All right guys it's driver release season all the major brands are bringing out their new driver lineup. For 2021. golf courses are open again here in the uk. And i'm excited to get testing in this video tested these the new cobra rad drivers. For 2021. this is three drivers in the lineup there's the rad speed x d which is a draw driver quite simply to move the weight more into the heel it'll help golfers who potentially hit it more to the right to help straighten the shot up i do hit it in this test. But it's not the driver i'm going to be mainly focusing on the two i'm going to focus on is the radspeed xb. And the rad speed now the xb is a bigger footprint of head more forgiving weight is positioned at the back as fixed. And hence it's going to be potentially more forgiving it's going to be slightly higher launch it's going to help golfers who want more forgiveness the rad speed is slightly different it's a slightly more squashed head shape it's more like a player profile it comes with a matte topped crown which i actually really like look of. And it's got two weights in the driver you can put the weight in a low spin setting with the weight at the front. Or a back weight setting where it's going to offer a little bit more forgiveness they're the two i focus mainly in this video now technology wise it does link in a little bit to the name rad it's short. For radius of gyration now i'm not going to dive into that lows because it is quite complicated all the scientific terms. But let me put it in the most simplest term cobra are saying they've moved the weight around in the head by stripping weight from the crown. And position it in other areas to give you more forgiveness to help a golfer get more out of their driver by giving you more ball speed more forgiveness you might find more fairways all that good stuff we're not going to just take cobra's word. For it i'm going to test it myself. And tell you the truth there's four questions i want to answer in this video first off are these drivers good second do they outperform the very successful f9 driver. And the speed zone driver which both i've actually had in the bag in the past i'm also going to tell you whether this new driver is potentially going to go in my bag is he going to replace the speed zone. And last but not least probably most importantly for you guys i'm going to tell you is this a driver worth trying is it one that's gonna help you play better golf. So just in time for this driver review driving range is reopened. So i head down to trafford golf center i took the rad speed and the rad speed say they're the ones i'm going to mainly focus on i just couldn't wait to give them a hit now looks wise they are very different the xb the gloss crown. And like i say it just looks bigger it looks more inviting to hit and then.
There's the rad speed mac crown squashed in head loved the look of that driver both drivers sit really square both drivers with that infinity cnc infinity face look really really good something again i'm familiar with performance wise they felt good like really good they felt fast off the face they felt like they would give me a good flight i felt like yes the bee was giving me more forgiveness. And the speed was going more like a rocket ship. But one thing i did notice this year. And i was excited to see this out on the golf course as well was the sound difference the rad speed xb the bigger one sounded much louder where these rad speed had that little bit more of a dead noise now that could be to do with the materials that made different with the heads. Or whatever it may be or the head shape but they definitely sounded different this time round so initial hits i loved hitting both drivers at the driving range the fact you can just open your shoulders up give them a smash the downside it is a driving range i didn't have any data i was hitting range balls. So i couldn't really get a sense of how these drivers were totally performing just. Yet so the next.
Thing i thought i'd do jump in the car head down to marriott woodsy park. And test them out on the golf course i wanted to see and hear more importantly if those sounds are seen at the driving range here at the driving range is what i also saw out on the golf course [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]. So after spending time on the golf course hitting pro v1s starting to form my opinions about these drivers what i've heard backed up out in the golf course the xb is definitely louder the rad speed is a little bit more dead i prefer the sound of rap speed personally ball flight wise i would possibly say that rad speed xb just popped up a little bit higher where lower spin. And rad speed just pops out like an absolute bullet i prefer to get in the flight maybe of the rad speed now what do you like about cobra you've got to give them credit. For this is the fact they've been using technology. For a while in the form of archos in the end of the golf club you can connect it to your phone laugh it around the golf it'll give you analysis of the clubs that you've hit no brand as of. Yet has really utilized that technology i've probably overlooked it for a couple of years now because i've just had it in the driver but if you used it if you played golf all the time i think it's a really useful tool also something to come on to price this driver is 369 pounds a little bit cheaper than the main competitors like you callaway tailor-made. But ever so slightly more expensive than the f9 and speed zone in the previous years so after the testing i've done so far i felt like i was equipped to answer the first question are these drivers good in my opinion yes they are i love the look of the drivers the sound of the drivers certainly the rad speed sounds awesome. And i've tested enough drivers in the past and no from the shots i was hitting on the driving range. And on the golf course i could tell the performance was what i would like to see without. Yet getting on launch one of the technology so that leads us nicely into question number two are they better than last year's models the s9 from 2019. And the speed zones then.
Came the really exciting part back home in the simulator i set up gc quad i got all the drivers ready to test f9 which i had in the bag for a long time i wanted to hit that first then.
I moved into speed zones both models speed zone and speed zone extreme and then.
I moved into the rad drivers i hit all three models of rad and i also had the rad speed with the weight forward and the weight back which i'll come on to in a second moving into my second question are these drivers better than last year are they longer are they straighter are they giving more forgiveness. And my answer to that is no they were no worse than previous models. But after the amount of shots i hit i honestly saw hardly any difference whatsoever if you want to see the full details freeze the screen now and you can really dive through the numbers as you can see there's a few yards different. But really that is. So hard to measure the only thing i did pick up on which i think is definitely worth calling out when i moved the weight in the rad speed i did see a little bit of difference in spin. And when the weight was at the back of rad speed it measured up almost exactly the same to rad speed x b as you may expect. So then.
I also hit the draw driver the xd now this driver i actually really liked and for a number of reasons first off it wasn't overly offset so sat behind the ball it looked really clean very similar to the other two drivers which i think. For a lot of golfers they want the same looking driver and if i'm dead honest i did see signs of it pulling a little bit more left performance was just as good. And even there was one shot at the end there where i really tried to hit quite a carvey right shot. And it held its line better than expected that's a really nice addition this year that cobra draw driver i think it's going to suit a lot of golfers. So this comes nicely into my third question is it actually going to go into my bag well the answer to that is no it's probably not. For me i've enjoyed f9 and speed zone in the previous years and for me it's so unbelievably similar i would just be changing for the change in sake i don't really see any difference in performance personally last question is it a driver worth trying well yeah it is i think. For a lot of golfers i think this time when i heard cobra was bringing out three drivers this time i was a little bit concerned i thought it's not going to be too confusing. For too many people started with f9 with just one driver speed zone with two drivers now they're going three rads. But i actually think all three are needed i think it's gonna suit a very wide range of golfers. And again i think if you've got a driver that's four. Or five years old you might see a difference in jumping performance i'm testing drivers only a couple of years difference here it's a good driver it is i think the name is gonna maybe put a few people off i think maybe even the color of the driver might put a few people off. But if you can look past that i do actually think it's a very very good performing driver the new lineup of cobra. For 2021 the rats we'll see you next.
Time.
