Every now and again

Every now and again something happens that makes me thing I have yet to achieve what I am truly supposed to be on this earth to do, and today I opened my email to receive a mail from a good friend of mine who is a caddy.

I have attached the photo below so you can see why I am completely jealous of her this week and think she truly does have the worlds best job sometimes:

Yes she is at the Masters this week, not only is she there but she gets to see all the action close up as you can see she is caddying this week as well.

Now having spent some of the week with Janet during the Andalucia Open two weeks ago I can tell you that being a caddy is not a glamorous position and that a great deal of it is standing around while your golfer practices before you have to carry their clubs around the course that you would rather be playing. It does however have other advantages as you will see from the photographs on Janet’s Caddie Travel website where she sells and promotes her photography from around the globe.

Thanks for making me jealous bloke stuck in rainy Spain this week Jan! )

From Deadly Quiet to Manic Busy!

We are back and back with a vengeance! As we said in our first March posting we have been working on a number of ideas for the website during the months past but it is only in the past few weeks that we have taken time to look at the direction we need to move in to provide you all with the information and service that you demand.

So this has seen me off on a course to learn a little about video and how to point a camera, its still not perfect but it is much better than it was. I have also managed to get a few more demo days lined up which I will be attending with the camera by my side to ask as many questions as I possibly can.

Easter Sunday just around the corner and some important events coming up in the golfing world. To follow this that week we will be taking a spin around Club de Golf Aloha which will see the European Tour take to its fairways once more this year. We will be chatting with members who play the course week in and week out as well as some of the top players in the game and will be asking if it is possible to stop Tiger Woods this season.

So even though it has been a little quiet here at Online Golfer this month so far there is plenty to come and it is going to be a busy summer I can promise you that.

The Coming Month on Online Golfer

Over the past 3 months I have been reviewing golf clubs like there was no tomorrow, and spending an awful lot of time writing reviews and hints and tips. I have seen visitors grow from about 300 a month to well over 300 a day (close to 14,000 unique visitors in Feb alone) and many of you seem to be coming back so I thought as today was the first day of a brand new month I would take a look at the month ahead and give you a heads up of what is coming.

A slightly new approach this month as reviews will be looking at some of the more outrageous products on the market such as some of the strange putter designs that Nike have been producing.

I will also be interviewing some of the Caddy’s on the European tour, they are the ones that really know what is happening and we will be introducing a photo blog and possibly some videos shot from the inside of the tour. The best bit of all is that it would seem that the Caddy (who for now shall remain a secret) has the full support of the European Tour to do all of this.

On the subject of the European Tour, we will be heading up to the Marbella event at Club de Golf Aloha to give you a slightly different view this year, we are going to give you a video tour so you know what it is all about.

While we are at the event we will be bringing you updates direct from the course onto the blog as well as, all being well and video camera permitting, interviews with players. The event this year even though the entry list is still open should pull a very exciting field this year as the event is two weeks before The Masters at Augusta so all the major players will be using this event and that in Portugal the week after as a warm up.

We will also be introducing some guest writers and bringing you a whole bunch of new hints and tips. There is also news of a shop on the horizon with discounts and great deals. The aim is to really celebrate the month of our first birthday in style and we are looking forward to sharing all of this with you. Make sure you grab our RSS feed and keep up to date with what is going on.

Golf Club Review Cleveland Hibore XLS Gold 2008 Driver

Golf Club Review

Its been a busy week for me, as I mentioned on twitter to Golf Girl Patricia Hannigan earlier this week the weather has changed back to blue skies and fantastic sunshine and it has been a complete return to the course and getting in as much golf as possible. So it was time for me to take the Cleveland Hibore XLS out on the course for a proper outing.

Having already taken the Cleveland Hibore XL 2007 out to the range in the pooring rain I have to say I am a little impressed at the smooth look and feel of the club. It sits right in your hands and has a natural look to it even with its sunken back.

Sales bumph below:

Cleveland Hibore XLS Gold 2008 Driver – RH Graphite Higher inertia = more consistency across the face = more shots go longer and straighter = tighter shot dispersion down the range.Introducing the new XLS series from Cleveland Golf. With Distance Driven Geometry, Full Face Performance, and and Energy Transfer Core, this entire line of clubs is bound to have you playing and looking your best. Distance Driven Geometry: Moves weight lower and deeper in the club head. This optimized Center of Gravity location aligns the Center of Gravity Projection with the C.O.R. Hot Spot in the center of the face, resulting in optimal launch conditions and greater overall distance. Full Face Performance: Alignment of Sweet Spot and C.O.R. Hot Spot produces optimal launch conditions over a large area of the face, maximizing ball-speed for increased driving distance. Energy Transfer Core: An engineered system of thin, lightweight titanium spines directs impact energy to the ball to create more efficient energy transfer and high ball speeds from impact locations. HiBORE XLS Draw Driver: This club is designed for players who tend to fade or slice. A forward hosel design, internal heel weighting, and a draw biased face combine to eliminate slices and maximize distance. A 3o closed face promotes a draw flight. At 17% larger than the HiBORE XL, the face is Cleveland’s largest ever and among the biggest on the market. Full Face Performance (FFP) extends the “Hot Zone” of maximum .830 COR across a larger portion of the face creating more distance from both solid shots and mishits alike. Features maximum USGA club head dimensions to push the MOI limit. 5300 MOI represents a 13% increase from the HiBORE XL for control off the tee leading to straighter drives. Heel and toe “stability foils” signify where weight has been added to the perimeter of the clubhead to maximize stability. Gold Standard Trajectory Shaft: Low-Mid kickpoint and active tip section for increased launch angle. Higher ball speed and optimal trajectory results in maximum distance with smooth feel at impact.

Now the first thing I noticed about this club is the club head it is massive compared to the 2007 version. The Cleveland Hibore XLS 2008 has a club face that is around (according to the bumph) 17% larger than the previous version. This means it has a larger sweet spot and is a lot more forgiving for those golfers looking to take their club head speed up a level and still get the control.

The technology the club uses means that the weight from the back of the club is channeled directly into the sweet spot giving a greater control of the club face at point of impact.

At the moment there are so many new drivers hitting the market it is impossible to say that any of them don’t meet up to being a good club to have in your bag because of the fact that technology is making clubs better and easier to use. The Cleveland Hibore XLS Gold is no exception its not as long as the Nike Sumo2 SQ 5900 Driver but because of the size of the club face the control is in my opinion as good. One special thing that Cleveland have added is a little hologram that turns yellow to show that the club is genuine see if the fakers can crack that one. Cost of the club is around $299 and I personally feel it is a good driver.

The Cleveland HiBore XL 460 Ti Gold Driver

Golf Club Review

I am a fairly big fan of the Cleveland lob wedges but have always steered clear of their other clubs, so seeing the Cleveland HiBore CL 460 Ti with the Gold shaft in the pro shop today it was time to break the norm and take it for a test. Its out on the covered range for the test as the weather is still bad and the course is alas closed.

Now I am used to a driver being a large club head and I am slowly coming around to the new HiBore designs that have the dipped back, which gives in my opinion better ball control. The Cleveland Hibore XL 460 Ti has this very design and as in my previous experience with the clubs of this design it has that control but it also has a few differences that surprised me a little.

First off some sales bumph below:

Cleveland HiBore XL 460 Ti Gold Driver – RH Graphite The Cleveland HiBORE XL driver features a special geometry that moves weight lower and deeper into the clubhead, optimizing the center of gravity (CG) location for ideal launch conditions. For maximum ball speed, the XL has a larger sweet spot compared to traditional large-volume drivers and, paired with the deep CG, its high moment of inertia (MOI) increases stability on off-center hits. The result is greater overall distance and tighter shot dispersion over the entire face. Distance Driven Geometry: Moves weight lower and deeper in the clubhead to optimize CG location with the C.O.R. Hot Spot for optimal launch conditions. Full Face Performance: Alignment of the Sweet Spot with the C.O.R. Hot Spot produces optimal launch conditions for efficient energy transfer High Moment of Inertia: High MOI and deeper CG provide increased stability on off-center hits, leading to greater distance and a tighter shot dispersion over the entire face. Gold Shaft Low/Mid Kick Point 60g Shaft 3.5 Torque

The club gives good control of each shot and when hitting slightly off centre it is forgiving as with most clubs these days, but the Cleveland HiBore XL Driver also has a good control of trajectory. What I mean by this is with different tee heights still produced a solid trajectory of the ball, this isn’t always the case but I found this club very consistent.

The one thing I did find with the Cleveland HiBore XL Ti was that when I tee’d up for a lower trajectory and a slightly topped ball missed the sweet spot completely and resulted in what can only be described as ugly sound and an even uglier shot, this wasn’t forgiving.

Overall though a nice club and more affordable than some of the other clubs as it currently has $100 off due to the release of the new driver Cleveland have released, which I will be taking a look at next week, when I hope the weather is a little better than when I tested the Cleveland HiBore XL 460 Ti Driver cause to say I got wet was an understatement even under the covers of the range!