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First Look: COBRA Golf Black 3D and Vintage KING Putters
COBRA Golf is expanding the KING 3D and KING Vintage putter lines. Granted, you could easily dismiss that sentence as “per the usual” in putter company protocol. And, in most cases, you wouldn’t be wrong. Through the years, I’ve made the same observation about Odyssey, Bettinardi, Scotty Cameron, TaylorMade and numerous other putter companies. With COBRA Golf, it seems a little different.
Why? Historically, COBRA Golf is not a putter company.
Sure, there have been isolated sightings of COBRA putters in the past. However, COBRA has never consistently produced something I would call a “putter line”—and most definitely not a recurring and expanding putter line or, in this situation, putter lines. Should our resident historian John Barba dig into the COBRA catalog, nary a putter glut will he find. The only COBRA putters I remember are the blades and mallets that came in the COBRA Golf boxed sets.
That’s the cool thing about where COBRA is going with these putters. The KING 3D and KING Vintage putter lines are not intended to be putters that get tossed in a box to complete a set. These putters are made to compete on the course—and in the marketplace.
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COBRA putter technologies: 3D printing
We’ve covered COBRA’s incorporation of 3D printing in the production process a couple of times. COBRA’s 3D-printing journey is an interesting story about how a technology is used at its inception and then how its use changes over time after gaining new practical knowledge. It’s OK to change plans when you get new information.
For putters, the big shift came in moving from 3D-printed aluminum to printed nylon in the 2021 KING 3D putters. While the original limited-edition Supersport 3D blade had a core of printed aluminum lattice, the production models that followed replaced the aluminum with nylon.
Why switch to nylon? Like it usually is with putters, it’s a story of weight. Nylon is lighter than aluminum and when you make the central part of the putter lighter, you slide the relative weight of the head to the edges. This weight shift improves that beloved benchmark of MOI, making the putter more stable during the stroke.
3D-printed nylon gave COBRA the stability of aluminum that they needed and improved weighting profile. Overall, the COBRA designers can make putters that would be impossible with traditional technologies. That translates to more putters for us to choose from. Thanks to COBRA, golfers now have the options of having their putter cast, milled or printed.
COBRA putter technologies: Sik Face
Another key technology is Sik’s Descending Loft Technology face. The Sik DLT face features four distinct loft zones. The face has a loft of four degrees at the top that decreases incrementally until it reaches one degree at the bottom of the face.
The Sik DLT face ensures that, regardless of impact angle, the ball should launch at about 1.5 degrees. Ascending, descending and level strokes will impact different lofts on the face and those various face lofts normalize the launch to the desired 1.5 degrees. Even if your impact angle is inconsistent, the Sik face should make the roll consistent.
2022 COBRA KING 3D Black putters
Of the two putter lines, the KING 3D putter line sees the least change in 2022. The overarching story is that each of the three core models, the Grandsport, the Agera and the Supernova, will be offered with a black finish. Perhaps we will see more color options as the year goes on. The recently released Palm Tree Crew Agera may indicate that COBRA has a few color variants in the wings as well.
New neck options for the Agera and Supernova are also coming . The Agera-30 and Supernova-30 feature slant necks while the Supernova-20 is built with a longer flow neck. Ultimately, these neck designs will add toe hang to the mallets and give them more of a blade-like path. These new necks allow these mallets to directly compete with the slant-neck mallets from Odyssey and TaylorMade.
BONUS Gallery: COBRA KING 3D Black Agera-30
Got my hands on this little gem a bit early so I thought it right to share some photos. First impression, the black finish is impressive. I was not all in on the the silver and black look of the original KING 3D models, but I really dig the black look. Although the sizes are the same, the black finish really seems to make this Agera look smaller than the silver one.
Rolls on my garage green have me excited to drop the Agera-30 in the bag this weekend. It feels balanced and familiar. I’m curious to see if I can detect any roll improvement with the Sik face. I’ll keep you posted on this COBRA putter’s performance.
2022 Cobra KING Vintage putters
The 2022 KING Vintage line gets a slightly more significant expansion. One model, the KING Stingray, gets an additional neck option. The Stingray-20 features a plumber’s neck. Sure, there are some plumber’s-neck mallets out there in putterland but not many. While some of the heads seem ripe for center-shafted construction, alas, there are none. Perhaps we will see some center-shafts in 2023.
The 2022 KING Vintage line adds two new head shapes. The first is the new Widesport. It is a classic wide blade design with a double-bend shaft. Not super paradigm-shaking but a shape that will be welcomed by the numerous folks who favor the design. Now you have three distinct blades to choose from in the Vintage line.
The second new putter model, the Cuda, is much more interesting. This mallet has quite a bit going on. At address, the three alignment lines give me a very PING Ketsch feel. The V-shaped front edge draws the eye to the center of the putter and gives the Cuda a unique look.
The bottom design surprised me. The rear end of the putter is hollow with the adjustable weights sitting more toward the front than expected. With many of the other COBRA putters having weights pushed to the back corners, I figured the Cuda would follow suit.
Overall, the Cuda and slant-neck Cuda-40 are built with the weight forward and to the edges. The weight position is not as extreme as in the new Odyssey Tri-Hot 5K or the TaylorMade FCG Spider but it is moving in that direction. Regardless, as one rarely surprised by putter designs, I’m excited to roll the Cuda when it hit shops in May.
COBRA Golf is a putter company
In summary, this release consists of some new necks, a black color option and two new heads. It’s not a huge update to the existing KING 3D and KING Vintage lines. For those of you who see this as insignificant, you have missed the bigger picture. It’s not how COBRA Golf have updated putter lines but rather that they have updated the putter lines. COBRA’s commitment to making putters, and to their unique putter-making technologies, is a big deal.
COBRA Golf is making a play for the putter corral and other companies should be concerned. Only two years into the putter arena and they have a Most Wanted Blade win. With the head, neck and finish options, consumers have more than 20 COBRA putters to choose from. If nothing else, COBRA now has enough product out there to make a visual presence in a shop’s putter corral. The unique shapes of the putters will draw in customers who will likely then roll some balls with them.
Once a COBRA putter gets into someone’s hands, the trip to their bag may not be a long one.
Both the KING 3D ($349) and KING Vintage ($249) will be available for purchase starting May at retail and online at cobragolf.com.
The post First Look: COBRA Golf Black 3D and Vintage KING Putters appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
