Can Cobra’s 3D printing completely change the hardware market?

Cobra Golf is in a unique position. Over the past few years they have continued to refine their 3D printing process to now include the flagship 3DP touring iron, which is 100% 3D printed. They also have multiple touring models available for the likes of Max Homa, Danny Willett, Gary Woodland and others – each custom designed for that athlete. 3D printing creates a whole new level of “1 on 1” for these athletes, but it also leads to an intriguing follow-up: are we closer to a consumer option than we think?

This week on the podcast I spoke with my co-host Johnny Wunder about a dream I have for Cobra Golf. Regardless of price, if they could ever offer a custom program available to consumers, we could see Cobra take over the iron category. The 3DP Tour and its custom tour siblings have already proven that this is possible. For the consumer it would have to be packaged a little differently, but imagine a Cobra 3D Printed Custom Shop. You can choose from 3 different sole designs in the width that suits you best, specify the offset and blade length you prefer, the head weights for each of the club heads, the thickness of the topline, the number of grooves… you have it all to choose from. On the back end, Cobra would hypothetically create their own program that would allow you to put together the pieces and options you’ve chosen to 3D print them. And then, after a short period of time – and probably a big hit to your bank account – you would have a set of irons in your hands that you designed for YOU from the start.

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As Johnny said on the podcast, you can get as detailed as you want. If you want your long irons to launch easier with a little more forgiveness, maybe make the soles a little wider and add a little offset and blade length. You can even place tungsten lower in the blade. More like the 3DP Tours. Do you want your scoring irons to fly a little lower with more spin? Add some grooves to those faces, shorten the blade length and raise the center of gravity. You can create your own custom set. However you want it. No more combo sets. You no longer have to bend some weak clubs and the like. No more custom-made grinding soles. No more lead tape. Just one seamless set of irons with the same look and feel, 100% built for YOUR game. It’s really an incredible thing to think about. And again, this is already a thing. Max Homa, Danny Willett, Lexi Thompson, Rickie Fowler, Gary Woodland and some unnamed non-staffers have already seen the fruits of these abilities.

Is there one big problem? (except the costs)

The inherent problem here is that we can fit these properly. It would be pretty disappointing to design this super cool custom set to your liking and then find out after touching it that you actually don’t like what you designed. It makes me think about the Forward Golf mounting kit and whether something like this could be developed with the Cobra series using specific shapes and parts, so that a consumer could walk into an appropriate space specifically for this program and figure out which options they actually want to use to build their new set.

My ideal set would have as many grooves as the USGA would allow me, a nice compact blade length with just a minimal hint of offset, the topline of the Cobra King CB irons, the sole of the Cobra King MB irons with just a little more trailing edge relief, and a progressive CG location that helps me separate the top and bottom of the set with a peak height of 3-4 meters, while the shorter irons launch just a little lower.

So Cobra, let me know when you’re ready to make the 3DP JM Irons. I’m ready if you are too.

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Cobra 3DP Tour Irons are available for custom build by Fairway Jockey.

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If you’re interested in checking out the Cobra 3DP Tours for yourself, book a fitting with True Spec!