UPDATE : Enter to Win a Cleveland Niblick!
Unless you were born prior to 1940, you probably don’t know what Niblick is? According to Wikipedia, “The name comes from the old golf-club naming convention according to which the short-irons or “approach clubs” were known as “Mashies” and the very well lofted club was called the Niblick.” So when Cleveland Golf announced it was releasing the Cleveland Niblick, I was really curious to see what they would come up with. Classic Concept, Modern Design. The Niblick combines the best features of a wedge, putter, iron and hybrid to create the ultimate hybrid scoring club. ” I’ve been using the Cleveland Niblick 10 (42 degrees of loft) for the past thirty days and really like how versatile this hybrid scoring club, despite its strange shape.
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- Cleveland Niblick Profile
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- Cleveland Niblick Zip Grooves Face
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- Cleveland Niblick Top View
Look and Feel
In order to make the Cleveland Niblick the ultimate hybrid scoring club, Cleveland golf had to incorporate the best features from a wedge, putter, iron, and hybrid. The Niblick is a little odd looking at first when you view it at address, and notice the alignment guide/fin protrude from the back of the club, similar to a mallet putter. It only takes a few uses of the Niblick, to begin to appreciate how easy it is to setup and align the clubface on your chips and pitches. The other similarity to a putter, is in the 35″ length of the True Temper Actionlite Wedge flex 110 Gram steel shaft. The shorter length in shaft, makes the Cleveland Niblick very easy to chip and pitch your shots. The clubface and sole of the club utilize the best properties of the wedge with 8* of bounce in the sole and Zip Grooves in the face of the club for shot consistency and maximum amount of spin.
An iron leading edge to hosel transition for a natural address position and Cleveland Golf’s Gelback (a lightweight, visco-elastic, vibration-damping material) is placed in the back cavity, directly behind the hitting area of the clubface. The Gelback is vibration-tuned to remove unwanted vibration on mis-hits, while still allowing the player necessary feedback from the clubhead for a soft yet responsive feel. The hybrid component of the Niblick uses an increased heel-toe blade length, perimeter weighting, and CG depth to increase MOI to improve consistency. This is really helpful on those full swing approach shots.
Performance
The 42 degrees of loft on the Cleveland Niblick 10, make this club best suited for fast greens and undulating courses. The higher loft of the Niblick is going to give you shots that fly at an higher trajectory and have more spin on pitches and approach shots for better control. On a full swing your going to get Pitching Wedge distance. The Niblick is designed to used in four types of scoring shots and those are: Chip, Pitch, Approach, and Recover (C.P.A.R. System).
The Chip shot, is one area where the Cleveland Niblick really performed flawlessly during my tests. The putter like setup and wedge sole make this club very easy to hit chip shots with. The alignment guide and head weight, made it so simple to aim my chips and stop worrying about missing and focus on scoring. Pitching was equally as easy, thanks to the combination of putter length of the shaft, lie, the loft of the club, and Zip Grooves for enhanced shot control. My 20 yard pitches would fly at such an nice trajectory into the air and stop on dime thanks to the amount of spin imparted by the Zip Grooves. I always felt in control on those shots and knew exactly how the ball was going to behave once I hit my shot. I had similar results with my approach shots. The larger and more stable clubhead of the Cleveland Niblick, made my approach shots very consistent and accurate, especially from 40 – 50 yards. The other benefit of the using the Niblick on approach shots, is you can make full swings with the club and get pitching wedge distances and gain the added benefit of superior shot stopping power of the Zip Grooves. I would easily use the Cleveland Niblick in situations when I need pitching wedge distance (for me thats ~ 110 yards) and spin for better control.
In recovery shots or bad lie situations, the Niblick did a decent job of hitting out of moderate rough, thanks to the 8 degrees of bounce in the sole and soft leading edge. There were a couple of situations during testing that the Niblick 10 higher loft was not best suited for punching my shots out of the deep rough. I would probably would liked to use the lower lofted Niblick 9 (37 degrees of loft) for those situations or just use a regular iron. Overall I think the Cleveland Niblick does an excellent job of combining all the best features of a wedge, putter, iron, and hybrid. All in all, I really liked testing the Cleveland Niblick 10 and believe that it’s truly a unique and extremely innovative short iron hybrid that you should consider purchasing.
Cleveland Niblick 10 Specs:
Loft: 42*
Lie: 67*
Bounce: 8*
Shaft: True Temper Actionlite Wedge Flex
Length: 35″
Cleveland Niblick retails for $109
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Great club!! Allows you to shave strokes from your overall game.
Absolutely versatile. I got rid of P and 9 iron from my bag. I don’t know why Cleveland does not make a full set of iron with Niblick disign.
A usefull review that should be the guide for all product reviews on golf sites. I read, or start to read, too many that wax poetic about the user’s prowess but never get to the meat of the matter, i.e., how and when to use the club. Cleveland has a new customer, and I’ll wow the crowd just by saying the word Niblick… it’s got a nice ring to it.
I liked the idea of the Niblick but thought I’d wait & see how they fared after the 1st year of production. Happily enough I bought a barely used LH Niblick 10 (42*). After a little practice I found that it does exactly what Cleveland designers said it would. Perfect for chipping & long pitches. The “Zip Grooves” are very close to the “square grooves” of my older Ping Eye2′s-stop on a dime. I would highly recommend this club for anyone who loves to bump & run, etc. I hope that the company will make a LH 37* version in the future!
I have the 42 degree version and having tested it on full shots (i.e. 110 – 125 yards) I have removed my PW and 9 iron from my bag. Apart from the consistency achievable at this distance, the Niblick really excels in the fluffy rough found around so many greens. I previously used an 8 iron for these shots, but the slightly heavier weight and design of the Niblick has meant that these shots are so much easier, with less chance of the club getting stuck in the grass. From 30 to 50 yards out, first time users will probably strike the shot too far, as the ball flies off the face a bit quicker than a PW. Practice soon corrects this. Thoroughly recommended.
i have a set of hand me down irons that the person before me lost the pitching wedge. I have been planning on getting a new one, but then i saw this. Would this club be a good choice to buys instead of just buying and average pw?
Hi Elliott,
You can do a lot more with Niblick than you can with a pitching wedge, its so easy to pitch and chip with. In my opinion it could replace your PW. Check it out at your local pro shop.
Thanks and good luck!
Rob
This is an amazing little club. I’d love to see them in a wide variety of lofts, especially some higher lofts equivilant to a sandwedge or gap wedge. These clubs make chipping almost too easy.
iagree with jeff 52 48
I have a 49* which I find just great from anything up to about 80 metres from the fairway and especially light rough. I am thinking of getting a 42* to replace 9 and PW.
Now have a 42 – played it today, and didn’t get out my PW or 9I – good distance control, though overhit a few 110 – 120 metres in my enthusiasm. Also used it for a few chip and run with good control and accuracy. Love it as much as my 49.
Wondering – has anyone used the 56? Not sure whether to look at this or the 37 next.
Love then all.
Further thoughts – as I use a 60 Cleveland for greenside bunkers, with variable results I must say but better than my standard SW, is there any place for the 56 Niblick?
the niblick sucks, i prefer my ping tour-w wedges any day. plus why don’t you people actually learn how to play with a real wedge instead of relying on something that may make your game better short term but will screw it up in the long run. stop using training wheels all day and just buy some lessons to learn how to use a proper wedge for god’s sake. if you can’t learn how to play the game, then don’t play.
you poor people are embarrassing, should have studied harder and maybe you would be making more money now for some lessons.
i agree with gg, these clubs are too much for beginners, although that poor people remark was racist
well not really racist, but your not that great man, i bet i can beat you at golf.
Hey gg…. I was going to come down on you for your rude opinions on the Niblick and how people should have studied harder. But after I looked at your use of grammar and punctuation I felt it better to recommend an English lesson.
How old are you? 12?
I agree with Buddyjay. gg is probably looking forward to his new health care plan.
Cleveland golf has one of the worst quality control in the golf industry.
The 588 was one of the best wedges available and the came up with the gimmick series CG junk. They saved money by eliminating the forged club and produced another club that is simply a gimmick.
Check the specs on your Cleveland club and I’ll bet you most of them aren’t what Cleveland says they are. POOR QUALITY of manufacturing and POOR QUALITY of material.
Cleveland Niblicks are pretty much just wedges with a wider than typical sole and a putter shaft length, which can add to stability and accuracy. From the front, “business end” of the club, they are fairly hard to distinguish from regular wedges, especially the 2011 models, which look more attractive. Anyone who looks down on these and criticizes people for using them in favor of more mainsteam wedges is just ignorant. They more or less ARE wedges…wedges with some added design features that will help most amateur golfers add consistency and control to their short games. I own Niblicks and find them preferable to wedges for approach shots, pitches and chips.
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