Some big news out of Cobra last week as the much-touted new King Forged CB/MB irons are set to launch on November 2 amid much fanfare in the golf equipment industry.
What catches the attention of this particular release isn’t just the progressive combination of cavity back and muscle back designs across the set, or the classic black satin finish – it’s the fact that these clubs were developed under the watchful eye of brand ambassador Rickie Fowler.
In fact, we understand his input into the design was such that he encouraged Cobra to both imitate and enhance his existing MB Proto King Forged irons, which makes sense given the sleek look of the new CB/MBs, and their undoubted gravitation towards being a players’ iron.
By all accounts though, these Tour-quality looks don’t come at the expense of playability and forgiveness either.
“These high-performance Cobra irons consistently deliver the workability and shot-shaping control that I need to be competitive on course,” Fowler commented in the wake of the announcement.
“I’ve been playing them for a few years, and know better players are going to appreciate the sleek look and soft feel, along with the ability to work the ball without sacrificing forgiveness.”
The Cobra Golf King Forged CB/MB iron set, to coin its full name, undergoes a five-step forging process, the purpose of which is to ensure that a softer feel, design precision and a more-refined grain structure are achieved.
The end result is the look of a classic blade at address, with a compact face which oozes workability.
This look is underscored by the CNC milling, which polishes up the groove structure so as to give the face a truly world-class shape and feel.
The weighting of the clubheads has been aligned with those of Fowler’s, while there is a tungsten insert each in the toe and centre of each iron to boost feel and forgiveness.
These irons integrate the Arccos-powered ‘Cobra Connect’ system too, while the grips are GPS-enabled (in conjunction with the Arccos Caddie app) so as to allow you to immerse yourself in a sea of stats and data.
In terms of the basics of the set, it sports a cavity back in the 4-6 irons, featuring a new muscle cavity – the focus of which is on improving forgiveness and consistency of trajectory in equal measure.
Meanwhile, the 7-PW resembles a more traditional muscle-back, which Cobra claim will take things up a notch in terms of precision and working the ball.
Beyond the stock set, a 2-iron, 3-iron and/or gap wedge are available on order too, and the good news for our left-handed friends is that the CB/MB set will be available in both RH and LH.
As for the other nitty gritty in terms of features, you might be interested to note that this set of irons will be the first in the Cobra ranks to don the Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cobra Connect grips, while the standard shaft is the KBS S-Taper (black PVD), which comes in both regular and stiff varieties.
We’d also be remiss not to point out how striking these irons appear with their Diamondized Black Metal (DBM) finish. It’s as aesthetically-pleasing as it is durable.
The overriding theme seems to be about striking that perfect balance between playability, feel and control – the modus operandi of any set of irons in this niche, I suppose, but it does appear that new technology and thinking has gone into achieving this, and with such hands-on input from the winning combination of the world’s number-nine golfer and an already-popular club design, you feel like this new gem from Cobra is likely to raise the bar.
And we’re only weeks away from seeing these bad boys come to market.
I think it’s safe to say we aren’t the only ones looking forward to getting them in our hands so that we can give them a solid test drive.