Review My review - Cobra Speedzone w/ LINQ Purple 7F5 Tour length

[Tevenor]

Coming out of the 2020 UST Mamiya Distance Bash, I was trying to find the best way to put down my thoughts on the the Cobra Speedzone head and the UST Mamiya LINQ Purple 7F5 shaft. I decided the best way is to post as a separate thread covering the combo of the head mated to the shaft, the head independently and the shaft independently all in one update. So here he it is. Be warned. This will be long because I have tons of thoughts on this setup and I am pretty verbose. I walked in in a wierd situation: I had just been fitted not more than a few months before this with a brand new driver and shaft.

Summary and Background
Before I get to my thoughts, a few words on where my driver game is currently. This is now my 3rd fitting for a driver in the last 8 years or so. My first fitting was with the Callaway tour truck on its way through upstate NY and had stopped at a local driving range/golf shop for a demo day. I just happened to stop in that day with the kids to hit some balls. I ended up walking out with a Callaway Razrhawk with an Aldila Tour RIP 60g stiff shaft and its still one of my favorite feeling drivers ever. It transformed my driver game. That was in 2011.

Fast forward to mid last summer it was time to look at new drivers. It had been 8 years and I was due. Before knowing that I was going to be selected for the Distance Bash ( or even before I joined THP honestly ), I went to a local golf shop that was trusted and I got fitted into an Epic Flash Subzero with a ProjectX Evenflow Black 60g stiff. Loved this combo and I saw significant gains and ended up increasing my carry distance and reducing my dispersion. I played it for a few months and was doing well but took an opportunity when a Club Champion opened up shop here in Rochester to go in and validate my fitting against non-stock shafts as I was still having some occasional wierd block right tendency even on good swings. After talking to the CC fitter and trying a bunch of aftermaket shafts, I ended up in a Oban Isawa Red 6.0 65g shaft playing at full 45.5" length and the results were fantastic. From my old Razrhawk to my new EF SZ with update shaft, I gained 20 yrds carry on average, reduced my spin to the 2700 range down from the mid 3000's, and reduce my dispersion significantly. Really was quite happy with that setup. If I had not been select for the Distance Bash, I would have been completely and utterly happy with this setup.

Here are the numbers from the last fitting/sim session with that driver setup. My normal swing speed is between 106-109 with peaks at 110 to 111 mph when I am swinging well. Ball speed on the Epic Flash SZ is in the 155-160 range.




Now with that being said, I have an admission to make:

I had never hit any Cobra drivers NOR had I ever hit a UST Mamiya shaft.

Yes, you read that right. As a self-professed Callaway fan, I had never played, hit a ball, or even taken a swing with the 2 company's I had just been selected to go get fitted. Oh the irony to be selected only a few months after getting fitted for a new driver. That being said, I knew about the Cobra equipment and I had heard of UST Mamiya with the various shaft offerings but I had never seriously considered playing either. How naive and wrong I was.

Going into the fitting I really had 3 goals:

1. Keep an open mind on the driver head
2. Give myself completely to Danny's guidance regarding shaft length, weight, flex, etc.
3. Although I loved my EF SZ, I wanted to give it a complete honest swing and effort to truly do a comparison ( regardless if the results told me I was an idiot for not tyring it sooner )

And I did just that. For the overall Distance Bash, my goal was to meet @JB, @DannyLe and @golfunfiltered as well as my Bash brothers and just play some good rounds with some fellow THP's. But for the fitting, I really had no expectations on what I would walk out with. There was a part of me that thought I would get fitted, play a few rounds, and then be in a dilemma where my other driver was as good or better and then what?

Enough background. On to the review.

 

[Tevenor]

Part 1: The Driver Combo

For this review, I won’t talk in to much detail about the fitting with @DannyLe as I already did a recap here: Day 2 recap . This will be focused on the results and my thoughts on the Cobra Speedzone head mated to the UST Mamiya LINQ Shaft.


The day of the fitting, @BigDill recorded the VFIT video for Bridgestone to get fitted into our new Bridgestone Tour balls. Per the video, I must have been swinging pretty smoothly as I recorded 110mph swing and 156 mph ball speed. My normal average based on the fittings I had with the Epic Flash Subzero was in the 106-108 range with spikes into the 110-111 mph range. The ball speed is right in my average ranging between 156 and 160 mph or so. Below is the video of the VFIT so you can see the swing and the vfit results. Spin rate was fairly normal at 2800 and definitely not out of the range of play. All in a all, a fairly good representation of my average swing.








When it was my turn for the fitting, I hit a few balls on my driver and then Danny started setting me up with the Cobra and new shaft. The first few swings I already knew I liked it. After a few iterations, we ended up with the Cobra Speedzone regular head turned down 1 degree to 8 degrees and with 14g weights front and rear. Per Danny, this was to give me both a good punch on the spin/launch angle as well as some more forgiveness by moving more weight back across the club head.




For the shaft, we originally tried the LINQ Gunmetal but the spin numbers were just to low. We moved to the LINQ purple in 7F5 and that did the trick. Below are the fitting numbers Danny still had available from the actual fitting. You’ll notice compared to my numbers above, I was hitting my gamer driver pretty well. 162.3 mph ball speed average with 272.5 yrd carry. However, switching to the Cobra/Linq purple, I immediately started right where my gamer ended. The 2 Purple’s groupings are with the stock weights and then the extra weight in the back.




Overall the weight distribution with the extra stiff LINQ Purple shaft did the trick. You’ll notice that just on a few shots my ball speed jumped 1 mph with the same swing speeds ( not shown ), but my spin dropped 400 rpm with my launch angle rising up to my ideal range of 13-15 degrees. You’ll also notice that although my max carry was 290 yrds with the stock weight setup, the distance wasn't as consistent as with dual 14g weights front and back. Its amazing what that extra weight in the back does for forgiveness. In both batches, I had 1 bad drive that helped normalize the results but it was a limited number of swings.


The feeling of the combo is simply outstanding. The head shape and look inspires incredible confidence that I can swing out of my shoes and still find the center of the face. The LINQ Purple shaft has incredible feel. I love being able to feel where my face is at at all times. The LINQ does that far better than the Ob an Isawa Red. The feel is tremendous. And best of all, as long as I put a good tempo’d swing on it, I can pretty much swing as fast as I want and the shaft will just respond. Most of the fitting, @DannyLe kept proding me to swing harder. “Stop swinging like pansy and swing harder!” was a common phrase I heard during my fitting, although at 110 mph I am not sure how much faster I could swing. But the harder I did swing, the more the combo seemed to like it. We did use a 44.5” tour length shaft as he did not have any concerns that I was going to be sacrificing distance and the shorter shaft to help hit center of face more often. I was glad because although I was keeping an open mind, I really thought 44.5” was the right length for me.


During the next two days, even when I was hitting it bad on Sunday front 9, I was still loving the feel more and more. It’s a freaking amazing shaft and absolutely blows away any shaft I have tried up to this point ( and I tried over a dozen when I picked up the Oban shaft ). I am still amazed I ended up in the weight and flex Danny fit me for. More about that below in the Shaft review.


To validate my feelings at the Distance Bash, last weekend I went to a local sim to do a more drawn out comparison as when I came back home, it was still plenty cold ( 30 ish degrees ) and no courses are open to play. The data below is the average of about 35 shots across the 2 drivers. I took out the 2 worst shots and 1 best shot from each group to help normalize the data. This was on an old Foresight setup that has seen better days and I went there for an hour sim session with very little warm up ( the bay was booked before and after so I didn’t get the 2 hour warm up like I did at Hammock beach before the fitting ). It didn’t collect swing speed but my ball speed is down as compared from the bash as I absolutely can’t feel comfortable winging a driver indoors in a small bay. Ironically it showed a side of the combo I didn’t recognize: Ball speed was down but distance retention was great even when I am not swinging my best.




Some key points:

• Ball speed on average is 2.5 mph higher on the cobra/linq purple combo
• Spin was still consistent from the fitting with Danny at the 2200 range.
• This setup has me 5 yards on carry and 7 yards on total distance on average increase over the Epic Flash SZ
• The sidespin average ( and hence dispersion ) was lower with a tighter flight pattern.

My best shot of that session was on the Cobra:

• Ball Speed: 157mph
• Launch angle: 17.5 deg
• Spin Rate: 1975 rpm
• Carry Distance: 287.9 yds
• Total Distance: 310.2 yds.

​

​

​

​

​

Fundamentally, this combo is an absolute winner. This will be my gamer for a while to come. Now on to the individual component reviews.

 

[Tevenor]

Part 2: The Cobra Speedzone head review


When I first learned I had been selected to go, I did my normal Tev thing to do and started researching everything I could about the new Speedzone’s as well as anything I could get my hands on regarding the UST Mamiya shafts. It’s a quirk that annoys the crap out of my wife but makes me pretty good at my job in the IT field. I just gotta have data and collect as much as I can.


With that being said, I really liked the look and the approach Cobra took on the new Speedzone heads. At first, I was more a fan of the Avalanche white versus the yellow and red combo but after I was able to see one in person in a local Golf Galaxy, I changed my mind. It really looks fantastic in person. Now during the run up to the Distance Bash, all of us had yet to hit the new head design and a few of us decided to wait until the fitting to hit it for the first time. <insert crass ‘doing it for the first time’ joke here>

So when my fitting time was up, other than looking at the other guy’s clubs who just got fitted or a couple of times groping it in a Dick’s Sporting Goods store, it was my first interaction with the club.


First thoughts after hitting: “God I love that sound”. No really. It sounds that good. Now I really liked the sound of the Epic Flash SZ. Not only did it annoy the hell out of my playing partners when I would crush one center face, but when I missed, I knew simply by the sound: a bright loud reverberating ping was center face, a muted ping was toe ball, a healthier thud sound was a heel shot. With the Cobra, it sounds fantastic wherever you hit it. @Tread23 and I were talking that the sound of the club doesn’t change much across the face until you get far outside off the center of the infinity face. Like 10 mm off. Which is a lot.


Second thought: The infinity face is gorgeous. Its something you must see behind the ball to appreciate. I really didn’t think it would make that much of a difference but seeing the face wrap around the crown really makes me feel more comfortable swinging through the ball. I have no idea why and I can’t explain it but it makes me feel there is no way I cannot hit the ball solid. Even though I really liked the look of the Epic Flash behind the ball, it doesn’t inspire me like the Speedzone does.


The crown Cobra logo is simple enough to not distract from the shot but is a great marker for the center of face. The outer crown molding is simply and clean and very similar to the Epic Flash’s green lines. The crown itself is impressive up close. Although at first, I expected to like the matte finish much more, the gloss crown has a fading carbon fiber effect where its almost solid black right behind the face lip to full glossy carbon fiber at the tail end which is really beautiful. It looks even better in daylight.





The face is probably the most surprising aspect to me. Unlike the relatively smooth faces of most of it’s competitors, there is a definite grain or pattern to the infinity face from the milling. Nothing so harsh as to change the ball impact but when you rub your finger over it, you can feel the variation form the mill marks. It adds a layer of depth both visually and from a tactile feel that I wasn’t expecting nor noticed during my brief glimpses pre-Distance Bash. I can’t say I feel it at impact but I have to wonder if that doesn’t add to the face feel.





The sole and tail of the head are the rock stars. If the crown and face are the front and top of the mullet, the sole and the tail are the back side hair flip and the gold chain riding below the mullet. The colors are loud but not distasteful, but it all just works visually. I didn’t think I could like the yellow but now, I can’t get enough of it. Especially when highlighted against the yellow pinstriping and logo work on the LINQ Purple shaft. And how in the hell can I not like, as a self-professed IT nerd with "more-than-I-should-admit" knowledge of the Star Trek universe, a driver that has damn impulse engines on the back of it. Seriously.

The weight distribution and the ability to modify the distribution was something I was happy to see. Although the Extreme head had great results in the fittings, I really like the ability to adjust, as Danny did during the fitting, the weights to get the right balance of flight characteristics and forgiveness. At first I was concerned I was losing the rear adjustable draw/fade bias weight in the Epic Flash Subzero as I use that to tailor my day to day swing. Swinging a little open today with a fade? Swing the weight over to neutralize it. Getting to flipping in the hands? Swing the way to the fade bias and neutralize it. Although I lose that ability on the Speedzone, the face forgiveness makes up for a lot of that. Plus, frankly, I should just get better at developing a more consistent swing.






Lets talk performance. I have never hit a driver where bad shots are so muted. Don’t get me wrong. I tried to hit a bunch of bad shots at the sim session this past weekend after my data swing were collected just to see how they would react. If you look at the face picture above you can see a bunch of shots on heel side, high toe, and low center. Go to far, and nothing will save it. But even 10mm away from center, the shots were really stable. Yeah it would be a bit of harder draw or fade depending on which side of center, but as long as I hit somewhere around the infinity circle, they will keep you out of trouble which is a huge deal in the very narrow, tree lined fairways I play up north. Most impressively, the speed of the ball doesn’t seem to drop off anywhere as near as much with the Epic Flash. My toe ball on that would be a 50 yard draw at 10 mph slower ball speed. With the cobra, it still comes off the face fairly square to target and then has a lazy draw. I saw maybe half the ball speed drop on average on toe shots club to club.


I am not ashamed to say I was completely wrong about my first impressions before I came down to the Distance Bash. This head is pretty amazing. So amazing, that I am actually testing hitting 3-woods and 5-woods right now to potentially replace my Epic Flash 5-wood in my bag. There is no bigger compliment I can pay Cobra and the Speedzone line than that because my 5-wood is the best 5-wood I have ever hit. The Speedzone might just be better.

 

[Tevenor]

Part 3: The UST Mamiya LINQ Purple 7F5 review

During the fitting, I never looked at the shaft variables. Weight, flex, etc. I didn’t want to. As I said above, I was putting my trust 100% in with @DannyLe that I would end up with the best thing for my swing regardless. Was I hoping I would end up in a LINQ or some other exotic UST Mamiya skunkworks shaft? Oh hell yes. Was I going to be disappointed if I didn’t get fit into one of those. Nope. Well maybe at first but I knew that if I didn’t get fit into one of those shafts, there’s a reason and once you get on the course, it doesn’t really matter which shaft you have. You just have to have trust in it to swing your swing and love the result.


And I got that.


I got exactly that in droves.


I will simply start out by saying this is the best driver shaft I have every played. Period. And I hope I am not overselling it as I have not hit as many shafts as many of you on the THP board. But in the last 4 months, I have hit about 14 different shafts, in various combinations of flexes and weights. My guess is that it would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 32-34 different shaft combos.


No I am not joking. Yes, that many. Yes, the LINQ Purple is still the best one of them all.


When Danny declared that the fitting was done, I had no clue what weight/flex shaft he fitted me into. I was in complete surprise when he told me this is the heaviest and stiffest shaft in the LINQ line. It doesn’t feel like it. Honestly, my 65g Oban shaft feels significantly heavier and less responsive than the LINQ. When I am in my transition, I can feel the energy being stored and then power through the impact zone. This doesn’t feel like an 7F5 shaft with an xstiff flex and a 78g uncut weight. Now granted this is at 44.5” tour length spec so I am sure the raw shaft weight is not that high but it’s still at least 10g heavier than my Oban Isawa Red.






The biggest differentiator to me is in the transition period and in the contact zone. I love feeling the driver head to the point where my swing weight is always on the heavy end. @e1iterate and @hailoffire both tried out my Epic Flash and both said it felt like a hammer. Where as my EF with the Oban shaft feels like a sledge hammer playing at 45.5”, my Cobra with the LINQ Purple feels more like a claw hammer. Lighter, more dexterous, with a far better ability to hit the nail on the head, if the nail is white sphere approximately 1.68 inches in diameter.


It also feels like it is storing a ton of energy in my transition which is not overly harsh and releasing it right at impact. Throughout the swing, I can feel where the face is and still really emphasize the lag of my swing. That lag is really where I get all my power from as you see in my swing video above and anything that enhances that portion of my swing and returns it back to me at impact simply makes me feel insanely confident in my ability to put the club face to the ball without compromising speed. AND even more importantly, will help me maximize my efficiency to get the most of whatever swing speed I put into the ball. While no shaft will correct for a horrible swing, this one really makes me feel that grooving a swing on plane is way easier which I am guessing is a combination of the flex/feel and the weight to keep me on plane.


Just as an example. I weighed both drivers dead weight when I got home. The Cobra with LINQ Purple is 16 grams heavier than my Epic Flash Subzero with the 65g Oban shaft at 1” longer. It’s a heavy driver but boy it doesn’t feel like it during the swing.


Not only is the performance great but the graphics are incredible. The purple is a really deep royal purple that just pops in the light. Matched with the yellow and silver writing, logos and pinstriping, it’s a piece of art all by itself. If I ever decide to switch to another shaft years down the road when I get older, fatter, and more crippled, this thing will probably end up hanging in my den as artwork.





I don’t know if you can tell but the is a subtle black UST logos and black counter-accents/shadows for the logos that is hard to see unless the sun or a bright light is shining on them. The attention to detail in the paint scheme is amazing.







I could not be happier with the shaft Danny fit me in. Just like I am looking now at the Cobra Speedzone 5-woods and 3-woods, I am also looking to see if there is a LINQ purple fairway wood I can pop into it run a matched set of woods. This shaft is amazing. Plain and simply. I am sure the other guys who got fitted into a LINQ Gunmetal feel the same with their shafts.


I can’t thank @JB and @DannyLe enough for this experience at the Distance Bash, for the new driver combo which I can’t wait to put into play once Winter retreats and spring shows up. I’ll be doing some more testing over the rest of winter on some trackman sessions to work on getting more used to the club, grove the swing a little more, and see if I can reach that 300 yd carry mark.

 

[Tevenor]

All posts updated. Review done.

 

[MattyD-MPLS]

Well thought out and well executed reciew! It was a fun following you guys!

 

[Gyro25]

Awesome review and write up! That combo looks awesome and really interesting to hear Danny's take on having the 2 heavier weights in it for you. It's reminded me I need to add some lead tape to my driver head as I trimmed the shaft .75"

 

[Flipit]

Excellent review. I’d really like to try that combo sometime.

 

[gkeller813]

Great review! Wow, so much good information in there! Thanks for taking the time!

 

[Muchmore]

What a great read/review! Well done and thanks for sharing!

 

[HarlettoScara]

That is a great review my man, and what a stunning looking setup you’ve ended up in. Hope it serves you well for a long time to come.

 

[Tee/Ski]

wow. Thank you for that review Tev. Great read!

 

[robrandalgz]

Fantastic review. Thanks so much for sharing that with us!

 

[Tenputt]

Awesome reviews!

 

[Scorp]

That review was great!

Good choice for mouse pad too. I've got the same one.

 

[jbuck31]

That was a great write up and very detailed. Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

[B81Smith]

Well done. We’re definitely jealous now if we weren’t already. Hahaha. Awesome result, awesome time, keeper and more. Great write up too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[KY Golfer]

Great write up. Can't wait to start playing this Driver and all the other Cobra clubs.

 

[H8tobogie]

Incredible review. Thanks for sharing. I really like how the 2 14g weights unlocked some forgiveness for you. This driver head seems very customizable, which has me excited for obvious reasons.

 

[redneckwop]

Thanks for the great write up / review. Kind of makes me jealous, but very happy for you.

 

[Bernoulli]

Love your enthusiasm over your new Speedzone driver. Thanks for taking the time to write such a thorough review. Now if you could only get outside and hit it for real. Courses should open around May in Rochester area.

 

[Tevenor]

Thanks all. As I hit it more indoors and start playing outdoors, I plan on keeping this thread updated with my views on the combo and post any relevant info as I get more comfortable with and start playing some rounds. Sim numbers are great for relative comparisons, but what really counts is outside on the tee box.

 

[fuffle master]

Great review. Well thought out and in-depth. thanks for posted

 

[GraniteRoost]

That is a really thorough and enjoyable to read review. Man that purple pops.

 

[KCSmitty]

Good read. One will likely have to be matched up with my F9.