Equipment editor Scott Kramer recently chatted with industry veteran Tom Preece, vice president of research and development at Cobra-PUMA Golf, to learn about the company’s latest offerings. Here’s what he had to say:
SCOTT KRAMER: Among Cobra’s new clubs for 2013 is the clever 460cc AMP Cell driver that allows golfers to adjust loft six ways between 8.5 and 11.5 degrees, with a couple of draw-biased lofts among them, via “SmartPad Technology” that squares the face at address regardless of the loft. How does this work?
TOM PREECE: When we looked at the relationship between face angle and loft, face angle when the club is sitting in a player’s hands is largely affected by where the sole of the club contacts the ground. If you think about increasing the loft, the back of the club starts to hit the ground and shuts the clubface. If you decrease the loft, the back of the club starts to lift off the ground, the contact point moves forward and tends to open the clubface. We figured most golfers just want to look at a square clubface. So we figured out a way to minimize the contact point between the sole plate and the ground, and that contact area is about 1.5 centimeters wide. As you adjust loft up or down, the contact point on the club doesn’t shift as much as it does on most golf clubs. We just wanted to keep it simple.
SK: We know that when golfers find the right settings on their adjustable drivers, they tend to keep them there. What do you see going on, with respect to that, on the PGA Tour for your players?
TP: We believe that many golfers don’t take advantage of their adjustable drivers (or only adjust them once) because many of these adjustments are confusing. With Cobra’s MyFly technology, we’ve developed an adjustable loft system that is very easy to use and understand. The loft is clearly displayed through a hosel window, and with our Smart Pad, the face angle stays “square” (i.e., pointing down range), without having to make additional adjustments to the sole. We are actually finding that golfers are adjusting our MyFly system more often (for the course they’re playing on any given day, or even based on how their swing feels on that day). Rickie Fowler, Ian Poulter and Jesper Parnevik have all changed MyFly settings on their own to optimize their Cobra AMP Cell clubs for the type of course they were playing on a given day – most notably in Arizona recently, when it was so cold. They went down in loft to get more roll.
SK: Cobra has seemingly covered everything with respect to adjustability – loft, face angle, weighting. Are there other parts of a golf club that can be adjusted? Also, will we ever see adjustable irons?
TP: Lie angle can also be adjusted. For example, the Amp Cell driver has six MyFly settings, two of which are “draw” settings. These draw settings are two degrees more upright than standard, which causes approximately eight yards more right-to-left draw spin on a robot. Our Amp Cell Pro driver has two “fade” settings, which have flatter lie angles versus standard. I’m sure we’ll see other adjustable features in the future, including irons. But in Cobra’s case, we’ll only come out with an adjustable feature if it really helps the golfer.
SK: Cobra has new Baffler T-Rail+ clubs out. How are these improved or different than previous Bafflers?
TP: The new Baffler T-Rail+ has several improvements. We’ve gone to a heavier tungsten in the rails on the sole (15 percent heavier than the previous version), which helps us lower the center of gravity and move it back a bit further for a higher, longer ball flight. We also have a new, high-performance Graphite Design G-series shaft that’s very stable through impact and has exceptional feel. Lastly, the hybrids have a new “universal hosel bore,” which accepts any type of shaft tip diameter. This enables us to build Bafflers in our custom department with any type of high-performance hybrid or fairway shaft a golfer may need for his or her individual game.
– By SCOTT KRAMER
