It isn’t the first time Cobra has used 3D printing in developing its products. The company famously generated a putter using 3D printing methods. But Cobra is taking it to the next level by utilizing the ground-breaking tech on custom irons.

“This has been emerging for a while—just not in golf,” says Ryan Roach, Cobra’s director of innovation. “The question for Cobra was what kind of products were best suited for this.”

Using “additive manufacturing,” the more sophisticated way of describing product creation through the use of 3D printing, Cobra has created the Limit3d Irons, the world’s first commercially available golf irons developed using the technology. “They look and feel like a player’s club, but they have all the technology and benefits of what you’d find in a game improvement iron,” says Roach. “No one has really gotten there until now.”

Code named “Apollo” for the first manned mission to the moon, the idea was to manufacture irons that couldn’t be created in any other fashion than through 3D printing, whether that was forged or cast. The company was experimenting with them while working with former Cobra player Bryson DeChambeau, who turned up with a 3D set of irons at the Masters, made by Avoda Golf, and wedges for staff player Rickie Fowler.

Lattice Technology

The key to the irons is what you can’t actually see—the inner lattice devised through additive manufacturing. Using new software, nTop, the irons offer a compact shape that has traditionally appealed to the better golfer. In fact, these irons are slightly smaller than Cobra’s popular KING Tour irons. What additive manufacturing allows is repositioning weight without sacrificing stability. Internally, 3D printing allows Cobra to create a super-strong lattice structure that makes the club sound and feel like a muscleback iron. In fact, using nTop software sped up the process significantly, taking half the expected development time, says Roach. In all, 2,600 layers are created using 3D printing, and it takes 24 hours to produce.

3D Results

In case you think 3D printing is just some industry buzzword, in the same way that AI is found in every product press release for golf these days, Roach says that’s not the case. In fact, Cobra says the results of using nTop software, along with additive manufacturing allowed for three key advancements: more speed, higher launch, and more forgiveness. The three keys for every set of irons. To be even more clear, Cobra says the Limited3D irons are 2 miles per hour faster, and travel, on average, 5 yards longer, all with a tighter dispersion.

Limited Means Limited—For Now

The Limit3d Irons will be available June 7th. Cobra is only making 500 sets of the new Limited3D irons, and only offering them through custom fitting. Roach says the idea of connecting the clubs with custom fitting takes advantage of the opportunities presented by 3D printing. Only 500 sets are available worldwide, with 350 in Canada and the U.S., including custom orders at Golf Town. What’s next? Roach says there is the opportunity to scale manufacturing of 3D printed clubs, but for the time being they are focused on simply offering custom fit versions of the Limited3D sets.