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Review Cleveland UHX Irons - At home review

SuperStroke
I finally got a chance to see and hit these this past weekend, easy to hit and go far, but I'm with you on the look of the 4 and 5 irons. I don't think I could get used to those myself, but the rest of the set look so good.
 
Great stuff so far. Cant wait for your playing impressions!
 
Still waiting to get out myself, but will start to hit mine this week as well. 20200516_160854.jpg
 
Gman79 said:
Now that is a classy looking bag my friend.

Did you go 4-PW? or 5-PW?
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I went with 4i-PW, after reading all of the review about hollow utilities decided it was the best choice. Previously I only played to a 6i with a wood/hybrid replacements to fill the gaps.

Also in the bag are the perfectly matching Cleveland CBX2 wedges: 48-54-60
 
out of curiosity how do you like the topline thickness on the clevelands compared to the titleist?
 
TCB2010 said:
out of curiosity how do you like the topline thickness on the clevelands compared to the titleist?
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For the 7i on down, although thicker, it doesn't really bother me at all on the UHX and I would/could play either way. The T200 is definitely thinner but the difference isn't a distraction at all. 6i and above, I prefer the T200 look. From 6i up to 4i in the UHX, you see more of the back of the club which visually adds more to the width of the topline.
 
Tevenor said:
For the 7i on down, although thicker, it doesn't really bother me at all on the UHX and I would/could play either way. The T200 is definitely thinner but the difference isn't a distraction at all. 6i and above, I prefer the T200 look. From 6i up to 4i in the UHX, you see more of the back of the club which visually adds more to the width of the topline.
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i ask because at one time i played callaway x14's for roughly 10 years and when i made a change the irons i play now were considerably thinner and it was a little bit of a process in regards to the way i looked at them.
 
TCB2010 said:
i ask because at one time i played callaway x14's for roughly 10 years and when i made a change the irons i play now were considerably thinner and it was a little bit of a process in regards to the way i looked at them.
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Get that as well. I went from Callaway X20 Tours to Apex Pros to the T200s. Comparing the X20's to the T200's was eye opening. It was a lot thicker top line than I had remembered or realized. I would guess its somewhere between the T200 and UHX.
 
Great write up so far. They look like nice clubs
 
I love the initial impressions and can't wait to see how they perform on course. That is a thicker top line which I previously disliked but now I have learned that the forgiveness is more important!
 
Just a quick update for everyone. I was able to get 2 rounds in so far with the UHX. Its taken me a bit of adjusting to the lighter weight shaft. Looking back, I wish I was able to get the heavier shaft with these to give them a better comparison/swing impact. But with the lock down and timing, unfortunately wasn't able to make that happen. Damn you COVID! :D

With that being said, I want to get one more round in before I post my playing thoughts. Should happen this weekend at some point. I want to make sure I am not critiquing the shafts and focusing on the heads and their performance.

Some thoughts that I am willing to share so far:
  • The sound is great on these just like on the range
  • Turf interaction is impressive
  • Oddly enough, the thing that caught me by surprise is the sound of the clubs in the bag as they hit against each other. Odd thing i know to notice but its significantly different when 2 hollow bodies hit together than 2 of my T200's.

More to come!
 
Keep up the feedback appreciate the good and bad. Most importantly it's honest and based on real life use.
 
Tevenor said:
  • Oddly enough, the thing that caught me by surprise is the sound of the clubs in the bag as they hit against each other. Odd thing i know to notice but its significantly different when 2 hollow bodies hit together than 2 of my T200's.
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Now that’s something I never even considered! Great point. More solid or hollow sounding?
 
YukonLiving said:
Now that’s something I never even considered! Great point. More solid or hollow sounding?
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Higher pitched, tinny. Almost like to baseball bats hitting each other.
 
Tevenor said:
Higher pitched, tinny. Almost like to baseball bats hitting each other.
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Ooohhh... lol

Not the sound I’d expect to be coming from my golf bag!
 
Really enjoying the thoughts @Tevenor
 
Back at it. I finally was able to get a couple more rounds in between league play and such ( and ditching my wife to sneak out as much as I could :D ). I was going to report back when I had 3 rounds in total but I liked hitting these so much AND for a reason I'll mention below, I ended up putting 5 rounds on them before I decided to bring an update back.

This is going to be a bit long so in an effort to keep it to the point, some key disclaimers/general comments/things to keep in mind:
  • I tried hard below in keeping my thoughts/opinions to the heads knowing that the shafts would play some role in the results. These are lighter shafts than I normally play but same rough stiffness.
  • In order to hit these on a relative common flight path to my T200's, it took me a while to make some changes in my swing to adjust to the weight difference. I decided to get 3 rounds in back to back to back so I wasn't switching back and forth between sets and I could give these a good review.
  • I really wanted to do some comparisons to my existing clubs on a Trackman to go along with the playing reviews but with the Covid shut down, I just wasn't able to get anywhere to get the numbers. Therefore all distances/spin impressions are anecdotal without any real numbers
  • Last round I played with these, I swapped the Arccos units from my T200's and put in them in the UHX's so I could try to get some data points. They of course aren't completely representative but did allow me to get some key examples documented of different shot types.
  • During the rounds, I didn't play any different than I normally would. I did play a bit more conservative on short par 4's so I could use the longer irons more than I might normally.
  • I am by no means a professional reviewer like @Canadan or @Jman but I'll answer any questions on these the best I can.

With that being said, let's get started.

Let me start by saying I could completely game these. My results in my 5 rounds were good ( see bottom of this review ). Lighter shafts and all ( although if I was going to continue playing with them, new shafts would be needed). They are absolutely some of the easiest clubs I have ever hit. Through all types of conditions ( hard pan, thick rough, muddy lies, etc. ) . From a playing perspective, I never had to worry that I was going to miss hit the ball as the face is so forgiving. I would say the forgiveness is its best and worst feature. More on that weird statement later. :D

The good stuff

Foregiveness:
From a benefit perspective, the forgiveness means I don't really care if I hit it half an inch to the toe or to the heel. Either way I don't think I lost more than 5 yards on any shot when I knew I completely missed center face. The best example I had of this was an 8i I hit on par 3 5th hole. It was so far on the toe, that it left a mark outside the grooves. Kind of like when you go in to kiss a girl for the first time at the end of a date and you aim for her lips and end up kissing her ear instead. That kind of off. Yet, it still traveled 159 yards and just a hint of over draw. My normal 8i distance for these has been about 165 yards.
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Distance:

The distance is also very impressive. On average, I feel like these are about a 1/2 club longer than my T200's in the longer irons and as we go further down, they become about equal. For example, I usually carry my 4i about 205-208 yards with a total of 210 to 215 yards in my T200. My average for my Arccos round in the UHX for all 4 irons hit was 218 yards total distance which include a smashed 227 yard shot.
1593975783203.png

The rounds without Arccos were very similar in that I was hitting shots with the 4, 5, and 6 and ended up being long or hitting pretty close to my normal distance and just accepting it. The lower irons ( DW, PW, 9i etc. ) were about the same distance wise as my current T200 irons.

Turf Interaction:

Still very very impressed with these off any lie. You can feel the club on harder ground bounce like a wedge through the turf post ball strike. I am not a hugely steep player so I don't normally take significant divots but these seem to make it even less. The v-sole like bottom really reacts well and lets the club glide through the grass/dirt/turf.

Best example I can mention is a PW I hit from about 135 yards out of the rough. I watched during my swing as I hit the ground a good 2" behind the ball which normally would be a fat shot, causing the ball to flail in the air like a 1 winged moth and land 50 yards ahead of me while I use swear words not heard since the time of the pirates on the high seas. Instead, I swear that I remember watching it bounce into the ball like my 60 degree wedge and strike the ball solid like it was no big deal. Like the club was saying "Don't worry bro, I got you on this ****** up swing of yours. We family!". Ended up a couple yards short but still on the green.

Even the 4 iron exhibited this behavior and I wasn't really ready for it. Hence why I had to keep playing. At one point on the range, I was actively trying to see how bad of a swing I could get away with and still keep it on line with decent distance.

On to not so good stuff in next post.....
 
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The not-so-good stuff

Just like my ex-girlfriend, the more perfect and exciting the benefits of the relationship, the more unexpected the crazy to be. Same goes here. By all rights these are well designed heads and do exactly what they are meant to do: Make it easier for someone to hit consistent distances and get consistent ball flights regardless how bad of a ball striker you are.

Spin:

One thing I could not seem to do is to generate the same spin with these clubs, especially the lower ones. Although I don't have the numbers to prove it, I have little doubt that these spin less than my T200's. I think that is also part of why I am seeing a bit more distance on the longer irons.

It's not to say that they don't spin. They do. In fact I was able to get a couple of clean shots into greens to even spin back ( see below which is an 8 iron from 158 yards which spun back about 18 inches).

20200703_102157.jpg

However, it just wasn't the same spin I was used to. Just for acknowledgement sake, I was using the same Bridgetstone Tour BX I was using for all my other rounds, its a apples to apples comparison with the ball. I did at the end need to change my strategy on approach shots to start thinking about hitting balls to short of the flagstick on the greens as I knew they would release a little vs my T200's where I am pin hunting all day long.


Ball flight:

I noticed after a few rounds a difference in the height of the shots I was hitting. Again, anecdotally as I have no Trackman data, I was hitting the longer irons 10-20 feet lower than the equivalent clubs. That translated into not quite as steep land angles. Nothing killer or game changer but something of note but it did change some of my shot choices when needing to go over trees and carry distance.


Specialty Shots:

I can't explain why, but I had a really hard time hitting partial specialty shots like forward press punches from under trees, flop shot type swings, stingers, etc. Never got a feel for them with this sole and head combo and just couldn't make them work like I could the T200's. Although the sole design is great for entry into a ball at a full swing pace/angle, I almost felt like the sole was actually hurting my ability to do some delicate specialty shots we all have to do from time to time. Again, no explanation from my end as to why and maybe with more time I would figure it out but it was surprising considering how easily it was for me to transport from my T200's into these on full shots.

Forgiveness:

Remember above when I said that forgiveness is the best and worst part and said it was a weird statement? Yeah, now's the time I explain why.

Although I could hit the ball all over the face and it would give me the same distance/shot shape, I also had a really hard time telling where I hit it. The biggest "feel" indicator on where I hit the ball was the sound. Hitting it square center of the face lets of a very distinct high pitch sound where as anywhere else on the face becomes a bit more muted. If I was guessing man, I would say the hollow body resonates well on center strikes, but once you hit it off center, it changes the reverb characteristics inside the club. But just a guess. The club almost muffles the feeling of a bad toe or heel strike ( per it's design mind you ) which is great if you don't care and just want the ball to go X yards each time but that's not my thinking process.

Why this is a 'not so good' is that I am always looking for my club to give me feedback on how I am striking the ball, to give me info on what I need to adjust during the round. The UHX are almost too forgiving, if that makes sense. I couldn't make them shape a hard shot ( hard hook, hard slice ) near as easily and I never felt like I knew after each swing where I hit it on the face. There were a few times where the ball did something unexpected and I couldn't tell you why. Did I hit it low? was it heel side? toe side? Dunno. Sounded and felt like the last 3 that all flew great. Landed short by 10 yards unexpectedly? No idea why.

Best example was a narrow but long par 4 on the back side of the last round. I hit a drive that wondered to the right rough enough that I was partially blocked out from going directly at the pin. I was able to hit to the left side of the green which was protected by leafy trees. I pulled out my 6 iron and planned a shot I have hit many times before: hard flighted shot with about 10-20 yards of fade so I could shape it into the heart of the green and away from the trees. I thought I hit it perfect. My setup was right, my hand/feet/swing position were right. All of which should have made the ball do what it would normally do. But it didn't. It went straight with a baby fade......right into the tree. I still can't tell you why it didn't cut as much as it should have or would have if I was playing my other irons.


Conclusion:


Cleveland really has a winner here. These will be very popular with folks who are looking for a club that goes long and has a ton of forgiveness. Folks who aren't necessarily trying to maximize their irons but rather become more consistent and therefore have more fun. They interact really really well across all types of turf and are ultimately insanely easy to get the ball airborne. I even had my daughter give these a try even though they may be a bit heavy for her ( 14 year old, 5' 9" and very upright swing ) and she hit them way easier/better than her current clubs. While the spin and resistance to shaping a shot ( a good thing if you are a heaving slicer or hooker of the ball ) would be something that I would need to figure out, they are ultimately very playable clubs. A change in shaft probably would help out on the spin/workability/height items as well which I might try in the future.

And the rounds I played with these? 81, 78, 80, 83, 79. Total of 10 birdies. Not exactly bad clubs at the end of the day to play with when I can get that kind of end performance out of them.

If you haven't tried them and are going to a fitting for new irons and are looking for forgiveness, easy to hit, and distance wrapped up into one package, you gotta give these a try.
 
@Tevenor Thank you for the long review! I just started playing golf again after a long medical break. To restart my game I decided to purchase the most forgiving & highest MOI clubs on the market. The UHX made it into the bag. These irons played almost exactly to what you described above and to the plyer type as well. After 5 rounds, yesterday I shot my lowest round in over a decade with an 88, finishing on the 18th with a birdie!
 
David-G said:
@Tevenor Thank you for the long review! I just started playing golf again after a long medical break. To restart my game I decided to purchase the most forgiving & highest MOI clubs on the market. The UHX made it into the bag. These irons played almost exactly to what you described above and to the plyer type as well. After 5 rounds, yesterday I shot my lowest round in over a decade with an 88, finishing on the 18th with a birdie!
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Glad they are working out for you. Congrats on the low record round! Great to hear that what I saw is reflected in someone's success who is already going down this path. Keep strokin them!


 
Really good stuff @Tevenor

I've enjoyed my UHX irons immensely but I'm in the process of re-shafting them into some Recoils. I just feel more comfortable in graphite than the stock steels shafts. I also recently purchased some Sub70 699 irons to game as well. Looking forward to comparing the two.

Totally agree on the Forgiveness aspect. It's hard to tell where you mishit these, so they may not be the best iron for a more experienced player. Right now though they are the most fun I've had playing an iron.
 
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