Was This The Best Golf Hybrid Ever Made?

In the hot seat for the Retro Review treatment, this time is the TaylorMade SLDR hybrid from 2013. Having personally played this model both in the hybrid and fairway wood for a number of years, I remember it fondly as an absolute low-spin bomber so I was extremely keen to see whether it could still produce the goods. This is a club that has been in multiple-major winner, and former world number one Martin Kaymer’s bag for over a decade now, so I was very hopeful.

Original launch date: 2013
Price we paid: £64.99 from golfclubs4cash
Who used it on tour: Martin Kaymer, Paul McGinley, Darren Clarke

What was the tech?
The entire SLDR range was something of a happy accident, with the engineers from TaylorMade making their first serious foray into controlling and reducing spin by moving CG extremely low and forward. And boy, did it work! The only problem was, was that barely anyone could get either the drivers, fairway woods, or hybrids airborne, which led to a very clever retrospective marketing campaign from TaylorMade. “Loft Up” was the buzz phrase with fitting reps all over the globe encouraging users to increase their base loft to match up with the incredibly low spin, creating the very powerful high launch, low spin flight synonymous with the SLDR range.

How did it perform?
To get a flavor of how this hybrid could still perform, I ventured down to my grass practice range, tipped out a bag full of TaylorMade TP5x golf balls, and fired up my FullSwing KIT launch monitor. Starting in the standard loft setting - which is 17˚ in the 2 hybrid I purchased - I hit away a good sample size to gather some data. The spin number surprised me somewhat, being a little higher than I remembered at around the 4800rpm mark, although that could be attributed in part to this model being fitted with a slightly lighter and softer shaft than I am used to. The average apex for me came in at 109ft with a carry number of 238 yards.

Image 1 of 3

Having spoken at length to Martin Kaymer about his SLDR hybrid in a recent “What’s In The Bag” interview, I remembered that he had his set in the lower position on his loft sleeve so I began to tinker around in both the minimum and maximum loft positions and the results were very interesting. In the lower or “Kaymer” setting which took the loft to 15.5˚, as you would expect the peak height and spin dropped considerably to 76ft and 3810rpm respectively, but the carry distance remained exactly the same albeit on a much more penetrating ball flight which produced 15 yards more roll out. In the higher setting which took it to 18.5˚, my carry distance jumped up to 248 yards on average and it produced a much softer, floatier ball flight with 115ft of peak height and interestingly the spin only increased by 100rpm from the standard setting.

Conclusion
As a former long-time user of the TaylorMade SLDR hybrid, I thoroughly enjoyed putting it through its paces once more, and frankly, it didn’t disappoint. The feel and performance could very much still compete with anything among the best golf hybrid clubs, but what really stood out for me was the versatility that the loft sleeve facilitated.

Often I find that only minor performance tweaks are available from many of today's adjustable hosels, however, I almost felt like I had three hybrids in one here with the SLDR. Three very different ball flights are available at the click of a wrench which is a powerful weapon to have at your disposal. I noticed zero difference in ball speed from any hybrid I have tested in the last two years and for the very digestible price of £64.99 from golfclubs4cash, I feel like there is some genuine value available here.