2022 is a huge year. For cobra and these brand new drivers have to perform because there's a great deal of pressure let me explain [Music] so why am i saying that well there's two main reasons one of them being bryson deschambeau now currently the longest player on the pga tour who is striving. For excellence who is striving. For even more distance and will be looking. For a driver to do just that. And on the flip side another reason is kyle berkshire currently the world's longest driver he now is also going to be looking. For a driver that performs for him and they are both players signed by cobra. And one last thing to add a little bit more pressure to cobra their market share is currently behind taylormade callaway ping titleist these new drivers have to be really good. And spoiler alert they are really good. So what are these new drivers that cobra bringing out this year well these are the new ltd x driver lineup ltd standing. For longest total distance there's three drivers in the lineup which i've come to why they're all slightly different at the moment but first impressions when i first ever saw these drivers i wasn't blown away by the looks they don't look super modern certainly in a year when you're competing with things like taylormade stealth which obviously looks very different this time looks wise i think they've played it very safe. But as you know looks isn't everything with a driver now the three models in the lineup are ltd x max that's the most forgiving model there's a weight also slightly more in the heel to help with you golfers who may lose the shot at slightly to the right that is highest moi it's obviously 460cc head shape. And in this test i do hit it. But it's not the one that i'm going to focus on mainly because obviously i struggle with the draw anyway. So i don't particularly want to hit a drawer driver then.
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Up is the ltd x standard model i think this one is where most golfers are going to be looking if they come to try the cobra drivers the ltd x has a weight position in the back it is a forgiving driver model you can't change the weights. Or you can do like all your three models you can change the loft sleeve you can go up. And down by two degrees and then.
There is the ltd x l s the low spin model you'll also notice the cobra ltd xls driver i've got here is in the blue finish that's only going to be usa only. For europe the rest of the world is going to be the black. And gold finish that you'll see in the other two models so what's new with this driver lineup well there's three main stories first one power core cobra have added a weight towards the front of the driver face it's 19 grams and it's a combination of steel and tungsten why they've done that is to offer more ball speed. And forgiveness on low strikes and also to keep the spin low on all of the three models the next.
Thing they've done is change the face they're calling it hot face. And hot stands for highly optimized topology i'm not sure topology is the correct word you'd want to be using a driver it's almost like a 3d mapping system on the back of the head to make 15 spots across the driver face as optimized as possible a little bit like callaway they've used some sort of computer in system to take loads. And loads of data from thousands of golf shots and work out how they can make the face thicker. And thinner in certain areas to give you more ball speed across the face that's hot face combined with this hot face they've also brought in a new cnc milled face technology you've seen this with cobra over the last few years they use a cnc milling to really fine tune the club face you'll also notice how that cnc infinity face almost wraps around the sole of the golf club again they reckon that's going to make the face even faster. And better and the last thing they've done is they've changed the multi-material chasse. So now this 30 more carbon i must admit if there's ever a year you want to invest in carbon it's this year right now because every driver companies you know using way more carbon it's a material that's lightweight so they can distribute weight around the head to make it more forgiving driver you've heard the story before now because they've used more carbon it means the titanium section of this club the chasse has been enhanced to make it a more stable driver that's the main stories. And they're going to retail. For 399 pounds which is a fair bit cheaper than the taylormade driver this year. And a little bit cheaper than the callaway driver and you know i love to talk about a head cover well this year you see the same colorway the white gold and black throughout the head cover and what's interesting though there's no ltdx writing on it at all it's just a plain cobra head cover now with all that being said. And done going back to this idea it's called ltd longest total distance as i mentioned they've got two of the longest golfers on the planet are going to be using these drivers. So i had to put these to the test the first place i went was onto the golf course i wanted to test the ltdx model. And the low spin model as well and i spent a lot of time hitting both drivers now this was my first opportunity to get a real sense of these drivers how they look behind the golf ball how they feel when i hit it what does the ball flight look like i'm not particularly looking at data just. Yet i'm getting my initial thoughts now my impression on the looks of these drivers as i mentioned before even when i first took them out of the box i just wasn't blown away and similar on the golf course putting them behind the golf ball they didn't strike me as anything massively different to what i've seen in the past nice looking heads yes look good behind the golf ball yes. But nothing that would really catch my eye but again looks are very subjective sound. And feel of these drivers is where they started to win me over a little bit when i started hitting both of the models. And there wasn't a great deal of difference between the sound of the ltdx and the low spin model i was really happy with the sound it really suited my ear i was loving the feel off the face. And if i'm honest it took me down memory lane you might remember a few years ago i tested the cobra f9 driver and raved about it when i started hitting these two drivers i got the sense it felt almost the same as the f9 come on sat in a little while but overall very good didn't massively see any favoritism in flights whether it was going more left. Or right i found actually i was hitting them fairly straight down the fairway. Or just off slightly right slightly left overall first impressions on performance was very solid. But then.
It was time. For the real test as the name suggests this driver is supposedly very long longest total distance on the golf course i saw glimpses that this might be long. But it was hard to tell obviously on a wet day in manchester. So it's time to set up the tour x with my launch monitor gc quad and pro v1s and smash a load of golf shots and to find out was actually getting some real distance as i mentioned bryce de chambeau. And cal berkshire are going to be putting these in the bag potentially. And they need long distances so how i started this test i went first off with the max head the one that possibly wouldn't suit me the most i can't imagine this is gonna go super long. For me but i wanted to give it a hit to obviously give you guys some idea i found this driver to be forgiving very forgiving and just a touch left biased and not bad for distance but i wasn't particularly measuring it for distance as such sound wise and feel wise very similar to the two models i actually really like that max model i think if you're looking. For a driver with most forgiveness that is one that you're definitely going to be checking this year. So that's the max driver head done now before i come on to the big dogs the ltdx and the ltdx low spin i wanted to have a little walk down memory lane as i mentioned these drivers really reminded me of one of my favorite drivers ever this the cobra f9 i love this driver i honestly believe and it's hard it's easy to kind of reminisce and have fun memories i always think this is one of the best drivers ever made. So to compare it i think it was worth hitting this one first. So after hitting the cobra f9 it did what it always does. For me it performed i was getting 280 yards of carry with this 301 yards of total distance just 160 miles per hour ball speed now swinging it around about 111 miles per hour on average very good like it is it's good it feels good it sounds good it looks good. So that's 2019 we're now in 2022 what does these two models do how did he differ how much longer do they go compared to f9 well let's find out. So i started with ltd x first this is the standard model. And i was getting on average carry distances of 280 yards three yards more than the f9 total distance i was getting 304 yards again three yards longer very similar in regards to spin rates very similar in regards to ball speed the only thing i didn't notice slightly different with the ltdx i was swinging it a little bit faster. So in theory i was getting slightly less efficiency something to note then.
Moving into the ltdx low spin as i mentioned this has got the potential to go very long did it after hitting it on gc quad well on average i was carrying the ltd xls remember longest total distance i was on average carrying it 284 yards one yard longer than this model. And four yards longer than what i was getting with f9 total distance i was getting 306 yards five yards longer than f9 i was getting 160.8 ball speed very good spin rate around about 2 200. And again similar i was getting on average about 113.7 miles per hour club at speed some of the fastest club head speeds have clocked this year they do claim that this is a more aerodynamic head. So in theory longest total distance it kind of does stack up it's a good performing driver the argument would be it's five yards a massive improvement in three years well it kind of depends who you ask if you ask that to someone like a bryson. Or a kyle berkshire they would absolutely snatch your hand off every single yard but for the general golfer they're probably not going to notice a great deal of difference in five yards this year i think these drivers are very good i'm not blown away by the looks i'm not. But i think the performance is very solid. And it rivals if not slightly betters maybe even some of the other big names we've seen this year guys thanks for watching hope you enjoyed the video we'll see you next.
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