The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Swap Lord for Cobra and you've got a sense of how we feel about this year's F8 and F8+ fairway woods and hybrids.
For the last two years, Cobra has offered a mainline F model as well as the premium King Ltd range. While the F6 and F7 suited most players well, the King Ltd's unique construction and absurdly low CG position offered spin and launch properties that no other manufacturer appeared able to match.
In 2018 Cobra has done away with the King Ltd line and have instead added more options to the F8 and F8+ fairway woods. These are the first mainline Cobra fairway woods to feature a carbon crown. However, Cobra is no longer using textreme carbon fiber as it has found a way to move to a 5-ply a crown that is lighter and just as strong. As it always does, the 13-gram weight saving gets moved low in the head for more forgiveness.
This time around, Cobra has positioned the center of gravity directly between the baffler rails. This is meant to reduce twisting at impact and stop the clubhead from losing speed through the turf. The Baffler rails get progressively deeper through the lofts. So the 3-Wood has shallower rails than the 5-wood. Like the driver, it features Cobra’s new 360-degree aero technology to increase clubhead speed on the downswing - though the benefit in a fairway wood is less than it is in a driver. Both models feature a 475 stainless steel insert and, for the first time in a fairway wood, Cobra’s E9 variable face thickness for more ball speed on miss-hits.
Whereas last year the F7 Fairway wood was meant to be all things to all men the F8 offers two models; the F8 and the F8+. That's right; the plus is back! As for Cobra taking away; the two fairway models no longer feature movable weights. The F8 has a fixed way in the rear of the head; the F8+ has its weight at the front. By now you should know the implications. A weight in the front is used to promote low spin and launch, while the weight in the back on the F8 raises launch and spin for better carry through the air. Both F8s retain the MyFly adjustable hosel and SmartPad design, so you can still dial in the correct loft.
The footprint of the F8 (below) is very similar to last year's F7 fairway with its shallow face and wider body. The F8+ (above) is a different beast altogether you'd be hard-pressed to find a better-shaped fairway wood in 2018, it harks back to the F6 Baffler designed for Rickie Fowler. It features a deeper face and smaller profile and just looks mean.
Unfortunately, there's a catch. We don’t all hit the ball like Rickie Fowler. With the modern golf ball being so low spinning I found I needed more help, especially off the deck. Most of you will likely prefer the look of the F8+ Fairway wood but would still be better off playing the F8. Although, if it's a penetrating 5-Wood, you're looking for, the F8+ should prove a monster.
Stock shafts for the Cobra F8 Fairway are the Aldila 2KXV Blue 70, and the F8+ gets the NV2K Green 75. The green may prove a bit stout for many (it is for me). That's another little detail that could make that F8+ fairway that bit harder to use.
F8 Hybrids
In an industry where the only thing that is guaranteed to produce sales is more yardage, it’s refreshing to see that Cobra’s move into One Length irons has had success. It's product story based entirely on consistency with no promises of additional yardage. Having played with ONE length golf clubs for a season, consider me a believer, if not a total convert. To make things all the better for ONE Length players, the new F8 Hybrid One Length could very well prove to be the sleeper hit of Cobra's 2018 lineup. It may not have a fancy milled face like the driver, but it just works.
Let me explain. The concept of one club length from 7 iron to 3 iron is fairly straightforward. What you lose in clubhead speed from the shorter shafts you make up for in efficiency because you're hitting the sweet spot more often. Your smash factor goes up, and on average many find that you will hit the ball the same distance as a traditional variable length shafts.
When comparing on a launch monitor, my shots were within a yard of a traditional length set with the benefit of a much tighter shot grouping. That short shaft always made me feel like I was compact and crisp into the ball like a Nick Price of old. Who am I kidding, but you get the idea.
However, there were some trade-offs. I hadn’t used a 4-iron for years, relying on hybrids because, well, they are much easier to hit. The Forged One Length 4-iron is, in relative terms, much simpler to hit than a normal length four iron, but it just launches too low. While distance was good, launch and spin aren't sufficient to hold a green from distance - at least not for me. The thing is, I was striking it so much more consistently that I had to keep it in the bag. And some of the escape shots I pulled off with it from under trees...incredible. Still, it wasn’t the right way to fill that spot in the bag.
That’s a lot of preamble, but it brings us to the part where Cobra offers up a solution to the problem - the F8 ONE Length hybrid. While the club head design is the same as the F8 with its baffler sole, it's been built to a seven iron length. If you'd never tried a ONE Length iron before, you might laugh when you see the hybrid. It makes you feel like you're holding your son’s or daughter’s USA Kids hybrid. It even feels a bit like swinging a kid's club. But then you hit one, you'll scratch your head and probably go, “huh” as you watch a ball sail straight as a dye and high through the air.
If you're like me and you've been searching for a high flying green stopper, the ONE Hybrid will make instant and perfect sense. What I haven’t talked about is any sort of additional technology story in the F8 hybrids, because, well, we're not sure there is one. Not really. OK, they have the Cobra Connect Arccos system in place, and that is a great added extra, and while that might help you play smarter, it won’t help make your shots any easier to hit.
Unlike the driver with its headline CNC milled face construction, the F8 and F8 One length hybrids are arguably less advanced than the previous F7. While that might sound backward, hear us out. The feature a 455 steel face like last year. The rails have been moved into the center of the club head and moved closer together, which in many ways brings it closer to Tom Crow's original Baffler from 1974.
Cobra is claiming the hybrids “provide more leading edge bounce, to help the club stay lower to the ground for more consistent launch from a variety of lies.” We'd argue that the F7 was already among the easiest to hit from bad lies anyway. The polymer aero trips are a nice way to introduce aerodynamics to a product with minimal added weight, but do they actually do much in a hybrid? No, but they do provide visual consistency throughout the lineup.
And then the elephant in the room. Like with the fairway woods, Cobra has taken away an integral technology from its hybrids. After years of offering adjustability in its hybrids, Cobra has dropped it from the F8. Why? Cobra claims the shorter hosel saves weight, which can be put even lower in the head for a lower center of gravity. That's great, but Cobra has one of the lightest hosel adapters in the game, and my preference is to be able to fine tune for the loft and distance I want. Cobra’s SmartPad design meant you could adjust its hybrids without really affecting appearance at address. The removal of adjustability is likely a cost-cutting measure, though we don't believe Cobra will be the only one to pull adjustability from its hybrids in 2018. It's a shame, but it is what it is.
Stock shafts are 75-gram variants on the Aldila Rogue Pro, but it will be particularly interesting to see how Cobra manages the custom fitting options for golfers who don't fit into the stock offering. Personally, I wouldn't mind having the option of matching the shaft to my iron set.
It’s a bit of a mixed verdict for us with this pair of hybrids. If you’ve got an F7 hybrid, there's no pressing reason to replace it with an F8 - although that's true for the overwhelming majority of new offerings. We're not talking about a significant upgrade and certainly not one to the level of the driver, but if you're a ONE Length guy, or are just looking for an easy to use hybrid that will get you out of trouble, the F8 One Length could be the most impressive hybrid on the market.
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Specs, Pricing, and Availability
F8 Fairway - $249
3-4 FWY: (13°, 13.5° o, 13.5° o Draw, 14.5° o, 14.5° o Draw, 15.5° o, 15.5 o Draw°, 16 o)
5-6 FWY: (17 o, 17.5 o, 17.5 o Draw, 18.5 o, 18.5 o Draw, 19.5 o, 19.5 o Draw, 20 o)
7-8 FWY: (21 o, 21.5 o, 21.5 o Draw, 22.5 o, 22.5 o Draw, 23.5 o, 23.5 o Draw, 24 o)
Grip: Lamkin REL 360 (Tour Taper; COBRA CONNECT) – in Nardo.
Stock Shaft: Aldila NV 2KXV Blue 70 shaft in Stiff or Regular versions in RH/LH.
F8+ Fairway - $249
3-4 FWY: (12 o, 12.5 o, 12.5 o Draw, 13.5 o, 13.5 o Draw, 14.5 o, 14.5 o Draw, 15 o)
4-5 FWY: (16 o, 16.5 o, 16.5 o Draw, 17.5 o, 17.5 o Draw, 18.5 o, 18.5 o Draw, 19 o)
Grip: Lamkin Crossline 360 (Plus; COBRA CONNECT)
Shaft: Aldila NV 2KXV Green 75 in X-Stiff, Stiff and Regular flexes in RH only.
F8 Hybrid - $199
Lofts: 2H (17 o), 3H (19 o) 4H (22 o) and 5H (25 o) – RH/LH*
Shaft: Aldila Rogue Pro 75 graphite (Stiff, Regular and Lite).
Grip: Lamkin REL 360 (Tour Taper; COBRA CONNECT).
F8 ONE Hybrid - $199
Lofts: 3H (19o), 4H (22o) and 5H (25o) – in RH/LH*
Grip: Lamkin REL 360 (Tour Taper; COBRA CONNECT) grip in blue & red
Shaft: Aldila Rogue Pro ONE Length in stiff, regular and lite flexes.
Retail availability begins January 18, 2018. For more information, visit CobraGolf.com.
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