Cobra Says a New Era of Irons is Born

Written By: Tony Covey

The golf industry, or at least golf industry marketers, love their buzzwords and buzzphrases, so in the true spirit of advanced construction, precision, forgiveness, and generally optimum performance, I bring you Cobra’s new F6 TECFLO Irons.

FYI, It’s the ULTIMATE PROGRESSIVE SET.

While that’s exactly the kind of hyperbole we’ve come to expect from the golf companies, and clearly Cobra isn’t immune, F6 TECFLO isn’t so much about making a lot of noise about the latest and greatest; instead TECFLO reflects Cobra’s commitment to identifying and, when it all comes together as planned, solving problems, and making the game more enjoyable for golfers.

Obviously, the company would like to do that in the most ULTIMATE way possible.

F6 TECHFLO – The 15-Second Tech Overview

Before we hop into the specifics of why the TECFLO irons might be of interest to you, let’s take a quick look at some of the technology Cobra bundled into their latest iron.

Speed Channel Sole – Creates more flex at impact to generate faster ball speeds.

Progressive Spin Technology – A mix of CNC milled V and U-Groove designs that help to optimize launch and spin characteristics at different lofts.

T.O.P. Technology – Cobra-speak for the aluminum body caps that free up discretionary weight (compared to steel) which is then placed…wait for it…low and back.

Deep Perimeter Undercutting – Helps create Cobra’s largest unsupported face ever. Unsupported faces help create both distance and forgiveness on off-center hits.

Chrome Plating with PVD – While not a true technology, Cobra’s new finish provides a cleaner look and greater durability.

Interesting, right? Or perhaps you find yourself wondering Why do I need all that?

It’s a fair question. The cynical answer is another year, another iron, but Cobra believes that there are legitimate shortcomings within the game-improvement space. So, I suppose, before we consider the solution, we should take a moment to consider the problems.

Two Steps Forward…

Despite numerous advances in iron technology over the years, long irons remain difficult to hit. You can blame a bit of that on the never-ending quest for distance.

Golfers want to hit the ball farther, and while lofts have been continually strengthened to help achieve that goal, the extra yards have come at the expense of playability. I’m not talking about 15 handicappers pre-occupied with working the ball. Nay…what I’m saying is that this distance obsession has pushed us to the point where many game-improvement golfers simply can’t get some game-improvement long irons (and sometimes middle irons too) off the ground.

If you can’t hit the ball in the air, then what’s the point?

That’s just the beginning.

Feel has suffered too. Today’s thinner faces might be great for distance, but as many of you have probably noticed they aren’t always the most rewarding to hit. I’ll eat the 3 strokes per round for the better feel of a players iron.

Feel matters.

Golfers with handicaps between 5-25 say feel is the most important iron characteristic (they say it time in survey after survey), but more often than not, they buy distance (at the expense of feel).

With game-improvement irons forgiveness is great (at least it’s supposed to be), but sometimes that extra help mitigates precision (bad isn’t so bad, but good isn’t what it is with a more compact cavity back). The average game-improvement golfer…actually, the average golfer in general, would benefit not only from hitting more greens, but from hitting the ball a bit closer to the pin.

Toss in the fact that the average set wedge is basically an after-thought, and well, you really start to understand how imperfect many modern game-improvement iron sets really are.

In 30 words or less, here’s the challenge: How do you give golfers what they really want, what they say they want, and at the same time, give them what they actually need?

Good luck with that.

The F6 TECFLO

Cobra’s answer to that particular riddle is the F6 TECFLO combo/progressive/flo set. Use whichever term you like, but the idea is that the new irons offer technology that flows throughout the set.

And yes, that means the head designs change or flow as we transition from long, to middle, to short, and even to the wedge.

If that’s all you understand about the TecFlo design, Cobra would probably be happy, but as long as we’re talking about the new F6 irons we should probably point out that TECFLO itself is one big acronym. It stands for:

Technology Enhanced Cavities. Feel, Launch Optimization.

The permutations of F6 TECFLO consist of up to 5 unique designs, although in practice, golfers will only carry four of the 5 designs, as common sense dictates a well-reasoned choice between TECFLO long irons or F6 hybrids.

We’ve already covered the hybrids, so let’s take a look at the other 4 designs you’ll find within the F6 TECFLO set.

Hollow body long irons

One of the more interesting aspects of the TECFLO set is its hollow body long irons. It’s a design feature that helps to distinguish the F6 from other game-improvement irons as well as other combo sets, which often slant towards better players.

While we can split hairs over the absolute details of the technology, those of you who’ve hit Nike’s Vapor Speed irons should notice some similarities.

To that end, TECFLO’s 3-5 irons feature true hollow body construction. The idea is that by leveraging a large hollow cavity and some offset, the center of gravity can be pushed extremely low and back. By now you should know that low/back CG results in comparatively higher launch, with more spin.

The benefit of this design is that, with it, almost anybody should be able to get the ball airborne.

Now I’ll admit, when I hear low/back CG and easy to get in the air, I jump right to concerns about ballooning shots. For those who think like me, I should point out that Cobra is able to mitigate the risk of excessive spin by leveraging milled V-grooves in the 3 through 6 irons.

To give that a bit of context; at 6-iron lofts, the V-Grooves produces an average of  200 rpm less spin and results in 2.5 yards more carry, while only producing an extra 1.5 feet of roll.

TECFLO’s increased distances comes not from jacked lofts (at least not jacked anymore than what’s already been jacked within the the category), instead, TECFLO generates speed via a thin face made from 17-4 steel with a bit of help from the Speed Channel.

The feel issue is mitigated by the hollow body itself which helps to mitigate – Cobra might say eliminate – the unpleasant sound that comes with many thin-face distance designs. Effectively you get the benefit of the thin face with the feel you’d expect from thicker construction.

Finally, to help ensure the long irons perform as well as they possibly can for the intended audience, Cobra uses an aluminum cap to seal the cavity. The cap saves saves weight (compared to steel), which, as you can probably guess, further helps Cobra position the Center of Gravity as far back and low as possible.

Half-Hollow Mid Irons

Moving more into the realm of what you’d probably expect to in a combo set, the F6 mid irons (6-7) feature what Cobra describes as half-hollow construction. The overall goal for the middle irons is to promote greater accuracy on approach shots (help you hit more greens in regulation), while offering what Cobra’s Jose Miraflor calls a soft and lively feel at impact.

Like the Hollow Cavity long irons, the mid-irons featured milled grooves (V Grooves in the 6, and higher spinning U Grooves in the 7) and feature an aluminum cap to reduce weight and help control unpleasant vibration.

Undercut Cavityback Short Irons

As the F6 TECFLO transitions from mid to short irons, the cavity transitions from a half hollow to an undercut cavity design. Essentially what we’re talking about is relatively straightforward full cavity design. The intent in to encourage even more precise approach shots.

Muscleback Wedge

We’ve talked about this before. The number of game-improvement irons sets purchased by golfers is disproportional to the number of gave-improvement wedges we buy. The takeaway from that bit of knowledge is that while many of us embrace technology in our irons, we want our wedges to be relatively no nonsense and traditional.

Not even Callaway could sell a wedge that offers 10 more yards.

As iron distance has increased, the gap wedge has become a fixture in the 8-club set. On top of that, many manufacturers offer matching sand and lob wedges available for those who want them.

Of course, to many of us, those set wedges don’t look like wedges should look, and they don’t play like wedges should play. Trajectory control is often abysmal, and they just don’t spin like most of us think our wedges should.

That is to say that many set wedges don’t really spin at all.

Cobra wants to change that.

For the F6 TECFLO Cobra created a a set wedge that doesn’t really look (or play) like a typical set wedge. While there is a fair amount of aesthetic continuity, most noticeable in the badging and back cavity aesthetics, for the most part, the TECFLO wedge looks, and more importantly plays, like an aftermarket alternative.

In more concrete terms, the wedge’s CG is higher for increased spin and better trajectory. The topline is comparatively thin, and the face features the same grooves Cobra uses on its Tour Trusty wedges.

The sum total of the package is a gap wedge (and sand wedge if you want that too) that wouldn’t look the least bit out of place next to a rack of Vokeys. On looks alone, I suspect many may actually prefer the TECFLO wedge over Cobra’s Tour Trusty.

Ultimately what we’re talking about is a legitimate wedge offering that just happens to be part of an otherwise game-improvement set.

F6 TECFLO Specifications

Cobra’s stock shaft is made by FST. It’s a flighted offering that’s designed for easy-up in the long irons with a progressively more penetrating trajectory as the irons get shorter.

The stock offering achieves a swing weight of D1 in the 3-PW. The lighter weight should help increase speed for the majority of golfers, however; for those who need heavier offerings, Cobra offers several no charge upgrades including KBS Tour and True Temper Dynamic Gold.

Some Final Words

While it may fly in the face of my compact iron mindset, I love (and think many will benefit from) the full hollow cavity long irons. My experience has been that it’s a design that really is easy to get up in the air. If you want to draw comparison, frankly, I think it was a bit of a miss that Nike didn’t make an integrated Speed/Combo CB set more readily available.

The wedge is absolutely done right, and while it probably won’t send Cobra’s market share to previous unfathomable heights, it should be a selling point for those sick of the mostly garbage throw-away set wedge.

The rest of the set…it’s just better than what came before it. I haven’t been the biggest fan of Cobra’s game-improvement offerings over the last few seasons. It’s probably in everybody’s best interest that we all pretend BiOCell never happened, and while FLY-Z tested extremely well for us, it didn’t really suit my eye.

F6 TECFLO is different. Consumers will do what they do, but this is absolutely the kind of iron that should make Cobra a more serious player in the game-improvement space.

At the very least, for mid-to-high handicap golfers seeking a fresh take on game-improvement design the F6 TECFLO is anything but your typical feels like shit, looks like shit, but ball go far distance iron.

That alone should warrant some attention.

Pricing and Availability

Retail price for the Cobra F6 TECFLO Iron is $799 (steel), $899 (steel w/2 hybrids), or $999 (graphite w/ 2 hybrids). Retail availability begins January 15th, 2016.