I would absolutely call Cleveland about this fake. I don’t think they can do much about the replica industry, however. This is a great post and a warning to all would be Hibore fans. I absolutely love mine, although I can’t seem to hit it consistently yet.

Excellent Post…..I actually just purchased a HiBore XL 9.5 on ebay and should be recieving it tomorrow…this has me pretty nervous!

Thanks and best of luck Ryan, hopefully you get one of the real ones! If you do, I’m sure you’ll love the club. I’m stuck with having to borrow Tim’s for the time being

I’ve bought plenty of clubs and golf related things from ebay in the past, and never had a problem. It was a real eye opening experience!

Hi DeepRough,

I am the Enforcement Manager for Cleveland Golf. Will you please contact me via email in regards to your article?

Thank you.

Kind Regards,

Christi

I just bought one from ebay, left handed one 9.5 loft. I couldn’t find the same characteristic of the fake one as described above (ie. the .5 character size or cover miss the yellow tag, etc). However, i did notice that the shaft logo “Fujikura” is facing down while i am holding the club, is that normal? it looks like either it was installed wrong or it was by design? to be specific, when i am holding the club (again, left handed club) in a hitting posture, i cannot see the fujikura logo on the shaft as it’s on the other side. i notice there are couple ebay hibore xl left handed club pictures indicated the similarity as i am seeing.

can someone give me some advice on why the shaft was install in the way that i couldn’t see the logo? how to tell whether it’s fake or not beside above characteristics?

thx

jimmy

Hey Jimmy,

The logo faced down is pretty common. Is it the Fit-On Gold/Red shaft? Unless you notice some other strange abnormalities, I wouldn’t worry about it.

-Sean

Hi, Can anyone tell me where i check a serial no for a cleveland hibore xl before i purchase, to insure its a genuine club, Regards,
Ken

Ken,

You may want to try giving Cleveland Golf Customer Support a call:

United States Customer Service
Toll Free: (800) 999-6263
Hours: 7:00a.m. and 5:00p.m. (Pacifc), Monday through Friday.

-Sean

i recently bought two cleveland halos off ebay for 80 wasnt sure but recieved them very quickly 3 days and they were all in clevelnad wrapping the grips smelt unusual and on closer inspectionj were longer than golf pride ones also the headcovewrs were slighly different but i still kill these clubs 4i is amazin the 2i slight disapointment the dont have seriel numbers on the hosels does this mean they are fake :O:O wb

i recently bought two cleveland halos off ebay for 80 wasnt sure but recieved them very quickly 3 days and they were all in clevelnad wrapping the grips smelt unusual and on closer inspection were longer than golf pride ones fitted to my titleist irons*which were bought from a pro shop) also the headcovewrs were slighly different one shinier than the other but i still kill these clubs 4i is amazin the 2i slight disapointment they dont have seriel numbers on the hosels does this mean they are fake :O:O wb

Neil, they could very well be fake. But you know what, if you’re crushing the ball with them, who cares?

If mine didn’t have such a strange sound or feel so odd at impact, I wouldn’t have cared.

Hi I bought one Hi-Bore XL from ebay and received it today. I check out the club and I found there are something making me worry that this is the fake one.
1. No serial number
2. No FFP mark on the club face.
3. The logo of Cleveland on the top is not in the right center.
Is there anyone can give me the answer? Thank you very much.

Russell, no FFP mark sounds strange? You may want to take some pictures and send them to cleveland golf and see what they think.

How does the paint fill on the numbers/etc look? Apparently the paint fill can be sloppy at times with the fakes. It should never be sloppy with a retail club.

Hi DeepRough,
Thanks for your suggest. I will contact cleveland soon. The paint, loft number and other marks looks great on the club. They are not sloppy as your fake club shown above. However, it sounds so strange when I hit the ball. I think I will go to retailer store to try one and make the comparison today. Anyway, thanks for your advise.

Russell

I was bidding on a HiBore at the weekend 10.5 Regular. Club was adverstised as New and the pics were from the Cleveland Adverts, anyway….. I won the bid £41 well pleased. Then the issues started.

Only payment method was cash/cheque or Credit card. I went Credit card and was emailed a link to pay through. I clicked on it and the site looked totally home made !!! There was no way my details were going in here.

I checked out the web address and couldn’t find the main home page relating to the page I was sent.

I have emailed the seller back asking for another payment method, PayPal, and some further pics.

Now I have read this Im 100% its a fake, no doubt I will get some bad feed back for this !!!

Beware !!!

hi

i have a won a bid for an xl hi bore here is the link so that you may know if its a fake seller or not just curious b4 i send over my hard earned cash http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130156514083

Like Russell Wang, I too bought an hibore xl 10.5 off of ebay. Again, my club has no serial number or “FFP” on the face. The paint/fill numbers look good, as does the rest of the club. I’m gonna play a round w/it tomorrow and see how it performs.

Russell, what did Cleveland Golf say about your club? Does anyone know where the serial number would be located?

Here is another ebay site that uses the same pictures as the one listed above.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220157669159

I noticed also that the FFP on the face does not look right. I think it should be dark letters.

Can anyone confirm that this should be case

These clubs are being won with bids of around £50. To good to be true !!

Mike

Looks like ebay removed it, sounds like it was a fake?

I did call Cleveland about the no FFP issue. They said that the early batches of the HiBore XL did not have the letters on them (though the FFP technology was there). Cleveland subsequently added them on later batches.

Just had my 10.5 delivered. As soon as the parcel arrived my heart dropped, it was shipped from China. I sent my money to some chap in Portsmouth. Anyway had a good look at it and the only flaw I can see is that the Y is missing from Geometry. The grip smells a bit strange too so tomorrow im going to unleash it at the range to see if it is a fake. If it is then they have done their homework. Will let you know how I get on.

Sounds like it may be a fake…no Y? Strange

how did it sound at the range?

Hi Chris
How did the test at the range go?
I too ‘won’ a HiBore XL from a guy in Portsmouth, I sent a cheque as payment but I may put a stop on it. Seller assured me it is genuine – he would, wouldn’t he !! It appears that he uses pics from the Cleveland website, and all his feedback comes from newly registered users !! Means I get some negative feedback, pity as I’m 100% positve at moment.
Too good to be true!!!!

Wonder if any has any experience with http://www.popooi.com? Price for HIBore is only 180 including postage worldwide. Thay seem to have all kind of clubs there. Price is even better than ebay. Genuine or fake?

Sadly I too have been conned with a fake Cleveland HiBore. (cheque sent to a Portsmouth address and parcel arriving from China – sound familiar?)

The worrying thing is the desperately poor performance and their propensity to shatter sending shards of plastic in all directions at very high velocity. (make sure your insurance is up to date!)

Portsmouth Trading Standards are building a case but need more evidence. Please contact them and your local trading standards if you feel you’d like to help prevent any other cash-strapped golfers being out of pocket.

I too have fallen foul to this guy. There seems to be more than on person involved; Li Ma from Portsmouth and a ‘Steve Roger’ who holds the ebay account (tho i doubt he even exists. Took the damn thing down the range and after 2 hits it has started to rattle as if something has broken inside the head. The dodgy paintwork gave it away too. I’ve been mailing him for the pat 2 days with no reply. If you anyone knows who to contact in portsmouth trading standards could they let me know please.

Ben, if it was delivered via the USPS, you could try contacting the local postal office in Portsmouth. They should be able to point you in the right direction.

I bought my fake club from Liwei Quan Flat 20 Harbour Ridge, Portsmouth PO1 3HT

Portsmouth Trading Standards contact is Robert Briggs, Public Protection Service, Civic Offices, Guildhall Square, Portsmouth PO1 2PQ 023 9283 4689

hth
krog

Hi

Seems like I’m not the only one. I received my driver from Steve Roger this week. Desparately poor performance and my assistant pro friend confirmed it. Looks like he has been removed from eBay. Lesson learned!!

I just received my XL from ebay today.It has the FFP on the face.I took it down to golfsmith to compare it to other ones.The crown is a lot more glossy than it’s supposed to be, and it’s shorter than the other ones.Later on the yellow paint on the XL smeared off.The employees said that it’s the most precise looking fake one they’ve ever seen.Can ebay help to get my money back.What do you guys think?

Here is some more information and a video on what to look for when buying a golf club.
Fake Golf Clubs

Just got a Hi-Bore XLS 9.5 Driver from China. After reading the above it would appear to have all the bits that real clubs have on them, serial number, loft, FFP on the face etc. I must say that i almost expect to hit this 3 times before it explodes, as 1 gentleman has said, i shall let you know. There is one cutting issue missed by us all of course, if they were not fake, stolen and sold on the cheap, how could we possibly get a NEW club for 60 quid…you cant, and you, like i, probably realised it when we posted the check so i wont complain but will hope that it strikes well and does me a favour on the course…i am not condoning the issue of FAKE clubs, but it is US that continue to line the pockets of raqueteers, isnt it?

[...] Looks like some people running a counterfeit golf club ring were caught. Good news, though I suspect there are a ton of them out there. If you have not read about my own experience with a counterfeit HiBore XL, be sure to read my post. [...]

[...] Not too long ago, I got my hands on a G.R.I.P. (Golf Research in Play) #4 Hybrid. You may have read my review of the G.R.I.P. 460cc Driver offering last week. G.R.I.P. offers a full range of golf equipment from the driver down to your wedges and putter. The equipment is priced to move, sometimes coming in at 20-50% of major brand equipment costs ($69 for the hybrid, $129 for a driver). In the wake of more counterfeit golf equipment news, if you are looking to save some money on your golf equipment….an inexpensive, new club from G.R.I.P. may be a better option for you than dealing with getting a fake club on eBay. [...]