Cobra King Tour Irons

Modern golf has seen the characteristic of “Tour-inspired looks and feel with added forgiveness” absolutely thrive. Additionally, it’s been fascinating watching how rapidly this “category” has evolved and closed the gap between the “control and feel of a forged blade” and the “distance and forgiveness of a distance iron”. The new Cobra King Tour irons are a perfect example of this. A forged tour cavity back design that puts a premium on shot making and feel, these irons have some added forgiveness and impressive distance as well.

The Looks

Cobra put a lot of effort into giving the King Tour irons “Tour-inspired” looks while still maintaining the benefits of a little more forgiveness and a softer feel. If you’re familiar with Cobra’s Forged Tec lineage, these new Tour irons feature a progressively more compact profile with a thinner topline and less offset. (They’re also shorter from heel to toe for those familiar with Cobra’s MIM irons.) In my opinion, while the Forged Tec irons were certainly very nice, the King Tour irons look a lot sleeker and are much closer to a player’s blade profile. They look really good behind the ball and capable of shaping your shots as necessary.

How Does it Feel?

I find the Cobra King Tour irons to be a really strong execution of balancing strong and soft. These irons are every bit of a forged iron. In fact, Cobra used the same 5-step forging process that they use for their CB/MB blades. This means they “press” a bar of 1025 carbon steel five times rather than the usual two to four times. An extra press makes the grain structure of the metal tighter and more consistent which leads to a cleaner and more precise feel.

In order to make the King Tour irons a little more forgiving and take some sting out of the hands, Cobra CNC milled undercuts in the back of each iron. These undercuts accomplish a few other things as well. By removing weight in this location, it moves the center of gravity (CG) a little lower in the head. It also moves the weight more toward the perimeter of the club. These two things make it a little easier to get the ball in the air, but it also makes the club feel a bit more stable and under control at impact.

Naturally you can assume removing a chunk of metal from behind the face of a forged iron creates a cavity in the head that’s going to impact the feel and sound. To address this, Cobra filled the undercut cavity with a TPU material and covers it with an aluminum medallion. Both of these materials help dampen the feel and remove the sting from your mishits. And I’ll tell you what, they really got it right. I can’t express to you enough how smooth and clean these irons feel, but the face response is very precise so you know exactly where you’re hitting the ball giving you total confidence in your shot control.

How Does it Sound?

As you can imagine, the sound and feel match up pretty closely with the Cobra King Tour irons. The forging of the irons give the sound tight, solid characteristics, but the TPU and aluminum dampen and soften it up nicely. Those qualities are also consistent across a good portion of the face due to the undercut design. As such, the sound of a purely struck shot is a modest “smack”. It’s firmness is reminiscent of a forged blade, but that typical forged “click” is more muted from the TPU insert and aluminum medallion.

The King Tour iron’s sole isn’t thick, but it isn’t razor thin either. This profile creates a little more glide through impact rather than a sharp “rip”. The end result is a clean “whish” sound through the turf that can get a little more on the lighter side of “thumpy” on heavier shots.

On-Course Performance

I feel like I could really run on in this section about my testing experience, but it’s pretty easy to sum up in one sentence. These Cobra King Tour irons are really cool. As mentioned above, the feel is really nice and that plays a huge role in the performance. The King Tour irons are easy to control and I didn’t feel like I had to find a pea-sized sweet spot every time to achieve maximum results. Don’t get me wrong, these are still a Tour-inspired iron and are by no means a game improvement iron, but I didn’t feel like I needed to be a scratch player to hit them well.

As mentioned earlier, the lower CG from the undercuts makes it easier to launch the ball. This doesn’t mean the club is high launching by any means, but it means it’s easier to get the ball off the ground and carrying. I find this to be a really nice bit of help in a blade-esque iron. The trajectory was piercing and my carry was really strong. That powerful flight combined with a little extra speed from the undercut design was consistently delivering about 10 extra yards per club for me.

Final Thoughts – Cobra King Tour Irons

I’m not exactly sure what I actually expected going into testing, but something really clicked with me and the Cobra King Tour irons. For a player’s iron, they’re soft on the hands with great workability and easier distance. I mean, right out of the gate, I was hitting effortless 190-yard 7 irons with a really tight dispersion. I’ll take that anytime of year, let alone when my game is in “Chicago January” form. As I spent time working through the entire set, the experience was more of the same and I was both impressed and really pleased with what I was seeing. If you’re looking for a great blend of player’s looks and performance with a little bit of help built into them, the Cobra King Tour irons are truly a fantastic option.

Stock Cobra King Tour Irons Specs

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