The mythical SLDR

chisag · August 12, 2018

... The SLDR really changed the game, myself included, because many that could not play low lofted drivers still spun the ball too much. I had zero distance gains for quite a few years changing drivers before the SLDR and since the R1 didn't work for me because I needed more loft and the RBZ spun too much and I lost distance but was a real fairway finder, the SLDR added a good 10-15 yds to my drives. And while I agree it was not "unforgiving" I did have more trouble finding fairways than other drivers I had played. "Inconsistent" is a better term, at least for me. But the greatest thing about the SLDR was it forced others to produce less spin and when I moved to the Fly Z, I found it a combination of the best of the SLDR/RBZ. Lots of todays great drivers owe a lot of their success to the SLDR.

Double Gee · August 12, 2018

Nope... You need at least 110mph+ CHS and be a very consistent ball striker. If you miss the sweet spot by an inch you'll lose 20 yds.

Look at the 2016 M2 and that'll fix your driver itch.

Miss any sweet spot on any driver by one whole inch and you'll lose at least 20yards.!

ppl4golf · August 13, 2018

SLDR is a mythical legend.

I get my share of bombers (270+) with my sub-95 average driver club head speed.

Also have decent success with PING Anser driver and i25 driver.

SLDR430 was my first SLDR. Also have 2 SLDR460s which seem more playable than the 430.

JonnyKrasnodar · August 13, 2018

... The SLDR really changed the game, myself included, because many that could not play low lofted drivers still spun the ball too much. I had zero distance gains for quite a few years changing drivers before the SLDR and since the R1 didn't work for me because I needed more loft and the RBZ spun too much and I lost distance but was a real fairway finder, the SLDR added a good 10-15 yds to my drives. And while I agree it was not "unforgiving" I did have more trouble finding fairways than other drivers I had played. "Inconsistent" is a better term, at least for me. But the greatest thing about the SLDR was it forced others to produce less spin and when I moved to the Fly Z, I found it a combination of the best of the SLDR/RBZ. Lots of todays great drivers owe a lot of their success to the SLDR.

Really good post. You've captured the very essence of the SLDR here and it should be used as THE entry for any historical record of the driver itself.

Golfingfanatic · August 13, 2018

The SLDR 430 was and still is a beast. I had one shafted up with Fuji Pro P95X. At 44" it was an absolute sledgehammer. But as it has been pointed out, be careful about the loft.

Valtiel · August 13, 2018

And the (false) myths continue to be propagated. Don't pigeon-hole people based on their handicap or swing speed. That has little to do with whether a low spin head can help or not. Folks of all swing speeds and handicaps can suffer from spin that's too high and not enough detail to know if the OP is in that category or not.

The sweet spot on the SLDR is not any smaller than any of the other drivers of the same period. The problem with being unforgiving is that the same thing that helps the low spin - lots of gear effect - also potentially hurts on heel or toe misses by adding more side spin. But only if the gear effect tendencies is the same direction as the face-to-path tendencies. A slice miss with heel impact tendencies would make the SLDR a bad idea. But the same slice miss with toe impact tendencies results in the added gear effect that can actually be a big help. That's one of the reasons the SLDR was actually more forgiving for me. If your problems are more face/path but have good impact, then the SLDR's not going to be any more unforgiving than any other head - of course that doesn't mean it will help either.

Much more important are the other clubs specs - shaft length, shaft weight, swing weight, etc.. that will have a big impact on how consistent or inconsistent the face impact will be. A super forgiving head really only critical when a compensation is needed for those other specs being a poor fit.

Bottom line, is without knowing your current numbers and impact tendencies, its' impossible to say if any low spin head would be a good or a bad idea or whether it might be worth a try or not.

But, it also has a relatively open face angle compared to many other drivers - so with a slice tendencies you'd likely want to get a very low loft and increase the loft through the hosel adjustment to help close the face angle.

Thanks for injecting some truth.

Sldr isn't unforgiving,

And it's isn't hook prone unless you have a severe flip at the ball. All you had to do was get the right shaft and loft on it and it worked. May look for another this week myself. Played 430 10.5 for 2 years and only quit it because i couldn't find another silver head.

I still don't understand the hook machine business. And, I had some crazy hooks with that club. I don't know why it was the case. I was using a shaft that I've used many times before and after. I didn't hit many of those hooks before the SLDR and they pretty much went away when I moved on from the club. I don't know what the underlying cause of it was. I do know that getting yourself in the most optimal setup on the SLDR seemed to be a lot harder than other clubs (without access to a true fitting that is).

My opinion is that today's Driver requires a pronounced toe impact flip to get a ball to turn over . Which is not a real draw shot. Plenty of people play that shot as a draw because it rolls out. The Sldr was weighed toward the heel. And that same move and toe impact probably does go farther left. But it's a swing flaw not a flaw in the club. The club is actually weighted and plays closer to older drivers in that I could move it both ways ( 430 version). My head was a 205 g head with hotmelt in the toe , so pretty neutral. But played a fade with a retail head before that and no hook issues.

As Stuart said, its all about gear effect, and as you said it was a heel weight biased driver. This means two things; first that the sweet spot was further towards the heel making more room for toe-side impact and second that the low MOI increases the gear effect of anything outside the sweet spot. All things being equal this makes for a driver that is more draw biased by virtue of CG placement and MOI. This can be a great thing for some people and a catastrophic thing for others, really a feast or famine driver. The low MOI could create crazy low spin numbers allowing people to loft up and get high launch/low spin launch conditions more easily but that falls apart quickly without perfect or near perfect strikes.

Jack Pearsall · August 16, 2018

Had the guy who works on the carts at the course coming running over to see JP hit his SlDR.

He was all disappointed that it wasn’t the SLDR-C as he has an apparent fetish about how that specific club changed golf as he knows it. Hated to be a disappointment dont you know..

bobcat · August 19, 2018

So this guy who works on the carts at my course came running over to the range to see, me, 'Jack Pearsall', (aka my alter ego avatar), hit the SLDR Driver....

The guy seemed disappointed that 'JP' wasn't hitting the SLDR-C Driver, so 'cart guy' didn't bother hanging around for the inconsistent, and less-than-stellar 'JP' drives that were on display for all to see......

Just as well that 'cart guy' left, since a certain member here who thinks of himself as 'JP' absolutely 'hates' being 'a disappointment' to anyone in 'any kind of a public forum', don't you know....After all, 'JP' must never, ever, be seen as 'a disappointment' here on Golfwrx...

So perhaps 'JP' just needs 'the SLDR Fix" to hit his 'Mythical SLDR' Driver better...Yes indeed, it simply must be the SLDR's fault, because everyone knows that 'Mythical Jack Pearsall' has a truly 'flawless' golf swing.

And soon after 'the cart guy' left, another, even more 'disappointed man', (known here as 'JP'), was seen walking away from the driving range, shaking his head, and muttering these words to himself...

....... (Pearsall that is)... :taunt:

Click on the link below, then scroll down to Post #77 to find out how to apply 'The SLDR Fix' to your (2013-2014) SLDR 430, 460, or 'S' Model Driver. (This 'Fix' is for the Retail SLDR Models only, and NOT for SLDR Tour-issued Drivers, the SLDR 'S' Mini Driver, or the SLDR-C Driver, all of which have different weighting schemes than the original SLDR Drivers).

SLDR Anonymous Meeting - Equipment - GolfWRX - Page 3

:golfer:

tucsonsean · August 19, 2018

Risking a condescending response from the 'cat, I will say this: The SLDR-C is a fine driver, at a reasonable price, that doesn't require any manipulation of loft or weight to be productive. That being said, in my experience, the original SLDR is longer and not the hook-machine some claim IF IT'S SET UP PROPERLY FOR THE USER. In this regard, I can only offer my own experience. At 70 years old, I'm a slower swinger (@88 mph). I also tend to swing steeper than I should. I also tend to hit more toward the toe, with the face a bit open. I have a 12* SLDR set to 13* (closes the face/ more upright), keep the bottom weight three clicks toward the heel (helps close the face), with a Speeder 57 "M-flex" shaft (raises my ball flight). I get a high-launch, low-spin, reliably straight result. The club came new with a free 'fitting.' It was a joke, and it took me a long time to get the fitting optimal to my swing conditions. TM produced a fine driver in the 460; they dropped the ball in not providing training in fitting for the retailers. The SLDR 460 is the best driver I've ever owned (so far). BTW, I did take Bobcat's advice and got a SLDR-C, and it was a great stopgap till I figured out the 460. So, to the OP, avoid the hassle I had, check out Global Golf or Ebay, and just get the SLDR-C, It'll probably be in a similar price range to the 460.

kejoal11 · August 19, 2018

I still have the SLDR as my backup. When things arent going well with my current driver i always revert back to my SLDR. I dont know what it is about that driver that I can hit it consistently all the time but as a club ho I always want to play the latest and greatest. I have the SLDR Tour Spoon 3W and the SLDR 2H and I hit them so well that they are the longest tenured clubs in my bag and i dont see them going anywhere any time soon. Just cant find anything better.

bobcat · August 20, 2018

I still don't understand the hook machine business. And, I had some crazy hooks with that club. I don't know why it was the case. I was using a shaft that I've used many times before and after. I didn't hit many of those hooks before the SLDR and they pretty much went away when I moved on from the club. I don't know what the underlying cause of it was. I do know that getting yourself in the most optimal setup on the SLDR seemed to be a lot harder than other clubs (without access to a true fitting that is).

You can find "the underlying cause" of your hooking problem with the SLDR here. You are correct that it was the SLDR driver itself, and not you, which is why the problem disappeared when you changed to a different driver.

Click on the link below, then scroll down to Post #77 to learn 'the cause' of all those hooks with the SLDR, (and your'll also learn how you can modify your SLDR driver to eliminate those dreaded hooks).

SLDR Anonymous Meeting - Equipment - GolfWRX - Page 3

:golfer:

Auditor_Kevin · August 20, 2018

Again. For those who don’t flip a driver to try to turn it over no fix is needed. Never heard a guy who plays a fade with Driver say that Sldr turned it into a Hook. Sldr is a great Driver for the strong guy who creates a lot of spin and wants to feel the head weight. No flaw there. Just people who don’t fit it.

My shot shape is a fade. I bagged an SLDR for two seasons. You can see the analytics for yourself in my Game Golf link in my signature.

The SLDR turned my fade into a monster hook. Anything off the toe just bananaed dead left and kept going left.

Moved to a Ping G30 and lost 15 yards but I'm back to a one way miss.

Also have a Cobra King LTD that was the perfect combo of length and forgiveness but my driver swing hasn't been good enough for it this season. I've had to fall back on the G30.

dubbelbogey · August 20, 2018

Almost two full seasons under the belt with my "new to me" SLDR 460 and I can honestly say I have not once hit the inexplicably short, running duck hook.

This is interesting to me because...

My stock driver shot is a fade. What is interesting is that my fade is very much a "learned" shot. When I was learning the game, and for the first 5-7 years of playing, my natural shot shape was a draw, with my bad misses being a duck hook that often ran OB. A round destroying miss, really.

An enlightened instructor I worked with for a number of sessions asked if I wanted to learn to hit a fade. Seemed odd, given that it wasn't my natural tendency but I gave it a go and I've not looked back since. To this day, I have to consciously think "hit fade" when I'm hitting driver off the tee, but I've been doing it so long it's just part of my teebox routine. I'd say over 90% of my drives are intentional fades. I can still hit a draw when the hole demands it, but it's no longer my go to shot. When I over cook the intentional fade and it turns into a slice, it does go farther right than I'd like, but tends to drop out of the sky softly and not run too far into deep trouble. Far preferable to my old running duck hook miss.

Maybe because I so consciously think about needing to hit a fade, that the dreaded SLDR left-side miss hasn't happened to me. Who knows? I do know that the SLDR has been quite reliable for my game.

Stuart_G · August 21, 2018

Maybe because I so consciously think about needing to hit a fade, that the dreaded SLDR left-side miss hasn't happened to me. Who knows? I do know that the SLDR has been quite reliable for my game.

Just some thoughts:

1) the toe side mis-hits (location and consistency of face impact position) that might cause the duck hooks are much more about the fit for playing length, shaft weight, swing weight and even to some degree the stiffness profile of the shaft, not the characteristics of the head. So the head frequently gets blamed when it it's not really the true root cause of the problem.

2) Players with lower face closure rates aren't going to be effected nearly as much from the SLDR's low MOI (about the shaft axis) as players with higher face closure rates. And while it's not always the case, fade player do frequently have less face closure rates than draw players.