Henrik Stenson Proves Extra Loft Requirement Theory With SLDR Driver

When Henrik Stenson smashed his R1 driver he changed to a new driver, TaylorMade's SLDR prototype for the final round of The Tour Championship. The SLDR Stenson used was 1.5 degrees more lofted than his broken R1, exactly as I had predicted after comparing both drivers. Here’s the skinny.

TaylorMade SLDR Versus R1

sldrTaylorMade’s newest driver, the SLDR, is touted as their longest ever, so I decided to put it up against the R1 in a distance test.

After clinking 20 identical balls with each driver, it quickly became apparent that the SLDR is, as TaylorMade claim, consistently longer. So how can this be? After stripping back the marketing prose to expose the science, I found out why.

Most modern players’ drivers have the Centre of Gravity (CG) pulled low and back in the clubhead to launch the ball high. The position of the sweet spot on the face of a driver projects out perpendicular to the CG so it’s usually pretty high up the face.

Tour players however use drivers that have the CG pulled much further forward towards the face. The SLDR is like this. The sliding weight is a hefty 20 grams and unlike the Mizuno MP600 driver which had its slider at the back of the club, the SLDR has it near the front. This in turn pulls the sweetspot further down the face of the driver, closer to the mass of the leading edge. Having the CG pulled forward translates to 1-2 miles per hour more ball speed off the face and less spin than the R1.

So the question now is, if TaylorMade can do this to get more distance, why doesn’t everyone else? Well the truth is they do. Most Tour players drivers are engineered like this but because they send the ball out on a much flatter trajectory are not that appealing to amateurs.

I found when using the SLDR, I needed to adjust my usual preferred loft of 9.5° up to 10.5° to improve the ball flight.

So it is true, the SLDR is longer than the R1, but it remains to be seen whether it will have the universal appeal of some of their previous models.

 

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