Tag: Cleveland Drivers

Cleveland HiBore XL, HiBore XL Lite drivers 

Cleveland developed the HiBore XL’s unique shape using artificial intelligence.

Gear: Cleveland HiBore XL, HiBore XL Lite drivers
Price: $399.99 with Aldila Ascent shaft and Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 grip
Specs: Titanium face and chassis with adjustable hosel
Available: Dec. 6 

Who it’s for: Mid- and higher-handicap golfers who want a blend of distance and forgiveness off the tee. 

What you should know: Cleveland used artificial intelligence to develop a triangular head shape that optimizes forgiveness, ball speed, and sound. 

The deep dive: In the late 2000s, Cleveland HiBore drivers were easy to spot at PGA Tour events for two reasons. First, stars like Vijay Singh and David Toms played them, and second, in a few cases, those HiBore drivers looked nothing like the other drivers. Several models featured a dramatic downward swoop in the crown that drastically lowered the center of gravity (CG) location at a time when carbon fiber was scarcer in golf equipment than golfers who weren’t intimidated by Tiger Woods. 

Over time, and with the introduction of new technologies and materials, the HiBore drivers’ look toned down, but now Cleveland is announcing the HiBore XL and HiBore XL Lite drivers and designing them for recreational players who want a blend of distance and forgiveness. 

Cleveland HiBore XL
The HiBore XL’s triangular shape was developed using artificial intelligence. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

While artificial intelligence has been used to create many drivers’ faces and hitting areas, Cleveland designers turned to A.I. to create a chassis shape that would create the ideal blend of forgiveness, distance and enhanced sound. So, instead of seeing a swooping crown, the first thing golfers will notice when they set the HiBore down is the triangular shape and extended back portion of the crown. 

The face and hitting area of the HiBore XL drivers are also 19 percent larger and look significantly taller. The variable-thickness MainFrame XL design and enlarged shape broaden the sweet spot and help golfers who struggle to consistently make center-face contact by protecting ball speed on mis-hits. 

Cleveland HiBore XL
The ActivWing technology stabilizes the head on the downswing. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

To help golfers make solid contact more often, Cleveland also added ActivWing, an aerodynamics-enhancing feature to the heel portion of the crown. ActivWing does not make the driver go faster on the downswing but instead acts like an airfoil and helps to keep the head more stable as it approaches the ball. The two notches in the crown make the air move around the head in a way that encourages the face to square through the hitting area, which should result in better performance. 

While ActivWing is not designed to help golfers swing the HiBore XL driver faster, the Action Mass CB shaft design might make the club feel lighter. With an 8-gram weight at the top of the shaft, it counterbalances the weight of the head, so with the same effort, the club should feel lighter. 

Cleveland HiBore XL
The Rebound Frame XL face is taller than most hitting areas. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

The 12-gram weight in the back of the head helps to pull the CG down and back, away from the hitting area. The weight can be adjusted by custom fitters who want to change the club’s swing weight. 

For players who want even more clubhead speed or who battle a slice, the HiBore XL Lite features the same technology as the standard HiBore XL but is designed with a draw bias and comes standard with a lighter shaft and grip. It generates slightly more spin than the standard HiBore XL driver to help slower- and moderate-speed players create more carry distance. 

Both the HiBore XL and the HiBore XL Lite feature Cleveland’s new hosel sleeve that allows players and fitters to increase or decrease the loft by up to 1.5 degrees. 

Here are several close-up images of the Cleveland HiBore XL and HiBore XL Lite drivers:

Best golf drivers in 2024: New drivers from Callaway, Cobra, Ping and more

Check out Golfweek’s list of the best drivers available to purchase in 2024.

Everyone wants to hit the ball farther, so distance is always going to be important when it comes to new drivers, but if there is a buzzword or concept that is going to dominate the scene in 2024, it’s moment of inertia or MOI.

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In golf equipment – and specifically, drivers – the higher a club’s MOI, the more it will resist twisting on off-center hits, so shots hit toward the toe or the heel will fly straighter and farther.

The USGA and R&A cap the heel-to-toe MOI in drivers at 5,900 g/cm2, but several major golf equipment makers are offering their highest MOI drivers ever in 2024, including Ping and TaylorMade, which are both now featuring a driver than as a combined MOI (heel-to-toe plus sole-to-crown) over 10,000 g/cm2, which should make the Ping G430 Max 10K and the TaylorMade Qi10 Max the most stable and forgiving drivers those brands have ever made.

These gains in driver stability are now possible because more companies are using weight-saving materials like carbon fiber in drivers, which allows engineers to redistribute mass into performance-enhancing locations. Several driver makers dropped new models in early 2024, with each driver being ideally suited to golfers who are looking for different specific traits. For instance, Callaway released four different Paradym Ai Smoke drivers including the high-MOI Max, the low-spin LS, the Max D for slicers and the Max Fast for slower-swinging players. Ping offers four G430 drivers and Titleist has TSR drivers available too, while Cobra, Mizuno, Srixon and TaylorMade each have three different options.

More drivers have come to the market since the first wave dropped in earlier this season, including the new TaylorMade BRNR Mini Driver Copper, the Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Max and the Mizuno ST-Max 230. 

The key to finding the driver that best suits your game and your budget is to work with a custom fitter and hit several different clubs using a launch monitor so you can accurately compare things like ball speed, spin rate, launch angle and carry distance. Good fitters can help you find the ideal shaft, tweak the lie angle and the loft of your driver and explain why one model might be a better option for you than another.

Below are many of the most popular drivers that you are likely to see in pro shops and golf specialty stores right now.

Most popular drivers in 2024:

Cleveland Launcher XL 2, Launcher XL 2 Draw drivers

Cleveland Launcher XL 2 drivers are for recreational golfers who want to maximize forgiveness and forgiveness.

Gear: Cleveland Launcher XL 2, Launcher XL 2 Draw drivers
Price: $449.99 with Mitsubishi Tensei AV Blue or Aldila Ascent PL shaft and Lamkin Crossline 360 grip
Specs: Titanium face and body with adjustable hosel. Lofts: 9, 105. and 12 degrees
Available: Jan. 19, but available NOW via pre-sale

Who It’s For: Recreational golfers who want to maximize forgiveness and forgiveness.

The Skinny: The Cleveland Launcher XL 2 drivers were made with faces and a weight system designed to counteract many recreational golfers’ most common problems and to help them hit more fairways.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Cleveland Launcher XL 2 drivers” link=”https://globalgolfcreator.pxf.io/NkyzgV”]

The Deep Dive: Cleveland’s newest generation of Launcher drivers will not be spotted on the PGA Tour, DP World Tour or the LPGA. Srixon, Cleveland’s sister brand under the Dunlop Sports umbrella, offers plenty of driver options for elite players, so Cleveland designers are free to focus on woods that will specifically help recreational golfers and weekend players. As a result, different aspects of performance are emphasized when they sit at the virtual drawing boards, and in the Launcher XL 2 family, that means extra forgiveness.

Cleveland has invested in computing power and it helped designers engineer the hitting area of the Launcher XL 2 drivers. The system developed new variable thickness titanium faces that deliver better ball speed protection on mis-hit drives, which should be especially helpful in a driver designed for weekend players and recreational golfers, not tour pros.

Cleveland Launcher XL 2 driver
The MainFrame XL faces are designed with the help of supercomputers. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

The MainFrame XL faces are complemented by the addition of second-generation Rebound Frame, a technology that debuted in 2020 in Srixon’s ZX driver family. Cleveland designers made a more-flexible area behind the stiff area behind the leading edge, where the face meets the chassis. Behind the flexible area, the body of the club gets stiff again. This system acts like a spring at impact, allowing the entire face to flex back before rebounding forward. The resulting trampoline effect helps the Launcher XL 2 drivers generate more ball speed over an even larger area.

In addition to using computer simulations to design the hitting areas, Cleveland harnessed computing power to test thousands of different internal weight pads. After identifying the most common mis-hit locations for recreational golfers, Cleveland instructed the system to study how changes in weight distribution could improve performance. This exercise allowed designers to fine-tune the spin and launch characteristics and suit how weekend players, not tour pros, tend to hit their drives.

Cleveland added a network of internal ribs to improve the acoustics of the head and make the sound of impact more pleasing.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Cleveland Launcher XL 2 drivers” link=”https://globalgolfcreator.pxf.io/NkyzgV”]

Cleveland Launcher XL 2 driver
The Rebound Frame chassis design broadens the sweet spot and allows more of the hitting area to flex at the moment of impact. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

The Launcher XL 2 drivers come standard with an 8-gram weight inside the top portion of the shaft. It acts as a counterbalance and should make the clubs feel easier to swing, especially on the takeaway.

The Launcher XL 2 drivers look big and reassuring in the address position. Hideki Matsuyama and Brooks Koepka will not play these drivers, so Cleveland engineers could make the clubs larger from front to back and appear easier to hit.

There are two versions of the Launcher XL 2, a standard model and a Draw version. While the standard XL 2 has a slight draw bias, the Draw model has a face that appears more-closed in the address position, which should help to provide more slice-fitting assistance. The Draw version also produces more spin and a higher ball flight, with a more considerable draw bias.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Launcher XL 2 – Standard” link=”https://globalgolfcreator.pxf.io/4PnJ3n”]

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop Launcher XL 2 – Draw” link=”https://globalgolfcreator.pxf.io/LXdnJM”]

Below are several close-up images of the Launcher XL 2 and Launcher XL 2 Draw drivers.

Cleveland Launcher XL, Launcher XL Lite drivers

Cleveland’s newest drivers are designed to bring more distance and forgiveness to moderate and slower-swinging golfers.

Gear: Cleveland Launcher XL, Launcher XL Lite drivers
Price: $399.99 with Project X Cypher shaft and Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 grip. $349.99 for Launcher XL Lite.
Specs: 460cc titanium head with adjustable hosel and counterbalanced shaft
Available: August 20

Cleveland has been making Launcher drivers since the early 2000s, and when they were first produced, stars like Vijay Singh and David Toms used them on the PGA Tour. However, with the release of the new Launcher XL and Launcher XL Lite drivers, Cleveland targets the other end of the spectrum. These clubs are made for mid- and higher-handicap golfers who want more distance and forgiveness.

While there are a few subtle differences between the Launcher XL and Launcher XL Lite, they share many of the same features and technologies.