Back in August, we featured a new release from Cleveland Golf called the Launcher XL. As part of that line, the Launcher XL Halo Hy-Wood seemed to get a bit lost in the shuffle…Part hybrid, part fairway wood, where does it fit in the bag?
When we put it to the test in the THP Tech Studio however, it quickly became one of the favorites and something that could help a lot of golfers. Bridging the gap from woods to irons has never been easy. Be it through higher lofted fairway woods, hybrids, utility irons, etc.
This new breed is upon us, something that could offer the distance of those higher lofted fairway woods, in a package that might just be easier to hit. Rather than continue to extoll the benefits, we hopped into the hitting bay to tell you all about it.
We kick off the video below, with an overhead view discussing some of the technology that makes the Hy-Wood unique. From there, we take some swings in the hitting bay of the Tech Studio and show the data and of course finish it up with the table view breaking down what you just saw.
After watching the video above, is this a club that would fit into your bag? If so, where would it slot and what would it replace?
For more information on the Hy-Wood or any of the entire line of Cleveland Launcher XL, check out their website at www.clevelandgolf.com.
It’s a pretty easy club to hit for sure. Bout time!
geez no love haha
glad to hear it has made a strong first impression
I’ll have mine outside on Monday for the first time. Cannot wait!!!
Sorry @ddec ! I will bring you some Villa Italia the next time I’m in the Capital Region.
all is forgiven
Seriously, I’m shocked that this club isn’t in more bags of THP’ers. It’s so good.
I’ll keep banging the drum that this club as big of a game changer as the 460cc driver and first standard hybrids.
I said “oh my goodness” after at least 3-4 shots that were just dead freakin’ straight. Soft landings.
I think I have my new security blanket.
I have the 4H and I just purchased the 3H an hour ago. There’s something about this line that’s so easy to hit. I have 2 nice Titleist TS2 hybrids that are perfectly fine that I’ve parked for these. I don’t care about the how or why I just love the IS that makes these clubs so easy to hit
I might have to begin my search for a Halo 5 hybrid. My local Golf Galaxy doesn’t have any of these. Will have to scour some of the pro shops in the area.
It was pretty consistent when I hit it. It’s definitely a club the majority of golfers should be gaming.
Off of the tee I can hit my UHX 5i 190+ yards and I think I have more in the tank as I chase speed this Spring. That said I’ve thought about getting the 5H to replace it as why do I want to work so hard when I can just swing easy clubs? I’m holding off though as I want to stay married lol
Again I don’t understand what’s going on with the clubs but they all go straight unless it’s a bad over the top swing which I did once with the Hy-Wood. I still nutted it though lol
The hybrids didn’t quite work as well for me. It’s funny, I was at the range on a random weekday afternoon (joys of working from home 4 days a week now) and there was a Cleveland demo tent.
I was actually looking for a replacement hybrid. I was in the middle of a dalliance with the G425 that wasn’t going well. I wasn’t crazy about the 4H. Didn’t even know about the Hy-wood at the time or test it. I heard about it a few weeks later and bought it without hitting it. It’s absolutely been the bag MVP in the 20 rounds I’ve played with it.
Which makes me wonder about the Cleveland driver. I’d hit the Launcher Turbo at a demo day a few years ago and loved it. If the driver was as easy to hit as the Hy-wood, I’d seriously consider it.
Great post especially using the word dalliance, I’ve only heard the word but never have seen it spelled out lol
I thought about the driver too but I’m not going to try it as I have a hunch all of these Cleveland hybrids spin a bit “too” much compared to an optimized shot..just a guess. I’m perfectly fine giving up some yards on long clubs off of the deck but I’m sticking to my TSi3 driver as I want max performance off of the tee. I’ve never been good with long irons or hybrids/fw off of the deck so I’m not going to get greedy.
This is my thinking at least.
I carry the XL Driver, 3,5,7 XL woods and rotate the Hywood in and out with my 7 wood depending on the course. I can attest that they all like to go very straight. I can draw them fairly easily but I have to really try hard to hit a cut with them. But 90% of the shots are try to hit are straight balls anyway. With all my love for these XLs I may just go for it and get the XL Hybrid Iron set as well. I’m tempted.
I have the same issue with the marriage thing. I am dropping $500-550 on a new driver in the next two weeks. I have been squirreling money away for 8 months to keep it off the radar from the wife. With two daughters in college spending $500 on a driver is not something the wife understands.
We need to hang out!! I use cash for two reasons, gambling on the course with the guys and buying clubs under the radar LOLOLOL
I know where you are coming from. I do the same thing for my club purchases for the same reason (I have a daughter in graduate school).
I used to also have a raging guitar habit. Buying guitars was also very difficult to do under the radar. A Gibson Les Paul is around $2500. Keeping that much money under the radar was very challenging.
Yeah but… you’re like a GOOD golfer. Or at least semi-decent, anyways
Now, when someone like ME can hit straight bullets, now we’re talking.
I agree completely. I’m literally attacking par 5s with my second shot or hitting straight shots off of the tee when I don’t need driver.
I’ve played more than 20 rounds with it. And every single round I’ve hit one of those big high soaring long shots that make it worth every penny.
When my driver has been shaky, I’ll just use it off the tee. I trust it so much out of the fairway that I’ve even played some long par 4’s knowing I can go Hy-wood/Hy-wood or Hy-wood/4H if I had to.
3 wood meh. 200 on great drives. 80-150 otherwise. Epic 3 wood was the same until I turned it to 17. A little better. 5 wood was a revelation. 190 on good strikes.
Finally bit on a Hy-Wood. Holy. Oh My. G. On an uphill lie where it was gonna sky ball, 170.
210 uphill and it went 215 that’s essentially driver distance. Means I gotta find a better driver.
and it’s so easy to hit. Something about this club it might not ever ever leave my quiver.
My fellow slow swingers know. When a fast swinger hits it and it just keeps rising with that penetrating flight? I never experienced that until this club. So weird.
Might drop 3/5 woods that’s how good this club is for me. Crazy.
I’m going to try it as soon as I can get on the course. I can’t wait to see the Hy-Wood in action.
The Hy-Wood is already at an incredible level of forgiveness, I wouldn’t be tempted in the least to cut down a fairway to replace it.
I’ve got a gap between my driver and G425 4H and this looks a great option.
So I’m planning to compare the Hywood with a 3H but have to patiently(!!) wait until the end of April when apparently it should be available in the UK.
As a fairway wood guy I play the Maltby ufw woods cut down 1.5-2". They have two rails and the only thing they could improve is forgiveness across the face. That’s where I would cut down the halo fairway or even try the Hywood. The Hywood 3 rail design looks like it could work very nice.
Drove up to apologize. Explained I thought there was absolutely no way they were in range from where I was hitting.
TLDR: I have the Bertha 3H but I never used it regularly because I could never get on with it. Was never an easy club for me to use. Just not a fit with the stock shaft. i’ve bounced around many woods and hybrids. I’ve now ditched them all and will be putting them all for sale except maybe a 4H. I hope they come out with a 4 and/or 5 Hy-wood. If they stop producing these I’m hoarding them. I’ve never said that about any club I’ve owned. And with family members at both Callaway and Taylormade I’ve owned a lot!
I’m not a fast swinger, and don’t get to play a ton (my golf sim is almost done though). I have had huge issues between driver and my 5 iron. Let’s just say for me, the hywood is on average, as long or even longer than all my woods and hybrids on normal shots. Yes, a nutted 3HL/3w/5w might be 10 yards longer. Yes the Hy-wood is so damn easy to launch that me, a line drive hitter with my woods, the Hy-wood sometimes gets too high. But I’m hitting 8-9/10 good shots with the Hy-Wood vs 4-6/10 with those other ones. Before if I was 200 out, I was just praying I hit a good one. At best I’ll roll onto the green (line drive). Or at least I’ll have a nice chance to get up and down. But more often then I want, I’ll duff it, and I’m still 120 out. My drives are like 230 total(that’s my swing, when I’m on, it’s like 240-250 but because I play rollout, not carry). If I’m 190-200 out, I’ve reached greens with this damn thing on the carry. It’s insane.
My quiver:
Taylormade M2 3HL (used to be my old faithful, but no more)
Epic 3W turned up to 16 and 17 depending.
Epic Flash 5w.
Epic Heavenwood (another old faithful, but even turned down, hit kind of high)
B21 3 Wood (too weird to look at that offset)
Gapr Hi 4, and 5
2019 Bertha 3H, and 4H.
I’ve been lucky to play quite regularly the last few weeks. My 6 rounds since getting the Hy-Wood, was just the Epic 3w for the tee, the Hy-Wood, and the Bertha 4H which I barely used. My last 3 rounds I left the 3w at home, and now only carry the Hy-wood and then the 4h. The 4h barely gets used because I don’t hit it was well. I’m literally just swinging all out vs smoother slower swings for the Hy-wood to fill the gap from driver to my irons lol. Thing is so money. My bad shots have been me leaving the face open (and the ball is to the right of the green) or doing my thing on uneven lies where I take a divot behind the ball (I’m a picker).
Are you guys able to vary the flight lower with ball position or some other technique? I do play woods a little bit up, not driver far, but behind that. My miss is an open club face so I’m always scared to move the ball back giving me less time to close the face (banana slice). Just wondering if I’m on an extra fluffy lie, or I want to hit it as far as possible on a par 5 with no hazards, if moving it back will actually lower the flight as a lot of our San Diego fairways are quite generous with roll. Not unheard of to have a drive carry 125 and roll another 100+ lol.
To prevent a pop up possibly try choking up a hair to keep from getting too steep on it.
With regards to ball flight maybe a bit behind where you normally hit it to flight it down a hair. All that said this is part of a lineup that’s all about game improvement and getting the ball in the air. I don’t think of them as naturally being workable as they’re really designed to provide a large forgiving face and a very straight ball flight. I know for my Cleveland UHX irons it’s really hard to keep the ball low especially from under some tree limbs. The ball is designed to go high from those GI clubs too.