Cleveland Launcher XL Driver

[ole gray 17,880]

Looks:  Well folks I've been slobbering over this driver for a while now however I ain't thinking about it no more as this big butt heifer is in the barn now.  It takes a BIG cover to hide a butt this big. Cleveland went all out to make sure this sweet thang was dressed well. It's a classy and well made head cover rating among the best I have seen in a minute.  Kudos to Cleveland for going uptown on it. Not only does the XL have a big butt, it has a big face too for slamming balls down the fairway. The shaft compliments the head beautifully.  Now the bottom of the club head ain't no slouch either as the entire club glitters like a june bug with a big bass on the hunt. To round off the looks department looking down on this baby doll brings pleasure to my eyes. Purty is not a big enough word to describe this hawt chick. Well purty ain't much of a word anyways so we'll bypass the grammar.  Well done Cleveland!

Performance:   Geez first whack today at the range I amost shat my pants! The ball takes off like little Rufus Idlehopper after Uncle Ben caught him in the melon patch. The sound of the ball coming off the clubface is a bit on the loud side however not too bad.  Sounds Kind of like  when one of those wayward sputnick satellites slammed down on Granddad Whittakers tin roof chicken coops. Damn Russians!  This driver wants to go straight, real straight.  I will say this, you can work it if needed as I hit a few fades and finished with some high draws. The ball trampolines off the face like a fat boy after an all night ice cream eating party.  I couldn't tell exactly how far the drives were going as I didn't have one of them fancy distance checking machines on the range.  I will know come Tuesday when I put it in play on the course.  More about that post round.  I'm sooooooo looking forward to getting this big chick on the course and seeing what's under that skirt!
 

[BIG STU 11,157]

So I take it you like it more than your current Rogue----- Around our place the current hot drivers are the Srixon and the PXGs. But our course has a strong Srixon presence anyhow. A couple of the guys are real hot on those Rogue drivers too. I do like the looks of that Cleveland though. I am not much on the look of a carbon crown in the newer drivers.

[ole gray 17,880]

59 minutes ago, BIG STU said:

So I take it you like it more than your current Rogue----- Around our place the current hot drivers are the Srixon and the PXGs. But our course has a strong Srixon presence anyhow. A couple of the guys are real hot on those Rogue drivers too. I do like the looks of that Cleveland though. I am not much on the look of a carbon crown in the newer drivers.

I still love my Rogue and no doubt it's a great driver.  The sound is much better than the Cleveland however I had so much fun hitting high bombs with the Launcher it will have to go in the bag for this week's money games.  A lot of folks have five or more putters in their stall and I decided to add the Cleveland to my driver collection which is now two.  With that said, if you don't mind the sound, I would definitely take a look at the the big dawg (Cleveland)...  It feels like you can't miss hit the darn thing. 

[BIG STU 11,157]

9 hours ago, ole gray said:

I still love my Rogue and no doubt it's a great driver.  The sound is much better than the Cleveland however I had so much fun hitting high bombs with the Launcher it will have to go in the bag for this week's money games.  A lot of folks have five or more putters in their stall and I decided to add the Cleveland to my driver collection which is now two.  With that said, if you don't mind the sound, I would definitely take a look at the the big dawg (Cleveland)...  It feels like you can't miss hit the darn thing. 

Can not be any worse sound than the old XL HI Bores from 15 years ago--- Those things had a loud "TINK"

[MDGolfHacker 8,723]

2 minutes ago, BIG STU said:

Can not be any worse sound than the old XL HI Bores from 15 years ago--- Those things had a loud "TINK"

LOL, I had one of those Cleveland HiBore XL drivers...TINK is right!

 

MDGolfHacker

[MDGolfHacker 8,723]

On 5/22/2022 at 2:03 PM, ole gray said:

Looks:  Well folks I've been slobbering over this driver for a while now however I ain't thinking about it no more as this big butt heifer is in the barn now.  It takes a BIG cover to hide a butt this big. Cleveland went all out to make sure this sweet thang was dressed well. It's a classy and well made head cover rating among the best I have seen in a minute.  Kudos to Cleveland for going uptown on it. Not only does the XL have a big butt, it has a big face too for slamming balls down the fairway. The shaft compliments the head beautifully.  Now the bottom of the club head ain't no slouch either as the entire club glitters like a june bug with a big bass on the hunt. To round off the looks department looking down on this baby doll brings pleasure to my eyes. Purty is not a big enough word to describe this hawt chick. Well purty ain't much of a word anyways so we'll bypass the grammar.  Well done Cleveland!

Performance:   Geez first whack today at the range I amost shat my pants! The ball takes off like little Rufus Idlehopper after Uncle Ben caught him in the melon patch. The sound of the ball coming off the clubface is a bit on the loud side however not too bad.  Sounds Kind of like  when one of those wayward sputnick satellites slammed down on Granddad Whittakers tin roof chicken coops. Damn Russians!  This driver wants to go straight, real straight.  I will say this, you can work it if needed as I hit a few fades and finished with some high draws. The ball trampolines off the face like a fat boy after an all night ice cream eating party.  I couldn't tell exactly how far the drives were going as I didn't have one of them fancy distance checking machines on the range.  I will know come Tuesday when I put it in play on the course.  More about that post round.  I'm sooooooo looking forward to getting this big chick on the course and seeing what's under that skirt!
 

Nice looking club! Might have to put that on my hit list!

 

MDGolfHacker

[Golf2Much 270]

How do you like the new Golf Pride CPX grip?  They look interesting.  Living in South Florida year round, I'm always looking for the next grip that will hold up to our demanding environment.  Especially since I don't wear a glove.

[ole gray 17,880]

1 hour ago, MDGolfHacker said:

Nice looking club! Might have to put that on my hit list!

 

MDGolfHacker

It's a big bomber for me on the range so let's see how she pans out on the course tomorrow 

[sirchunksalot 16,850]

That's a great looking big dog there, @ole gray! I'm also wondering how you like those grips, I saw them on Twitter and looked at them in person at Golf Headquarters and was impressed. Plus, they go nicely with the color scheme of the head. 

Hit 'em long and straight!

[ole gray 17,880]

37 minutes ago, Golf2Much said:

How do you like the new Golf Pride CPX grip?  They look interesting.  Living in South Florida year round, I'm always looking for the next grip that will hold up to our demanding environment.  Especially since I don't wear a glove.

It feels awesome!  The only time I wear a glove is when it's super humid or raining and this grip feels sooooooooo good. I have it on my Cleveland 7 wood too. 

[ole gray 17,880]

3 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

That's a great looking big dog there, @ole gray! I'm also wondering how you like those grips, I saw them on Twitter and looked at them in person at Golf Headquarters and was impressed. Plus, they go nicely with the color scheme of the head. 

Hit 'em long and straight!

Just posted to @Golf2Much that these grips feel fantastic!  I highly endorse them 

[ole gray 17,880]

Back home from my round today and the driver delivered!  I didn't play well as my wedge game sucked and I limped home with an 85. I missed three fairways with only one ball out of play. How this driver did not rate higher on our MGS "Best Driver for low swing speeds" is surprising to say the least. I hit some drives that were actually too close to the green on several par fours that put me at an uncomfortable distance. Note that I do play from the senior tees these days however the ball comes off this club face with a vengeance. I'm so comfortable with this driver that as it stands now, I'm leaving the length of the club at 45.75.   I'm a 44.5 length kind of guy so for me to keep it that long is huge!  I don't like the counter balance added to the grip or at least I didn't in the rest of my Cleveland irons & hybrids. I'm going to leave it as is for now as it's accurate and LONG off the tee!   The only negatives I have for this club is the stock grip (too small for me) and the sound being different than I'm used to.  I quickly forgot about the sound after seeing my tee shots fly for what seemed like forever. 

This driver is staying in the bag and I'll be back out tomorrow to see if it was a fluke kind of day. 

[cksurfdude 11,408]

Had the opportunity to test out an earlier version of a Cleveland driver .. part of the problem was the shaft was definitely a little on the heavy side for me, but I'd felt as if the head was almost too forgiving - if that's possible!? - eg. giving up too much ball speed and distance working to try to keep the ball online...

But... this newer version looks like a huge improvement, and I know I like the PX Cypher shaft, so... Hmmm...

Hope it keeps performing for you OG!!!

[ole gray 17,880]

7 hours ago, cksurfdude said:

Had the opportunity to test out an earlier version of a Cleveland driver .. part of the problem was the shaft was definitely a little on the heavy side for me, but I'd felt as if the head was almost too forgiving - if that's possible!? - eg. giving up too much ball speed and distance working to try to keep the ball online...

But... this newer version looks like a huge improvement, and I know I like the PX Cypher shaft, so... Hmmm...

Hope it keeps performing for you OG!!!

I hit some bombs today that were getting oohs and ahhhs from my playing partners. On the bad side I hit three hard cuts to the right when I was trying to let the shaft out.  When I dropped my hands an inch or so below the butt end I was killing it. One of my drives today set a personal best on distance for one hole. I'm still debating on cutting an inch off thus removing the counter weight however tomorrow  I'm playing in a scramble where it will be fun to swing for the fences.  Put this big bad momma in beast mode! 

[Grand Stranded 3,199]

On 5/22/2022 at 2:03 PM, ole gray said:

Looks:  Well folks I've been slobbering over this driver for a while now however I ain't thinking about it no more as this big butt heifer is in the barn now.  It takes a BIG cover to hide a butt this big. Cleveland went all out to make sure this sweet thang was dressed well. It's a classy and well made head cover rating among the best I have seen in a minute.  Kudos to Cleveland for going uptown on it. Not only does the XL have a big butt, it has a big face too for slamming balls down the fairway. The shaft compliments the head beautifully.  Now the bottom of the club head ain't no slouch either as the entire club glitters like a june bug with a big bass on the hunt. To round off the looks department looking down on this baby doll brings pleasure to my eyes. Purty is not a big enough word to describe this hawt chick. Well purty ain't much of a word anyways so we'll bypass the grammar.  Well done Cleveland!

Performance:   Geez first whack today at the range I amost shat my pants! The ball takes off like little Rufus Idlehopper after Uncle Ben caught him in the melon patch. The sound of the ball coming off the clubface is a bit on the loud side however not too bad.  Sounds Kind of like  when one of those wayward sputnick satellites slammed down on Granddad Whittakers tin roof chicken coops. Damn Russians!  This driver wants to go straight, real straight.  I will say this, you can work it if needed as I hit a few fades and finished with some high draws. The ball trampolines off the face like a fat boy after an all night ice cream eating party.  I couldn't tell exactly how far the drives were going as I didn't have one of them fancy distance checking machines on the range.  I will know come Tuesday when I put it in play on the course.  More about that post round.  I'm sooooooo looking forward to getting this big chick on the course and seeing what's under that skirt!
 

Me and @ole gray… just two old guys feeling the Cleveland Rocks vibe.
How does that 7 wood gap with the Hy-wood? I don’t think Cleveland makes the 7 in LH, but I’d have thought they would go about the same distance?

Edited May 26 by Grand Stranded

[ole gray 17,880]

1 hour ago, Grand Stranded said:

Me and @ole gray… just two old guys feeling the Cleveland Rocks vibe.
How does that 7 wood gap with the Hy-wood? I don’t think Cleveland makes the 7 in LH, but I’d have thought they would go about the same distance?

The Hy-Wood is 18 degrees whereas the 7 wood is 21 degrees.  I can tell you this that little 7 wood is a fricking cannon!   I use the Hy-Wood on short par fours for lower ball flight and the 7 - wood for approach shots on par fives for high soft landing approaches. 

[ole gray 17,880]

Well I'm gonna do it folks.....   I'm going to take my big stick out to the woodshed and whack it off.  It's going to feel like the norm with an inch off of that shaft and the CB  weight removed.  I'll let ya'll know tomorrow how this shakes out. 

[ole gray 17,880]

Yesterday was a Dr. Jekyll / Dr Hyde kind of day.  Front nine I only missed one fairway with the cut down version however on the back side I missed three fairways.  I'm pretty sure my swing went whacky on the back side with a little bit of trying to over power my tee shots.  This driver is so much fun to smash the ball with it makes you want to swing out of your shoes to view the towering drives.  My playing partners surprised me commenting on how well the driver sounded during my tee shots.   No one has turned around on the range either and the sound is starting to grow on me.    I do wish it would sound as pure as the hy-wood sounds on a well struck shot.  My Callaway Rogue ST Max is pouting right now however she's going to have to stay in the stall as my Launcher is too much fun!  I shot 83 yesterday and my short game was missing in action. 

[ole gray 17,880]

I'm telling you folks this driver is the real deal!  44 / 38 today and the 44 was not due to bad drives. Missed one fairway on each side and hit some bombs with the big stick. I also won our little points outing with a +5.      Looks like my Cleveland has put one hell of a good driver (Callaway Rogue ST Max) on the bench for now and will be taking center stage next week in the Georgia mountains. Three days at Kingwood Resort and CC for some money games. 

[lefty110golf 20]

I may have to try one of these bad boys. I hit them at a demo indoors on a trackman and got good numbers and it felt good. For me I think the regular (not XL Lite) with the loft up one notch worked. 10.5