Back in January, we got a look at the new Cobra KING Tour irons with MIM technology at the PGA Show. Then a couple of months later, a pandemic happened that changed the landscape of the golf industry. Today, these irons that have been often discussed, but not available, become official.
Metal Injection Molding (MIM) technology is not brand new, but we are seeing it more and more due to the precision that it creates. Most recently for Cobra, their wedge designs have been gaining in popularity in part due to the precision shaping and overall performance. Unlike traditional forging or casting, MIM manufacturing utilizes few steps to create.
In the case of the Cobra KING Tour irons, a mixture of 304 stainless steel powder is heated and injected into a mold. Heating to even a higher temperature than most forgings, the result, according to Cobra, is a very tight grain structure providing an incredibly soft feel. The MIM process requires only moderate polishing compared to forgings to ensure the shaping is completely consistent.
“We’ve used our MIM process over the past two years to deliver softer and more precisely-shaped designs in our wedges,” said Tom Olsavsky, Vice President of R&D for COBRA Golf.
“Now, in response to demand from better players and our Tour staffers, seeking the same benefits in a full set of irons, our R&D team delivered the KING TOUR Irons. These irons are softer than any forged offerings on the market, and like their wedge counterparts, offer better consistency in shaping for more precision shot-making on the course. While soft feel and consistency are important in the short-game, optimizing these attributes throughout an entire iron set will give golfers better performance across a wider range of shot selections.”
A tungsten weight is positioned in the toe of the club to perfect the center of gravity (CG) directly behind the impact zone. The ability to manufacture this way allows for precision, but also stability. Moving from the toe to the small cavity, a TPU Insert is directly behind the sweet spot to dampen vibrations a bit and enhance the feel even more.
Cobra Connect is still in place and might just be the best value add in golf. Powered by Arccos, the system utilizes smart grips to track your data through the round. Each set comes with a 90 day trial of the Caddie App as well. For the loft peepers spec fans out there, here is a look at the specs.
The Details
In Stores: October 30th, 2020
Shafts: KBS $-Taper (many options are available through custom)
Set Makeup: 4-PW (3 iron and GW are available through custom)
Cost: $1299
These are what have me so excited to try these eventually. I’ve been wondering how they’d wear compared to a forged club. The whole MIM process has me really intrigued. Really want to hit these up against a forged club to compare the feel.
I’ll admit, I still wish they weren’t polished chrome, but, I’m a long time polished chrome hater.
The durability though has been one of the coolest things so far for me.
I wondered about that. That’s awesome to hear, and would be a huge additional benefit people weren’t talking about in initial reviews.
You make a new and very valid point, James. I now have 5 or 6 rounds with these and they look brand new. They are as durable as any iron set I have ever seen.
Yeah, they’re approaching PING realm for me there, which is a massive compliment when it comes to resisting chatter. I’ve got about 15 on mine and no chatter marks, at all.
SUCH a fun track where if you strike irons well you’re rewarded. Love reading this!
Would you say these wear better than your FTs?
Absolutely. The FTs showed some wear pretty quickly.
My friend has a few rounds in on his and I think he might benefit from some more speed at that end. I’m thinking about building a 4 & 5 with some Forged Tec heads I have if he can stand the look of them.
You have to get the lofts right, but I could see myself playing FT long irons and these for scoring irons, love the spin profile in the 7i and PW
I absolutely think you could. The key isn’t simply lofts though, it’ll be hitting them to discover your actual DISTANCE gaps. We got forget, loft gaps don’t automatically equate to specific distance gaps.
With no numbers, which will come next, I can say the feel of these irons rival anything I’ve experienced before. This is with a KBS 90 shaft…the feel is amazing
Beyond that, I had zero issues squaring the face and hitting the center. These look less offset than the Forged TEC, however, I prefer the look because I feel I have a bit better control over the face.
More as some numbers come in over the next few days!
One thing that stood out and I’m on the fence of whether or not it’s a negative – the head is heavier than my Epic Forged. It’s similar to the Forged Tec but I wonder if that is helping a bit with the face control…more to come
Yup. The feel is something else man. Top three ever for me….
And Rick Shiels is heavily medicating for saying they don’t feel good.
Ha agreed! I generally like Rick, I wonder if he missed something hint that morning in his routine..
Still, he was waaaaaay off on the feel here
Nope, he just hates on Cobra consistently and historically.
If you were just going to do 1 maaaybe 2, would you lean more towards the KING Utility, or Forged Tec to pair with them? I know it’s not the right thread for those, but you spent some time with the Utility and I’m trying to run this through in my head a few ways so I hopefully don’t end up wasting a bunch of time I don’t have.
It’s a tough one.
Cop out but real answer, depends on type of use. Strict iron play? Probably Tec. As a tee club as well as standard iron play? Tec UT.
Here is what I did. I tend to add dynamic loft, a swing flaw that I am hoping to work on over the winter. I had my irons bent one degree strong and I go to 6 iron, which I believe to be 28* when bent one degree strong. I then go to a King Utility, adjusted to 24*. It is gapping fine, with the added advantage that I can jump on the Utility and get a little more out of it than I probably could a normal iron. I go from the King Utility to a Cobra SpeedZone hybrid, which is 19*. I then have a Callaway Super Hybrid at 17* and my 3 wood. It really seems to give me a lot of versatility.
I know that bending them strong is not everyone’s cup of tea and likely not yours, from what you have written, but it is just one way that one guy created a blended set.
No, that sounds pretty good. I’m not opposed to anything that works for someone. And that doesn’t sound too far off of what might work for him. He just hates hybrids, so it’d be a 2nd UT in that scenario, but a 24 to 6i was kind of what I was thinking. Thanks for the feedback. That helps. You too, @Jman , thanks. That’s quite the setup you’ve got right now, @Tenputt . I like it.
For sure, he could play two King Utilities. The beauty with that utility, of course, is that the lofts are adjustable, allowing somebody to adjust easily for gapping. I could probably enjoy another King Utility in that 19* spot.
Just mentioning that they are somewhat near Ping durability has be even more interested in these. I told myself this is the year I’m going to try a more forgiving iron and actually just picked up my jpx 921 forged this afternoon but I can totally see these clubs in my bag at some point this year. All these great reviews re making it extremely difficult to resist
Don’t abandon the JPX 921 Forged quickly. Those are fine irons. I have hit them and could easily play either one long term. I would consider the JPX 9212 Forged to lean a little more on the side of player distance and these Tour MIMs to lean squarely into the players cavity profile. Somebody who wants that player profile would likely come this way. Somebody who wants a little more distance and forgiveness might go with the Mizunos.
Review 2 – The Numbers
Ok, had the chance to get this on Skytrak to get some comparable numbers with the Epic Forgeds. I have not had the chance to get this in the course yet ( I will do that next).
These numbers were all off of an indoor setup with a Fiberbuilt mat, so just about perfect conditions.
Methodology – to keep this as comparable as possible, I hit all the shots on the same day.
I warmed up with each iron, then took 30 shots of each. I edited out the worst 3 or so that were due to my personal swing issues and kept the rest.
I used the Cobra 8 iron and the Epic Forged 8 iron. Due to lofts, this put the Cobra at a distinct disadvantage (Cobra King Tour with MIM sits at 37 degree of loft and the Epic Forged is at 31.5 degree of loft). In fact, the Cobra 8i sits between the Callaway 9i and PW in terms of lofts!
However, lofts aren’t the only story, there’s height, gapping, forgiveness, and descent angle that matter to me for performance.
If I’m going to consider a switch, I’d want something that performs roughly the same as I have now but with more stopping power! If the Cobra distance is less than my current 9i, I’d have to lug around a 3i just to gap with my hybrids (not because I hit them long, just because I hit my irons that short!)
So even though there was some des rep act here, I felt I needed to put them up head to head to see how they performed.
The Numbers
Keep in mind Skytrak isn’t as accurate as others, but as I’m doing this test with the same balls and the same days, I’m only concerned with comparable numbers, not the absolute accuracy!
Epic Forged
Club Speed – 75 mph
Ball Speed – 98 mph
Carry – 134 yd
Total – 145 yd
Descent – 39 degrees
Height – 19 yds
Backspin – 5008
Cobra King Tour with MIM
Club Speed – 74 mph
Ball Speed – 96 mph
Carry – 130 yd
Total – 139 yd
Descent – 40 degrees
Height – 18 yds
Backspin – 5860
Conclusions
Number test is…interesting. Despite being lifted much more traditionally, Cobra was neck and neck with Callaway. I will give up somewhere about 3-5 yds in total distance to gain about 800 revs of backspin and improved stopping power.
This is what I was hoping for in the Cobras – similar (if a bit less distance that I currently have), in exchange for better stopping power on approaches to the greens.
I still have more testing to do, on the range and on the course, but so far, this is exactly what I’d hoped it would be.
More to come!
That is a very well thought out comparison. I am actually surprised that the Cobras hung that close. I have both of these iron sets and there is a much bigger difference in ball speed for me. It is a good club difference. That should be extremely encouraging for you.
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By variation, do you mean another MIM iron offering? Or black?
Well a variation of the Tours. I guess I’m just wondering out loud what or if there might be a different players style iron coming out in 2021
Love to see that. Everyone keeps talking about the feel and control with the slightly higher spin profile, but I think I told you that they seemed decently thumpy to me. I’ve had zero trouble hitting solid ball speed or distance marks relative to my swing speed any of the times I’ve hit them.
I was actually thinking today that I haven’t done that (hit these) in a couple weeks and might need to tomorrow.
I personally will be very surprised. The company has released new game improvement irons on an annual basis for the last several years, i.e., F8, F9 and SpeedZone, but the Cobra Forged Tec Black were offered for two years, before being replaced last year by Cobra’s first hollow body design, the Forged Tecs. I would presume that the King Tour MIM irons replaced the King Forged Tours, that were in the lineup for a couple of years. The King Forged CB/MBs were released in 2018 and are still in the lineup. So, it looks like the pattern is an annual release for game improvement irons, but the more player profiles seem to be on multi-year cycles.
It will be interesting what info might be revealed in the THP Off Course podcast this Friday, where host @Canadan will be speaking with Mike Yagley from Cobra.
My next TrackMan session might involve a comparison of the Tour MIMs and the Forged Tecs for numbers, just to see how they compare.
Make complete sense. Unless the did something with the Pro combos
I definitely think that anyone wanting to look at player cavity-type profiles should put these on the list.
Man….Morgan Cup 2021…..
I really have to think these will be a serious ponder for MC participants. Some may be thrown off if they don’t think they can game them or they are more of a better players iron. With my game, if I can manage to make contact, everyone could put these in play if they wanted
I think these would be the set to beat for me. Their iron offerings are seriously overlooked IMO.
He played the driver for the past 3 years and has that 3 wood in the bag forever… But these irons feel very good regardless.
He constantly picks them apart, and is clearly on drugs.
Drugs for sure..
They look really sexy and the top of the line is very thin compared to my Forged Tec irons. I’m not sure I have the swing or game to put these in play, but man are they pretty!
This is solid info. I was really wondering about the top line vs forged tec which I liked but thought they were ever so lightly too thick for my eye. ????