COBRA Limited Edition Black Drivers and Wedges

New limited black finish for LTDx drivers and KING Cobra wedgesDrivers get an all-black color scheme with a white LIN-Q aftermarket shaftFull KING COBRA wedge line gets stain black QPQ finishDrivers $599; wedges $149Available starting today

Today’s release of the new COBRA Limited Edition Black drivers and wedges is simultaneously intriguing and predictable.

It’s predictable in that the KING COBRA wedges have been out for a full year now. And OEMs love giving their gear – particularly wedges – a second-year boost with a new look. The new COBRA Limited Edition Black wedges certainly check that box.

What’s intriguing is that kind of an admittedly gimmicky boost is unusual for a driver that’s been out for only about two months. If it was anyone other than COBRA it’d be eyebrow-raising curious. But since it is COBRA, who has been known to drop Limited Edition colored drivers like Ted Lasso drops colorful colloquialisms, we can say it’s business as usual.

COBRA Limited Edition Black LTDx Drivers

COBRA is giving the entire LTDx driver family the new blacked-out color scheme. Looking down on the driver, the frame, carbon fiber crown and face are still the same black they’ve been for the past two months. But the white and orange striping on the sides is now gray.

The difference is noticeable once you turn the club over. The traditionally loud orange and white sole accents and orange sole weights are now all black and gray. Now, this is what you call Stealth.

On Wednesday, March 16th golf’s governing bodies (USGA and R&A) sent an official notice to equipment manufacturers regarding “changes that address the long-term cycle of consistent hitting increases in hitting distances.”

The specifics of that memo provide plenty of fodder for future debate, but the entire topic is predicated on a single premise.

Golfers are hitting the ball too far.

Or are they?

Leveraging the Arccos database, which includes 516,000,000+ tracked shots, the data tells a compelling, if not contradictory, story.

The TaylorMade Tour Response is a three-piece golf ball designed for slow to moderate swing speeds.A new striped version offers a radical take on alignment technology.Retail price is $39.99.A new Soft Response ball is also available ($29.99).

The headline is new version of TaylorMade Tour Response but the subhead should prove far more interesting.

A brief recap: The 2022 Tour Response represents the second generation of what was once Project a. What was true with Project a remains true for Tour Response. It’s a three-piece urethane-covered golf ball designed for everyday golfers. That is to say, golfers with moderate swing speeds or who are otherwise “force limited.”

Basically, Tour Response is best suited for slow to mid swing speed golfers.

Where Tour Response Fits

From a competitive standpoint, TaylorMade looks at Tour Response a couple of different ways.

Sam Burns has a share of the Thursday lead along with Adam Hadwin, David Lipsky and Jhonattan Vegas in the Valspar Championship.

A 13-year-old was driving the pickup truck that struck a van in West Texas in a fiery collision that killed nine people, including six New Mexico college students and a golf coach, the NTSB said Thursday.

BEST SPIKED GOLF SHOES OF 2022

Want the most traction possible? If so, you must consider our picks for the Best Spiked Golf Shoe of 2022.

Even though the category of the spiked golf shoe is shrinking because the industry is trending towards spikeless, there are still golfers who live and die by the spike. These test results are for you.

If the kicks in our top five don’t suit you, there’s no doubt our research can help you refine your choices for new spiked golf shoes this year.

WINNER – FOOTJOY TOUR ALPHA

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When it comes to overall performance, the FootJoy Tour Alpha put on quite a show. This spiked shoe was consistent across multiple key metrics, making it the undisputed winner of the 2022 Most Wanted Spiked Shoe Test. Full results are in the table below but this is how the Tour Alpha performed in each category.

The PGA Tour stays in Florida with the Valspar Championship. Here is how to watch it all on ESPN+

Have you ever wondered why your game has its ups and downs? Occasionally you play brilliant rounds of golf but more often than not, your score is well above your handicap. Why is it that you never know who is showing up to play super golfer or loser golfer? A few years ago, I started to pay attention to my sugar intake on the course when a PGA caddy mentioned in an interview that the pros are extremely careful about their fluid and sugar intake during a round of golf.

Recently I noticed that I have been scoring well in spurts followed by dry spells. That woke me up to pay attention to my fluid and sugar intake. When I realized that my game dropped off after eating an energy bar, I started paying attention to the eating and drinking habits of my playing partners. This was not a very scientific approach, but I did notice that anyone who ate an energy or protein bar immediately suffered a change in their game for the worse.

We all need a reasonable level of energy to play a round of golf. Unfortunately when your body is hit with an overload of sugar it must be adding a jolt your energy. You become invincible and tend to swing faster. Big mistake. Playing with 80% power is ideal. An overload of power just kills your swing. When your swing brakes down so does your game and and that crushes your mental attitude.

In summary, a sugar boost will overload your power causing mishits and resulting in a reaction to play more aggressively. Unfortunately your game will go down the drain.

Action Plan to Level your Energy while Golfing
1/ If you are going to eat an energy or chocolate bar just do it in moderation. Eat it slowly over a number of holes. Savor it and minimize your energy output.
2/ 1 beer may relax your swing but don’t get carried away. You know what multiple beers will do to your game and that will be the same result when you load up on sweats and energy bars.
3/ Plan on taking fruit or Gatorade to add electrolytes and energy in moderation.
4/ Stay hydrated with water as playing golf without water will zap your energy.
5/ Don’t get too excited when you birdie a hole as that boost in adrenaline will also destroy your mental balance. The success or lack of success on you next drive will tell you how wired you are.

The LIV Golf Invitational Series will consist of eight events, including four in the United States. The series begins in June in London. Total prize money will be $255 million, and all but one of the events conflicts with an existing PGA Tour event.

The Electric Trolley Movement – Key Takeaways

Use of electric trolleys is growing in the U.S.Usage still small compared to Europe.U.S. golfers prefer remote-control units.7,000 golfers in eight countries surveyed by Motocaddy

We’ve written about it plenty but the electric trolley movement isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, it’s just the opposite.

Currently, the global market for electric trolleys (or electric caddies, if you will) stands just north of $130 million. By the end of the decade, that figure is expected to reach $200 million.

Industry leader Motocaddy has just released the results of a global survey of 7,000 golfers across the world’s top eight golf markets. The results are simultaneously surprising and about what you’d expect. And since it was Motocaddy that commissioned the study, it’s reasonable to take the results with a wee grain of salt.

But the results do put the U.S. market into its proper perspective compared to the rest of our big round ball. And the study does substantiate a mostly anecdotal observation:

The electric trolley movement is, in fact, a movement.

A vehicle carrying members of the University of the Southwest golf team collided head-on with a pickup truck in West Texas, killing multiple people, authorities said.

Here’s the letter Greg Norman and LIV Golf Investments sent to a number of PGA Tour players today.

“You should know that we are launching….we will not stop.” pic.twitter.com/wy2UrQKP3I

— Dan Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) March 16, 2022

Sounding a tad humbled but as ageist and delusional as ever, Greg Norman is branding his Saudi Arabia-backed concept as a “start-up” with March 16 plans to unveil a schedule.

Oh that Shark is such an incubator!

SI.com’s Bob Harig was the first to report on Norman’s letter here.

GolfDigest.com’s Daniel Rapaport Tweeted the letter (above) sent to some players preparing them for news of a schedule encouraging them to play both the LIV league and the PGA Tour. This move was telegraphed by Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch as an attempt to eventually take the PGA Tour to court for blocking releases.

PING Glide 4.0 Wedges – Key Takeaways

PING updates its standard wedge line.New material: 8620 soft carbon steel4 grinds, 46- to 60-degree lofts$217.50 steel, $232.50 graphite. Pre-sale and fitting start today.

The new PING Glide 4.0 wedges make one thing abundantly clear.

When PING changes/updates/upgrades its wedges, it doesn’t mess around.

And for what it’s worth, it’s been a while since PING updated the standard Glide line. The original Glide debuted in early 2015. Glide 2.0 showed up two years later. One year later, PING gave us a quasi-updated Glide 2.0 Stealth (MyGolfSpy’s 2018 Most Wanted Wedge). It wasn’t until the summer of 2019 that we saw Glide 3.0.

Nearly three years later, we get Glide 4.0. So what gives? Did PING let the Glide slide?

Not hardly.

The 2023 Ryder Cup selection process took way longer than normal. But the press conferences should be fun and some of the other man drama over future buggy driving roles will liven the build-up for Rome…564 days away.

My Quadrilateral take.