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Cobra AMP Driver Review

SuperStroke
Ole Gray said:
I can trade my RBZ in on TGW and get the AMP in very good condition for a great deal. Dayum!
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I forgot to mention, this is a GREAT way to buy the club. I traded my G20 in to TGW, got a 50% trade-in bonus and free shipping. Total cost to me for the AMP was like $7. Also, as it relates to your decision about the loft and shaft, I believe TGW pays for shipping both ways if you return the club for an exchange. It makes it a virtual no-brainer.
 
Ole Gray said:
You ain't lying I like it and I was like, what da heck! The only club in my bag that I can not hit a consistent draw with is my driver.
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I've found the Amp to have a higher ball flight than the S3, but not as high as some other drivers that I've hit. If the ball flight isn't too high, the 10.5 Offset might be perfect for bringing some fade in. Unfortunately, I don't think they make an Offset in 9.5, or I'd have been looking at it.

That's why I'm so intrigued by the Cell. I should be able to get the loft tuned in just right, even if I go closed or neutral.
 
tequila4kapp said:
I forgot to mention, this is a GREAT way to buy the club. I traded my G20 in to TGW, got a 50% trade-in bonus and free shipping. Total cost to me for the AMP was like $7. Also, as it relates to your decision about the loft and shaft, I believe TGW pays for shipping both ways if you return the club for an exchange. It makes it a virtual no-brainer.
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Yea I checked this out and they have free shipping both ways so it's a no brainer. With the awesome trade in it's pretty much a done deal.

ryebread said:
I've found the Amp to have a higher ball flight than the S3, but not as high as some other drivers that I've hit. If the ball flight isn't too high, the 10.5 Offset might be perfect for bringing some fade in. Unfortunately, I don't think they make an Offset in 9.5, or I'd have been looking at it.

That's why I'm so intrigued by the Cell. I should be able to get the loft tuned in just right, even if I go closed or neutral.
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Normally I can draw any driver (excluding the RBZ) I put my hands on, so it should not be an issue. Every Cobra driver I have had in the past were easy for me to draw so it should work fine. I hit T0AD's dead straight with a nice trajectory.
 
The ole snake charmer is back...
 
I went to the range tonight and had one of my better ball striking sessions since this summer. I hit the Amp possibly better than I have ever hit any driver. It is an impressive club and is very confidence inspiring at address.

It's too bad that I wasted that kind of ball striking on the range. That was a "new personal best" kind of day for sure.
 
There's a sale shown in the Deal Of The Day thread where the Cobra AMP Offset can be had for $105. That is stupid-cheap for this club.
 
I played last weekend and decided to use the driver only on par 5s. There were four par 5s, and I split the fairway on each one of them. This is a very easy driver to hit.
 
ryebread said:
I played last weekend and decided to use the driver only on par 5s. There were four par 5s, and I split the fairway on each one of them. This is a very easy driver to hit.
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Awesome news dude. I can't wait to hit the 2013 version.
 
Cobra seems to be on a roll now. I going to demo the amp , cell amp, and encore zl this winter to see if any of them can unseat my g15 draw driver . The g15 draw is a real fairway finder , so the Cobra's will have to be accurate and longer to get in the starting line up. Should add I want to try the Nike covert as well.
gb
 
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I took the Amp Offset out this weekend to the range and did some testing with another top performing 2012 driver. I hit about 40 balls a piece with each driver, so I had a pretty healthy sample size.

The Amp Offset was way easier to hit and produced far more consistent results. I picked out 4 adjacent cedar trees (~ 30 to 35 yard width total) and put about 8 out of 10 balls in between them. Ball flight was a consistent fade with the ball starting left and tailing back to center. Misses were a slight leak to the right. With the other driver I was testing at the range, I put about 3 out of 10 shots in that target area, and some of the misses were pretty far offline to the right. Distance wise, about 2 out of 10 with the other driver were probably longer, but there about 4 out of 10 that were considerably shorter as well. I'd say with the other driver, the good shots were a little better, the bad shots were awful, and the average shots were considerably worse. On the course, it would have been the difference between playing from the short grass or light rough all day with the Amp Offset, to fighting OB with the other driver.

My only knock at all on the Amp Offset is that ball flight is a little high. I suspect it is playing higher than the 10.5 degrees marked on the head and that my launch angle would be ~ 17 degrees on a launch monitor. That extra loft probably helps make it forgiving though. My on course results GPS results show that for me, this is as long as any driver I have played (and a good 10-15 yards longer than a Ping K15 I was playing), so it doesn't seem to be hurting me too much. I have played higher lofted drivers before though that were considerably shorter, so I don't think that more loft for me is always a good thing. I hit the ball very high relative to my swing speed. If anything I need a little help keeping the ball down.

For those who care about feel, this is a really soft feeling face. I personally love it as it can make even rock hard range balls feel good. The other driver I was testing against felt horrible by comparison with range balls.
 
Nice report, Rye.

I spent more time with the AMP offset this weekend, too. It is a very solid driver. I had been thinking about going strong 3W and dropping the driver (can't help my tinkering ways, I guess) but this time hitting the driver put a dent in those temptations.

What is the shaft flex of your driver? I demo'd the AMP Offset with the regular but bought it with stiff. That helps bring flight down some, thought it is still pretty high. I was experimenting with teeing the ball lower and adjusting the position of the ball. Lowering the tee helped, although I think trajectory was still on the high side.
 
tequila4kapp said:
Nice report, Rye.

I spent more time with the AMP offset this weekend, too. It is a very solid driver. I had been thinking about going strong 3W and dropping the driver (can't help my tinkering ways, I guess) but this time hitting the driver put a dent in those temptations.

What is the shaft flex of your driver? I demo'd the AMP Offset with the regular but bought it with stiff. That helps bring flight down some, thought it is still pretty high. I was experimenting with teeing the ball lower and adjusting the position of the ball. Lowering the tee helped, although I think trajectory was still on the high side.
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tequlila: Thanks!

With respect to the Amp Offset's shaft offering, I went with the regular flex. I have an intentionally slow swing that has a greatly abbreviated back swing. Nice and slow with a short back swing, and I make good contact (and the ball goes a reasonable distance). Lengthen the back swing and I'll swing too hard with horrific results. The game becomes extremely frustrating when I'm doing that. I *can* swing 110ish mph with the driver, but I actually swing about 90 mph. Lessons could probably fix it because I'm sure it is a timing issue.

I use regular flex shafts typically because I resist the urge to go after it. For whatever reason, when I see stiff on the shaft, then I start swinging harder -- particularly with a driver. It is a mental thing. Ironically, I think I actually do best with the 'tweener shafts that are in between regular and stiff (e.g. Callaway Uniflex or the wedge flex in my Niblicks). The stiff on the Amp probably plays soft and might just be a 'tweener shaft.

I think I probably would see a little lower ball flight with the stiff, but I suspect my other tendencies would creep back in. I kind of had a hard time finding the Offset model locally, so I didn't really get a chance to test regular vs. stiff in this shaft. Stiff might have been better. It's something to keep an eye on.

I've been playing around a bit with lowering the ball on the tee. I typically have had the ball teed so that 1/2 of it is above the crown. I've moved that down so that only about 1/3rd is above the crown. I'm afraid if I tee it much lower, I'll strike the ground. That has reduced the ball flight some. I hit everything high though, so a lot of it is just my swing.

I can empathize with your point about ditching a driver and going with a 3 wood. I played around (and you can find my old threads if you have any interest) with going with a 3 wood and dropping my driver. I think the LT2W is a great compromise that you may want to look at. It's easier to hit than a strong 3 (which I could never elevate off the deck, so it was a tee only club anyways) and is good for days when I'm a little wild with the driver. It's been good enough for me to make a spot in it for my bag. The LT2W has a little less movement left to right, hits it a little bit higher and goes about 15 yards shorter. The last time out, I hit 8/10 fairways with the 2W, which for me is pretty good.
 
LEFTY57 said:
Cobra seems to be on a roll now. I going to demo the amp , cell amp, and encore zl this winter to see if any of them can unseat my g15 draw driver . The g15 draw is a real fairway finder , so the Cobra's will have to be accurate and longer to get in the starting line up. Should add I want to try the Nike covert as well.
gb
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I did get a chance to hit the Amp and zl encore on the weekend . Sadly they won't be in the bag this year. I should meation I do hit the ball high with my drivess. Both launched way to high for me with too much spin over 4000-4400 rpm and 18 to 21 * . Both combo's for the Cobras were 9.5 * heads with stiff shafts.
The G20 driver 9.5* with stiff beat them both by 20-25 yards, lower launch 14 - 17* with 3400 to 3700 spin , oh and dead straight. I would love to find a g20 in a 8.5 loft to see if the l & S will come down more . So the G20 is leaidng to make the starting line up. Still have to try the Nike Covert , R1 which are suppost to be lower spinning heads, G25 ,Cally Hot and others.
gb
 
I had the AMP for a few months when my VR Pro broke. Hit it straight but way to high and lost significant distance.
 
Baldcopper said:
I had the AMP for a few months when my VR Pro broke. Hit it straight but way to high and lost significant distance.
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I had the same issue but finding the right shaft changed that dramatically.
 
mcook77 said:
I had the same issue but finding the right shaft changed that dramatically.
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Yea, I would have opted for a different shaft but $ was an issue at the time.
 
I played another round yesterday with the Amp Offset. I hit 12 out of 13 fairways where I used it (used the LT2W on one par 4 to lay up in the dog leg). The one miss was was dead straight, but I hit it a little too far and it leaked into a pond. That pond has really never been in play for me before, so I can't complain too much. For a high handicap hack whose has traditionally struggled most with the driver, this was a great day.

Hands down, the Offset is the easiest driver I have ever hit. It is also (for my swing) the straightest. I love the look, feel and sound as well.

I must add a caveat to the post. I've spent quite a bit of time at the range working on my swing. Most things are better across the bag accordingly, but as some recent comparison testing showed me, at least a portion of my improved driving is due to the club.

I just wish the ball flight were a bit lower. This might be the first head worth messing with shafts to try and maximize.
 
Yeah, it does get up there. I've been teeing the ball lower lately, which has helped some. But it has me wondering if I'm putting even more backspin on the ball by hitting in a more downward instead of upward motion.

@ Cookie - Can you tell us more about how you found a better shaft? What did you try and how did you settle on the shaft you put in it? I've got an extra Ping G20 stock stiff shaft in the garage and a credit coming soon from a club trade in...was planning to use that on a new X Hot 3W but if it doesn't significantly out-perform what I'm already gaming then maybe a new driver shaft???
 
thats great ryebread, thats got to help the scorecard also. Being in position to score off the tee on that many holes would expect you to have a nice score.
 
I will keep this driver until the paint falls off and the face is caved in! On Saturday all drives were just over 250, with one on a straight away par 4 that rolled forever (thank you hard dry fairway!) to 277 as measured on the GPS. It's definitely helping my scores drop since I am hitting shorter irons into the greens now.
 
majBC: It did help the scorecard. The undulating terrain on the course I was playing made my fairway woods (typically the strongest part of my game) an adventure, but I was still able to beat my dad for the first time ever. Splitting the fairway off the tee neutralized his advantage in the short game, and I was able to eek one out. If I had putted a little better (left 3 putts with the ball perched on the front lip of the cup), then I'd have set my personal best. As it was, it was still a best for me on this particular course (which I find to play somewhat tough). Good weather, good fellowship and a good day off the tee made for a fun round. That's what golf is about.

tequila: I've been lowering the ball height on the tee, which I've previously never had the confidence to do. I'm down to where only 1/4 of the ball is teed up higher than the crown. I use the approach where I place the ball about 3-4 inches ahead of the club head on the driver at address to help with slice correction (there are some videos linked here). It does help fix the slice and when paired with the Offset, I can really hit a nice fade. The byproduct is that I'm hitting the drive on an upward swing path, which increases launch angle. For me, that's probably a good thing for distance given that I have a slow swing speed. The bad thing is that it exacerbates the high hitting nature of the club. Visually, I seem to hit drives as high as I do with my 2W.

I know that the high ball flight is caused by swing and know that reshafting wouldn't change more than a couple of degrees of launch angle at most. To really fix this, I need to rework my swing. Given I can finally hit a driver consistently in play, I'm not inclined to monkey with that. It's taken me a long time to get here.

Getting the stiff shaft may be the easiest and cheapest thing to get the ball flight down some. I need to get to a launch monitor to see. This is the first club that I've tried in quite some time worth investing the time seeking out testing with a launch monitor to figure out.
 
I was bombing the Amp offset today. I love this club so far. I only sliced one drive all day.
It's not the longest driver I have hit but it is by far the straightest most accurate one for me.
I wish they made amp offset irons!
 
Tested the amp driver today, OMG it's the first driver to make me want to change from my titleist 910 watch this space.
 
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