Introduction

 I’ve been wanting to look at the Cobra 3D printed irons for a while. The idea of 3D printing clubs is something that I find incredible, and I was interested to see what doors this opens up in performance, which would not be available through conventional manufacturing options. Unfortunately, when they were initially released, it was a limited edition and I wasn’t in a position to look at them. I’d given up due to the limited release, which was sold out everywhere.

I was glancing through the boxing day sales. I saw a new set of LIMIT3D irons on sale at one of the stores I use. It’s hard to believe this is one of the limited edition, not the reprint, going for a bargain price of US$1850, if you can consider that a bargain.

I thought about exercising self control and leaving it, but then I realised that mygolfspy.com didn’t have a review. I decided to buy one for this review, so I could do the broader community a favour. Yes, this is literally me unselfishly taking one for the team, and definitely absolutely nothing to do with wanting a new set of clubs, or at least that’s the excuse I will try tell my wife. I’m not sure if she will buy it, so I bought her some jewellery to distract her. 

As a side note, I have a golf SIM but I obviously don’t have scientifically accurate methods of testing club strikes, and given the weight differences between this and my current club, I decided to run the testing over multiple weeks so I have a chance to get used to the irons and switch back and forth.

The first post is really just focusing on some of the first golf games, I’ll do the SIM sessions to get some data in the coming weeks.

If you want to skip past the detail and get the Sunway, go straight to the section entitled “Summary of the first two weeks”

Current clubs

I’m currently gaming the Titleist T150 with Modus 105 stiff shafts that I was fitted for. I have Gripmaster Midsize Grips. They’re great clubs and I really like them. Let me rephrase that, I like them when I am having a good day. I like them less when I am having an off day, and given my 5 handicap, it happens regularly. I wanted to see if I could find something a little more forgiveness, without losing the size and workability, or having a big increased offset. I also wanted to avoid the issue of the hotspot on some more forgiving irons. 

From a personal skill perspective, I have days where I am hitting like a machine, and days where I’d need braille to find the middle of the club face. If I was to grade my performance, my driving is generally an A, chipping and pitching about a B+ to A, putting an A and irons around a C, an A on a good day and a C on a bad day. I’m pretty straight with my irons, even on my bad strikes, so it seems like I do a good job of squaring the face, but don’t hit the middle of the face as much as I would like. 

Packaging and construction

When you spend this much on a set of golf irons, you expect something special and the Cobra LIMIT3D doesn’t disappoint. You’re presented with black box, magnetically sealed, like you’re opening a display case. The box incorporates the mesh design from the rear onto the box.  Open the flap and you’ll find the 4 iron, beautifully presented enough that you’ll feel bad unpacking it. It’s like cutting into a perfectly decorated cake. Lift the top tray and you’ll find the rest of the irons in the second tray, neatly packaged. 

You’re also provided with a tool of some sort. I’ve heard some call it a groove cleaning tool, although it could also be a pitch repair tool.

Some could say it’s an overkill, I like it. I think it’s a situation of not being able to keep everyone happy. If it was packaged in a minimalist manner, people would call Cobra cheap, if it’s packaged well, people will say its an overkill.

Moving onto construction, the construction on the heads is incredible. They’re absolutely beautiful, like art. Some clubs like Miura are beautiful because of the minimalist sleek lines, these are beautiful because of the mix of shapes and how well it works. I’ve shown them to a few people and everyone says they’re the best looking irons they have seen. Some of the initial posts on on the net have mentioned the potential issues with keeping it clean, but I haven’t experienced any problems to date. I don’t hit the ground with the back of my club.

If I was going to nitpick on construction, it would probably be the shafts.  Firstly, there isn’t a lot of information on the specs for the clubs on Cobra’s website, which makes it hard to know what you’re getting. The only information is that the shafts are weighted D2. If you’re wondering what shafts are included, they are KBS $ Taper 120 gram. KBS describe that as the KBS $-Taper (pronounced “Money Taper”) as “designed to give players that Tour feel with a “straighter and stronger ball flight” and low spin”. 

Given the price of the Cobra LIMIT3D, I think they could have gone with something more unique or potentially with an edge. For example, the black version of the shaft is a similar cost, and could have been used to add something different. What I would really like to have seen is something like the PGI Players Graphite because it’s only about $7 more per shaft, maybe $5 more if you talk about Cobra’s cost price. Why graphite? Well, these club heads are bleeding edge and graphite iron shafts are what I would consider on the bleeding edge. They could even have gone for a unique PGI Players Graphite with something silver to blend into the design. 

How do they play?

Given I wasn’t fitted to the Cobra LIMIT3D, I wasn’t sure how they would go. I’m currently playing 105gram shafts with a 7 iron clubhead speed of 80-85 mph, depending on how warmed up I am. The Cobra LIMIT3D come with 120 gram shafts which is slightly heavier than what I currently use.

I’ve put together brief description of my initial sessions:

First outing (30 minute SIM session) – Friday 3rd January 

The first SIM session went fairly well. I wasn’t expecting the strikes to be too consistent due to the difference in shaft, but it was mostly clean hitting, possible catching it a little thin due to the shaft weight. I spent the majority of time on a 7 iron as a starting point, with a couple of strikes on a 5 iron. Most noticeable first impressions were the feel of the clubs (hard to describe – much softer than the T150) and being a softer feel on mishits. As I was keen to get out for a round, I decided to keep the session short and head out onto the course. 

Second outing (Casual Play 9 Holes) – Friday 3rd January

The first signs were very promising. I played the back 9, which starts with a 175 yard par 3. First shot was into the wind and wasn’t struck well, a little thin. I hit the green about 10 foot from the pin, pin high, sunk the birdie putt. When your first game shot with a new set of irons is a birdie, you know you’re going to be friends. The next hole is a 560 yard Par 5. After hitting a good drive, I decided to give the 4 iron a go, opting for irons over woods, because I wanted to test the irons as much as possible. I think it’s first time I’ve ever let out an audible “wow” after hitting a shot. I was on my own so it wasn’t even telling another person what they felt like. I absolutely middled it, but the wow had nothing to do with the shot shape or direction, it the was the feel of the face. It was so soft. I know people talk about soft faces and the idea of feeling like butter but this was incredible. I don’t think people can fully appreciate what it’s like to middle a LIMIT3D 4 iron. As a practice round, I wasn’t scoring, just treating it as a chance to get the irons out on the course, test the turf interaction, and get a feel for the clubs. As with the practice session, I was hitting quite a few marginally thin due to the different shaft, but the clubs are forgiving enough that this was never an issue. 

Third outing (Saturday Monthly Medal Blues Tees –  6 handicap) 4th January

I’m a sucker for punishment. For a real baptism of fire, I headed out in our local club Saturday competition, which happened to be monthly medal and qualifiers for the matchplay championship. Talking about picking a high pressure day. I had about 5 rounds before my next flag dropped off on my handicap, and I thought it would be a good time to test without impacting handicap. I thought the Cobra LIMIT3D would take a few rounds for me to get dialled into the weight difference, so I wasn’t expecting too much. 

Unfortunately, Saturday comp was a dismal failure due to a mad left miss on my drives. Normally my driver is pretty straight so it was a little unexpected. I lost 2 balls in the first 4 holes, finding myself 4 over after 4. I managed to pull it back to 5 over after the 17th, and then crashed and burned on the last hole with two wayward drives that cost me what would have been a net 71 and enough to qualify. I can’t blame the irons, my driving hit a bad patch. Despite the dismal driving, the Cobra LIMIT3D actually saved me a lot of the time.

Fourth outing (Tuesday Comp White Tees –  5 Handicap) 7th January

I followed up Saturday with a Tuesday competition and unfortunately it was a similar outcome. More bad driving meant I came home with a 28 pointer in some sketchy conditions. 30 knot winds and a tendency to hook off the tee were never going to be a good combination. When you’re spending more time in the wilderness than a Bear Grylls looking for balls, it’s hard to gauge how good the irons are. 

I spent some time working on driving on my Golf SIM on Wednesday morning, and I got to grips with my driving issue. With my golf, it’s always something small. After hitting the SIM, I went out for a late 9 holes and it seemed like my driving was back on track, finding the fairway most of the time.

Fifth outing (Thursday Comp White Tees –  5 Handicap) 9th January

Thursday was time for our Thursday competition, playing off the whites so my handicap dropped from 6 to 5 based on the tees. My driving was back on track and when I was missing fairways, I was in the semi-rough with a shot at the green. It gave me plenty of opportunity to give the irons a proper test run in better conditions and they didn’t disappoint. The only shots that were not working as well as I had hoped were my up and downs inside 40 yards with my Vokey’s, which could have added more birdies to the tally on the par 5’s. My iron play with the Cobra LIMIT3D was amazing. We felt like long lost friends. The result was my best competition round since I got back into golf just under 3 years ago, a gross 74 (39 pointer), and my lowest handicap flag with a handicap score of 2.8. I’ve shot lower before, but never under the pressure of comp. I won A grade (150 competitors), and should have won overall on count back if I hadn’t choked on the 18th with a 3 putt from 15-20 foot after I tried to play it too safe with an uphill putt. 

The irons were amazing. 6 greens in regulation on the front and 7 on the back. Shot square with the card on the back 9 and I knew exactly where the irons were going all the time. Had a couple of situations where I over clubbed because I didn’t have the distances 100% right. I thought I was between clubs and didn’t want to end up short, so I was long. That was more of a confidence thing with the new irons. 

Injured back 10th-13th January

I was really looking forward to Saturday competition after the Thursday round, but as Murphy’s law would have it, I tweaked my back moving my drum kit around. I’m too old not to take lifting finds seriously. I had to cancel my Saturday booking and take it easy until I could get a Chiro to look at it on Monday. 

Sixth outing (Tuesday Casual play – 9 Holes) 14th January

Got out for a casual 9 post back problems. Wasn’t feeling 100% so I decided not to push it too hard. Played off our reds (short tees) and ended up one over for the 9, one below my handicap as the back 9 has both the stroke 1 and 2 holes. It wasn’t bad considering I started without a warm up, which isn’t good for me at my age (51). 

Oddly enough, I’ve gone from my irons being bad and my pitching being good to irons being good and pitching being bad. Chipping still seems to be good thankfully. Lately my distance control on my pitching is not up to scratch. 

Wasn’t the greatest iron striking day, had a few that were amazing, a 4 iron off the tee on 16 was probably about as well as I have ever hit a 4 iron. It almost reaching the water at 240 yards into the wind. Granted its had a bit of run on the fairway, but a 230 yard 4 iron into the wind isn’t something I would typically have in my arsenal. I’m not expecting that to become my new distance either. 

Seventh outing (Thursday Casual play – 9 holes) 16th January

Got out for another practice round and joined up with two elderly gents on the tee. Course was mayhem due to lots of young kids playing 4 and 5 balls, so it made the round a little slow. We looked to jump a few of them at one point, but realised there were about 5 slow 4 balls in a row. Its good to see them out on the course instead of on iPads so I am okay with it. 

That aside, the round wasn’t terrible, but the show play was frustrating. 3 over off the white on the back was in line with my handicap, despite my pitching still being a little sketchy again.

Eighth outing (Saturday Competition – 18 holes) 18th January

Mix of amazing and terrible, the tail of two nines. Front 9 I was one under par gross (21 points) through the 9 in 35-40 knots winds. Our front 9 is a little more protected from the winds so whilst it impacts shots, the winds weren’t impact pitches and putts as much. The irons were doing what I wanted. I’d aim left side of the green for the wind to bring it back and like clockwork, it would end up 10 foot from the pin. I missed 3 additional 10 foot birdies, so whilst it was was a really good 9, I still left a lot of shots out there. 

Back 9 was a different story, a combination of poor shot choices, gusty wind and frustration with putting. The gusty wind made putting terrible, with short putts missed due to the gusts moving relatively straight putts off the hole, wind inconsistency making judging shot distance tough. The irons were actually really good in the conditions and did what I wanted, but predicting the gust wind was a variable I didn’t handle well. I’d play for wind and it would die, I’d wait for a lull and a nanosecond after my shot it would gust again. My playing partners on the day (3 handicap and 9 handicap) ended up with 19 and 20 points for the 18 to put the conditions into perspective, and my 33 points was enough for 7th spot in A grade. Note to self: if it’s going to be 35 knots, stay home. 

Ninth outing (Monday casual Play – 9 holes) 20h January

I wasn’t expecting to get out, it’s my anniversary and my wife returned from a business trip to the USA yesterday. She arrived back with a cold, and spent a few hours in bed sleeping allowing me the opportunity to head out at 5pm for 9 holes. We decided to play ambrose, myself (5) and a 24 handicap vs a 3 and 9 handicap. With no warm up for any of us, the 24 handicap and myself started a little poorly, bogeying the first two holes to go two shots down. We started to get into our groove with a birdie on the third, then back to back pars all the way to the 9th before finishing up with another birdie, and a win by 4 strokes against our feller players when we take into account handicap.

After less than ideal conditions it was good to get in some lighter conditions. The wind was still blowing, but the 15 knots was more pleasant than the 35-40 knots on Saturday.

It’s days like this one that I have continued to fall in love with these clubs. One of my fellow players had T150’s (3 handicap) and the difference between the mishits was hard to believe. 15-20 yards difference. The 5th hole saw both of us hit a 6 iron, we’re similar club lengths normally. His mishit was 15-20 yards short left, mine was pin high left. This is what I experienced with my T150’s. 

With the exception of some early mishits when I was getting my eye in, the irons were unbelievable again. The icing on the cake was being 3 shots up, and hitting a 4 iron from 190 yards into the wind, having it pitch a foot from the pin and finish 2 yards from the pin which we birdied. It didn’t budge from the line. I feel like these irons are just straighter than my T150’s. 

The Shaft

First off, lets talk about how the shaft has worked because it’s one of the biggest concerns I had.  I am not sure what the swing weighting was on my current clubs, Titleist don’t specify it on the fitting, but I’ve found the 120 gram shaft with D2 weighting has really worked really well for me. I was hitting them a little thin initially but once I got into a groove, they have been really good.  I’m actually really happy with it and not considering a shaft change at this point. I’m keen to try graphite but these are working so well I don’t want to spoil it. The grips I will probably change to midsize Gripmasters, but that’s all for now.

How do they feel?

This is the part that really excites me. I still remember the days of playing with my dad’s Hogan blade had me down. When you hit the sweet spot, it was like butter. When you didn’t, the felt the vibration through your hands for days. It was a bitter sweet memory. The bitter being the days of teeing off at 8am in 40F degrees knowing that if you mishit it, it was going to hurt, and we mishit a lot in those days.

Trying to find something with that same level of feel on the good shots has been hard, because most of us aren’t good enough to play the sort of clubs that feel like that. My T150’s felt good but they don’t feel anything close to that good. The Titleist MB felt good, but let’s be honest, I’m not good enough to be playing those. I’d lose about 20 yards in distance on my good hits, and 50 yards on the bad ones. 

The Cobra LIMIT3D do feel that good, or at least as good as I remember, because it could always be like that amazing burger you remember from your youth that you try now and realise it’s pretty horrible. The LIMIT3D are like butter off the face, better than any of the non-MB Clubs that I’ve tried. It feels like the sweet spot of a blade. And when you miss the centre, it feels like harder butter, rather than like hitting a rock which is what most of the modern game improvement and tour distance irons feel like. 

Forgiveness

Over the mix of casual and comp rounds the most noticeable thing outside of feel, is forgiveness. When I say forgiveness, there have been a number of shots where I know I didn’t get it all, but I’ve still ended up on the green, not just longer than normal, but straighter as well. With my T150’s, it would be short of the green on these types of mishits, but the level of forgiveness on the Cobra LIMIT3D is amazing, comparable to game improvement iron level. Obviously, there are limits. Hit it high on the face or chunk it, and no club in the world is going to save you, but the toe and heel hits are really impressive. I’m a pretty straight iron player, so my miss is normally with a square face, but a slightly off centre hit and the LIMIT3D work perfectly with that.

To put the forgiveness into perspective, I have a T200 utility iron. For those who aren’t familiar with Titleist’s range, the utility irons are a Titleist option for a more forgiving long iron, and some of the pros use these as well. They are thicker than a conventional iron, although not as thick as a driving iron, which in Titleist’s range is called the U505. . The  head of the utility is slightly thicker than a conventional T200. It also comes with a graphite shaft, usually a Hzrdus Black. I have it in both a 4 and 2 iron and they have been really good. I can’t hit hybrids so this has filled the gap, but they sound terrible for off centre hits. Why am I telling you this? In my opinion, the LIMIT3D is more forgiving than the T200 utility, but it sounds and feels a lot better. If Cobra produced a 2 iron version of this, I’d buy it tomorrow. This is actually really impressive when you compare the sizes.

Consistency in distance

Second thing is distance and distance control. I’m currently finding the Cobra LIMIT3D longer than my T150’s. My biggest concern about game improvement irons in the past, and to a less degree tour distance irons, is the hotspot. I got back into golf with some T300’s. They were amazing and forgiving, but you would occasional have shots come off the face like a rocket and it made it a little less predictable than I liked. One would rocket off inexplicably at 15-20 yard longer and over the back of the green. The T150 took away that mystery shot, but it also took away the forgiveness on my mishits, so it was a double edged sword. I preferred the look and feel of the T150’s , with less offset, but I missed elements of the T300. This has been the strength of the Cobra LIMIT3D. It gives you the consistency and size of a tour iron, the distance of a players distance iron, and the forgiveness of a game improvement. 

Overall, I’d say the LIMIT3D is about 5-7 yards longer than the T150 on the good strikes, and my bad strikes are going as long as the T150’s, in some cases longer. By comparison, my mishits on the T150 were typically 10-15 yards shorter, these are 5 yards shorter. I didn’t even get that level of drop off when I tried the T200’s.

Negatives

Are there any real negatives? Price, but I’ll cover that later. Probably only one I can think of at this point. The LIMIT3D are coming out with slightly lower spin number compared to the T150’s. That may be in part due to the low spin shafts that are the default selection for the shafts, but it would be hard to validate without testing both irons back to back with the same shaft. For me personally, that isn’t an issue, but it may be for others. If you live on a course with super hard greens that offer no spin, it may be more problematic although this will be countered by the higher approach angle on the LIMIT3D due to the extra height. Our greens tend to be on the softer spinnier side, so I can stop my T200 4 iron. That said, playing a high spin ball like the Prov1x would put it back pretty close to the T150’s with a Pro V1, so if you wanted to maintain the same spin levels, you could do it with the ball.

I’d also say they are a little softer than the T150’s from the metal perspective so they are showing some small battle scars already. I don’t baby my clubs, but for those who like to keep them in pristine condition, it may be tough. Interestingly enough, the Cobra has a much higher alloy content as my magnetic towel doesn’t stick to the back of the Cobra’s very easily, while the Vokey and T200’s the magnet sticks fine. 

The lofts

I know there will be the naysayers who will point out that the LIMIT3D has a half a degree stronger loft than the T150, although weaker in the case of the PW. I’m not going to get into loft jacking discussions, but I will nip that in the bud by saying the LIMIT3D consistency has a higher launch angle than the T150. Static loft may be lower but dynamic loft is higher, so for those going down this rabbit hole, I suggest you research the impact of tungsten placement on dynamic loft. 

Anyway, here is a comparison of lofts with the T150/T200/P770/P790. For those too lazy to view it, the lofts are between the T150 and T200, and between the P770 and P790, but levels out with the T150 and P770 through 9 and PW. 

Price 

The price point is the area that will end the review for most people., home the reason I left it late in the review. It’s my anal sense of humour. It’s a $3000 set of irons, or at least that’s the retail price. It’s a lot. 3D printing metal objects like this is still really expensive, so 3D printing wasn’t about reducing cost, it was about getting performance you couldn’t get with conventional manufacturing methods.  

The pricing is high enough that I don’t tell people the price. It avoids the awkward conversations of “You spent what on those irons?”

The reality is that while this pricing should come down over time like any technology. Airbags and ABS were only in the $100,000+ cars when the first came out.  The cost to develop technology reduces so I have no doubt that while the LIMIT3D are priced at atmospheric levels, we should see something lower.

That said, we are talking about now, when they are $3,000, not 5 years time when they start appearing in $1,000 sets. They are expensive. Are they worth it? If you can afford it, yes. If you can’t, then no. I think they are a much better club than my T150’s but I think the vast majority of people simply won’t be prepared to spend that sort of money of clubs.

The launch monitor stats (to be updated)

These will be updated in the coming weeks as I build data. I’ll update this post and make notes as I add data.

I wanted to give myself a chance to get used to them before going into the data. 

Conclusion

I think Cobra is on to a winner with this approach. I think 3D printing is the future of clubs based on my experience of these. In 10 years time, I think there will be irons that are 3D printed , and irons that used to be popular. I know it’s a big statement, but I see this as a big swing in the direction of golf technology. Obviously the pricing will have to come down to make this accessible to more people for that to happen. 

This is the first club I’ve tried that brings together all the elements together with very few, if not any compromises. Distance, Forgiveness, Consistency, Feel. T. If I was to describe it in one sentence, it’s a club that has the feel of a muscle back, the consistency of a players iron, the distance of a players distance iron, and the forgiveness of a game improvement iron. I think that makes it pretty close to perfect for me, and this is just the beginning of 3D iron design.

The sad part is that having tested only the 7 iron, I don’t think most of the reviewers will fully appreciate how good these irons are. Most people can hit a decent 7 iron. But when you hit a 4 iron and see the performance and feel you’re getting when you don’t strike it well, it’s mind blowing.

This is where I really feel like the 3D printed irons are going to change the market, and that’s the part that really excites me. Max Homa is sporting a set of 3D printed MB’s. Brysen has been doing so for a while.  I think this is the first in a line of changes that will start at premium irons, and progressively reduce in price until it becomes the standard across everything. What will be interesting to see is what the engineers can do with 3D printing, because I think we’re only scratching the surface.  I know sometimes people joke about something being “cheating” but in this case I think it is. That alone is pretty impressive but I also think they’re the best looking clubs on the market. 

As far as recommendations, and my limited experience go, they are amazing and if price is no object, they are definitely worth getting. If they aren’t in your budget, wait. I think we could see more mainstream options coming out in the next few years that will open the door to this sort of performance at a lower cost.

I’ll continue to update the review as time goes on as it’s hard to provide comprehensive feedback on a set of irons when you’ve only used them for 3 weeks.