Cobra KING TEC MD Mini Driver

[Serasi]

Had another practice session with various clubs today and finished with a batch of shots with the MD. I am still feeling that this head is fade biased.

I've attached a few photos, the first shot matches up with the impact mark photo and the other two I didn't not record where I hit it on the face. Should also add that these were all hit with no tee.

Just trying to work out how I'm getting ~500rpm of fade spin when I'm hitting the middle of the face and delivering a face to path that is slightly closed.

Just wondering if there's something that I'm missing.

Just out of curiosity can this fade spin be manipulated using the adapter? I know you’re hitting the center of the face, but maybe the adapter can be of influence here?

 

[adz5000]

Yeah, I’m REALLY eager to get it outdoors as well, it’s still to this day way more comfortable to swing longer clubs outside than it is for me in the garage sim haha

My buddy has an extremely flat backswing and he hits the shelves behind him if he swings his driver in my garage sim.

Safe to say he isn't getting to swing my mini in there!

 

[4hourrule]

I don’t hit mini off the deck. I can, but that’s not at all why I carry a mini, ever, hahahaha

It’s also not what a mini is meant for imo

I think it was a 3 from the BirTee’s, I’ll check/measure when I get home. It’s my normal tee height for a mini on course.

If the Loft is razed to max, does it lift Face off ground more?

 

[ChrisATL]

Those really aren't fades, they're being read as pushes due to my sh***y alignment and the alignment of my unit.

lol fair enough - they would be good enough for me

 

[adz5000]

I don’t hit mini off the deck. I can, but that’s not at all why I carry a mini, ever, hahahaha

It’s also not what a mini is meant for imo

I think it was a 3 from the BirTee’s, I’ll check/measure when I get home. It’s my normal tee height for a mini on course.

I got my first pack of Birtees today and I was floating between the 3 and the 4 for mini driver. The 4 was quite fun for trying to hit up a lot and take the spin off.

On course I'll probably tee it up about the 3 or a tad lower as I generally hit the ball straighter the lower the tee.

(the #1 birtee will be nice for par 3 tee shots, until I lose it that is! )

 

[adz5000]

If the Loft is razed to max, does it lift Face off ground more?

I had mine set at +1* of loft and didn't notice any change to the leading edge sitting higher. They've done a really good job with how this sits on the ground.

So far I am having more fun hitting this off the deck or even a small iron-like tee. If I was a more confident golfer I'd get a kick out of walking onto a tee box, tossing a ball down and bombing it 270yds off the deck.

Alas I am not that golfer and really struggle on tee boxes.

 

[adz5000]

Just out of curiosity can this fade spin be manipulated using the adapter? I know you’re hitting the center of the face, but maybe the adapter can be of influence here?

All of these shots today were hit in the standard A1 position.

I'll need to have another session with it maybe lofted up and set more upright to see how that goes.

My "stock" swing with tends to be around ~6 degrees out to in with the face ~4 degrees closed to target. This gives me a pull that fades back near the middle(with plenty variance) . This club however on this sort of swing is a pull that ends up finishing 20 yards right. Then that amount of curvature eats into the distance.

More testing needed.

 

[The Scott]

Just got back from my first on course action with this. I’m in love. Hit it 7 times, all off the tee. Stupidly topped one of them, so ignoring that one. The other 6 were all 260-280 depending on strike quality, with a much tighter dispersion than I normally see from my regular driver. It’s exactly what I was looking for. My big driver got kind of squirrelly on me today and I had a reliable backup plan. LFG.

 

[Serasi]

For those of you lucky ones who have already been hitting this on the sim or on the course, mind sharing what your thoughts are on ball position and angle of attack? I envision this to be particularly good with a slightly negative angle of attack and the ball around the 3W position, but would love to hear your experiences.

 

[TWright]

For those of you lucky ones who have already been hitting this on the sim or on the course, mind sharing what your thoughts are on ball position and angle of attack? I envision this to be particularly good with a slightly negative angle of attack and the ball around the 3W position, but would love to hear your experiences.

For me so far i've been setting up on the Sim just like Driver especially when tee'd up. Just setup on a lower tee, but no real difference in swing from Driver for me.

Hitting it off the deck the few times has been more like trying to hit an intentional fade with a fairway wood. Slightly outside takeaway and coming in a bit steeper.

 

[Jman]

For those of you lucky ones who have already been hitting this on the sim or on the course, mind sharing what your thoughts are on ball position and angle of attack? I envision this to be particularly good with a slightly negative angle of attack and the ball around the 3W position, but would love to hear your experiences.

Hit it like a driver

 

[willplaysgolf]

For those of you lucky ones who have already been hitting this on the sim or on the course, mind sharing what your thoughts are on ball position and angle of attack? I envision this to be particularly good with a slightly negative angle of attack and the ball around the 3W position, but would love to hear your experiences.

like other minis I’ve played, for me it works best with a lower relative tee height than driver. So if driver is a half ball above, a mini would be even to a quarter ball above, something like that. I’m definitely not trying to hit down on it, more like hitting up a little less than driver. The only time I’d feel like I’m hitting down would be off the deck.

 

[stoney_dukes]

Just out of curiosity can this fade spin be manipulated using the adapter? I know you’re hitting the center of the face, but maybe the adapter can be of influence here?

I ended up using my 3W shaft for the first few swings before my round this past weekend. My 3W was set to D3 so that's where I started. The FIRST thing I noticed was an ability to shape shots off the tee. I don't do that very well with my Max K driver and I'm pretty sure that's by design.

In the 6-7 balls I hit with the MD, I was able to hit fade, straight, and draw balls and that's saying something for me. I can't wait to get this thing dialed

 

[The Scott]

For those of you lucky ones who have already been hitting this on the sim or on the course, mind sharing what your thoughts are on ball position and angle of attack? I envision this to be particularly good with a slightly negative angle of attack and the ball around the 3W position, but would love to hear your experiences.

Like others I am not hitting down on it. Use a lower tee height but still hitting like 3* up on it. Ball placement similar to 3 wood.

 

[JOHN89]

Like others I am not hitting down on it. Use a lower tee height but still hitting like 3* up on it. Ball placement similar to 3 wood.

I believe that mini drivers were never designed to be tee'd up high and hit with a positive AoA like with driver but instead they were designed to be larger and more forgiving 3 wood replacements so they should be hit in a similar way, I have a very neutral AoA with driver (no more than 1 degree up) so with a mini driver I would tee it up only slightly higher than with a 3 wood with an AoA of between -1 and 0, hitting 3 degrees up with a mini driver just feels very wrong to me, when mini drivers first became popular almost everyone was hitting them like driver until a Challenge Tour player at our club demonstrated exactly how these types of clubs should be hit to optimise their performance and it was definitely not similar to how he hits his driver.

 

[stoney_dukes]

I believe that mini drivers were never designed to be tee'd up high and hit with a positive AoA like with driver but instead they were designed to be larger and more forgiving 3 wood replacements so they should be hit in a similar way, I have a very neutral AoA with driver (no more than 1 degree up) so with a mini driver I would tee it up only slightly higher than with a 3 wood with an AoA of between -1 and 0, hitting 3 degrees up with a mini driver just feels very wrong to me, when mini drivers first became popular almost everyone was hitting them like driver until a Challenge Tour player at our club demonstrated exactly how these types of clubs should be hit to optimise their performance and it was definitely not similar to how he hits his driver.

Without knowing which courses you play in Scotland, is a more piercing trajectory your typical flight window? I'm still definitely trying to sort out tee height and AoA with mine.

 

[Serasi]

I believe that mini drivers were never designed to be tee'd up high and hit with a positive AoA like with driver but instead they were designed to be larger and more forgiving 3 wood replacements so they should be hit in a similar way, I have a very neutral AoA with driver (no more than 1 degree up) so with a mini driver I would tee it up only slightly higher than with a 3 wood with an AoA of between -1 and 0, hitting 3 degrees up with a mini driver just feels very wrong to me, when mini drivers first became popular almost everyone was hitting them like driver until a Challenge Tour player at our club demonstrated exactly how these types of clubs should be hit to optimise their performance and it was definitely not similar to how he hits his driver.

Thanks for sharing, that’s definitely been on my mind too. I keep seeing the majority of people here saying to swing it like a driver, but I’m also hearing a lot of “treat it like a 3-wood,” which is a pretty big difference when it comes to angle of attack.

I’ve also gone ahead and ordered this Mini Driver (couldn't help myself). Next step is booking a Trackman studio nearby so I can actually see what works best for me and my swing, testing both a driver-style swing and a more 3-wood-style swing and letting the numbers settle the argument for me.

 

[The Scott]

I believe that mini drivers were never designed to be tee'd up high and hit with a positive AoA like with driver but instead they were designed to be larger and more forgiving 3 wood replacements so they should be hit in a similar way, I have a very neutral AoA with driver (no more than 1 degree up) so with a mini driver I would tee it up only slightly higher than with a 3 wood with an AoA of between -1 and 0, hitting 3 degrees up with a mini driver just feels very wrong to me, when mini drivers first became popular almost everyone was hitting them like driver until a Challenge Tour player at our club demonstrated exactly how these types of clubs should be hit to optimise their performance and it was definitely not similar to how he hits his driver.

Well the beautiful thing about this game is there is no "right" or "wrong." It's only about what works best for you. I believe they're called "mini-drivers" and not "super fairways" (or something like that) for a reason. Fairways are primarily designed to be hit off the deck whereas my primary purpose for this club will be to hit it off the tee.

 

[CSILKEY7]

Plugged the Powercore 8TX Blue into this one, set at standard with heavy forward and took 12 swings, throwing two out.

View attachment 9411670View attachment 9411669
Clearly, I'm no robot, I leave that to....the robots.

That said, you can also see in the data that early I was quick and flippy at things, hence the low lefts initially, but then I settled in and just let it work. I really like a lot of what I see here, a lot lot.

Is it perfect? Heck no. But for me, I'm excited as can be at the potential as real season play approaches. I do think that I can do a little tuning with FF33 and maybe even flipping the heavy weight to the back, but time will tell there.

Very excited to see how you progress through your testing on this one!

 

[4hourrule]

Just saw one for 1st time yesterday at PGA Store, not nearly as small as I thought. No way I'd hit 11.5 off Fairway, but maybe the Stock 13.5?

 

[Jman]

Just saw one for 1st time yesterday at PGA Store, not nearly as small as I thought. No way I'd hit 11.5 off Fairway, but maybe the Stock 13.5?

Mini drivers aren’t designed with fairway in mind. They’re supposed to be big hahaha

 

[4hourrule]

Mini drivers aren’t designed with fairway in mind. They’re supposed to be big hahaha

Well you're no fun.

 

[Jman]

Well you're no fun.

It was named a mini driver rather than oversized fairway after all

 

[Jman]

I love this mini driver.

 

[Scooby45]

I ended up using my 3W shaft for the first few swings before my round this past weekend. My 3W was set to D3 so that's where I started. The FIRST thing I noticed was an ability to shape shots off the tee. I don't do that very well with my Max K driver and I'm pretty sure that's by design.

In the 6-7 balls I hit with the MD, I was able to hit fade, straight, and draw balls and that's saying something for me. I can't wait to get this thing dialed

Do you typically like to shape shots like that off the tee?