50 Words or Less
The Cobra Fly-Z driver is nice update to the BiO CELL driver with better looks, feel, and a smoother swing.
Introduction
Last year I had some of my best numbers of the season when I tested the Cobra BiO CELL driver. In spite of that, I ultimately couldn’t ever settle in with the BiO CELL’s feel and looks, so I didn’t put the driver into play. The new Cobra Fly-Z driver seems to have addressed the exact issues I was having with the BiO CELL and maintained similar performance.
Looks
While the Cobra Fly-Z driver still has a substantial 460cc club head, the driver doesn’t seem anywhere near as “robust” as its predecessor. The shape is still more on the round side than pear shaped, but there seems to be a little more contour, so you aren’t looking at a perfect half circle at address. The Fly-Z driver is geared more toward to player looking for forgiveness, so the reassuring size and shape will certainly be beneficial.
The pictures we took had some difficulty capturing the sparkle of the white paint on the crown. Rather than boring old white, there’s a little bit of a metal flake to it that creates a nice aesthetic touch but does not distract when you’re hitting a shot. Immediately noticeable is the static weight on the sole placed toward the rear of the club. This is how Cobra controls the center of gravity for this driver.
Sound & Feel
Cobra has continued the use of the Speed Channel around the face of the Fly-Z driver, and this has a significant impact on sound and feel. The goal is to make the face a little thinner so that trampoline effect will kick in and make the ball more explosive off the face. In an effort to make tangible sense of the feel, I’ll say that I thought BiO CELL driver had a firmer face that had less response than the Fly-Z driver. To me, it felt like the Fly-Z driver had a little more spring off the face, more forgiveness, and better response. The club face is very well balanced and maintains that comfortable balance throughout the entire swing.
The sound has more of a metallic ping to it compared to the muted sound of the BiO CELL. This may be a direct result of the thinner face from the Speed Channel. In terms of volume, the Fly-Z is far from a quiet driver, but it doesn’t sound like you’re hitting rocks with a metal pipe. The way I would describe it is that you would say, “yep, someone must be hitting their driver down the range.”
Performance
As mentioned earlier, the Cobra Fly-Z driver is geared toward the player looking for easy performance in a forgiving club. There were a few efforts to achieve this, but most notable is the Fly-Z weight placed toward the back of the club on the sole. The goal here is bring the center of gravity low and back in the head to make it easier to get the ball up in the air. Generally, I think Cobra succeeded here. 13.1º is a pretty high launch angle for me. Looking at the sole of the club, it’s obvious that Cobra placed the discretionary weight of the driver low and back to really get aggressive in achieving a high MOI.
One thing to note is that I felt I could comfortably swing the Fly-Z driver a bit more than the BiO CELL. I’m not sure if it’s the different stock shafts, the different feels, or something else, but I definitely noticed a difference in how I swung the club. I felt like my swing could be more aggressive and that the club would just do the work. During the swing, you would forget you were swinging a 460cc head.
Conclusion
Cobra has put out another solid driver in the Fly-Z this year. While I still prefer the Fly-Z+ driver, I firmly believe that a large range of golfers will benefit from the Fly-Z and its forgiveness. The feel and distance are there along with the ease of play, and the simplicity of minimal adjustments make this one of the “must check out” drivers for the average golfer in 2015.
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Fly Z Driver LM Data
Bill Bush
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