Cleveland HiBore XL Driver
What We Like
It's lengthy, it's forgiving and it's straightforward to hit.
What We Don't Like
It appears funky, but it surely undoubtedly grows on you.
The Backside Line
The Cleveland HiBore XL lives as much as its legendary identify. It would simply be the shock driver of 2025.
Test it out$399.99
Cleveland HiBore XL Driver
Test it out $399.99
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There’s a variety of cool gear within the golf world that doesn’t at all times match into Most Wished Exams or Purchaser’s Guides. You continue to wish to know the way it performs. In our We Tried It collection, we put gear to the take a look at and allow you to know if it really works as marketed.
What We Tried
Cleveland HiBore XL Driver
Your HiBoring Hero
John Barba – The one MyGolfSpy staffer sufficiently old to know higher
We Tried It: The Cleveland HiBore XL Driver
Golf and I separated for some time.
By “for a while,” I imply 16 years.
My first child was born in Could 1991, simply as I used to be beginning to break 80 recurrently. My second child was born 16 months later. By the point the fourth child was born in 1996, golf was unattainable.
Quick-forward to 2007. A brand new job with a company golf tradition meant getting again into the sport and getting new golf equipment.
Which brings us to the unique Cleveland HiBore. It was my first “big boy” driver and, rattling, I liked that membership. I liked that it went lengthy and (principally) straight. I liked that individuals’s heads would snap round on the driving vary after I hit it to see what the hell that noise was. Looking back, I liked most of all that it was $299.
Being a golfer, the HiBore was traded in a couple of years later for a PING G10 which was traded in for a TaylorMade R1 which was traded in for … You get the thought.
So when Cleveland introduced the HiBore again final month, your devoted scribe skilled a confounding combination of pleasure and skepticism. Wouldn’t it be any good or would it not be simply one other unexciting driver from Cleveland? And what in regards to the $399 price ticket?
A couple of journeys to the vary and a few launch monitor periods informed me Cleveland may be on to one thing. The true take a look at, nevertheless, is on the course. After a two-day, 72-hole golfapalooza in Orlando proper after Christmas, I’ve a solution for you.
Warning, expensive reader: You may be shocked.
What’s the Cleveland HiBore XL?
Quick reply: It’s a Dorito with a Tensei shaft.
Lengthy reply: It’s possibly probably the most revolutionary driver we’ve seen in years. Cleveland turned its AI-powered Etch-a-Sketch over, shook it till the display cleared and informed its supercomputer to make a driver with an enormous, deep face with most MOI.
It got here up with the triangular-shaped HiBore. It’s essential to notice the HiBore isn’t triangular only for the hell of it. Cleveland began its AI design course of by specializing in the biggest, most forgiving face doable, after which it requested for a excessive MOI. The one method to try this whereas additionally conforming to USGA guidelines was to create this George Jetson-looking factor.
And ,sure, I do know there have been triangular-ish drivers earlier than.
Regardless, this three-sided beast is a dangerous enterprise transfer for Cleveland. However if you’re an also-ran within the driver market, taking part in it protected is even riskier. Typically you simply should say, “What the heck.”
Based mostly on what we’ve discovered, it’s a danger that paid off. The HiBore is a reasonably good driver.
And have we talked about it’s $399?
Vary impressions
I attempt to battle it however I’m as vulnerable to snap judgments as I’m to snap hooks. That’s why my first 5 or 6 swings on the Sagamore Golf Middle’s heated shed grabbed my consideration. Each considered one of them was an extended, tight draw that went the place I aimed, proper over the massive wood cow about 210 yards out.
I swapped it forwards and backwards with my gamer, the PING G430 MAX 10K, and located I used to be getting acceptable outcomes with each. Distance for each was, at greatest, an estimate, however neither I nor the cow noticed something that made both of us go “moo.”
For the report, the PING was custom-fitted with a Ventus Blue TR shaft lower to play at 45.25 inches. The HiBore is inventory all the best way: 9 levels with a Mitsubishi Tensei Blue shaft taking part in at 46 inches.
It was solely after I received the Cleveland on a launch monitor at Golftec that I began muttering to myself. My regular swing pace is 92 to 94 mph. Regular drives are 235 to 240 yards though, when the celebs align, I can attain 250 with some first rate roll. With the Cleveland HiBore XL, I used to be hitting 96 to 97 mph with a few of my greatest strikes working out previous 260. One strike hit 100 mph and, similar to that, it was 2007 once more.
After a number of extra periods, I couldn’t wait to get this unhealthy boy out on the course.
We Tried It Day One: Johnny Orlando at daybreak …
The 2-day Orlando journey featured 36 holes at Shingle Creek with one other 36 the following day at Celebration. The Cleveland HiBore XL began three of the 4 rounds and I stored stats utilizing a Garmin S70 watch.
We teed off simply because the solar was rising and my first drive with the HiBore was a carbon copy of my experiences at Sagamore. It was a pleasant, penetrating draw that discovered the golf green simply to the best of middle 261 yards away.
That first drive was what you’d like all of them to be however, alas, all of them aren’t. Whereas there have been nonetheless loads of fairway-finding ka-boomers over these 36 holes, the place the Cleveland HiBore XL shone was on less-than-perfect strikes. Of the 26 tee pictures hit with the HiBore, 20 had been within the fairway whereas the remaining had been all playable. Some pictures I do know had been in direction of the heel or toe that may usually have been in actual hassle had been nonetheless acceptable and with extra distance than I might have thought.
I’m unsure however I feel that’s the definition of forgiveness.
By the afternoon, I had loosened up sufficiently and the course had dried out and firmed up a little bit. The afternoon distances mirrored the firmer situations.
Day One stats:
26 tee shots20 fairways hit5 rough1 fairway waste bunkerAverage distance: 245 (235 within the morning, 250 within the afternoon)Finest bomb: 278Note: Dewy situations within the morning, turning a lot firmer later; a slight breeze
Not unhealthy for the primary two rounds in over a month-and-a-half.
We Tried It Day Two: A story of two rounds
After spending the primary day within the trunk, the PING received the beginning on Day Two. Sadly, the bottom was delicate from in a single day rain and it was a type of rounds the place, it doesn’t matter what, the wind appeared to be in your face. What’s extra, I couldn’t constantly discover the candy spot and the outcomes mirrored that. Optically, the 10K head seemed downright overweight after staring on the Dorito-shaped HiBore yesterday. Fatigue was additionally an element – after such an extended layoff, 72 holes in two days is a hell of a variety of golf if you’re 64 years previous. After foozling tee pictures on 15, 17 and 18 (twice), the PING sat out the ultimate 18 and the HiBore solidified its maintain within the beginning lineup. Let’s simply say we had higher leads to Spherical Two. Largely …
Day Two stats:
Spherical 1 – with PING
13 tee shots8 fairways hit2 mild rough3 out of playAverage distance: 213Best bomb: 224
Spherical 2 – with HiBore
13 tee shots11 fairways hit2 mild rough0 out of playAverage distance: 235Best bomb: 255Note: Rain in a single day, very moist situations; first spherical principally right into a prevailing breeze
What does this all imply?
This We Tried It comes with loads of caveats and asterisks. Certain, I picked up some swing pace with the HiBore but it surely was a full inch longer than the PING. Then again, the PING was {custom} fitted with what can be thought of an “exotic” shaft improve. The HiBore was inventory, though the Tensei Blue is a shaft I are inclined to get together with and it really works properly with the HiBore. The straight-up comparability at Celebration is attention-grabbing. I’m unsure how a lot the gorgeous distinction in appears performs a job in visible consolation. This wasn’t a blind take a look at, clearly, and everyone knows the thoughts can play very soiled tips on us when it needs to.
Moreover, I gamed the PING G430 MAX 10K for practically the entire 2024 season with very passable outcomes general. It proved to be lengthy sufficient for the programs and tee bins I play (6,200 to six,500 yards). Season-long stats present I hit fairways at a 59-percent clip with a mean distance of 237. I gained’t get too loopy in regards to the PING driving distance in Florida because it was windy and every course was extra damp within the morning than they had been within the afternoon. Face to face, although, I’d should say there’s one thing about that Dorito-looking triangular son-of-a-bitch that agrees with me.
We Tried It: The Cleveland HiBore goes within the bag!
Three rounds are sufficient to know if one thing goes to be just right for you. After 54 holes, the Cleveland HiBore XL will start 2025 within the beginning lineup. Yeah, it appears bizarre, however the extra you take a look at it, the extra the weirdness begins to fade. And, pals, if there’s one elementary reality in golf, it’s this: 54 holes price of lengthy and straight will make something look fairly rattling horny.
So 2025 begins with the Cleveland HiBore within the bag. There’s nonetheless a head-to-head coming with the brand new Sub 70 859 and I’ve but to demo the brand new PING G 440 or any of the brand new stuff from TaylorMade, Callaway, COBRA, Mizuno and Wilson.
As a smart man as soon as mentioned:
“We’ll see.”
In the event you’re , the MyGolfSpy Discussion board has a Member Take a look at of the HiBore happening proper now. You may test it out right here.
The put up Is a Triangular Driver Any Good? appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
