Cobra F9 Speedback Driver Review

[chisag]

… Last year I wrote in my review “I am not sure I have ever been as impressed with a driver in the 13 years I have been reviewing new clubs at the PGA Show as I am with the entire F8 line up”. This year I am going to be even more demonstrative. The Cobra F9 is the best driver I have ever played. Before making a definitive statement like that, I put my F9 in play for almost 2 months, playing over 50 rounds using several different shafts and the combination of distance, trajectory, forgiveness and especially sound/feel is better than any driver I have played. Read on to find out why.

… Before getting into the cornucopia of technical reasons why the F9 is so good, I wanted to talk about the sound and feel of the F9. OEMs have the unenviable task of producing a driver that appeals to old school players that prefer a dense, muted sound/feel and younger players that prefer an explosive and loud sound/feel. The Cobra is very aware of the roll sound and feel play in choosing a driver and has gone to great lengths to ensure the F9 combines a dense muted sound with an explosive feel. Center hits have a very solid and unique sound/feel and you instantly know you have hit one as good as it gets. I have heard more comments on how good the F9 driver sounds and feels than any driver in my 20 years of reviewing clubs and this includes plenty of younger and older players. Hitting the ball a little toward the toe, the sound is a bit louder and more metallic letting you know you have missed the center but still produces a solid feel with excellent results.

… The USGA sets limits for CT which measures the amount of spring like effect the club face can legally produce. CT stands for Characteristic Time, a measurement of how fast the ball comes off the face of a club. The springier the club face is, the farther the golf ball can fly and all OEMs basically have the same CT so it is as close to the limit as possible. Engineering a driver that produces more distance has to be accomplished in other ways. Cobra does this in the F9 with SPEED. They have done extensive research to find ways to make the club head move through the air faster. Cobra’s patented Speedback Aero Design is a combination of streamline measures that are designed to increase the club head speed producing longer drives. Speedback Technology results in an amazingly aerodynamic club head shape thanks to rounded leading edges, a raised crown, as well as a raised skirt and tail. Like a race car, Speedback Technology is a breakthrough in driver engineering and these speed enhancements reduce drag and allows the club head to reach maximum speeds for any given players swing. Cobra is the first OEM to combine a low center of gravity with a streamlined, aerodynamic shape. While I can’t say I feel my F9 club head moving any faster, my golf ball certainly can and I am seeing 5-7yd gains and sometimes even more. It is pretty rare to gain yards with today drivers if you have been orderly fit. Going from the Fly Z to the F8 I gained a few yards on mishits but center contact produced similar yardage. Gaining some yards off the tee with a driver that is equally, if not even more forgiving is just huge for most of us and there is a very good chance you will see distance gains with the F9.

… Last year Cobra introduced the first CNC Milled Driver Face with their F8 driver and in 2019 they have improved the design with the F9. Mike Yagley Director R&D & Testing told me it took over 2 and a half years to perfect the face and their milling is up to 5 times more precise than conventional hand-polished driver faces. That is no small feat. Mike said “the process of machining is very different from the typical weld and grind process, the head and face are designed differently because of that. The machining patterns take some time to design, develop and optimize. Ensuring we had enough capacity to machine every head was critical too.”  What this exact CNC milling means is the rebound effect along all areas of the face are perfect in thickness, producing not only the fastest ball speeds but also more forgiving on slight mishits. And slight mishits is an area where the F9 excels. Mishits as far as an inch out on the toe, where average players tend to miss will lose a little distance of course, but direction and trajectory are minimally effected resulting in very playable drives. An added benefit of the milled face is you can see exactly where you made contact as a visible ball mark is left on the face after every shot. You can easily wipe it away after every drive or wait til the end of the round to see where you are contacting the face over a full 18 holes. I have to admit it is an instructive feature I love to use when I am playing.
 

… Along with CNC Milling, the Cobra F9 face also utilizes Dual Roll and E9 Technology to produce more accurate and longer drives. My miss tends to be a little low on the face and in the past I was punished rather severely for this miss because the ball comes off the face with a lower trajectory and little spin, so the ball just didn’t stay in the air long enough. But shots hit low on the face of the F9 fly higher with more spin than other drivers I have played, and on Phoenix desert hard and fast fairways, some drives have equalled perfectly struck drives. Dual Roll Technology’s top half has more curve for less spin and higher launch and the bottom half has less curve and is optimized for different swings speeds depending on loft. The F9 also takes advantage of 3 different vertical bulge curvatures. The CNC Milling can create exact bulge curvature to ensure shots hit on the toe, heel or dead center have an optimum gear effect to bring your tee shot closer to where you want your ball to finish in the fairway. Gear effect simply means shots hit on the toe starting right curve back left and shots hit toward the heel starting left curve back right. Dual Roll combined with E9 Technology is the result of exhaustive research into typical driver miss hits. Cobra has found the 9 spots on the face where most players mishit their drives, from low heel to high toe and maximized the distance and trajectory of those hits through their unique variable face thickness and elliptical face pattern.

…  The engineers at Cobra are always pushing the envelope and they came up with their largest carbon fiber crown and it is the first to wrap completely over the crown and into the body. This produces a 12% larger crown and compared to titanium driver crowns saves 10gms of weight the engineers could move to a more effective location. Sounds a lot simpler in theory than actually producing the revolutionary F9 driver head. Mike Yagley on the wrap around carbon fiber crown “The titanium to carbon fiber bonding ledge is very different. That took some development work. The sound of a driver is very critical to feel, we spent additional time optimizing the sound at impact. Finally,  finishing / painting carbon fiber is different from titanium, that took a little more effort.” The F9 carbon fiber crown also has creases called PWR Ridges that create more energy return and power, resulting in higher ball speeds by adding rigidity to the crown. These ridges also help frame the ball for those that like a visual aid. After a few rounds I didn't even notice they were there which is a nice bonus compared to many other driver crowns with features that are much more obvious and distracting. The F9 also utilizes what Cobra calls “trips”,  lightweight polymer speed strips on the crown and titanium speed strips on the sole that maximize air flow and reduce air drag both above and below the head. Everything about the F9 driver screams SPEED.

… The F9 is offered in 9.5*, 10.5* and 12.5* heads giving players options to provide the best combination of spin and trajectory. This is accomplished with loft, but is combined with their  MyFly 8 hosel and adjustable CG weighting. The MyFly 8 adaptor allows you to change the loft to 8 different settings and when adding or subtracting loft, the Smart Pad Sole keeps the clubface square at address. The F9 weights can be installed in the rear for maximum forgiveness, a slight draw bias and a higher ball flight with more spin. Many golfers hear the “high launch low spin” mantra and while that is true for higher swing speeds, many average golfers actually need more spin to keep the ball in the air longer and produce the best combination of carry and roll. The unique looking Speedback structure on the bottom rear of the driver lowers the center of gravity and increases the moment of inertia. What that means is the F9 will hit the ball higher and is very forgiving when mishit. Overall the F9 has great aerodynamics (low drag) and excellent mass properties (low CG and high MOI) something that has not been accomplished before the Cobra F9. Higher swing speed/high spin players can move the weight up front to lower trajectory and spin with a slight fade bias to maximize their drives. Additionally the 9.5* head produces roughly 200-300 less spin than the 10.5* head. My only complaint with the F9 weighting is moving the weight up front changes the sound and feel to a more metallic sound/feel. But thankfully weight in the rear gives me the best performance and the best sound and feel I have ever experienced. I also give Cobra a ton of credit for keeping a compatible MyFly adaptor that works with shafts going all the way back to the Fly Z. Those of us that use high end shafts know the frustration of buying a new driver and finding out that expensive shaft you were fitted into doesn’t fit in your new driver. Some of the labeling on the adaptor has changed, but the concept is identical and if your shaft fit your Fly Z, F6, F7 or F8, it will also fit your F9. 

… Cobra not only offers 9.5*, 10.5* and 12.5* heads, they also offer something I think benefits a very wide range of golfers called Tour Length. All things considered, your longest drives are not produced by longer shafts. Your longest drives are produced by hitting the center of the face. And for many players a shorter shaft makes it easier to hit the center consistently. Called Tour Length because players on tour know this and play shorter drivers than most retail offerings and find their best combination of distance and accuracy is achieved with a shorter shaft. I have never payed a driver any longer than 44.5” and that is what is offered in the F9 Tour Length driver. It is a Special Order as most retail stores do not stock Tour Length so ask your Sales Associate or Club Pro about ordering one. And of course Tour Length can also be ordered directly through Cobra’s website.

… By now it is pretty obvious the F9 is a very special driver so it makes sense it comes with special colors. To my eye they are just beautiful at address with a glossy black crown and a subtle Cobra logo alignment aid but underneath is a very fast race car yellow and easily visible when someone else is swinging one. Recognizing the polarization of such a unique color, Cobra also offers the F9 in a light gray color with a matt crown as an option. Personally, I love the yellow. I am also very impressed that the F9 comes with one of the hottest shafts on tour as a stock option, the Fujikura ATMOS Tour Spec Blue 6 is a midweight shaft ideal for medium to faster swing speeds seeking a mid-launch, mid-spin profile in Regular and Stiff flexes and the ATMOS Tour Spec Black 7 with a stouter and heavier profile that is ideal for faster swing speeds seeking low-launch and low-spin in Stiff and X-Stiff. Both ATMOS shafts have a proprietary black gloss paint instead of the standard white ATMOS color scheme and in my opinion look so much better with the F9 black heads. These Fujikura ATMOS shafts are true After Market shafts identical in every way other than the color. For moderate to medium swing speeds the F9 also comes with the UST Helium Lite and Regular flex shafts with a high launch, high spin profile and have been praised on many golf forums for their playability. The Project X HZRDUS Smoke 60 is also offered in Stiff and X-Stiff for medium to faster swing speeds producing mid launch with low spin. One of these shafts should fit you and I am playing the ATMOS Blue Tour Spec and honestly thought I would hit it several rounds then install one of the proven shafts I have played in the past, but performance with the Atmos Blue is so good I never switched. And if none of these shafts work for your swing, Cobra offers quite a few more at no uncharge including HZRDUS Black/Yellow/Red, Even Flow Blue, Aldila NV 2KXV Green/Blue and Tensei CK Blue 50/60/70 as well as some ultra premium shafts offered at a reduced cost. 

… The F9 comes with Cobra Connect powered by Arccos in the butt end of the grip. Just get the free app on your phone and you can keep track of your drives. Although I will warn you, it can be a real eye opener. You know, those 265 yd drives you hit when you take the 135 yds to the pin on your second shot and subtract it from the 400 yd of the hole off the tee. 265 yds right? Well, the pin is up front, the tees a little forward and you cut the corner of the slight dogleg as and Cobra Connect tells you your drive was 235yds. In all honesty this is vital information, even if ego deflating because knowing how far you hit the ball is a very important part of playing the game. Cobra Connect with honest driver distances, lets you know if you can clear the water or carry the dog leg, bunker barranca or know which tees to play on a new golf course. And I have saved the best part for last. With current drivers selling for $499 and higher, the Cobra F9 with true after market premium shafts, Cobra Connect and some of the fastest ball speeds ever measured sells for $449. That makes the best driver I have ever played an absolute must demo in 2019. 

[yungkory]

Out of curiosity, what loft are you playing at?

[chisag]

34 minutes ago, yungkory said:

Out of curiosity, what loft are you playing at?

 

... It took quite awhile to dial my F9 in, because of the long 3 day drive combined with cold temps my back never loosened up and I just wasn't swinging freely. Seems like we couldn't get more than 2 days in a row of 70* temps. But a few weeks ago it got warm and I was able to play 10 days in a row in warm sunny temps so I was able to get thru several shafts and loft combo's. Surprising to me, I have ended up playing my 10.5* head with the adaptor at -1.0 so 9.5* with the Atmos Blue stiff flex shaft at tour length and 18gm weight in the rear. I'll be 66 next week and combined with the fast desert fairways I had 3 drives over 300 yds last week, leaving me a 5 iron to 3 wood into the par 5's. I have measured what I thought were quite a few "300yd drives" the last few years with Arcos and almost every time they turned out to be 280-290 because tee or pin placements made the hole shorter than the yardage on the scorecard. And the F9 3 wood is just as good as the driver. 

[PlaidJacket]

I not only want an F9 I want to pay chasig for publishing his review. For me it was a long read but it held my interest the entire 2 hours. LOL

Very well done indeed!

[chisag]

7 minutes ago, PlaidJacket said:

I not only want an F9 I want to pay chasig for publishing his review. For me it was a long read but it held my interest the entire 2 hours. LOL

Very well done indeed!

 

... LOL, thanks Plaid. I try and write reviews that I want to read. I like the technical information if explained and want some personal experience sprinkled in as well as insight from the Engineers that design the clubs. 

[yungkory]

15 minutes ago, chisag said:

 

... It took quite awhile to dial my F9 in, because of the long 3 day drive combined with cold temps my back never loosened up and I just wasn't swinging freely. Seems like we couldn't get more than 2 days in a row of 70* temps. But a few weeks ago it got warm and I was able to play 10 days in a row in warm sunny temps so I was able to get thru several shafts and loft combo's. Surprising to me, I have ended up playing my 10.5* head with the adaptor at -1.0 so 9.5* with the Atmos Blue stiff flex shaft at tour length and 18gm weight in the rear. I'll be 66 next week and combined with the fast desert fairways I had 3 drives over 300 yds last week, leaving me a 5 iron to 3 wood into the par 5's. I have measured what I thought were quite a few "300yd drives" the last few years with Arcos and almost every time they turned out to be 280-290 because tee or pin placements made the hole shorter than the yardage on the scorecard. And the F9 3 wood is just as good as the driver. 

Nice! I usually find the most success right around 10* as well with my swing. Great write-up again. Can't wait for your F10 review 

[Sluggo42]

 Nice....

f8 fairway will probably be my next buy one of these days... although my 816 big Bertha alpha is still good.

great write up Chisag...

[MaxEntropy]

Great write-up @chisag! I've had a few swings with the F9 but not at all optimized and it's damn impressive, even in stock form. 

[chisag]

... Fwiw, I rarely recommend demoing and then trading in or upgrading last years driver for this years driver. My reviews usually are targeted to players with clubs that are 2-5 years old and maybe it's time for a new one. That said I thought the Launcher with the first aftermarket stock Fujikura premium shaft, the SLDR in higher lofts, Fly Z with an 18gm weight and the original Epic with jailbreak were all must upgrades because I thought they took a leap forward in performance. And now the F9 joins their ranks. 

[Wedgie]

Thank you but damn you Chisag. Hitting it Thursday.


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[ole gray]

WOW that was loaded with great info! ‍


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[GolfSpy_BNG]

Great write up @chisag. I got mine in the mail Friday and am hoping to get on a Sim to get it dialed in soon. It looks amazing in the black/yellow colorway!

P.S. I hope the balls treated you well!

Sent from my Moto Z3 Play using MyGolfSpy mobile app

[chisag]

2 hours ago, blackngold_blood said:

Great write up @chisag. I got mine in the mail Friday and am hoping to get on a Sim to get it dialed in soon. It looks amazing in the black/yellow colorway!

P.S. I hope the balls treated you well!
 

 

... Very well thank you. Have fun dialing it your F9! 

[txgolfjunkie]

If you're new to this board, anytime @chisag has something to say, folks should listen up. Awesome review for the F9. Truly fantastic stuff once again. I'd love to demo a lefty 9.5 and 10.5 just to see what would fit the swing best. If you're noticing that kind of distance gain on the F9, it tells me Cobra is on to something. 

If you need a warmer place to play, we'll gladly get some guys together to play here in the Houston area. It's spring this week, followed by a winter weekend followed by another week of spring. I imagine it will be close to summer in a few weeks and we will all be able to emerge from the hibernation of cold (upper 50s for us wusses in Texas) weather golf. 

[thomapa1]

Ugggh...I got an F8+ at the end of last season...Probably not worth the cost, but posts like this make me want to buy/try the F9.

[ballplayer002003]

Chisag great review!  I hit the F9 and wanted it to be the driver for me, it just wasn't.  The numbers were just not there for me, I spun it too much.  I am however intrigued by Arccos, can you elaborate more on it?  I agree that we all think we hit the ball 300 yards but in reality its more like 240.  Have you tried the Arccos in any of your irons?  If not, have you thought about using it?

[romeopapazulu]

On 3/12/2019 at 3:17 PM, PlaidJacket said:

I not only want an F9 I want to pay chasig for publishing his review. For me it was a long read but it held my interest the entire 2 hours. LOL

Very well done indeed!

  I couldn't find an emoji with coffee coming out of the nose, so those will have to do.

Not two minutes before I saw this I thought, "if I get selected for a review, I think I am going to pay @chisag to write it for me".

[null]

Great to hear you're loving the F9 @chisag.  Heck, I even did TrueGolfFit and it recommended the Cobra F9 for me, but every time I demoed it, including one fitting with multiple shafts, I just couldn't get any consistency.

I love cobra and after absolutely loving the F8+, i thought the F9 would give me the ballspeed the F8+ was lacking.  Well while I got the ball speed increases, with it came inconsistent spin numbers and a ball that just wanted to go left.  I was heartbroken.  I was ready to open my wallet, but the performance just wasn't there for me with it.

 

[chisag]

On 3/20/2019 at 4:08 AM, ballplayer002003 said:

Chisag great review!  I hit the F9 and wanted it to be the driver for me, it just wasn't.  The numbers were just not there for me, I spun it too much.  I am however intrigued by Arccos, can you elaborate more on it?  I agree that we all think we hit the ball 300 yards but in reality its more like 240.  Have you tried the Arccos in any of your irons?  If not, have you thought about using it?

... Arccos is pretty strait forward. It tracks how far you hit any given shot. Pays no attention to wind, slopes or speed of fairways so like a box on a scorecard asking for a score, it just gives you a number. The eye opener is it tracks distance as the crow flies. With a phone in your front pocket using the Arccos app, you just hit your drive (shot) and when you take your next shot, Arccos GPS measures that distance. I have never used it in my irons but I know my distances so I have never considered it. If you do not know your distances and do not hit your irons consistently, I could se where it might be very useful. Mid to higher index players tend to choose their irons by the distance of their best shots, not their average shot. So learning how far you average with your irons could be very beneficial. 

 

[McaseyM]

thanks for the awesome write up!   

[ballplayer002003]

55 minutes ago, chisag said:

 Mid to higher index players tend to choose their irons by the distance of their best shots, not their average shot. So learning how far you average with your irons could be very beneficial. 

 

I never really thought about that!  You make a very good point there.  I hear a lot of times people say, "I CAN hit my 9 iron 170 yards."  Sure they CAN when teeing off from an elevated tee box hitting to a green that is 80 ft below them and the wind at their back.  I need to remember that statement as well.  There are those times where I am loose and I am feeling good and swinging good and I think I am going to hit the perfect shot and I wind up a bit short.  Great point again!  Bear down!

[chisag]

2 hours ago, ballplayer002003 said:

I never really thought about that!  You make a very good point there.  I hear a lot of times people say, "I CAN hit my 9 iron 170 yards."  Sure they CAN when teeing off from an elevated tee box hitting to a green that is 80 ft below them and the wind at their back.  I need to remember that statement as well.  There are those times where I am loose and I am feeling good and swinging good and I think I am going to hit the perfect shot and I wind up a bit short.  Great point again!  Bear down!

 

... Pro's and many scratch or + index players hit their irons pin high a lot, but if they miss they are past the pin 50% of the time and short of the pin 50% of the time. Most mid/high index players are short of the pin or even short of the green 90-99% of the time, not counting mishits or bladed irons of course. 

[revkev]

 
... LOL, thanks Plaid. I try and write reviews that I want to read. I like the technical information if explained and want some personal experience sprinkled in as well as insight from the Engineers that design the clubs. 

You accomplished that goal - I generally blah blah blah the technical stuff but I read and understood yours - thank you.

Everything points to this year being the year of the driver. All the OEMs except Ping seem to have made a big jump - Ping made their jump last year so they were ahead -

As I start trying drivers I will be anxious to see if I might get some yardage over that G400. Chisag has convinced me to add this driver to my must try list.

Thanks - I think


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[Kanoito]

Loved this piece, chisag!

Thanks for the read. The F9 is definitely up there on my list with Srixon. Now that spring has arrived, it's time to demo!

[fixyurdivot]

On 3/21/2019 at 12:40 PM, chisag said:

 

... Pro's and many scratch or + index players hit their irons pin high a lot, but if they miss they are past the pin 50% of the time and short of the pin 50% of the time. Most mid/high index players are short of the pin or even short of the green 90-99% of the time, not counting mishits or bladed irons of course. 

That's what I observe.  Lately I've been making a point to see what shots look like from the back side of the greens. 

[perseveringgolfer]

Cobra wasn't even on my radar for a new driver - probably due to the marketing from Titleist/TM/Callaway etc and my brand liking (not loyalty) to Titleist. However, I tried my favoured Titleist TS2 at the weekend and in fairness I wasn't swinging well but even a good strike that day didnt fill me with 'awesomeness'

Watched the latest update today from the MGS staff and the F9 appears to have what I'm looking for, sound, feel, forgiveness and some extra yards maybe.

Your write up @chisag gave me more info than I hoped for and from a players perspective so the F9 is now firmly at the top of the MUST TRY and TRY NOW category.

Thanks for a great review. I'll report back once demo'd

[S Cook]

Hi

Great review the cobra is getting alot of attention this year

[thomapa1]

Went to PGA Superstore and did a driver fitting to tweak my F8+.  Was fit mid last year but was not 100% sold on my setup.  After trying a few different lofts and different shafts, turns out that I needed more headweight in my F8+ as I ordered my club at 44.5" and did not have heavier weight in the head.  My complaint would be that I did not feel the head much, shaft felt boardy. 

They did not have any heavier weights for the F8 so I tried an F9 head which had additional weight chips to try (same exact shaft as in my F8+).  The combo felt awesome, it was what I was missing, more clubhead weight/feel.

The F9 shots I took were all great ballflight, distance, dispersion (for me) whereas other combos needed  a few throwaway shots or had poor dispersion, worse numbers. 

Probably not worth $400 just to get an F9 head so I'll just order more weight for my F8+ head and that should get me as good or close enough to the F9 combo.

Shaft is an Aldila Rogue Silver 70 stiff at 44.5" long

Numbers below

The best combo in my current F8+ driver (9.5 degree, 12g back+2g front)

SwingSpeed = 93.9

Ball Speed = 132.3

Backspin = 2033

Carry = 227

Total = 253

 

The F9 head  with my shaft (9 degree, I believe 18g back and 6g front)

SwingSpeed = 94.8

Ball Speed = 136.5

Backspin = 2253

Carry = 236

Total = 259