I Have had good success with Cleveland drivers. I Purchased launcher DST with a Diamana red. The shaft was the 44vSL Stiff and 46" long. The head has great eye appeal,looks open. The only way I could keep it in the fairway was to be overly aggressive thru impact.I could not smooth a drive.The kick point on this shaft is low and I seemed to generate alot of spin.46" Is just too long for me.I will reshaft with a mid- kick shaft at 45" and a bit heavier. I have built many clubs over the years. This was an experiment,looking forward to re-shafting. The purchase was well worth it.I am a 6 handicap with low ball flight.
My experience with this driver says it's good for the better player. I used to think it was all in the swing and the clubs had a very small impact on ball flight. That's right and wrong. Let me explain. I have two drivers that I game. A Callaway RAZR X Black and this Cleveland Launcher DST. Good swings or bad swings, the RAZR keeps the ball in play. Nothing crazy long but no crazy hooks or slices, either. Just a fairly high and straight drive around 250yds. Maybe on a good day I can hit 270yds. The DST is a bit more temperamental. After a lesson/tune-up with my guy, I absolute crush the DST hitting a much lower ball flight that rises slowly before coming down. On a good day, the DST drives the ball 300yds and dead straight. On a bad day, the DST is all over the place. And that makes it a long day. If you have a consistent swing and keep the ball straight, the DST could give some extra distance.Read full review
Well like any other driver, if you try to kill it you get bad results, if I stay down on it if goes good. Its not really that forgiving on mis-hits, I think the deep face does not get the ball airborn quick. I have hit some beauties with it and some real uglies. I did get A-Flex and it might be a little to weak for me esp. if I try to really crank one, my normal swing speed is around 85, but I can go over 95 and that is when it goes goofy. The club is very light you get some feel, but compared to my irons it's a feather weight. I use blades with D-3 swingweight....
I have talked to someone recently who had just hit the new Cleveland DST driver and was really impressed with how light it was. He was especially impressed with it on the test range. I picked up a 2009 model with a 47 gram Diamanna shaft on ebay for less that a 1/3 of the MSRP. I will too agree this driver is hot. I had been using a TaylorMade R9 up until this point but it has taken a back seat to this Cleveland. I have found it very easy to swing and is fairly forgiving dispite the fact that it is a 9.5 degree model. I would imagine the 10.5 is even more forgiving. I'm in the market now for a mathcing 3 wood.
Thought I needed a change from my Ping G5 12 degree Pro Launch Blue Reg shafted driver. Am 66 year ol golfer and thought lighter would be better, but that wasn't the case. I think the Cleveland DST is a fine driver, but it did not outperform the Ping. I used the DST for 3 rounds and have since gone back to the Pingg. Don't discount the DST if you want a truly light feeling driver. Classic looks are a plus, too.