there to c.250 total distance - a massive improvement and a much better ball flight. Tom identified quickly that my current driver has a low launching shaft and that (although suited me when I had my previous fitting) no longer suited me having made changes to how I swing. This raised an interesting point for me - I've worked hard over the past 12 months to improve my swing, however as I've improved my iron striking, my driving has suffered and this change has left me with a driver shaft that doesn't really do what I need from it. I'll certainly be keeping my eye on this going forward as my swing continues to develop.
Unfortunately however, and this is really down to some things I should and will tweak in my swing (coming a bit too far from the inside and delofting the club) the SLDR didn't really workout for me. Set to maximum loft, I could get a great distance and trajectory, but this required it to be set to the fade setting and as a result I was pushing / blocking the ball a little. I was disappointed because I felt that this was a failing of my swing rather than a failing of what is clearly a tremendous golf club. It did however spark an interesting debate about whether moving the centre of gravity forward is right for everyone - I'm no expert on the physics of the driver and spin etc, however the consensus was that if you struggle to launch the ball, moving the centre of gravity forward might not be great news as it perhaps makes it harder to launch given the lower spin rates.
That the SLDR wasn't for me only really became apparent when Tom set up an RBZ Stage 2 for me to try - my goodness what a club that is! I was effortlessly launching it high into the Wentworth sky! I preferred the appearance of the SLDR, but the result couldn't be argued with - slightly less distance with the RBZ but a much better dispersion.
Fortunately for me Jess from TaylorMade has offered to give me the RBZ rather than the SLDR based on the results of the fitting! Although over the weekend I had started to convince myself that I could hit the SLDR with a little work on my swing - ultimately I think I am better off using the right club for me now rather than what might be the right club for me in the future!
It was great to meet Neil and Paul, and I can't thank them enough for this opportunity, and it was also great to meet Dufferman and Junior. Finally, thanks once more to Tom and Jess for sorting this out and leaving me with a driver that I cannot wait to get to grips with! The SLDR is a great club, no doubt about it, it really does get the ball out there, for me though, the RBZ is the one!
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