Cobra—Fit To Speed

Submitted by Eileen on Fri, 10/27/2006 - 23:47

I attended the Cobra Fit To Speed webinar (seminar on the web) earlier this week. Cobra has launched a Fit-To-Speed fitting cart that includes woods, hybrids and irons in different shaft flexes, and some of the irons have different lengths and lie angles. The cart has nowhere near as many clubs in it as the Ping fitting cart, but the concept is different.

Cobra’s whole emphasis is on ball speed; something that can be measured using a stand alone speed monitor that comes with the fitting cart. The speed monitor measures and reports ball speed, launch angle, estimated club head speed and distance. (Our Full Swing Golf simulator does most of this, too, but the Cobra Speed Monitor will be a useful verification of these metrics).

Once the golfer’s ball speed and related swing specs are determined the Fit to Speed Wheel is used to see what Cobra driver and iron set composition are best suited for this golfer. The iron set is likely to include a hybrid, in this case a Cobra Baffler.

After the driver and iron models are selected the length and lie angles are verified using face and sole tape. Cobra recommends face tape to verify club length rather than a wrist to floor measure. (I like the idea of using face tape to verify that a longer club is actually producing a more centered hit for people who need longer irons.)

The Fit-To-Speed Wheels are set up to reveal best iron set composition and wedge preferences, as well as recommended iron model. The Wheel also has the driver recommendation linked to the ball speed associated with the iron specs. (I’m not sure if the wheel shows where launch angle and distance factor into the driver selection, but I’m still learning how to read it.)

Cobra is coming out with a new Baffler and a Baffler Pro for the “extreme speed” player. There are three new iron models aimed at the “Core and Avid Golfer Segments,” which represent about half the golfer market. Since about 20% of this group is made up of “extreme speed” golfers Cobra has the Carbon CB iron and the Baffler Pro for them.

The purpose of this new approach is the make fitting golf clubs more interesting and appealing to a wider audience—“give consumers a reason to ask to be fit.” This system does look interesting and if it results in more sales, I’m all for it (even if it takes 45 minutes to do—something I generally try to avoid).