Cobra DS-ADAPT MAX Fairway Wood Review

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The Cobra DS-ADAPT MAX fairway wood is a highly adjustable, extremely forgiving long game machine.  Works wonders off a tee, inspires confidence off the turf.

Introduction

Fairway woods: friend or foe?  For many weekend golfers, the prospect of hitting a fairway wood off the turf can be anxiety-inducing.  For those players, the Cobra DS-ADAPT MAX fairway wood wants to be your friend.  Featuring a revolutionary adjustable hosel sleeve called FutureFit33 and tunable draw bias, Cobra’s newest iteration of its most forgiving fairway wood features some new tech to help make the long game more approachable for more golfers.

Looks

In the bag, the Cobra DS-ADAPT MAX fairway wood has a look that is very similar to the previous iteration, the DARKSPEED MAX (review HERE).  In fact, while the graphics on the bottom have changed slightly, the look of the crown is basically indistinguishable.  Personally, I’m fine with that.  Looks only do so much for a club, and Cobra has found something that works.  What you see is a matte black crown with a carbon fiber pattern that fades to solid black toward the face so as not to distract, with a small ‘C’ logo alignment aid.  Simple, clean, functional.

The shaping of the clubhead is pretty neutral.  The MAX is the most forgiving of the three models so when sat next to the X or the LS, it has a noticeably wider and more stretched back footprint, but it doesn’t look overly large or closed at address.  I tend to prefer the look of a more compact clubhead in my fairway wood, but I could easily game this.

Sound & Feel

Putting a clean strike on a premium golf ball feels exactly like you hope it would: crisp, clean, and powerful.  In a word, excellent.  Missing the sweet spot results in a noticeably less pleasant feel, but only really extreme misses actually feel bad.

The Cobra DS-ADAPT MAX fairway wood produces a sound that that is mid-spectrum when it comes to modern fairway woods.  Not super low and flat nor super high and metallic, it sits in a nice middle ground in terms of volume and pitch that will make it approachable for a wide range of players.

Performance

Before we get to the part where I actually hit balls with the club and talk about how it went, I have to address the big talking point with this club and the DS-ADAPT line in general: the first iteration of the FutureFit33 adjustable hosel.  For the uninitiated, it’s a new adjustable hosel developed by Cobra that offers players the ability to adjust loft and lie with 33 unique combinations.  It’s a huge advancement for adjustable hosel technology and currently Cobra is the only OEM that offers it.

Some people’s initial reaction to FutureFit33 is being overwhelmed.  33 is a lot.  But, taking a golfer’s swing tendencies into consideration means that most people really only need to mess around with about a quarter of the settings.  There is a fitting chart that can be easily accessed by scanning the QR code on the hosel of the Cobra DS-ADAPT MAX fairway wood  While we always encouraged working with a qualified fitter, Cobra has also produced an interactive online self-fitting tool you can check out HERE.

Because I tend to deliver the club a bit out to in with a slightly downward angle of attack, I found that I would be best suited by settings in the upper left quadrant of the chart.  This adjusts the lie angle and adds a bit of loft so that I can keep the ball in the air a bit longer and deliver a square face.  Obviously, Cobra isn’t the only OEM that offers players the ability to adjust both loft and lie via the hosel sleeve, but in my view FutureFit33 takes it to a new level and enables more fine tuning that could be very helpful to players, especially for someone like me who aspires to change their swing over time.

With a heavier weight in the back and a lighter weight in the heel, the Cobra DS-ADAPT MAX fairway wood has a slight draw bias.  Players who want more help fighting a slice can reverse the weights so the heavier weight is in the heel but then you lose a bit of the MOI.  For me, it usually makes more sense to think of clubs that are marketed as “draw biased” as more “anti-slice.”  That’s because while it’s easier in theory to produce a draw with a club that is set up like this, most players who are shopping in this segment of the market aren’t necessarily going to be hitting draws with their fairway wood.

As one of those players, I think the Cobra DS-ADAPT MAX fairway wood does a nice job limiting the big right miss and helping produce an expected range of outcomes, with regard to dispersion.  When I was having a hard time with my driver during my early season testing, I found I could go to this and get something in play without giving up too many yards.  I also found it approachable from the turf or short, sparse rough.

Performance-wise, as with looks, I’m seeing a lot of similarities between the Cobra DS-ADAPT MAX fairway wood and last year’s DARKSPEED MAX model.  Two additional new pieces of technology for this year’s iteration are a larger H.O.T. face insert, designed to improve ball speeds across the face, as well as a new internal weighting system in the back of the club.

Conclusion

The Cobra DS-ADAPT MAX fairway wood is an excellent long game tool.  It features similar looks and performance to last year’s model but improves upon it with the addition of the FutureFit33 hosel.  If you’re curious about what it could do for your game, find a Cobra fitter near you and check it out.

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Dylan Thaemert

Contributor at Plugged In Golf

Dylan Thaemert is a clinical mental health therapist living in the Twin Cities area. He is passionate about travel, the arts, and is always searching for ways to increase his knowledge of the game of golf.

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