Ask your average Pinoygolfer what driver is at the top of his mind and you’ll get the usual answers; Callaway, TaylorMade, Honma/Beres, Titleist, PXG or Cobra. I’ll wager precious few of you think about Cleveland Golf when it comes to choosing a new driver. That would be a mistake, because not only does Cleveland Golf build a very, very good driver in their new Launcher HB Turbo, but it comes at a price well below that of its competition.
The Launcher brand was always closely aligned with distance off the tee. Cleveland had retired the Launcher name but pressed it back into service two years ago. In 2020, they decided it was time to turbocharge the new Cleveland driver.
First this Launcher looks like none of its predecessors. The matte finish with aerodynamic flicks on the crown gives the Launcher Turbo HB a pseudo-industrial look and feel, much in the way that PXG and the current Ping G-series drivers do. But the Launcher Turbo HB looks meaner.
The engineers then squeezed discretionary weight out of every corner of the head in order to produce one of the most forgiving drivers Cleveland has ever made. That’s a pretty big claim since Cleveland has always made very forgiving drivers.
When you’re working with something as small as a 200-gram driver head, every gram is of consequence. Although golf equipment companies have worked diligently to carefully position every gram of weight where it will do the most good, the hosel is the one part of the clubhead that often escapes scrutiny.
One of the most wasteful parts of any clubhead is the hosel. The original Cleveland Launcher HB was not adjustable, which meant it was already saving some mass, but the engineers at Cleveland went a step further with the new HB Turbo and implemented more than just one technology beyond the hosel to try and find us more speed with this driver.
Cleveland is using a new cup face design in the Launcher HB Turbo driver. Although they cannot make the center of the clubface any faster, Cleveland engineers redesigned the face with a new variable face thickness to provide higher CT (characteristic time) over a larger area for increased ball speeds and more distance because nobody hits the middle every time.
Then there’s the crown. The newly shaped crown on the Launcher HB Turbo lowers the CG (center of gravity) by a full 2.2mm when compared to the Launcher HB. This improves overall forgiveness and helps to better optimize launch parameters for shots hit all over the face.
The new Launcher HB Turbo is being paired with a new proprietary high-balance point Miyazaki C. Kua shaft. By raising the center of gravity closer to the grip end of the club, players have the ability to swing the driver faster, even though more mass has been added to the head to give the Launcher HB Turbo a significant boost in MOI.
It’s good to see the techs look beyond the clubhead and consider the whole driver as a system. The better the whole system works together, the better you are going to hit the ball. It’s also beneficial that Cleveland is under the SRI Sports Umbrella, which also includes Srixon and Miyazaki. Miyazaki shafts are extremely high quality and are all proprietary to SRI products.
You’d expect a driver with this degree of technology to cost in the neighborhood of P30,000 neighborhood, but this is where Cleveland really surprises. The Cleveland Launcher Turbo HB with the Miyazaki shaft of your choice will set you back just P21,500 brand new from any of the Srixon Proshops. Brilliant value by any measure.