Cobra King Tour irons review

How do the most forgiving Cobra King irons perform? Find out in our Cobra King Tour irons review.

• RELATED: Cobra King MB irons review
• RELATED: Cobra King CB Tour Irons Review
• RELATED: Cobra King Tec Hybrid Review

Cobra King Tour irons review: NCG Summary

NCG SUMMARY

Cobra have done a great job putting together a player’s iron that is playable for more than just the elite player. I love how the King Tour iron looks behind the ball, and it feels great on impact.

This is perfect for players who are looking for a players iron with some help and forgiveness but don’t want to move to a hollow-bodied club.

PROS

• Classic-looking iron with a thin top line
• Fast ball speeds across the face
• Forgiving on off-centre strikes

CONS

• Quite a lot of offset for a player’s iron

First Impressions

The Cobra King Tour iron is stunning. Its shaping is so clean it feels traditional; over the ball you can’t tell that the head is packed with technology that’s going to help you get the ball up in the air easier and be more forgiving on off-centre hits.

The back of the club isn’t all too different from Cobra’s King CB iron, which is a good thing, only there’s a TPU insert in the back cavity. This can’t be seen at address on any of the irons, which is great.

NCG Review

I am exactly the player that these irons are aimed at. A pretty fast swing, but not really a good enough ball striker to warrant using blades; but desperately disillusioned about my own ability and want to use a players’ iron.

The Cobra King Tour irons are the solution to this mess. They look good enough to fool me into believing I’m a good player but pack enough of a punch in the head to provide the help I need.

You can straight away feel the power in these clubs. Shots seem to shoot from the face despite soft feel from the multi-material heads, I’m not surprised these have gone straight into the bag of Rickie Fowler, a long-time pure blade player.

These irons feature Cobra’s industry-leading 5-step forging process, which allows them to centre the CoG with extreme precision, and makes them feel so soft. On the back of the head, Cobra has placed an aluminium medallion just above a TPU insert which makes the sweet spot bigger and boosts ball speeds on off-centre hits.

I hit these irons immediately following the King Tour MB irons on a soaking wet day in Lisbon and was extremely pleased to pick up something more forgiving. To say I had problems keeping hold of the grips, I was able to hit them pretty solid and remarkably straight.

The distances I hit aren’t mind-blowingly long, but they felt really strong. These irons are not the solution for players looking for more distance, but that’s not what they’re designed for. For all the clubs in the King Tour series, it’s all about control.

An interesting bit of technology in the King Tour irons is the CNC-milled undercuts in the back of the head. The channels that the TPU insert fit into are all milled at different sizes and at different angles depending on which iron head it is.

This is to be able to move the CoG to a place that’s optimal for ball flight. higher in the short irons so that they dont pop up, and lower in the longer irons so that golfers can more easily get the ball up in the air, for more stopping power into the greens.

I really liked that I could flight the short irons down, and hit low half shots that the wind couldn’t touch. I play a lot of links golf, and at this short iron, control is really important.

I thoroughly enjoyed hitting these irons, and hit them multiple times throughout the testing week. I am drawn to these irons because they have a short blade length and sit quite compact behind the ball and because they actually get airborne consistently, I feel like a player too.

Forgiveness isn’t the first characteristic that comes to mind when selecting a new player’s iron, but after hitting these, it has been quite difficult moving back to the blades I’ve been carrying for a couple of months now. They feel incredibly soft and shots from them are really predictable. They absolutely could end up in my bag for the 2023 season.

• RELATED: Cobra DarkSpeed X Driver Review
• RELATED: Cobra Darkspeed Irons Review

Cobra King Tour irons review: The Details

Available: Now

RRP: £1099 (4-PW) / $1299.99

Lofts: PW 44°, 9i 40°, 8i 36°, 7i 32°, 6i 28°, 5i 25°, 4i 22°, 3i 19°

Shafts: KBS $-Taper (120g)

Grip: Lamkin Crossline (58R) – Black/Silver (48g)

More information: Cobra Website

Testing Protocol

To test this product we travelled to West Cliffs a leading European golf course just North of Lisbon. The idea was to get some warmer weather and escape our frozen British courses. It of course rained, a lot, was very windy. Each of our test team were allocated a category of golf clubs, fairways, or a specific type of driver or iron.

We gathered data on a Trackman 4 or FlightScope. We used Titleist Pro V1 for all tests. The samples we have are either fully fitted for our testers or ordered in our assumed specs. We are then able to optimise performance by swapping shafts and playing with the adjustability. As well as that dry testing all of the product was tested on course in a comparative environment with other product from the same category. We recognise that no testing process is perfect and just aim to be fair in our treatment, transparent in our process and candid in our feedback.

You’ve probably spent a small fortune to get the set up that’s right for your game, so don’t forget to get specialist insurance from Golf Care to protect your clubs from theft, loss, and accidental damage. Plus, they even cover GPS watches, trolleys, and other golf equipment. With 30% off annual insurance starting from just £26.59, and a free golf gift bundle worth up to £365 including 12 free Srixon balls, it’s a no brainer. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP.