According to COBRA, its new DS-ADAPT game-enhancing irons are – clears the throat – “The ultimate combination of speed, distance and forgiveness.”
While I don’t have last year’s DARKSPEED Irons launch press release handy, I’m willing to bet my Golf Cynics Society membership card and COBRA decoder ring said pretty much the same thing just 11 months ago first.
Not that this is a bad thing.
COBRA it doesn’t even get the credit it deserves for innovating irons. Exhibit A, submitted for your approval, is the 3D printed LIMIT3D bars. We could probably stop there, but we can add the KING TOUR, CB, and MB, which are among the nicest golfers out there, and the KING Tec golfer’s distance irons are consistently strong performers in MyGolfSpy testing.
When it comes to game-enhancing irons, COBRA has alternated between hits and misses. The 2023 AEROJET and AEROJET ONE Length finished second and third in our iron testing that year. However, last year’s standard DARKSPEED and ONE Length offerings were fair to middle performers.
However, things will be different this year. While the COBRA DS-ADAPT irons have some interesting updates, the biggest news has nothing to do with performance.
For the first time since Bryson DeChambeau turned pro, COBRA is not including a ONE Length offering in its game improvement lineup.
ah.
No length ONE???
COBRA took her relationship with Bryson hard from the start. Since launching the F7 ONE Length in 2017, COBRA has sold more than 55,000 sets of ONE Length game-improving irons. However, the DS-ADAPT 2025 isn’t getting the ONE Length treatment.
There’s no real explanation, other than that COBRA earlier this fall released its KING Tec-X irons at ONE Length and is categorizing the Tec-X as a “player game-enhancing” iron.
If you were really counting on a new ONE Length game-improving iron from COBRA this year, you’re going to need, well, the ADAPT.
COBRA DS-ADAPT Irons: What’s New?
Like TaylorMade and Callaway, COBRA releases new game-improving irons every year. In that light, it’s more than fair to ask how much an OEM can improve an iron offering in just 12 months.
Of course, it’s not like COBRA started working on DS-ADAPT the day after DARKSPEED launched last January. Iron technology is a work in progress and updates are added as manufacturing capabilities make it feasible. In this light, we can say that there are at least two new pieces of technology in the DS-ADAPT that make it worthy of your attention.
However, one problem. They are both under-the-hood improvements that you can’t “see”.
COBRA builds its game-enhancing shackles around three fundamental features. First is the PWR-BRIDGE, a weighting system integrated into the hollow body model to lower the center of gravity as low as possible. The second is the SPEEDSHELL cup face design and the third is what COBRA calls HOT (fHighly Optimized Topology) variable face thickness.
All three are COBRA variations on the same themes that virtually every OEM uses in their game-enhancing irons. There are levers that R&D can pull to lower the CG, make the face flex more and create a bigger sweet spot. R&D constantly adjusts and adjusts those levers in the name of finding incremental improvement.
For 2025, COBRA has revamped the internal PWR-BRIDGE assembly and redesigned the SPEEDSHELL cup face, both in a big way.
How low can you go?
Game improvement irons serve two purposes. One is to provide a big-bodied, wide-heeled head with a sloping face that is easy to hit for mid- and high-handicappers. The other goal is to help those same golfers, who are often distance-challenged, tools to help them hit the ball a little farther.
If you’re looking to upgrade without breaking the bank, last year’s COBRA DARKSPEED clubs are now up to 30% off
Stronger lofts are part of the recipe, but only part. Perimeter weighting and a low CG improve ball speed, reduce spin and increase launch angle. Next is a face bending mechanism to add even more speed to the stun ball.
COBRA’s PWR-BRIDGE weighting system is now an integral part of the club body (it used to be a separate part), making an even lower CG possible.
“It stiffens the rear frame,” it says COBRA VP of R&D Tom Olsavsky. “It goes from heel to toe and front to back.”
In itself, the PWR-BRIDGE is a design attribute. When combined with a newly redesigned 360 SPEEDSHELL cup face, it adds up to 23 percent more face flex than COBRA’s last two game-improving irons. It’s the largest COBRA cup face to date, spanning the entire toe and toe area.
“It’s bigger overall,” Olsavsky explains. “We can define its geometry a little better now so we can cast it without sacrificing feel.”
Thin the feel of foam
The hollow body design promotes face flex and, therefore, distance. The problem is that hollow body irons often sound like crapola. To create better acoustics and not to break the increasingly thin faces, COBRA it is becoming aggressive with the foam microspheres.
“You need some support there,” says Olsavsky, “but you also need to match the frequency response of the materials.”
While foam does wonders to improve sound and feel, it comes with a potential penalty of face flex. The foam keeps the face from breaking but also discourages the face from bending.
“You’re trying to thin the face to save weight and make it faster, but you have to support it with foam,” Olsavsky says. “You’re making a lot with the face, but you’re going to get a little back because of the foam.”
Like most game-improving iron kits, the COBRA DS-ADAPT has a built-in progression, irons 4 through 7 get all the technology: completely updated PWRBRIDGE, new SPEEDSHELL cup face and hollow body filled with foam. Wedge 8 irons are still a hollow body design but with a smaller piece of foam. There is also no SPEEDSHELL cup face. The set-matching ditch and sand wedges are hollow, but no foam or SPEEDSHELL face.
In terms of loft, the DS-ADAPT irons are on the firmer side of the game-improvement category, based on a 7-iron 27. Hey, that’s what it is: super-low-CG, high-release irons designed to get away from those in need. It’s not like they can boast that they hit their 7-iron longer than you can hit your 7-33 degree iron. The golfer probably can’t, but there’s nothing wrong with giving them a 7-iron they can hit a little easier and a little farther.
COBRA DS-ADAPT MAX
The COBRA DS-ADAPT MAX is pretty much what you’d think it is: the same technology, only bigger. The irons are oversized and have all the ingredients for an even higher MOI. The blade length is longer, the top line is thicker, the heel is wider and the head has more offset.
The DS-ADAPT MAX irons also follow an industry-wide super-game-improving trend with weaker loft than its game-improving cousin. Yes, I said weakerwith two degrees per club.
“One of the points of feedback we’ve gotten is that our irons are really long, but the industry is adapting more and adapting better,” Olsavsky says. “Mounters are telling us that anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of their game-improvement fits are in weaker lofts.”
Armed with that reaction, COBRA did a test with some of its top fitters and found that 30 percent of players performed better with a higher head. Typically, they are players with slower swing speeds who need a little extra help getting the ball in the air with a little more spin to keep it in the air.
According to COBRA, the new DS-ADAPT MAX irons launch 1.6 degrees higher, spin 550 rpm more, have a steeper descent angle of two degrees, eight yards more bias and fly just slightly longer than the iron kit that is replacing. COBRA AIR-X.
COBRA DS-ADAPT Cuff: Specs, Price, Availability
COBRA is launching three sets of DS-ADAPT irons: the standard model, the DS-ADAPT MAX model and the women’s DS-ADAPT MAX.
The DS-ADAPT and DS-ADAPT MAX irons will be available in 4-GW or 5-SW arrays. The stock steel shaft is KBS Tour Lite (S and R bends) while the stock graphite is KBS PGI (S, R and A bends). A graphite combo set is also available, which features a 5-hybrid that supports the 6-iron wedge through the gap.
The DS-ADAPT MAX women’s set is only available in graphite in a 5-SW set. A combo set (5H, 6H, 7-SW) will also be available, but right-handed only.
Steel options will retail for $999, while graphite options (including combo sets) will cost $1,099.
Presale starts today. The DS-ADAPT will hit retail on January 10th.
For more information, visit www.cobragolf.com.
Looking to upgrade without breaking the bank? Last year’s DARKSPEED models are up to 30% off.
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