50 Words or Less
The Cobra King Utility Iron is a lightweight and forgiving long iron that can play as either a 2 or a 3 iron in your bag…because it’s an actual adjustable iron.
Introduction
About six months ago, the mighty Rick Fowler started showing up to Tour events with some crazy looking, apparently adjustable, Cobra driving iron in his bag that set the internet golf world ablaze. I saw forum readers scrambling to call customer service at Cobra Puma only to hear from Cobra, “Sometimes we make prototype equipment for our players that doesn’t become available to retail, and this is one of those clubs.” This mystery club turned out to be the first adjustable loft iron – the Cobra King Utility Iron.
Looks
The Cobra King Utility Iron falls right in with the look of the current King line. My thoughts are that the King Utility’s cosmetics fall somewhere right in between the Forged Tec and the King Pro irons but inflated a bit. The biggest differences are obviously in size. The top line and sole are much thicker than the aforementioned clubs, and there is noticeable offset. At address, you actually see a little bit of the cavity bulging out behind the top line which is somewhat expected for a driving iron.
Sound & Feel
When you hit the Cobra King Utility Iron pure, it has a really nice crack off the face with a smooth, explosive feeling. The sweet spot is fairly large, but shots missing the sweet spot sound a bit hollow, and it feels a little firmer with less pop. The King Utility has a hollow head with a forged steel face, so Cobra can better control the center of gravity, but obviously this makes a large contribution to the feel. The end result is a lightweight head that feels nice and smooth on the end of a graphite shaft. From a feel perspective, I think hybrid players are going to mesh with this club better than iron players. Iron players will likely want to add a couple of swing weight points.
Performance
Is the Cobra King Utility Iron a hybrid, an iron, what is it?!?! The truth is, the King Utility does really fall right in the middle. It has the forgiving feel and easy launch of a hybrid, and the turf interaction and trajectory of an iron. For my testing, I hit three different clubs – a Forged Tec 3 iron shafted with a graphite hybrid shaft, the King F6 hybrid, and the King Utility. What I found was that King Utility tended to be a bit more penetrating with a bit more roll than the F6 hybrid, but still had a decent amount of lift. The Forged Tec 3 iron was definitely more piercing with more roll out but was also more difficult to launch in the air. What I concluded based on the performance I experienced was that the King Utility is really good for pounding that 220-230 yard shot straight ahead with relative ease.
The main topic of interest is obviously the adjustability of the King Utility. I can’t think of any other previously released adjustable irons in golf (if I’m wrong, I’d love to learn more). The adjustability works as billed, and my results on the range indicated as such. I hit the 2 iron setting a little bit lower with more roll. I was able to get the ball in the air and control the 3 iron setting a bit more.
Conclusion
Cobra Golf certainly hasn’t had any difficulty creating buzz with their new equipment this season, and the Cobra King Utility Iron is no exception. After quietly appearing in Rickie’s bag, the golf market eagerly awaited the King Utility’s release and was rewarded with a forgiving and versatile club to give players a wider range of shot options at the top of their bag. Given Cobra’s equipment revolution, I’m excited to see where they go next with driving irons now that they’ve officially dipped their toe in the water.
Bill plays Scott Readman Concepts putters and accessories.
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Nice review Bill. Im sure some company will offer a set of adjustable irons.
I seem to remember back in the 1970’s an adjustable iron with several loft settings advertised for a few years in those small ads that appear in the back of golf magazines. The idea was that it would replace your short and mid-irons. The concept didn’t catch on, obviously.
I’ve heard a couple of comments along these lines, but no other major OEM has had an adjustable iron like this one on the mainstream market.
I can only imagine what the irons from the 70’s were like!
Bill, how does this compare to the Ping Crossover?
Couldn’t tell you. Neither of us have hit both clubs extensively to have a good opinion. By nature, they’re gonna my to be pretty different though.