{"id":888,"date":"2014-09-17T07:13:50","date_gmt":"2014-09-17T12:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/?p=888"},"modified":"2014-09-17T10:33:05","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T15:33:05","slug":"taylormade-tout-rings-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/golf\/equipment\/888\/taylormade-tout-rings-true","title":{"rendered":"TaylorMade Tout Rings True"},"content":{"rendered":"\"SLDR<\/a>\n

After a couple of decades\u2019 attendance at the PGA Merchandise Show<\/a> and a hefty daily dose of game-improvement promises, it\u2019s tough not to roll the eyes at the latest one. So it was more the primal urge to hit another driver \u2013 any driver \u2013 that prompted the test of TaylorMade\u2019s<\/a> latest sales gambit.<\/p>\n

Simple in concept, it\u2019s that TaylorMade\u2019s new driver, the SLDR, is longer than the one you\u2019re currently using; if not, send it back for a refund.<\/p>\n

No doubt there have been business-school theses on what are presumably consumers\u2019 natural tendency not<\/i> to return such merchandise. What\u2019s more, while the idea is straightforward, putting it to the test with the average player\u2019s consistently inconsistent swing is another matter.<\/p>\n

Still, TaylorMade\u2019s proposition also served up the chance to examine one of their other advertising maxims, namely that they get better by competing with themselves: The new SLDR could go head-to-head, as it were, with the TaylorMade Rocketballz driver currently in my bag.<\/p>\n

Some sorely needed technical acuity was provided by Joe Ostrowski, a teaching pro and TrackMan virtuoso at Golf & Body<\/a>, in Manhattan. The trial was not exhaustive, but it did in fact show a nominal increase \u2013 typically, say, three yards \u2013 in distance. Also improved was my \u201cdispersion\u201d–that is, I sprayed the ball like a garden hose less with the newer model.<\/p>\n

Given the game-altering changes wrought by equipment innovation in recent years, perhaps it\u2019s astounding enough that it just keeps on coming. Of course, the same can be of the propaganda that accompanies it.<\/p>\n

As Ostrowski notes, if everything we\u2019ve heard for the last 20 years were true, we\u2019d all routinely be hitting it 325 yards.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a couple of decades\u2019 attendance at the PGA Merchandise Show and a hefty daily dose of game-improvement promises, it\u2019s… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[1016123],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-equipment","tag-taylormade"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2014\/09\/SLDR_Driver_Hero_2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":893,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions\/893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}