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Cleveland Classic Driver - THP Preview Thread

SuperStroke
roswellj said:
I have hit the latest offerings from all these companies. I was really tossing up between the R11S, RAZR Fit and the Cleveland Classic. For me the biggest difference is the spin levels. The R11S gave me almost double the spin that the Classic did according to the monitor. The Fit was somewhere between the two. My current superfast is similar, heaps of spin. As someone who struggles with a slice this is a huge advantage. Add this to the fact that Cleveland support THP so much and the reviews on here and I couldn't go any other way. Their wedges and hybrids are amazing so why wouldn't their drivers be?
Plus I want to be just like TC and JN. Thinking of switching to lefty just so I can be more like them.
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I have the R11s and have compared it to the Cleveland Classics that I was hitting at the Cleveland Demo day yesterday afternoon. To be honest there isn't a whole lot of difference in the Classic And the R11s for me. Both were between 2200 and 2400 depending on where I teed it up at. Distance and launch angle were almost identical as was spin. Only glaring difference being that I had the Cleveland Classics at 10.5* and the R11s at 9.5*. R11s w/ Proforce VTS Silver and Cleveland Classic w/ Kusala White 61S.

So what I'm getting is that at identical lofts I'd probably be seeing a few hundred extra spin and about 1.5 to 2 extra degrees of launch angle with the R11s.

I love the R11s and it isn't going anywhere, but I just had to have the Classic. It's just so damn sexy and hits the ball a ton! It's gonna be my "Swagga" driver. Gonna pull it out when I'm feeling froggy now and then and I want to hear some ooohhs and aaahhhhsss from my playing partners. I'm glad that it worked out with a heavier Kusala shaft paired with the 290.


Tapping and crashing with the new updated/downgraded Tapatalk.
 
Just shows how peoples different swings will change those numbers quite dramatically. From memory the r11s was approaching spin of 3500-4000 in that region and the classic was around or below 2000. That is a huge difference.

I said a tap tap tappity tap
 
Wonton said:
and another question. Most of you sport Cleveland clubs, a lot of former G20 users, am I accurate on that statement? Have you guys compared to other brands out there? Titleist, Callaway, TM, etc. and do you think this Classic Driver is just as good or even better than those brands? The only reason I'm asking is because I have a Titleist, owned TM, hit Callaways and Nikes but never a Cleveland. I guess I won't know until I hit the Classic but I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY interested by just reading all your posts.

Oh and I don't know why I'm asking questions 12:30 at night? Most of you guys are 3 hours ahead. I'm an airhead!
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Let's see, I have a R9, and a G20. I had the R11 and the RazrFit, so I can kind of comment on those. I'm like a unicorn in that I haven't hit the Titleist offering. Truthfully, I've only had the CLassic for 1 round of golf, so I can't really comment, but I will say this, it's the only driver of the lot that comes with a premium shaft in it. That's kind of cool. I found it to be very straight for me. Much straighter than the others in a neutral position. I have my R9 dialed in pretty good, but I've had it for a while.

I'll come back to comment often in here as I get more Classic experience under my belt. I won't say that it's longer than the G20, but I'm straighter with it. It's also not shorter. They seem to be around the same distance for me.
 
TC said:
Is it weird to think that maybe this driver performs better with a tour level ball? The QStar just got clowned by this driver today. Wtc is that?

I'm confused about it.
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I noticed something similar, but I wasn't going to post because it doesn't make any sense to me. I was trying out the Z Star SL a few weeks ago, and a couple of my drives felt well struck and were on a good flight path, and then they just dropped out of the sky like they had some weird topspin on them. The SL is a premium ball, but it has a low compression. I had a similar experience with a Wilson Duo I was trying out. I figured it was just me, but I put those balls away as they obviously didn't match my swing/driver combo.
 
Nice, COLT. I'm hoping to get a swing with that combo either at a demo day this Saturday or at the outing. The 43 has always worked fine for me, but I know that some of the stronger swingers just don't do well with it.
 
Rusty said:
I noticed something similar, but I wasn't going to post because it doesn't make any sense to me. I was trying out the Z Star SL a few weeks ago, and a couple of my drives felt well struck and were on a good flight path, and then they just dropped out of the sky like they had some weird topspin on them. The SL is a premium ball, but it has a low compression. I had a similar experience with a Wilson Duo I was trying out. I figured it was just me, but I put those balls away as they obviously didn't match my swing/driver combo.
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i've pondered this many times as well...i've also always wondered if a certain brand of ball works better with the same brand of club? (that may be crazy talk though)

i am having good results with the Z-Star off the driver so far (R11). so i'm very anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Classic to see how that works out as well.
 
Congrats Colt!

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Rusty said:
I noticed something similar, but I wasn't going to post because it doesn't make any sense to me. I was trying out the Z Star SL a few weeks ago, and a couple of my drives felt well struck and were on a good flight path, and then they just dropped out of the sky like they had some weird topspin on them. The SL is a premium ball, but it has a low compression. I had a similar experience with a Wilson Duo I was trying out. I figured it was just me, but I put those balls away as they obviously didn't match my swing/driver combo.
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It must have something to do with the compression. I don't know what it is, but I'm telling you, I was seeing some distance loss that was extremely noticeable.
 
TC said:
It must have something to do with the compression. I don't know what it is, but I'm telling you, I was seeing some distance loss that was extremely noticeable.
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hmmmmm, very interesting indeed.
time to bring them Z-Stars out!
 
This is all very interesting and now I reqally want this driver :angry: but I musn't buy it. I am also getting a lot of weird topspin on my drives but I normally don't so I think it's a weird swing flaw I got going on now.
 
I have been hitting the same Launcher for a long time now - at least 5 years. I have tried others and not been happy, long term, none have been able to replace it. Closest is the F11 I picked up a few weeks ago but the jury is still out on that one. This Classic looks very much like the '06 launcher I have in the bag so it may be the one. I need to hit one and see, at some point I will need a good replacement for the driver that is in the bag now. Maybe this is it.
 
TC said:
Let's see, I have a R9, and a G20. I had the R11 and the RazrFit, so I can kind of comment on those. I'm like a unicorn in that I haven't hit the Titleist offering. Truthfully, I've only had the CLassic for 1 round of golf, so I can't really comment, but I will say this, it's the only driver of the lot that comes with a premium shaft in it. That's kind of cool. I found it to be very straight for me. Much straighter than the others in a neutral position. I have my R9 dialed in pretty good, but I've had it for a while.

I'll come back to comment often in here as I get more Classic experience under my belt. I won't say that it's longer than the G20, but I'm straighter with it. It's also not shorter. They seem to be around the same distance for me.
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Thanks for the feedback. Let me know how it works out after a few rounds. I'm gonna go try to hit one today. I just need to find a shop that has different shafts for me to try. Am I walking out with a new driver today??? We shall see boys!
 
I have heard these are having problems with the paint chipping at the top very easily. Anyone else experience that?
 
Nate Gardner said:
I have heard these are having problems with the paint chipping at the top very easily. Anyone else experience that?
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Nope. Of course I have only had it for 4 weeks, but it does have 7 rounds on it and an airplane trip to Dallas and back. No issues at all.
 
First range session is in progress!

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hit it well Ary!
 
Ary, remind me what set up you went with? i can see it is a 10.5 degree, but what shaft?
 
Dr. Teeth said:
Ary, remind me what set up you went with? i can see it is a 10.5 degree, but what shaft?
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don't mean to threadjack Ary, but he went with the Kusala Blue 61g.
i only know cuz i went with the same, except i've got the 310 Tour coming my way.
oh and i guess i see it now in his sig as well.

i'll be patiently waiting to see how your first range session went Ary....
 
I really think finding one of these used will be a must come July for me.
 
Here are my first impressions of the Cleveland Classic 290 driver after hitting about 40 balls with it at the range today. For comparison's sake, my current driver is a Taylormade R11 driver with Graphite Design Tour AD DI-6 stiff shaft at 45.75 inches. This driver is at 44.75 inches, and the Kusala Blue 61 shaft in stiff flex. So while I was a little concerned about going an inch shorter, I did it with an eye on accuracy. In terms of the looks....great looking shaft, and the gold on the face really pops. Headcover is really nice and soft as well. The club feels a little lighter than my R11 driver, but nothing earth-shattering in terms of weight difference.

My first few balls were a little concerning for me. For people that have played the same driver for a while, you know the "trajectory window" where you expect to see the balls flying when you are hitting them. Well, with my first few swings, I couldn't find the ball in that window at all, I was searching for it in the sky. After the first few swings, what I found is that this driver launched a little lower than my R11 driver. However, the nice part is that as far as I could tell, the distance was not suffering. I hit a few balls with my R11 driver in the middle to confirm this. The best way that I can describe it is that my R11 driver launches higher, but then the ball drops to the ground at the end of its flight and doesn't get much roll. With the Classic driver, the initial launch was a little lower, but the flight was flatter and it looked like I was getting more rollout at the end.

The best thing about this driver from the initial session: how straight the ball comes off of it. I'm going to assume that it is due to the low spin properties of the head, but there was very little movement of the ball after it took its initial path. Sure, I can still push and pull the ball with the driver, but I didn't hit any huge hooks (my big miss with the driver) and only 1 or 2 big slices. I even had a couple of swings that were really bad, the "one hand comes off the club in the follow through" type of swings, and the ballflight wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. My last 5 swings, I really tried to go at the ball aggressively, and the shaft and club stood up to those swings with some straight bullets.

The good part about the end of my session is that the ball marks on the club from those swings were all on the top half of the clubface and in the gold section at the middle of the face. That section provides really good feedback, because if you're in that section, you know the quality of the strike is going to be pretty good. I think that on course testing of this club is going to be interesting. I found just about the highest tee that I could at the range on the mats that were there, but I still feel like I could maybe tee the ball up a slight bit higher. Also, hitting real balls vs. range balls will be interesting to see if I can get a slightly higher launch and spin.
 
Great stuff Ary. I think you will see a launch angle increase of about a degree or so with the Srixon tour level golf balls and if you are, I bet you pick up more than 7 yards of distance.
 
Thanks for your thoughts Ary, I am really looking fwd to hitting this thing come next month. Were you able to 'feel' the clubhead during your swing on the misses? If so, was it easy to correct? Did you find yourself swinging with a quicker tempo with the shorter length?
 
Nice report there Amol. I've seen you throw out some big drives with your R11, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you get out of this driver.
 
ddxu said:
Thanks for your thoughts Ary, I am really looking fwd to hitting this thing come next month. Were you able to 'feel' the clubhead during your swing on the misses? If so, was it easy to correct? Did you find yourself swinging with a quicker tempo with the shorter length?
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ddxu, to be honest with you, I wasn't really focusing on trying to fix my swing and correcting the misses during this session. It was mainly a quick range session before I had to run some other errands, but I was so excited about the new club that I couldn't let it sit at home all day long.

In terms of tempo, I have a somewhat quick tempo to begin with, so I didn't feel like this one made me swing any quicker. The overall feel of the club is different than my R11 driver, so I think there will be an adjustment period. However, it's going in the bag from today onward to get ready for the Morgan Cup.
 
Fair enough Ary, I appreciate the honesty. Keep up the good work and good luck with it.
 
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