What does it mean to be accurate with a driver? That’s the question asked by Jose Miraflor, Cobra’s Vice-President of Product Development. The last year has seen a lot of focus on forgiving drivers, with interest placed on clubs that achieve a moment of inertia of 10,000. Cobra wants to take that focus and shift it slightly to accuracy.
Miraflor uses an example of a player considering the strategy of a hole from the tee. On a slight dogleg right, protected by a bunker on the right, a player might pick the line based on the best way to attack the flag. That means being accurate with your drive, not just finding a fairway. Accuracy, to his way of thinking, is both distance and direction. That’s the goal of Cobra’s OPTM driver line.
Key technologies
POI and shaping
There’s been a lot of talk about “moment of inertia” around drivers in recent years. The essence of MOI is the resistance of a club in twisting when you hit a ball off-center or the angular acceleration around an axis. In the case of POI, or “product of inertia,” Cobra is taking into account three axes, accounting for diagonal twisting, which makes the ball go offline and, therefore, make the drive less accurate. “Our goal is to develop the understanding of product of inertia and reduce the amount of twisting,” Miraflor says. “That means we’re going to reduce the unwanted face rotation and really drive up your directional consistency.
Miraflor realizes this can be a bit tricky to understand, and challenged his team to make it understandable. “What if we just said, ‘Hey, in design, Cobra wants to increase the stability of your driver, while also reducing the amount of 3D twisting going on,’” he said. “That’s easy to understand. Right? That’s all we’re doing.”
With that in mind, Cobra set about changing the shape of the driver head in the OPTM line with a technology called POY shaping.
Adaptive POI weighting
Cobra used an advanced algorithm to position movable weights, as well as the housings of the weights. “That was really a big learning for us to really in designing these new drivers to carry that on,” Miraflor says. “So our goal for our engineers was simple and yet very difficult.” Cobra used artificial intelligence to optimize weight placements and specifically find the right centre of gravity placement for the driver.
HOT Face
Designed to provide more speed across the entire clubface, this increases distance on mishits out to the toe or heel.
FutureFit33
Once again, Cobra is tapping into its FutureFit33 system, which was introduced last year, and far outpaces anything previously on the market. Using a chart or Cobra’s Smartpad Technology, adjustments are easy to make and easy to understand, with all 33 settings accessible.
Which one is for me?
LS
The LS version of the driver, is aimed at those who need to limit spin. Often aimed at players with higher swing speeds, the LS version comes in 9 and 10.5 degree lofts, and the new POI weighting allows the driver to be adjusted from a more forgiving higher flight to a fade bias.
X
With a 460 cc head, the X model packs the right mix of accuracy and forgiveness. A driver that will appeal to the broadest range of players, the speedback shaping and gloss carbon crown make this an attractive driver.
Max-K
With up to 13,000 MOI, this is the driver for the golfer seeking to find more fairways and increase their accuracy. With an 11 gram weight at the back of the head, this driver offers forgiveness and makes it easy for the golfer to get the ball in the air.
Max-D
A draw bias driver, this is aimed at the golfer struggling with a slice. With a single weight in the heel, and loft at 10.5 and 12 degrees, those golfers whose cut has become troublesome, should find significant relief in the D version of OPTM.