[jwplayer ev40KVNS-9JtFt04J]
Gear: Cobra King Speedzone, One Length Speedzone irons
Price: $899 (4-GW) with KBS Tour 90 steel shafts and Lamkin Crossline Connect grips; $799 (5-GW) with UST Mamiya Recoil ESX 460 graphite shafts
Specs: Cast stainless steel heads with carbon-fiber inserts and multi-material badge
Available: Jan. 17, 2020
The top of an iron rarely is the place where innovation happens, but Cobra’s newest game-improvement iron was designed in a unique way, and a lot of golfers are going to stare at the top of these clubs.
While most of the club is cast from stainless steel, the company designed two carbon-fiber strips in the top of the King Speedzone 3- through 7-irons. One strip is visible on the top of the club, and the other is under the topline, inside the cavity. The pieces are strong but 3 grams lighter than the steel they replace, which gave Cobra’s designers more discretionary weight to put in other areas of the club.
The weight saved in the topline was added to the lower back section of the heads to pull down the center of gravity and shift it farther from the hitting area. This should encourage a higher launch angle and more spin.
The face of the King Speedzone irons is forged from 17-4 stainless steel and is thicker in the center and thinner in areas where Cobra has learned players with a handicap between 10 and 25 tend to mis-hit. It also wraps under the leading edge and into the sole to allow the face to flex more effectively on shots struck low in the hitting area.
Like many modern irons designed to provide mid- and higher-handicap golfers with more distance, the King Speedzone irons have strong lofts, with the 5-iron having 21 degrees of loft and the pitching wedge at 42.5 degrees. However, because of the low-and-back center of gravity, golfers should still see their shots climb to the anticipated height, just farther downrange.
To enhance feel, Cobra designed the King Speedzone irons with a back medallion that features thermoplastic polyurethane, elastomer and an aluminum-foam tape like the material used to join carbon-fiber panels on aircraft. Those materials absorb excessive vibrations at impact to soften feel and make the sound more pleasing.
In addition to the standard Speedzone irons, Cobra is offering a One Length version of the clubs, with each iron being 37.5 inches in length. The company said half of the iron sets it sells are One Length, and they appeal to players who want to develop a single, consistent swing.
Both the standard and One Length Speedzone irons come standard with Cobra Connect, a system of embedded sensors in the grips that link wirelessly via Bluetooth to a free smartphone app. Using the app, golfers can track their performance and learn precisely how far they hit each club.
