Review Cleveland UHX Irons - At home review

Tevenor

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Albatross 2024 Club
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As you may now, a month or so ago, I was selected to receive a set of Cleveland Launcher UHX irons thanks to @JB and Noelle from Cleveland golf. I just got them shipped in yesterday day so I wanted to create this thread to give my thoughts on them.

**Disclaimer**: I'm nowhere as good of a reviewer as @Jman @Canadan or @ddec but going to give it my best. I do use my T200's as a comparison even though they really are different categories of irons because....well....this is what I got. Oh and ignore the feet in the unboxing video. :)

My goal is to give you guys 3 different opinions: First impressions ( including an unboxing video ), hitting impressions after I hit them on my hitting mat/net, and playing impressions as I plan to play a couple of rounds with them to get a feel for them on course. So without much further ado, let's get going.


First Impressions


Onboxing video.




The irons themselves look really good. They use 3 different finishes: shiny polished, matte brushed, and a dimpled/hammered looking finish. Together, they really work for me. Has very classic lines from the back as you can see from the 6i and PW comparisons below. And as much as I didn't realize it, I am really digging having the degree stamped and filled in red against the sole. Looks amazing in person.

The size of the heads are a bit on the larger side but nothing out of the norm. I did notice a lot more heel height on the blade with the UHX irons than as comparison to my T200's. Also has a much more rounded topline. Topline is also much thicker which not sure I like visually. Have to wait to see it behind the ball and hit them to see how I react to it. The sole however, is damn nice. I can't want to see how it gets the clubs through the fake turf on my matt ( have 2 textures to try) as well as through natural grass. Looks way more like a nice wedge sole than a standard iron sole.

The irons come in a modified blended set. From the 4 thru the 7, you get the same hollow body look and feel you see in the 6i pictures below. From the 8i down, you get the semi-cavity back setup which is really interesting the closer you look at it. The entire upper face almost looks like its an add on to a full cavity back setup. See the detailed picture of the back of the PW to see what I mean. I'll be spending some time between the 7 and 8 to see what difference I can tell on strikes. The offsets in them are really pleasing but I prefer less offset in the irons than most people.

The small details in the irons are pretty impressive. I;ve taken a few pictures below to show the ones I've picked up on so far. The 8i down cavity section and the sole shape really stand out. The sole shape intrigues me the most because I consider the T-series ( including my T200 ) as some of the best turf interaction I have ever had in an iron. I could see these being as good if not better depending on how well the v-sole shape works on these irons.


6 iron comparisons

Left picture shows the different surface textures. Right picture shows the faces and the UHX ( right ) having a more rounded top line and more heel height in the face. Topline is below ( UHX is on the left ) and shows the biggest difference. Very thick topline.
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Pitching Wedge comparisons

Left picture shows the different surface textures on the lower irons. Right picture shows the faces and the UHX ( right ) having a not as much of a difference but still a very nice wide face. Almost reminds me of pictures of the RTX wedges in the shape. Topline is below ( UHX is on the left ) and looks a lot less thick at the higher angles.
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Detailed Pictures

Detailed back of the Pitching Wedge. The entire "Launcher UHX" section from the 8i down to the D wedge has a cut around it which isolates it from the main body of the iron. Also gives you a good view of the hammered finish on the back as it matches up with the polished and matte setions.
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Picture of the vsole on the PW against the T200 PW.
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Summary of first impressions

Things I like:
  • Visually appealing - really pretty irons. Great use of different textures
  • V-sole looks like its going to go through the turf like a hot knife through butter
  • Blended set between the hollow body and semi cavity back lower irons
  • Love the stamping
  • Size of the face is really confidence inspiring from a "miss protection" perspective.

Thinks I don't like/not sure of yet:
  • Topline - visually its to thick for me. Might change as I hit it but hard to get over as it draws the eye.
  • Small nit pick but with the splash of color they used int he degree stamping, I would have liked to see maybe that same red highlight the back of the irons somewhere.
  • On the upper irons ( 4i and 5i ), the booty pokes out quite a bit ( back of the iron ). Its a bit distracting on the eye for me.


I'll report back once I have a chance to hit them and get some impressions there.
 
Hitting Impressions

I was able to take some time yesterday and hit them on my home hitting setup just to work through the feel of the UHX and get a sense of how they hit. Today, I was able to hit the driving range for 2 hours since it was 81 and sunny out. Probably have 150 shots on them yesterday and another 150 on them today.

In both cases, I hit my T200's along side so I could get a feel between the two. Although I did something a bit different when I want to the real grass driving range.

Off the Mat

I hit a bunch of shots with the 4i, 6i, and PW of my home mats ( long and short grass ) and a few things stuck out like a drag queen in a Certified Public Accounting convention.
  • Drag Queen 1: Mistress Siren
    As we all know, sound and feel are tied together like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Tom and Jerry, Renn and Stimpy, college and experimentation....er.....well you get the point. I don't know how to explain it. The cavity back ( 8i thru PW ) sounds and feels like a solid performance iron. Great thwack on the screws and very little vibration or negative feeling at impact even when not center of face. Just a great sounding iron along the lines of my T200's.

    The Hollow bodies ( 4i through 7i ) surprised the heck out of me. @Canadan and @Jman mentioned the sound in their Range Days video but unless you hear it in person, you can't really appreciate what they were talking about. These things sound fantastic. Made my 4i T200 sound dead in comparison. Hitting it pure makes this very distinct ping sound that almost seams to resonate a bit. Add that to the feel like the head is going through the ball like Mike Tyson's right hook into an 80 year old nun and you get a distinct impression that you are showing up with a howitzer to the course. Its actually a little addicting. I didn't plan on hitting 150 shots on my mats, but I found myself coming back to the 4i and 6i chasing that sound of a perfect strike.


  • Drag Queen 2: Sweetie McImpact
For a fairly large over footprint iron, it was amazingly easy to hit the ball square. This might be more of a sign shafts that came with them as they are definitely lighter than my normal shaft weight. My T200's use an Oban CT125 ( 121g - 125g constant weight ) shafts that have been fantastic. The lighter DST 98 shaft ( 103g uncut ) took me a bit to bring my strike point back to square but it was a really quick transition.​
The ball absolutely jumps off the face. Like screams off it. I was not expecting to get a sense of speed into the net that I got from hitting these. This more than anything made me want to get to the range of real grass to see the ball flight.​

So first hitting impressions into my net ( no distance or flight info yet ), I was really surprised how easy these are to hit and hit well. I did use some impact tape on the 6i at one point to verify what I thought I was feeling. On the hollow bodies, the center face matched up perfectly to the ping sound that I was chasing. I also noticed that off center hits ( heel or toe ) sounded the same to me. It lost the magic ping from the center strike but it still was a solid thwack.

The big booty on the 4i and 5i I had some trouble getting used to. I ended up just telling myself it was a shiny hybrid and that seemed to settle down my inner thoughts. The rest of the line the thicker top line I more or less got used to and ignored by the time I was done.


Off the Grass

I am just going to cut to the chase. These things are good. Really good. Like peanut butter and jelly in a sandwich being eaten by a super model on your luxury yacht you won in a poker game in Monaco good. Shocked at that description? Why? Because you never envisioned a super model on a private yacht would actually eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Well they do. And these clubs are just like that. Something everyone should be able to enjoy, regardless of handicap or bank account.

The lofts comparisons are interesting between the UHX and my T200s The 7i and 8i between the sets are exacting the same ( 30 deg and 34 deg ). The irons above the 7i, the UHX's are a degree stronger. In the irons below the 8i, the UHX's are a degree weaker.

Distance wise, I can only give you my estimates as I didn't have access to a Trackman or GC setup for comparison. Instead, I went to a driving range that had targets that I was very familiar with the distance of my own clubs and with markers I could laser to get rough guesses. I will say when I went chasing the ping sound and got it, the ball shot off face incredibly fast. Or at least I percieved it to be fast. Very much reminded me of the T200's interaction when nutted. Fast. Really damn fast. I wouldn't be surprised if they are creating very similar if not more ball speeds.

For the lower irons, I think the distance was about the same using the some flag sticks at the range that I lasered. My PW with the T200's is my 135 club. The UHX PW was going about the same distance from what I can tell. Ball flight was higher than my T200's by a bit on the PW. Pretty consistent launch even when not hitting off the center face.

For the upper hollow body irons, I think the distance was longer than my T200's. Not sure if I was swinging a bit faster with the lighter club or if the spin was a bit down from the T200 which I get a lot of spin for a 4i ( ~4900 rpm ). On the 4i for example, I carry my T200 around 205 yards. At the range I was at, there was a flag at 200 which I would carry a bit over. When I would hit the UHX 4i flush, it flew by it on the fly with yards of room. The ball screams off the face.

I will say I had a hard time not drawing these pretty much from the 4i down to about the 8i. After that it was a bit easier, probably because of the shorter swing and shorter shaft. I don't think this was due to the heads but due to the lighter shafts. A heavier shaft would be a better comparison but even with the lighter shaft and the draw bias, its definitely playable and perhaps something I will be able to weed out using lie angle. I'll find out how playable tomorrow.

Shot height was pretty good across the board. They didn't hit quite as high as my T200's for most of the upper irons ( 4i thru 6i ) but pretty damn close. Easily have plenty of decent angle.

And finally the turf interaction. The other shining star of these irons is how it cuts through the turf. As much as I hate to sayit, I think these are better than the T200's through the turf. The V-sole does exactly what they say it does. While I did hit a few fat shots, they still started online which tells me the sole is keeping the face on plane through the hit even when heavy in the turf. Everything else the club just drifted through the turf like it wasn't even their.

I can't say anything about spin numbers but I am hoping I will get a sense of green interaction when I play a round with them tomorrow.



With all that positive, I do have a couple of negatives.
  • The 4i and 5i big butt still irks me a bit. I was able to get over it on my mat at home, but I found myself drifting to look at the ass end of hte club instead of the ball. I did it less and less as I hit more nad more balls and I am sure I can over come it, but it still bugs me.
  • If I hit the ball thin on the grooves, the ball goes nowhere. I hit a few shots low on the face, and although they still launched straight ( thanks V-sole! (y)), the shots came screaming out at easily less than half height of normal shots and dropped quite a bit of distance. I'll have to watch this more to see if it was just my swing today and see if it is more a one-off or a consistent thing.

Hitting Impressions Summary

So far, there is nothing here that isn't worth playing. They are really easy to hit, the ball jumps off the face hard, they seem to be fairly resistant to off center strikes ( side spin wise ), and they defitnely elevate the ball really well for an iron with some girth on it. Tomorrow I'll be able to see how they react on the greens which should be interesting to see.
 
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Playing Impressions
 
Great stuff so far.
 
Great start! I'm really looking forward to the rest of your review as you get to hit them a bit. THANKS!
 
I was able to take a few swings in my back yard after mowing/yardwork duties were done. Some interesting thoughts already. Had to get used to the weight difference. My 6i runs 444 grams dead weight and D3 swing weight. The UHX with the DST 98 shaft runs 414 grams and per specs at D2 swing weight. Not enough shots with them to come to an opinion but I can already say one thing was surprising to me: the sound of the hollow bodies.

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I'm going to take these to the range tomorrow and check out ball flight and distance side by side. Going to focus on the 4i, 6i, 8i and PW see how they compare to my normal distance.
 
Question before the actual playing review gets started.. Do these have serial numbers on them?
 
Question before the actual playing review gets started.. Do these have serial numbers on them?

The 4, 5, 7 and DW have serial numbers on the hosel. None of them match. The rest do not.
 
I was able to take a few swings in my back yard after mowing/yardwork duties were done. Some interesting thoughts already. Had to get used to the weight difference. My 6i runs 444 grams dead weight and D3 swing weight. The UHX with the DST 98 shaft runs 414 grams and per specs at D2 swing weight. Not enough shots with them to come to an opinion but I can already say one thing was surprising to me: the sound of the hollow bodies.

View attachment 8945291

I'm going to take these to the range tomorrow and check out ball flight and distance side by side. Going to focus on the 4i, 6i, 8i and PW see how they compare to my normal distance.
Sound is SURPRISINGLY good eh?
 
These are great looking irons. A bit large as you mention but they inspire comfort and great strikes.
 
Well done on the initial thoughts. These are definitely my #1 need to try iron this season.
 
Great first impressions, can't wait to hear more. I loved Cleveland's previous offerings. These have my attention!
 
Thanks for the answer and awesome start to this. Excited to follow this one.
 
81 amd sunny. Looks like a range day!


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Where’s the YouTube range video? Let’s see these clubs in action!
 
Where’s the YouTube range video? Let’s see these clubs in action!

Due to some....ahem...technical difficulties, didn't turn out like I hoped. :cautious: I am going to record a few shots from the DR before tomorrow's round.
 
After reading through the review so far, I like your sense of humor. I can’t wait to see the content you make later in the year for that other big contest you won. 😎
 
Was able to get a round in with these yesterday. A bit of a mixed bag of results so far and I need to get another round or two in before I can make any informed opinions. I can say they are definitely long clubs as I saw at the driving range. And so far, the lower irons seem to spin well enough to hold greens even with fairly firm greens. I'll be able to get another round or two in this week and next.
 
Appreciate the hitting impressions. Out of curiosity can you post the 4i and 5i at address. you mention the big butt but how thick is that?

See pics below. Took pics from my view point and from closer up.

5iron

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4 iron
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