Cobra Golf introduced today the 2019 KING F9 SPEEDBACK™ drivers and fairways.
With its catchy yellow and black graphics on the bottom of the club, is the culmination of three key factors—machine milling the face for forgiveness, optimizing the face for aerodynamics, and ensuring the center of gravity is in the right spot for low spin. Bring the three together and you have what Cobra says is a “next level” driver.
“The technology took over the name,” says Jose Milaflor, Cobra’s vice-president of marketing. “And we knew we had to call it something special to affect people’s thinking.” Thus the F9 SPEEDBACK™ was born.
Last year Cobra promoted its F8 driver around the notion of machine milling the face, bringing consistency on mishits. The latest incarnation brings the milled face together with other engineering enhancements to make it the best Cobra driver yet, Rickie Fowler told Golf Town.
“For me I’d say this is the closest head that I’ve seen that it won’t be a whole lot of work as far as finding a shaft and different weighting in the head to make it work the way I want it to,” Fowler said, adding he hopes to have the driver in play by the end of the year. “It has been the best performing stock driver that I’ve seen so far.”
Key Technologies
SPEEDBACK™
In recent years we’ve seen companies start to pay attention to aerodynamics to increase clubhead speed. Cobra follows suit with SPEEDBACK™, which combines a raised skirt on the clubhead with a rounded crown and leading edge to increase airflow. Cobra says testing shows the clubhead to be up to 1.3 miles per hour faster than competitors.
Center of gravity
Low CG means less spin, which means more distance. That’s what Cobra is saying they’ve accomplished with their latest driver. The company says testing shows F9 is eight yards longer than its previous generation club, and the clubhead design alone would contribute six of those yards.
CNC Milled
Most drivers are hand-milled, which Cobra says makes them inconsistent. Last year Cobra began machine-milling the face of their drivers to make them more consistent, and ensure that if you don’t hit the sweet spot, you’ll still get the most distance out of your shot.
Dual Roll
This technology is designed to improve hits off the toe and heel by promoting the desired launch and spin.
Who it’s for?
For Rickie Fowler, this has been the easiest switch of a driver model to date.
“This is the least amount of work we’ve had to do in testing a new product,” says Fowler. “I think it is better than what I was playing and I think we’re in a really good spot with it right now.”
With its combination of speed, aerodynamics and attention to detail on the face, F9 is basically for any golfer who wants to add speed, distance and accuracy off the tee—which is basically everyone. The company is billing F9 SPEEDBACK™ as “the king of speed,” but truthfully it is the combination of years of engineering that has crafted a complete driver.