2023 MGS Forum: Cobra 50th Anniversary Special!

[JerryB]

1 hour ago, Josh Ross said:

Hey man, love that you detailed your experience for us. You could've easily sugar coated it but in truth a full bag fitting can be overwhelming, especially if it's your first time and you've got to fit it in a certain window. I bet if you don't wait too long to call Jeremy back he may remember the details you didn't have written down.

As for wedge shafts, a lot of fitters will tell you to get something similar in weight to your iron shafts to keep things consistent. You wouldn't want heavy iron shafts and light wedge shafts in my experience.

Yeah, it be what it be, you know?  Looking back again, it just wasn't enough time to get at everything and give it all the attention needed.  Hopefully if nothing else my experience serves as a bit of a PSA to others in a similar situation.  

To be fair, if cost weren't an issue, I would do it again tomorrow.  And the next day, and so on.  Still had a blast.

[edingc]

14 hours ago, JerryB said:

Intro post is up, and here's a word block about my fitting.

As soon as I got the details of my selection, I set out to get a fitting scheduled as soon as possible.  This was a brand-new world to me; I’d gone to a demo day last year for a quick fitting session into my current driver but otherwise I’d just accumulated stuff.  I settled on Golf Galaxy back in the suburbs for a few reasons: it was in my hometown so I could also stop and visit my parents, it was an affordable option, and I still had a gift card from there that my parents had given me for Christmas, ha!  Full bag fitting; two hours.

I went in a few minutes early and met with Jeremy, who immediately set me up in a bay to get warmed up.  He’s probably fifteen years younger than me and a career baseball player who switched to golf during the pandemic.  I found that interesting; he’s been golfing about as long as I have, how much can he help?  For starters, he’s way better than I am, and he’s been doing fittings for some time now.

My iron game has been a hot mess this year.  My swing, already not pretty, is badly out of sequence and the club face is severely closed at impact, among other horrors.  Hook City, baby!  Jeremy offered a few pointers and occasionally I would flush one, but the iron part of the fitting was not good.  I tried cracking a few jokes to lighten the mood, but my normal deadpan humor was not connecting today. 

One neat thing I got to use was the Mizuno shaft optimizer.  A few swings with that and it spits out a few good shaft options, narrowing things down a ton.  I tend to get a little chunky with my swing, especially early in the season, and my wrists were paying for it.  I mentioned I was thinking about going graphite for my shafts after having always played steel, and a graphite option was actually the top selection on the optimizer.  Tried a few different options and while nothing looked good (oof, you should have seen me!) the top graphite option felt the best.

After a bit we switched to a 5-hybrid head, using the same shaft option.  First swing and I piped it dead straight and about three yards to the right.  My swing and tempo fell into place; I heard an audible gasp from him on the first swing.  See?  I CAN do it!!  Alright…5 hybrid, mark that down.  Took about a half dozen cuts and they were all about the same save for one mishit. 

Next was the 4 hybrid and that’s where things started getting weird.  I was still hitting it well, but the results were about ten to fifteen yards shorter than the 5.  Was it fatigue?  I took a quick breather, and he pulled out a 3 wood.  I hit it solid, and it went further than the 5 hybrid, but not further enough.  He was a little perplexed.

Moving on to driver.  This is where things felt better.  Knowing that I was fit into the draw-biased Callaway Rouge ST Max driver just last year, we started with the similarly draw-biased Aerojet Max.  I was hitting it well, but the ball was ballooning on me.  We tinkered with a couple different shafts and even dropped to the 9° head.  He suggested I try teeing it lower.  We finally found a shaft/head combo that worked well.

They don’t carry Snakebite wedges, so he had me swing a couple of Vokey wedges and did some quick research on the Snakebite options.  Based on what I do with my wedges (I don’t take much of a divot and don’t really work them too much) we came up with a couple options to fit the gapping at that end of the bag.

We went over to check out the Cobra putters.  He’s big on feel so it was mostly on me to roll some putts and see what felt good, along with some feedback on his end.  I was quickly able to narrow it down to two, a blade and a mallet.  Both felt really good and, in the end, I went mallet since I’d never gamed one before and this seemed like a great opportunity to try something different.

And just like that the two hours were up.  While I never felt rushed, in the end it really felt like it was not enough time.  In the moment I walked away feeling pretty good, but after the fact there’s a few things that started to eat at me. 

First, I came in very unprepared.  I should have done a little more research ahead of the fitting.  When I do something for the first time, I like having my hand held, so to speak.  I want the expert to guide me.  I’m not very attuned to what my body is doing and how things feel.  I feel like Jeremy wanted more feedback from me and I just couldn't give it to him. 

Secondly, Cobra doesn’t have nearly as big of a footprint as a Titleist or TaylorMade.  While those companies had a large selection of demo equipment to choose from, Cobra had maybe a quarter of that.  There were some options that weren’t available.  One of the shafts we were going to try had a missing adaptor.  No wedges at all.

I was really overwhelmed.  I wish I had brought someone else along to pay attention to the details.  The fitter was writing things down for me, but when I came home and started to fill in the spec sheet, I realized that several details were missing.  What kind of shaft did I use for that 3 wood?  What about the wedge shafts?  When I hit the 3 wood, was it the regular, max, or LS head?  These are things that I may or may not have checked at the time but fell through the cracks.

Having gone through the process once, I now have a better idea of what to do next time.  I needed more time and I needed to ask more questions.  I should have taken the time to write more things down.  It was a learning experience, and it definitely wasn’t all that bad.  But I couldn’t imagine how it would have gone if I hadn’t already been narrowed down to a certain line of clubs.

Agree with @Josh Ross. Thanks for detailing your fitting. A full bag fitting is a huge undertaking, especially in two hours.

I remember when I did my Cobra Connect fitting for the forum in 2020, I was a wreck with the driver. I felt so bad for the fitter because I couldn't get anything off the ground no matter what he tried.

Can't wait for you to get your clubs! Cobra's hybrids are really underrated (well, almost all their equipment is).

[GolfSpy_KFT]

Today is finally fit day!! Leaving the house at noon to head to the course I’ll be doing the fitting. It’s about a 1.5 hour drive and starts at 2pm, which leaves me with some wiggle room for travel and warm up as it’s a high of 48° today (it was 70 and sunny yesterday, of course )

[CFreddie]

4 minutes ago, Jnoble89 said:

Today is finally fit day!! Leaving the house at noon to head to the course I’ll be doing the fitting. It’s about a 1.5 hour drive and starts at 2pm, which leaves me with some wiggle room for travel and warm up as it’s a high of 48° today (it was 70 and sunny yesterday, of course )

Good luck! Can’t wait to hear about it!!!

[sirchunksalot]

1 hour ago, Jnoble89 said:

Today is finally fit day!! Leaving the house at noon to head to the course I’ll be doing the fitting. It’s about a 1.5 hour drive and starts at 2pm, which leaves me with some wiggle room for travel and warm up as it’s a high of 48° today (it was 70 and sunny yesterday, of course )

Have fun with it Jason and I'm looking forward to hearing about your fitting experience. I really hope it's a fun and informative experience for you. 

[GolfSpy_APH]

Great introductions and starts so far! 

I am excited for this group and really the whole community to get started and involved in the challenges! 

[tdroma98]

2 hours ago, Jnoble89 said:

Today is finally fit day!! Leaving the house at noon to head to the course I’ll be doing the fitting. It’s about a 1.5 hour drive and starts at 2pm, which leaves me with some wiggle room for travel and warm up as it’s a high of 48° today (it was 70 and sunny yesterday, of course )

YEA!! Good Luck @Jnoble89!! Enjoy it!! 

[Wib081]

3 hours ago, Jnoble89 said:

Today is finally fit day!! Leaving the house at noon to head to the course I’ll be doing the fitting. It’s about a 1.5 hour drive and starts at 2pm, which leaves me with some wiggle room for travel and warm up as it’s a high of 48° today (it was 70 and sunny yesterday, of course )

That’s awesome man have fun with it and that weather sounds like NE Ohio gotta love perfect to average temps at best

[TSauer]

3 hours ago, Jnoble89 said:

Today is finally fit day!! Leaving the house at noon to head to the course I’ll be doing the fitting. It’s about a 1.5 hour drive and starts at 2pm, which leaves me with some wiggle room for travel and warm up as it’s a high of 48° today (it was 70 and sunny yesterday, of course )

That sounds like Missouri weather to a T, very bipolar! Take it all in, snag a few pics, and most importantly.. have fun! 

[RichL85]

8 minutes ago, TSauer said:

That sounds like Missouri weather to a T, very bipolar! Take it all in, snag a few pics, and most importantly.. have fun! 

Bipolar weather. Sounds like California recently too. 96 on Friday, 68 on Monday. 

[Josh Ross]

4 hours ago, Jnoble89 said:

Today is finally fit day!! Leaving the house at noon to head to the course I’ll be doing the fitting. It’s about a 1.5 hour drive and starts at 2pm, which leaves me with some wiggle room for travel and warm up as it’s a high of 48° today (it was 70 and sunny yesterday, of course )

Heck yeah man, can't wait to read all about it! 

[GolfSpy_KFT]

On the road for my fitting, trying HARD not to speed too bad

[Matt711]

It's been great reading through introductions and fitting experiences so far, really looking forward to following along for the rest of the fittings and the challenges to come!

[chisag]

4 hours ago, RichL85 said:

Bipolar weather. Sounds like California recently too. 96 on Friday, 68 on Monday. 

 

... I have always said you can complain about the cold or the heat but not both. I complained about a cold wet winter here in Phoenix so I can't complain about 100* today and 102* tomorrow even though it is still only April. 

[sirchunksalot]

I'm having a bit of an existential crisis right now over my wedges. I was looking over the options on the Cobra website and they don't have my recommended wedges in R flex in the shafts I was fit for. They do have the 58 in Widelow, so I'm going with that. I wanted the Widelow from the get go and I never use my highest lofted wedge for full shots.

The 54 is another matter. I'm not seeing anything available in any grind in the Snakebite or SB black. I'm wondering if I can get a 52 bent weak 1° and it work out for me.  

 

[Josh Ross]

2 hours ago, sirchunksalot said:

I'm having a bit of an existential crisis right now over my wedges. I was looking over the options on the Cobra website and they don't have my recommended wedges in R flex in the shafts I was fit for. They do have the 58 in Widelow, so I'm going with that. I wanted the Widelow from the get go and I never use my highest lofted wedge for full shots.

The 54 is another matter. I'm not seeing anything available in any grind in the Snakebite or SB black. I'm wondering if I can get a 52 bent weak 1° and it work out for me.  

 

When I was building my bag for the pre-chatter I noticed almost every wedge I wanted was out of stock. I was hoping it was just because hundreds of people were adding them to their carts for MGS and they'd actually be available for y'all. Maybe they can grab a couple from the tour truck.

[GolfSpy_KFT]

Fitting breakdown is posted! Go check it out!

[Matt711]

On 4/28/2023 at 2:41 AM, Jnoble89 said:

Cobra 50th Anniversary Member Special – Official MGS Forum Review by Jnoble89

Hello all!

For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Jason, better known as Jnoble89, and I am thrilled to be participating in the #Cobra50thAnniversary challenge. I am 33 years old, and reside in the Driftless Region of Wisconsin in Reedsburg, with my wife of 8+ years and our two boys, ages 6 and 3. This area of the state is home to some beautiful golf courses, and I proudly call the Reedsburg Country Club home. I do not carry an official handicap yet (working on it), but typically score in the low 100s on 18 holes. If you’d like to follow along with me on that journey, check out my thread here!

 

I have been playing golf for about 11 years now, but until this season it was very sporadic and probably no more than 15 rounds per year max. I have already played nearly half of that total this year since our season started in April (perks of a full membership at the country club). I am currently a high handicapper, but working hard at lowering that number. My biggest strength lies in my putting and short game approach (8 iron and down), and I am most inconsistent off the tee and on longer irons/fairway wood shots.

 

But enough about me, let’s get into what you guys really want to hear about, which is what I’ll be looking for this equipment to do in this challenge and what I am hoping to gain from the test. What I am looking for out of the Aerojet lineup is:

1.      Will my dispersion and consistency with ball striking improve?

2.      What will the ball speed gains/distance gains look like (especially with the irons)?

3.      If I can get more consistent on woods and long irons, will it help bring my handicap down to be closer to what my short game is? (IMO, I outplay my current handicap on short game)

4.      Will a 5w/7w work better for me than my current 3w setup?

If these clubs accomplish those things, they will be sticking around for a long while in my bag. I have zero experience with Cobra golf clubs, so I am really excited to try a brand I’ve never hit before.

I will be doing most of my testing through range and on course play, but am also going to try to get on a simulator to do side by side numbers testing against my current bag. I don’t have a personal set up, but will be talking to our head pro to see if anyone at the club has something they’d allow me to use.

I am looking forward to competing and having you guys follow along. This one is for all my fellow lefties on the forum! #LeftyGang 

THE FITTING

I had my fitting today with Steve Olson, who is a Cobra rep in Wisconsin. Coincidentally, he is also a Lieutenant for the Fond Du Lac PD, and works with my cousin there. Small world! We met at 2pm and I got a loose with my 56° and 7i, and was striking the ball respectably well.

We jumped right in after about 15 balls and Steve handed me my first club, which was a 7i. Right away I could tell it was standard length (I play +1), so was kind of confused but went with it. Expectedly couldn’t hit it to save my life and was wondering what the heck I got myself into. After maybe 3 swings, Steve hands me another one and says “ok, now let’s go with this.” First swing was LASERED to a roughly 160 carry into the wind. Immediately after impact I let out a “WOW” of amazement, and Steve said with some gusto “welcome to COBRA!” He then told me he had me hit one that would have been “off the shelf” and one fitted to me so I could feel the difference as to why fittings are so impactful. I hit a few more but the first set up was literal money. Aerojet 6-GW, +1” and 3° UP, KBS $-taper steel lite. Irons done.

Moved to driver next and all he had in LH was the standard Aerojet. Had some solid strikes but was inconsistent on impact, lost a lot on a fade to slice miss. He recommended Aerojet Max 10.5° D setting, Kai’Li White 60g. The last drive I hit of the day was a 250+ carry baby fade. If I can find that this summer, watch out. Driver locked in. 

Next we moved to fairway woods, and again I was limited to a 3W as it was the only LH option. Set up with the same Kai’Li White shaft, the first two off the tee were drilled. Penetrating ball flight, 220-230 carry. I hit some more for the fun of it, and he recommended a 7W as well for off the deck as I really struggle with a 3W off the deck. Fairways done.

I wasn’t able to hit any hybrids as he didn’t have LH options, but got to look at the RH heads and we decided on the King Tec 3H, stock shaft. He LOVES this club and thinks I’ll be able to tune it to my swing with the moveable weights. 

We ended the fitting with the Snakebite wedges. He had a 56 and 60 on hand in LH, so I hit both and holy cow was I impressed. Wedges are my favorite clubs to hit and even though I’m a high handicap, I can work them pretty well. Distance control was EXCELLENT and I was able to throw the 60 waaaaay up in the air. Honestly might be looking forward to these clubs the most. 52/56/60 Snakebite Black, KBS Hi-Rev Stiff, +1” 3° UP. 

After we finished we just had some fun hitting shots with the clubs. The entire fit was done in 2 hours, and Steve was honestly awesome at getting me into the correct shafts almost immediately. It was such a cool experience working with someone in the Cobra family. Got to ask him lots of questions about the tech in the clubs and he was great at explaining how it’ll help my game. Two golf geeks in paradise. Data was collected on a Mevo, but I honestly never even looked at the numbers. He saw what he wanted in the numbers and I trust him completely. He also told me he vacations a lot at a tourist destination very close to where I live, so we are going to try to set up at least one round together this summer. 

This was my first real fitting, and I cannot stress enough how impactful it is no matter your skill level. If you have never done an iron fitting, DON’T HESITATE! 

Now the waiting game begins, cannot wait to get these sticks! 

#LeftyGang

Sounds like a great fitting experience, 160 into the wind with a 7 Iron is solid!

[GolfSpy_KFT]

41 minutes ago, Matt711 said:

Sounds like a great fitting experience, 160 into the wind with a 7 Iron is solid!

I should clarify that they are STRONG lofted irons, but I was still super pleased! Not a hard wind either but nonetheless wind to the face and 45° temps!

[Matt711]

1 minute ago, Jnoble89 said:

I should clarify that they are STRONG lofted irons, but I was still super pleased! Not a hard wind either but nonetheless wind to the face and 45° temps!

My 7 iron is typically about 20 yards short of that without being into the wind and in Florida temps so it's still good either way man.

[GolfSpy_KFT]

9 minutes ago, Matt711 said:

My 7 iron is typically about 20 yards short of that without being into the wind and in Florida temps so it's still good either way man.

I definitely didn’t always have that kind of carry distance, but I can say without a doubt that for higher handicappers, the Aerojet line of irons will be beasts. Even mishits were traveling well and in line. I was amazed

[chisag]

4 hours ago, sirchunksalot said:

I'm having a bit of an existential crisis right now over my wedges. I was looking over the options on the Cobra website and they don't have my recommended wedges in R flex in the shafts I was fit for. They do have the 58 in Widelow, so I'm going with that. I wanted the Widelow from the get go and I never use my highest lofted wedge for full shots.

The 54 is another matter. I'm not seeing anything available in any grind in the Snakebite or SB black. I'm wondering if I can get a 52 bent weak 1° and it work out for me.  

 

... The King Tours have been "Out Of Stock" for awhile now on the Cobra website, yet the 7 golf stores I have been in lately has them and every golf store online too.  

[Josh Ross]

@chisag, awesome learning where your forum name came from. Love the setup you've gone with, glad you're getting a second shot with the King Tours.

@Jnoble89 sounds like you had a blast with your fitting! Lower scores are on the way!

[TSauer]

3 hours ago, Jnoble89 said:

Fitting breakdown is posted! Go check it out!

Awesome write up! It seems like everything was smooth sailing, which is great to hear for a first time fitting. Being a lefty is tough sometimes with the limited selection, I’ve been in a similar situation myself. Luckily though, they’re knowledgeable and can get you pretty close to where you need to be based off other data… which is amazing! 

Side note, there’s just something about that big case of Cobra gear that makes me feel all good inside! The tinkerer in me would love that job. 

Let’s go #LeftyGang

[sirchunksalot]

8 hours ago, chisag said:

 

... The King Tours have been "Out Of Stock" for awhile now on the Cobra website, yet the 7 golf stores I have been in lately has them and every golf store online too.  

That's good to know, Sam. I appreciate you letting me know. 

@Jnoble89, great write-up on your fitting experience! Those Aerojet irons look like they're going to be beasts for you and I think you might just break 90 with those sticks. 

[GolfSpy_KFT]

1 hour ago, sirchunksalot said:

That's good to know, Sam. I appreciate you letting me know. 

@Jnoble89, great write-up on your fitting experience! Those Aerojet irons look like they're going to be beasts for you and I think you might just break 90 with those sticks. 

@sirchunksalot I certainly hope to by the end of summer! Even if I can do it just one time!

[ZMendle10]

On 4/28/2023 at 3:25 PM, JerryB said:

Intro post is up, and here's a word block about my fitting.

As soon as I got the details of my selection, I set out to get a fitting scheduled as soon as possible.  This was a brand-new world to me; I’d gone to a demo day last year for a quick fitting session into my current driver but otherwise I’d just accumulated stuff.  I settled on Golf Galaxy back in the suburbs for a few reasons: it was in my hometown so I could also stop and visit my parents, it was an affordable option, and I still had a gift card from there that my parents had given me for Christmas, ha!  Full bag fitting; two hours.

I went in a few minutes early and met with Jeremy, who immediately set me up in a bay to get warmed up.  He’s probably fifteen years younger than me and a career baseball player who switched to golf during the pandemic.  I found that interesting; he’s been golfing about as long as I have, how much can he help?  For starters, he’s way better than I am, and he’s been doing fittings for some time now.

My iron game has been a hot mess this year.  My swing, already not pretty, is badly out of sequence and the club face is severely closed at impact, among other horrors.  Hook City, baby!  Jeremy offered a few pointers and occasionally I would flush one, but the iron part of the fitting was not good.  I tried cracking a few jokes to lighten the mood, but my normal deadpan humor was not connecting today. 

One neat thing I got to use was the Mizuno shaft optimizer.  A few swings with that and it spits out a few good shaft options, narrowing things down a ton.  I tend to get a little chunky with my swing, especially early in the season, and my wrists were paying for it.  I mentioned I was thinking about going graphite for my shafts after having always played steel, and a graphite option was actually the top selection on the optimizer.  Tried a few different options and while nothing looked good (oof, you should have seen me!) the top graphite option felt the best.

After a bit we switched to a 5-hybrid head, using the same shaft option.  First swing and I piped it dead straight and about three yards to the right.  My swing and tempo fell into place; I heard an audible gasp from him on the first swing.  See?  I CAN do it!!  Alright…5 hybrid, mark that down.  Took about a half dozen cuts and they were all about the same save for one mishit. 

Next was the 4 hybrid and that’s where things started getting weird.  I was still hitting it well, but the results were about ten to fifteen yards shorter than the 5.  Was it fatigue?  I took a quick breather, and he pulled out a 3 wood.  I hit it solid, and it went further than the 5 hybrid, but not further enough.  He was a little perplexed.

Moving on to driver.  This is where things felt better.  Knowing that I was fit into the draw-biased Callaway Rouge ST Max driver just last year, we started with the similarly draw-biased Aerojet Max.  I was hitting it well, but the ball was ballooning on me.  We tinkered with a couple different shafts and even dropped to the 9° head.  He suggested I try teeing it lower.  We finally found a shaft/head combo that worked well.

They don’t carry Snakebite wedges, so he had me swing a couple of Vokey wedges and did some quick research on the Snakebite options.  Based on what I do with my wedges (I don’t take much of a divot and don’t really work them too much) we came up with a couple options to fit the gapping at that end of the bag.

We went over to check out the Cobra putters.  He’s big on feel so it was mostly on me to roll some putts and see what felt good, along with some feedback on his end.  I was quickly able to narrow it down to two, a blade and a mallet.  Both felt really good and, in the end, I went mallet since I’d never gamed one before and this seemed like a great opportunity to try something different.

And just like that the two hours were up.  While I never felt rushed, in the end it really felt like it was not enough time.  In the moment I walked away feeling pretty good, but after the fact there’s a few things that started to eat at me. 

First, I came in very unprepared.  I should have done a little more research ahead of the fitting.  When I do something for the first time, I like having my hand held, so to speak.  I want the expert to guide me.  I’m not very attuned to what my body is doing and how things feel.  I feel like Jeremy wanted more feedback from me and I just couldn't give it to him. 

Secondly, Cobra doesn’t have nearly as big of a footprint as a Titleist or TaylorMade.  While those companies had a large selection of demo equipment to choose from, Cobra had maybe a quarter of that.  There were some options that weren’t available.  One of the shafts we were going to try had a missing adaptor.  No wedges at all.

I was really overwhelmed.  I wish I had brought someone else along to pay attention to the details.  The fitter was writing things down for me, but when I came home and started to fill in the spec sheet, I realized that several details were missing.  What kind of shaft did I use for that 3 wood?  What about the wedge shafts?  When I hit the 3 wood, was it the regular, max, or LS head?  These are things that I may or may not have checked at the time but fell through the cracks.

Having gone through the process once, I now have a better idea of what to do next time.  I needed more time and I needed to ask more questions.  I should have taken the time to write more things down.  It was a learning experience, and it definitely wasn’t all that bad.  But I couldn’t imagine how it would have gone if I hadn’t already been narrowed down to a certain line of clubs.

Thank you for being so honest about your fitting experience. It's really good to see a fitting experience from a golfers end like this where you had a great experience overall and came away happy but there were things that could have been done to enhance the experience. I have a couple buddies just starting to play and they aren't huge into the tech side so I can definitely put one of them in your shoes with your experience.

[JerryB]

@ZMendle10 appreciate the feedback.  I see a lot of reviews here and elsewhere that sometimes get a little too glowing, y'know?  I've had to fight it myself; I got the stuff for free or heavily discounted so I should be happy, right?  Sometimes I might lean a little too heavily towards the negative.

But I will nitpick on the little things whether it's an equipment issue or an operator error.  While the overall is still really good, it's not all burritos and sunshine!  I don't want to over hype things.  That being said, I can't emphasize enough how excited I am about that 5 hybrid!!

[chisag]

... OK clubs have been ordered, so which tester will be like this?

 

 

[GolfSpy_KFT]

11 minutes ago, chisag said:

... OK clubs have been ordered, so which tester will be like this?

 

 

This is EXACTLY how I felt after my fitter sent me my spec sheet with a couple spots in the bag where he gave me options and valid points for why each club would be beneficial . After many back and forth battles with my brain I settled on what seemed like the best choices. Time will tell!