Cleveland has recently release their new 588 Irons. The 588 irons come in a variety of styles to allow for any golfer to custom-build their set based on their desired feel, trajectory, forgiveness, and workability desires.

The 588 options include the 588 Altitude (high launch / forgiveness), 588 MT (mid-trajectory), and 588 TT (tour trajectory) sets. The intent is to allow the golfer to choose clubs from any series in order to build a custom iron set.

While the clubs all do mix-and-match really well, I think the majority of players would only mix two sets of the irons (e.g. the Altitude with the MT or the MT with the TT). The differences between the Altitude through the TT are fairly significant and although possible – I wouldn’t imagine too many people putting a mix of all three series in a mixed set.

588 Altitude, 588 MT, 588 TT Testing

For the higher-lofted clubs, the feel and sensation at address was very similar and surprisingly – the clubs look very similar at address.

While the back of the clubs do have a different looks (especially the Altitude), the clubs look very similar standing directly over them. For the higher lofts, all of the clubs felt great with the workability increasing from the Altitude to the MT to the TT. My favorite high-lofted series were the TTs, but they all felt and performed very similar.

For the mid-lofted clubs, the story starts to change a bit with performance. The feel of the Altitude becomes much different than the MT and TT. The MT and TT still feel similar while the Altitude has a hollow or “numb” feel. It was actually a bit hard to hit a bad shot with the Altitude. Even off the toe and on significant mis-hits, the Altitude still seemed to fly pretty good. For the mid-lofted clubs, my favorite feel and performance were still the TTs with the MTs being a close second.

For the low-lofted clubs, there is a large difference in everything from ball flight to feel. The Altitude starts to become huge and is clearly a club that would work nicely for a high-handicapper. The downside of the Altitude is the sheer size and bulk of the clubs – however the forgiveness is simply amazing. Although the MTs are a little bulkier than the TTs – they are significantly easier to hit. For this range, the MT was my clear favorite.

Conclusions

I was very impressed with the performance of all these clubs and the variety of the mix-and-match possibilities gives plenty of options for fine-tuning your iron set.

While the Altitudes are not something I would put in my bag, they are clearly a great choice for a high-handicapper or senior crowd. The MTs and TTs are both good series and can easily be mixed by the majority of mid-handicappers out there. After the testing, my personal preference is the TT for P,9,8,7 and the MT for 6, 5, 4.

If you’d like to see some additional photos of the 588 Altitude, MT, and TT sets – check out our photo album on Facebook.