50 Words or Less
With a stealthy look and aerodynamic design, the Cleveland HB Launcher Turbo fairway wood is hard to beat for looks and ball speed. Draw bias and a reasonable price.
Introduction
After being impressed with the Cleveland Launcher HB Turbo driver (review HERE), the bar was set pretty high for its smaller sibling – the fairway wood. What I discovered beyond the familial resemblance was a club with its own personality.
Looks
The Cleveland HB Launcher Turbo is one of the best looking fairway woods of 2019. The matte black and smoky grey finishes, coupled with the black Miyazaki shaft and accented with a few red paintfills, provides a lot of eye appeal. The three ridges and micro nubs on the crown plus the numerous angular levels on the sole create a stealthy look. It’s not extreme, but the club head sets up a tad closed to my eye.
Sound & Feel
While the driver is boisterous, the Cleveland HB Launcher Turbo fairway has a modest volume, medium pitch metallic crack. The sound is consistent over a large impact area and trends towards a click beyond that.
Mirroring the sound element, feel in the hands was very consistent – not much feedback. Hovering the club, the head felt a bit heavy but changed to a balanced, fluid feel when swinging with the counterbalanced Miyazaki C. Kua 50 shaft.
Performance
Three separate sessions with the Cleveland HB Launcher Turbo fairway helped me to get a complete picture of the performance of this club. During my first experience, late on a Sunday afternoon before the range closed, I was able to hit only about a dozen golf balls utilizing a low tee. I wrote down three words: high, straight and long. A few days later, I visited Club Champion to gather data and struggled with a low hook. The next week, back outside off grass, the 3 wood performed really nicely. The hook was now a controlled, mid-high draw. When swinging for a fade, the ball flew high and straight.
Piecing together all the information brings me to conclude that the HB Launcher Turbo fairway is designed to fight the right and loves the ball sitting up a bit. With a fixed hosel, it’s understandable that Cleveland Golf designers tended toward helping golfers hit a draw. The weight savings from not having an adjustable hosel, combined with the namesake HiBore Crown, allowed the designers to position weight deep and low in the head. That’s great for high launching trajectories, consistent ball speeds and targeted spin when contact is reasonable.
Conclusion
I’ve given you a lot to digest, but the bottom line is that the Cleveland HB Launcher Turbo fairway wood will perform well off anything more than a hardpan lie. As with any club, seeing how it performs for you is paramount. The engineer in me is a bit uneasy about the turbo nomenclature, but this great looking club is definitely deserving of such a distinctive name.
Cleveland Launcher HB Turbo Fairway Price & Specs
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ONLY 164 yards of carry with a 3 wood? I’m NOT impressed with that kind of performance from a fairway wood at all. I get 205 carry from my 24* 9 wood that I carry. My 8 iron as just a few yards shorter than this 3 wood you tested. I’m fat and old and I get a lot more yardage from my 18* 5 wood than you’re getting from this 3 wood. I think I’ll stick with my old and much less expensive fairway woods.
Thanks for the comments Don. As you noted, performance wasn’t impressive when I was gathering the data for the chart. It was greatly improved outdoors. If you ever get the opportunity, hit this club and give us your impressions.
– Meeks
Great review Matt! I appreciate your honesty, and unbiased evaluations of the clubs you report on. At age 70 and with Stage 4 Prostate cancer I would be very happy with 164 yds carry from a 3W. I used to hit my Ping G400 Max 3W about 180 (carry). That’s history. I’m now looking for a fairway wood that can help me retain whatever distance I can for as long as I can continue to play golf. I live in the Orlando area, too, and am going to try them out at the PGA Tour Superstore and/or Edwin Watts on Turkey Lake Road. I need a lighter shaft. This club may be the answer to help buy me some more golf time. Keep the great reviews coming!
Not as long as others, but forgivable, and much easier to hit off the deck than other 3 woods I’ve played. Loss of distance is maybe 10 yards, but the ease of use greatly has outweighed the distance.