When a company calls a particular club the longest ever it’s hard not to take notice. In this case the club that Cleveland Golf is talking about is the new 588 fairway wood. Cleveland has certainly impressed a lot of golfers these last couple of years, so this statement definitely makes me take notice. They sent over one of their new 588 fairway woods and I was able to get out and see if this bold statement carries any weight. Cleveland has come out with a fresh new design featuring some technology that they feel will make this fairway wood the longest one they’ve made to date.
Tech talk:
The Cleveland® 588® Fairway combines power and forgiveness in a versatile design. A tour-proven profile offers optimal face, sole and crown dimensions to promote a clean, confidence-inspiring look from the turf or off the tee. Enhanced variable face thickness technology produces maximum distance on center strikes and greater forgiveness on off-center hits. Combined with a rear sole plug, advanced wall construction allows more weight to be positioned low in the club head for a higher launch. A premium Matrix® OZIK 6Q3™ shaft is designed for a mid-high launch, offering an all-around combination of speed and stability with solid feel at impact. Cleveland® 588® Fairways are available in lofts of 14.0°, 15.5°, 18.0° and 20.5° and carry a MAP of $199.99.
ALL-AROUND DESIGN
Tour-proven profile has optimal face, sole and crown dimensions to promote a clean, confidence inspiring look from the turf or off the tee.
LARGEST SWEET SPOT
Our latest enhanced variable face thickness technology creates the hottest flight on center strikes and even faster ball speed on off-center hits for maximum forgiveness.
OPTIMAL CENTER OF GRAVITY
Combined with a rear sole plug, advanced wall construction allows more weight to be positioned low in the club head for a higher launch.
PREMIUM MATRIX OZIK 6Q3 SHAFT
This shaft promotes a mid-high launch and an all-around combination of speed and stability with solid feel at impact. Made by Matrix, one of the fastest growing shaft brands on tour.
Aesthetics
Cleveland refers to it as a tour-proven profile. The all-around design is meant to promote a clean, confidence-inspiring look. I can take it a step further than that and say that not only is this a clean, confidence-inspiring look – it’s flat out pretty to look at as well. I love the classic shape and design of the club. The dark metallic finished crown is without any sight lines or graphics at all. There is literally nothing to distract golfers from focusing on putting a solid swing together. The satin finish on the face creates a nice a nice contrast with the crown to make alignment easy. The smooth look continues on the sole of the club with the iconic Cleveland Golf logo and polished chrome finish making this club stand out in a crowd.
I really liked the feel of the 588. Everything from the moment you address the ball all the way through the impact zone this fairway wood feels good. I loved seeing Cleveland continue with their trend of pairing tour caliber shafts with their clubs as a stock offering. This time they’ve chosen the Matrix Ozik 6Q3 FWY which literally feels like it was made to go in this club head. This pairing really creates a smooth and powerful combination.
Testing the 588
Testing took place on an About Golf simulator/launch monitor. I was anxious to see how the 588 fairway wood would perform in ideal conditions while being able to get exact distances and launch conditions. The thing that impressed me the most wasn’t necessarily the distance of the 588 fairway wood, but the accuracy and overall ease of hitting this thing. I felt like I could make a nice stress-free swing and time and time again I’d see such a straight ball that I was beginning to wonder if this launch monitor was picking up the side spin properly or not. I would later confirm that everything was fine with the machine – the club just hits the ball that straight.
Concerning the distance claims from Cleveland – Distance is definitely there, but I can’t say it’s the longest fairway wood I’ve hit. It’s certainly the longest Cleveland has put out among the ones I have spent some time with. I regularly hit balls 250 yards off the deck and that’s everything I can hope for in a 3 wood. 250 yards and accurate – I’ll take that all day long. Teeing the ball up I found even more distance (close to the 265 mark in some situations), which for me is a huge 3 wood. The ability to hit that number while maintaining that accuracy could really make a huge difference in my bag.
Without a doubt the Cleveland 588 fairway wood shined most with its accuracy for me. Like I said, the club just flat out works and a nice smooth, balanced swing provided the best results. In my testing I really went after some shots to see how the shaft held up and even then the misses were not overly exaggerated like I’ve seen often times before. This really firms up my earlier statement about this shaft being such a great fit for this fairway wood. I love that Cleveland Golf has stuck with their plans to keep offering us high quality shafts as stock options.
Closing thoughts
I could go on and on about the looks of this fairway wood. From the minute you get it in your hands you know you’re going to love it. I was pleased to see that the performance matched those great looks. The club sets up so nicely to the ball at address that you find yourself expecting to hit a great shot every time. Cleveland really got it right with the design of the 588 line and it definitely shows in this fairway wood. The 588 not only provides a great option for reaching long holes in 2 shots, but also becomes a great weapon off the tee on holes where a premium is placed on accuracy. I can see this becoming somewhat of a game changer for a lot of golfers. The Cleveland 588 will be available everywhere on 2/7/2014 for $199 and it should be on everyone’s short list of fairway woods to check out in 2014.
Enjoyed reading this review Jason. Once again great work.
Great review Jason. For me this can certainly become a driver alternative, especially with the increased sweet spot and those kind of distance gains you saw off the tee.
Great review, Jason! This sounds like an absolute winner from Cleveland and looks like a return to an FL-like head shape. Cannot wait to smash one of these in Myrtle.
Great review, Jake. 250 and straight from the deck? Yes please. Sounds like they got a lot right with this offering.
Nice review! This entire line up has me very excited for this summer. I’ll take two of these.
Thanks for the great review Jake. The pictures look incredible, I can’t wait to see these in person. I’m most excited to hear about how easy they are to hit straight both off the deck and tee’d up. I’m really considering two for my Morgan Cup setup.
Jake you didn’t help my wallet at all with this review. Long, accurate, and good looks on top of that. Nice job buddy.
Great information and pictures Jake. I really enjoyed this one. To me, this looks like an improved FL Launcher and that has me all sorts of excited. That one was one of the easier fairway woods to hit from both tee and turf. As of now, I am almost 100% certain I’ll have the 5W in my bag.
Nice review Jake! I think Cleveland did a great job in enhancing the looks of this one to make it a bit more modern as that’s what many expect today. The monitor feedback you got was extremely impressive. I struggled with last years model but that was my fault due to a poor shaft selection.
Looking forward to hearing what folks think once they can get this out on the course.
Great work Jake, I love the look and versatility of this sole. It looks like they’ve taken the previous two sets of FW, Mashies and Classic and combined into a great wood!
Excellent review. I want to try it out and soon.
Love what they have done with the look and design of the club! I think they are headed in the right direction with this one! Great read Jake!
I’ve liked Cleveland Fairway woods for a while now. Looks like this one is another winner.
Good stuff Jake. This one is sitting atop my must hit fairway wood list right now.
Wanted to make sure I read this Jake review. Great stuff. Kind of like how the face looks and makes me think I’m never going to miss the ball with that thing! 588 woods lineup has me intrigued.
Solid review. I have always been a Cleveland fan and will definitely have to check these out!
Great writeup. The 588 sounds like a beast.
Nice review Jake, they have really done their homework with this model, if it performs half as good as it looks it’s definitely a winner for Cleveland.
Well, just got off the range with the Cleveland 588 fairway wood. All I can say is WOW! Smooth swing works best, but even when I tried to swing extra hard, got excellent results. And it is SO beautiful. It inspires confidence. And it totally matches my Cleveland Classic XL driver.
More players should give Cleveland clubs a try. You will be surprised, as I was.