Ok, So i've had this driver for almost a month now and have played it about 15 rounds and hit it on the range several times as well. So I guess it's time for a good in depth review.

I have a 9.5 degree witht he stock Fujikura (For the time being)

First off, looks - This driver doesn't bother me at all with it's looks. When i set up to the ball i'm consentrating on the ball and all i see is the shiloette (SP?) of the head with my perphrial (SP?) vision... so it looks, well, normal. The outline of the club is fairly standard with an almopst pearlike toe, but ia deeper from face to back profile. The sole might be a "520cc Chassis" butthe darn club is not big at all. I was thinking that they would get a bigger face on this thing with the way they eliminated some volume and make it bigger but it really appears MUCH smaller than some of the other heads on the market today like the Ignite, Sasquatch, Ping etc. In fact, if you put them on an overhead projector (soled onthe glass) i bet you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between an FT3 and this club.

The sound - Not a whole lot to say here, it is not real tinny... sort of like an old 200 series 3 wood when struck well.

Performance - There is somthing to be said about the ball flight here. It really is different than anything else. I hit everything high. I had been playing an SQ tour that i was really working on keeping lower to prevent it from balloning, so when i switched to this club i did hit it lower. After a couple of rounds i got back to my normal, more comfortable, swing... i hit it very high still. I hit it a little further than my old SQ (9.5 with a YS-Power) because the spin has dropped quite a bit, and my accuracy has improved a little as well. Well hit drives are now longer than they have been since last summer when i was hitting my Ignite VERY well. and the ground has not been dry here so that is a good sign of things to come when the fairways start to dry up. My launch angle with this club now is around 14 degrees with my avarage spin being around 2600rpm not too bad but for overall distance, and my swing speed, i need to get BOTH those numbers down a bit so I am going to change shafts to either a Prolite 35 or I might try a Bi-Matrx since they seem to be the hot thing right now.

I will update when i get a new shaft in this puppy.

I have a 10.5 degree Hi-Bore with a Fujikura Tour Platform 26.3. I got it last week, went to the range with it and played with a round with it. Didn't like it. So I went back to my Nike SQ.

Why the Fuji Tour Platform shaft? My PGA instructor/fitter told me to install a low or mid/low kick shaft for the Hi-Bore. The Hi-Bore is a very low spin driver. To maximize the Hi-Bore's potential, I needed a low or mid/low shaft to get a higher trajectory.

My problem with the Hi-Bore.........I had to change my swing to use it, and could not swing consistently to use it. The Hi-Bore requires you to hit it dead center. Most drivers, including my SQ and FT-3, needs you to hit it in the upper third of the face.

Here's the positives on the Hi-Bore. I love the sound, let's you know when you gave the ball a good smack. It's just as long as my Nike SQ. But dispersion down the range and fairway was tighter with the Hi-Bore, when it hit it right. I may still fiddle with it.

I love my 11.5 Hi-bore with the stock fuji but being the HO that I am I can't resist trying an Axiv shaft in this baby SSTpured. The Hi-bore does like to be hit dead center but for me that was just a matter of teeing the ball a little lower with the same swing.

Damn!! I shouldn't have given my tour issue Hi-Bore away. Missing it :tsg_smilie_sad:

Gave a tour issue Hi-bore away.......alrighty then!

Yep! Gave it away to my best friend who moved to Asia.

I have a tour issue hibore 9.5 with V2 stiff and love the flight and accuracy. Not any longer than my G2 with prolaunch stiff but straighter and much lower spin!

This post has been edited by jfzhorseman: Dec 3 2006, 07:41 PM

My previous driver was a Taylor Made R5 Dual TP 8.5* Neutral Bias set on a YS-7 TSX (Tour X Stiff) at 45.5 inches, I had this driver for 4 years and it was originally set in a Taylor Made R580 8.5 head which I had replaced 3 times because of cracked faces. The last time I sent it in to TM for repair it came back with the upgraded Dual head which was cool. Until I put it in play only to find problems leading me to believe that shaft was breaking down and the mounting was wrong. My accuracy was nowhere to be found and the overall performance was lacking. So I had it tossed on the Flex Meter to find the Kick and frequency which came out to be 273 (280 new) which was odd and the head mount was off forcing the club to move in a circular motion rather than UP/DOWN. Before it was sharp and accurate using the 400cc head of the 580 and I was happy.

Since that time, I have been getting very untrusting and erratic outcomes off the tee within the last few months (Feb, Mar, Jun) after getting it back from TM. So, I visited my local Golf Galaxy as usual to refit the head and to talk with friends in the biz and try out some of the gear they have in stock. While I was waiting to have the shaft and head reworked and balanced, the store manager (Jocelyn) mentioned that the Tour Vans for TM, PING, Callaway, Titleist/cobra, Nike, and Cleveland would be having fitting/demo days on consecutive Saturdays starting May 30th. She knew of my struggles to find a good shaft head combo outside of the store and thought the Tech Van's would be my best option for success.

TM was first followed by Nike, Callaway, PING, TList/Cobra, and then Cleveland. A trend started to work itself into the fitting sessions the further I went along in my search for a new shaft and driver. This was positive reinforcement that I was not the owner of a disastrous swing and cleared me of being at fault. All the fitters mentioned the same shaft for me to use but, the issue in every session was with spin and that dictated which head/shaft I should use. Nike was out of the running almost immediately, Taylor Made wanted me to do too much manipulation to the shaft and head in order to bring my spin down, Titleist/Cobra were great heads Cobra with better distance and TList with better playability but both had to much spin still. PING, and Callaway were perfect in every facet but the spin was still a tad to high. I was about to go the FT-5 Tour N route when Jocelyn contacted me by phone and told me she scheduled a fitting session with Cleveland the next Saturday to try out the New Hi-Bore XL head. That Saturday came and I worked with Cleveland for about 15 minutes, right away , the rep threw a Hi-Bore XL Tour 8.5* head at me in a Diamana 83 X Blueboard, after about 5 cuts on 2 other shafts (VS Proto, V2), Launch was ideal, flight was piercing, spin was WAAAYYYY low (2300 to 2550), the accuracy was so close I actually started to laugh at how tight I was keeping my shot pattern, distance was unfairly long and forgiveness and feel made me believe I was centering everything that got in the way of the head. I could care less how the head looked, if it performed this well it was in my mind the finest looking thing since Jessica Simpson! I have had the new driver in play 2 weeks total on the Diamana Whiteboard 83 X and those rounds played have been the most positive and mentally confident rounds off the tee that I can ever recall. The best thing I could ever have done for myself was to demo with all the OEM's to find what was right for me. This is the route I will follow each and every time I plan on fitting myself for clubs in the future! I wish all the other major O E M's the best but for me Cleveland has the best performing head in the Biz hands down!!

DoubleAA
Aaron Morris

Hi all. Thinking of purchasing a Hibore XL. But am wondering if anyone can help me
with some specs,like how many deg offset does it have (dont like too closed faces) and
also how heavy is the clubhead? Is it a high spin head? Think of pairing it with my Matrix
Vcon 6 shaft. Any opinions or suggestions? Thanks for any help you can offer. Thanks

As far as I can see, there is no offset with Hi Bore XL. I have the XL 10.5* which I think it is 1 degree closed. The 9* should be square although it is not spec out. The Tour model is 1* open. I replaced the stock shaft with a White Board and it was a very heavy D6. Had to counter-balance back to D3. It was done in the dead of winter here in Toronto so I actually dont have a chance to test it out yet.