FIRST LOOK! – 2012 Cleveland CG Black Irons

I just bought them as a gift. They look good, feel good and play good … And the confidence builds up with positive prospects for more improvement. I guess it’s quite personal but I’m happy i got them.

Gotta agree w/ Deano on this one. I’m a 6 handy and have looked about a month for some new sticks. Tried em all: AP1, AP2, R11, Rbz, Callaway RZR, the Blacks. It was no contest, Blacks had better feel, picked up a few yards, was actually able to work the ball both ways which shocked me. Went with the NS steel shaft as graphite too light. Picked up a set and love them. Don’t mind an opinion if you’ve tried the club, but these tools who base theirs on a photo, that’s silly.

All iron manufacturers have pretty much adopted the same concept of perimeter weighting in their design and you be a fool if you hadn’t. They all have subtle differences that can only be evaluated through trying them for feel. I play off a 4 Hcp & have hit many irons trying out new clubs, but I can tell you these are WOW! If these are made for seniors then long may I be a senior at only 49. Don’t compare these to CG16’s. They’re o.k. like a lot of irons today, but the Blacks are supremely balanced. I was repeatedly hitting a 6 iron 162m with rubber range balls like darts & on the computer graphics landing them within a 3-4 meter circle. That repetition is like fantasy golf. The titanium face feels amazing at impact. The only other iron that compared was the XXIO’s at twice the price. I also tested the Callaway RZR, Taylor Made Rocketballs, CG16. Guys, I suggest you get out of your chairs and down to the range. They’re making this game too easy to play. I will be passing on my Taylor Made R7XD’s to my son this week and buying the Cleveland Blacks this week. If only the Browns could play as well as these Blacks. Maybe they should change their name.

Pretty harsh comments since you haven’t even tested the club. Have you seen it in the flesh or are you commenting on a crapy photo. They are not what i am looking for but to say this is copy is a joke. How many manufacturers have chunky heel/toe waiting, as they mostly all do on high game improvement irons. No one even thinks about buying Cleveland these days? Pretty opinionated for an independant website. Have you ever tested one of their iron offerings? I was looking for a review on the cg 16 pro irons and found these comments, but not one test of any of their irons they have on your site, or any for that matter.Do Cleveland offer you clubs to test? Let us know or don’t you bother asking them for test sets as you have a hype problem with their label.

Looking at upgrading my irons( mizuno mx 200s) and looking for some independent advice on the cg16 and cg16 pro, plus mizuno jpx825 and 825 pro.
I have read your site for years, and thought it was a good sorce of non opinionated views, until I read this and the follow up comments considering you have no test data on any of their irons, ever?

i realy dont know as much as you guys about all the companies and what they do, dont even know what does what. what i do know is that today i went to alfs golf and tries out the rbz, burners 2.0 some new cobras, the ap1, g 20 and the cg black. i loved the cg blacks over all of them by far. im buying them tomorrow. the only thing that i dont like is that they are aparently for seniors and im only 33. only been playing for a little less than 2 years and play callaway ft irons. these are much better for me.

Two days ago I was able to demo the Cleveland Black irons in Florida. I am a high handicapper and currently play Callaway Diablo Edge irons. The Cleveland Black irons went slightly farther than my Diablos and much straighter. I am looking for another demo opportunity to confirm that this wasn’t just a fluke–if the Black irons still outperform my Diablos I will have to think seriously about buying the Blacks.

I also hit the Cleveland Black driver, which did not outperform my Diablo Edge driver, so no reason to consider changing.

The Cleveland Black fairway woods went slightly farther and slightly straighter than my Diablo Edge woods–not enough of a difference in performance to warrant switching.

All of the Cleveland Black clubs felt slightly easier to hit than my Diablo Edge clubs; I think this is because of the lighter Black shafts and grips.

Cleveland Black clubs do not include hybrids because of the overlap of woods and irons; I did try some Cleveland clubs called Mashies, which look a bit like hybrids, are shorter than woods and go almost as far as the Black woods. I am happy with my Callaway Diablo Edge hybrids, so no reason to consider switching, though the Mashies were interesting and I might try to demo them in comparison against my hybrids.

It probably is hard to create anything revolutionary as far as appearance, but SERIOUSLY??? That IS the COBRA SZ iron with a new paint job, and a new badge in the cavity, and a sweet Miyazaki. They may not have sat down and intentionally ripped off COBRA, but its obvious they were looking at them. I would just think that as big as Cleveland is, someone with a little bit of golf expertise in the irons department would have noticed the resemblence. On the same note, if your going to blatantly copy something, at least improve on it! It looks worse than the SZ!

At this point, it’s hard to create anything that you can’t compare to something else. How many times have you described something as being like x, or x crossed with y (with a little bit of z)?

There is plenty that is different about the club, and if you disagree, you aren’t looking hard enough.

It does have some resemblance King Cobra SZ. But I’m certain they didn’t sit down at a table and have a meeting about who to rip off.

Have never played those milled faces, but they look super!

They look like a reversal of the Burners with the center of the sole in instead of out.

Printing text on the face of an iron=back to drawing board.

I wouldn’t care how good this thing hit the ball…it’s butt ugly imo.
Not comparing it to blades either…comparing it to other chunky player improvement irons.

Back to drawing board on aesthetics at least. Blech.

wow Bill don’t get your panties in a bunch….. all i said is it looks like a……..does this offend you?

I think most of you are crazy : )

I like the looks of them. From other pictures I have seen they look nice at address. Not to mention they come stock with the new Miyazaki C Kua graphite iron shaft. I can’t wait to give them a shot. I thought the CG16 was a good iron, can’t wait to try these.

What a shame. Has Cleveland R+D been outsourced too? If you want to save money, let some high school kids figure it out. Give them extra credit in shop class and buy them a case of beer. Not called the Mistake on the Lake for nothing I guess. Clubs are diarrhea.

i agree, with my man fatz here, i gamed ta1 blade’s for awhile, and use 2 cally x wedge’s currently, this crap here is awful, i can design better golf club’s than this. this is a pretty sad sight to see. roger is laughing is ass off, with all the money, callaway is paying him right now !

Wow, looks like this, looks like that,….man if anyone is a bunch of followers, it’s everyone who writes on these forums. One opinionated caption underneath a bad picture and and y’all start following the leader like you can produce a half decent comment for yourself. Same goes for every product that gets put up on this site. And IM willing to bet y’all will delete my post because this hurts your little feelings. IM going to say that these are a nice looking set of clubs that Cleveland is putting out this year, and I wont go any further because I tend to try things before I go and knock it. Rodger Cleveland started out making replicas people … thats right someone else designs… he sold the company because he couldn’t hold himself up with a knife and a block of wood with the new technology of computers breaking through in the golf world. And if you honestly think he went to Callaway, designed and hand made every club they sold after that you need to learn your facts of the industry. Anyways i always root for the underdog to succeed because if you don’t, you will all see taylormade clubs in your bags while everyone else is out of business… More money =, more research, more tour players, more ads, more market, more BS gimmicks … list goes on my friends.

Still probably nothing on the Raptures….

Cleveland is losing it because Roger left. End of story.

Anyone notice Callaway wedges went from Horrible to “Hey, i’d game those” ???

Not to mention their forged players’ line is arguably some of the best available out there these days whereas Cleveland forged is not the TA’s I druled about years ago. Not even close.

Let’s see if Concept A and B drivers rumoured are anything special.

hmm titanium face?? havent seen that in an iron in a long time… leas that i can remember

It really does appear as though Cleveland has looked at every other golf company for their inspiration for club design. There does not seem to be any originality in a single one of their clubs coming out next year. How could a company with this much money behind them allow this to happen?

looks more like an acer xf

AP1 or AP2 part duex in the back

Looks just like the cobra sz. Come on Cleveland, get something new

Burner redux.