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Here’s the thing about distance. First, you’re surprised by it. Then you start to love it. Before you know it, you can’t remember anything else.

A few weeks ago, I popped an ‘old’ set into play for a tournament round. I’d wondered if the gains had been in my head – exaggerated by enthusiasm and a hefty dose of recency bias.

I came to the 6th hole, a 174-yard par 3, and flushed a 5-iron – only to see it fall 10 yards short of my intended target. The reality of that hit me like a hammer blow. The previous day I’d sailed my Cobra Radspeed equivalent way over the back of the putting surface.

At the start of the season, I went through a full bag Cobra fitting. I ended up in the Radspeed range, the idea to see if a golfer hovering around single figures could benefit from clubs generally perceived to be game improvers for higher handicappers.

I’ve kept stats all season using Arccos Caddie, played 30 rounds, and hit more than 2,300 shots to find the answer.

I’ve compared these numbers with the last time I went through a tracking process, which was the summer of 2020, and here are the headlines…

I gained yardage across the board and with almost every club. With the XB driver I found 8 yards, going from an average of 233 to 241 yards but that boost was also evident in the irons.

I went from 174 to 182 yards with a 5-iron, 155 to 162 yards with a 7-iron and 132 to 139 yards with a 9-iron. That feels like consistent gapping and, remember, that’s the average. I’ve basically moved down a club throughout the set.

Clearly, loft plays a significant role in those increases – the Radspeed irons are stronger than my previous set – but were the clubs more accurate? Last year, I hit 41% of fairways off the tee and gained 1.33 strokes per round against a 10-handicapper on approach.