Comes In : KBS Tour 90 steel shafts and Lamkin Cobra Connect grips; $899 with Fujikura ATMOS 60 graphite shafts.
Specs: Cast 17-4 stainless steel body with forged, CNC-milled faces and internal tungsten weights
The Goal
With the King F9 Speedback irons, Cobra designers wanted to deliver the maximum distance and forgiveness in a single set of irons for mid- and higher-handicap players.
The Scoop
One of the challenges that golf club designers have to wrestle with every time they create a new product is balancing what the club looks like and how it performs, because even players who have trouble breaking 90 or 100 expect their gear to look a certain way. With the King F9 Speedback irons, Cobra’s engineers decided to make a club for double-digit handicappers that delivers performance before refining the looks.
Internal tungsten weights (in red) help make the King F9 Speedback irons more forgiving.
To make the King F9 Speedback irons easy to hit and forgiving, Cobra added tungsten pieces to the toe and in the heel where the hosel and club meet. The idea was to put those pieces as low and as far apart as possible to boost the moment of inertia and make the King F9 Speedback stable on mis-hits
To accommodate the tungsten weights and allow designers to get them as low as possible, Cobra made the sole of the King F9 irons wider than the King F8 irons they replace. The wider sole has some leading-edge and trailing-edge beveling to work through the turf easily.
The wide sole, squared-off toe and accommodations Cobra made in the King F9 Speedback iron’s shape are not visible at address. From that angle, they look like many game-improvement clubs golfers may have tried in the past.
Cobra King F9 Speedback irons have a variable-thickness face design. (Cobra Golf)
To enhance distance, the forged 17-4 stainless steel face is thicker in the center (2.8 millimeters) and thinner in areas where golfers tend to mis-hit, such as the high toe (1.8 millimeters), to help protect ball speed. It also wraps under the leading edge of the club to pull the ideal hitting area down and across a larger area. Just behind the leading edge, in the sole, the metal is only 1.2 millimeters thick, allowing the lower portion of the club to flex more efficiently on low-impact shots.
The long irons in the King F9 Speedback set have a larger blade length and lower profile, but the set transitions to short irons that are shorter from heel to toe with a center of gravity that rises slightly for more precision and control. Sharp-eyed players also will notice the hosels grow longer as the clubs transition from long irons to short irons because, with the longer clubs, there is a need to keep more weight lower to achieve a higher launch angle.
Many of the features of the Cobra King F9 Speedback irons are not visible at address. (Cobra Golf)
The V-shaped grooves in the 4-7 irons are CNC-milled for precision and have been designed to reduce spin. Working in combination with the low-back center of gravity, they should help provide more distance. The U-grooves in the short irons and wedges are designed for more spin and control.
Finally, to enhance feel and sound, Cobra has given the King F9 Speedback irons a multimaterial back medallion made from aluminum, thermoplastic polyurethane and acrylic foam.
Cobra King F9 Speedback One Length irons. (Cobra Golf)
Cobra is not only making traditional, variable-length King F9 Speedback irons but also One Length King F9 Speedback irons. Each of the One Length clubs is the length of a standard 7-iron, with more upright lie angles in the long irons and flatter lies angles in the short irons.
Like the other clubs in the King F9 family, the King F9 Speedback irons come standard with Arccos-powered Cobra Connect tags in the Lamkin Crossline grips.
