Cleveland 290 10.5* Miyasaki 43 R Flex-Review

[freded]

Ok, my comments on my new Cleveland driver seemed to lead to a thread or threads that got a life of their own so thought it would be useful to start a separate thread with my thoughts on this driver.   I'd appreciate it if anyone who hasn't got anything useful to add just closes the thread down and moves on and the thread is left as a discussion of this club/shaft.

A little abit about my game etc.   I play off 4 (4.1 to be exact) and have been a Cat 1 golfer since about 2003.  Was around 7 handicap when I went to Uni and gave up golf for a few years but got back playing in around 1998 and handicap went up to 9.  Slowly got it down and finally broke through to Cat 1 in about 2003.  I've maintained that since and have been 4 for 3 years or so.  I play alot of competitive matchplay golfer and given I've been changing golf club memberships over the last year or so, I've not played many qualifiers recently (4 in whole of 2010) but I suspect my handicap is pretty accurate and I don't struggle to play to it, but I'm not burning it around under par either.

Others may be better placed to comment on my swing (Roland for example who has played with me numerous times) but while my swing isn't pretty, it repeats and one of my strengths is that I'm a fairly accurate driver of the ball.   I've got (I think) a very quick tempo but I don't have a fast swingspeed (less than 100mph with a driver).  My natural shape is a draw although my miss is a push right as opposed to a snap hook.   Accuracy isn't really an issue with drivers for me but getting a few extra yards would certainly help as it would put me in range of the five par 5s on my home course.

I've been fitted for various drivers over the years but have had most success with a Ping G10 9*, which I originally played with the stock TFC S flex shaft.   I had a fitting with Jason MacNiven in Oct 2009 when I got fitted for a TP5HD in a TM 460, which I then tried in a Supertri and eventually in a Ping G15.   Although this shaft felt great, I struggled to turn it over and I ended up playing the Ping G10 for most of last year, having reshafted it with an Oban Devotion 6, which I found easier to turn over.  I hate seeing the ball go right so anything that will help the draw pleases me and for that reason, open face clubs are pretty much a no-no for me.  Although its true that I like trying out clubs, I won't keep anything in the bag that doesn't perform.  I therefore tried at the end of last year an Adams 9064LS, Superfast TP and Cleveland DST, all of which didn't last for more than a round or so.   I tend to make my mind up about clubs pretty quickly and I tend to find that a club that doesn't initially work doesn't often get much better.

Anyway, I had a ball fitting at Srixon at the end of last year in Maidenhead and the chap (Dean) said to me that the Miyasakis which were coming out this year were likely to be pretty good for me.  I tried to get a fitting with Srixon in January but they didn't get the clubs in at the time the fitting was booked.   I therefore ended up at American Golf one night wanting to try some new drivers.  I tried the Razr Hawk Tour, FT9 and the Cleveland.  I wanted to try it in Stiff but then only had the R Flex in stock so I gave it a go.

The Cleveland 290 was by far the best and just seemed to want to hit very high shots that bore through the air and the club felt great at impact.  I bought it on the spot and I've now played around 10 rounds with it in the bag and probably 30 range sessions.

As several have found with this driver, it just seems to want to go straight.  However bad a swing I put on it, I'm finding it just stays pretty straight.  It launches very high but I'm finding that it just seems to cut through the wind and I've hit some of the longest drives I've hit for a long time.  Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, the bad ones still go a good distance.  I played two foursomes matches at the weekend and I really didn't feel I middled one driver in the two rounds but I was still hitting fairways and it was going a good distance (the sort of distance my good drives with the G10/Oban would go).  

The club is meant to sit fairly square although some are suggesting it sits a tad closed. As mentioned above, this is something that is never going to bother me and I can certainly confirm it doesn't sit open.  I also like the gold shaft which is like the Launchers of old.

Although the shaft is very light, given the high SW on these drivers (think its about D5), I think it feels like a hammer at impact and the ball just powers off the face.

I would really struggle to find any negatives about this driver and if you're on the look out for a new driver, it really is worth a go.  Clearly, it won't work for everybody but even if you traditionally don't like light graphite shafts, this driver may surprise you.  I've let several of the guys in my scratch team have a go with it-one was not able to hit it to save his life whereas a couple of others were amazed by the performance, esp after I told them they were hitting a R Flex shaft.

Reviews on the 3 wood and Mashies will follow once I've got more rounds under my belt with them but I'm also very impressed with those clubs as well.


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