REVIEW
COBRA FLY-Z DRIVER
THE FLY-Z SMASHES IT.
There are lots of different words used to describe what a golf club does to
the ball at impact. One that came to mind with the new Cobra Fly-Z is that
it “Smashes” it. The great feel at impact is certainly part of the equation,
but one detail sometimes overlooked is “smash factor”. This the energy
from the club head transferred to the ball, the formula to determine this is
ball speed divided by club speed, a perfect smash factor is 1.50. Every golfer
across the world wishes he/she clubs would deliver 1.50 with every strike,
but in the real world most clubs do not. Some of this has to do with where
the contact at impact is and other times it has to do with the “hotness”
and workability of the ball off the face. I had the highest average “smash
factor” I’ve ever recorded with the Fly-Z, our FlightScope Monitor recorded
it at 1.49.
The Cobra Fly-Z driver follows many of the same colours and looks to the
Bio Cell and Amp Cell driver with similar colour options, adjustable hosel,
E-9 Face, and 460cc forgiveness. While previous versions of the Cobra
drivers have been very good, there are couple new additions that make this
driver even better.
I’ll start with the face, because this really seems to be the source of the
high smash factor. It is still the E-9 face they’ve been using for the last 4
years or so, but the additional Speed Channel creates a trench around the
outskirts of the hitting surface making it thinner near the perimeter and
thus getting higher ball speeds on off-centre hits. Cobra is on to something
here because the numbers don’t lie, this face smashes the ball no matter
where impact is made.
The lower and further back weight plate also generates higher ball flight and
forgiveness. They were able to put more weight towards the rear because of
reduction in the crown. I was getting really great results on course with the
Fly-Z. It was in play during my trip to Hawaii and “oh man” not only was
it forgiving it was long. A couple of the holes we played demanded long
carries, yet accuracy, I found it easy to get the ball landing the dead centre
of the fairway with each drive. I hit the ball really straight with the Fly-Z, in
fact, at times too straight and I ended up running through a couple of long
dogleg fairways. The back weight really seems to smash right through the
ball; it feels like the energy transfer from back through to the front really
works at impact.
ISSUE 01 | YOURCADDY 21