‘Do you want to stay the same, or do you want to move forwards?’ Cobra’s training and fitting representative Andy Buchanan was staring at his TrackMan and numbers don’t lie.
For me, though, the question was somewhat more complex. My handicap is 7.4 so, without getting carried away, I like to kid myself I can play a little.
That’s given me an expectation of what I want in a golf club – namely a thin sole and as close to a blade look as I can get without giving up all forgiveness.
I’d gone to Bradley Park, the popular driving range in Huddersfield, for a through-the-bag fitting with Cobra but, in my heart, I was already set on what I would be coming away with.
Then Andy showed me the numbers.
But let’s back up for a second. I was at Bradley Park to start a little experiment. My game had been revitalised by Cobra’s Speedzone driver. It was magic [relatively speaking] in my hands and I’d slashed chunks off my handicap and won a board competition to boot.
So if that could be the impact of one club, what would happen if I played everything with that distinctive logo proudly emblazoned across it?
If I’ve lacked one thing, it’s distance. I’ll be reaching for the 5-iron where my playing partners will be using 7 or 8.
Squeezing out a few extra yards could make a huge difference to my game and this is where Andy hit me with a statistics-led uppercut.
I’d arrived convinced I would end up with the MIM Tour. There are not many better-looking players’ irons on the market and I’d already had visions of crisply struck shots into greens at my home club.
Then I started hitting the Radspeed range. I’d always thought clubs like these were game improvers – for those looking to take the next step on the handicap ladder.
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But god they were hot off the face. I hit the 7-iron, combined with a regular KBS Tour 90 shaft, 14 yards further than the MIM.
They were even longer compared with my gamers. They had a satisfying whoosh when you flushed one and even the misses – there’s usually plenty of those when I’m hitting off a mat – didn’t do their usual swan dive out of the air.
Time then to be brave. I’ll be striking the Radspeed irons through the rest of the summer and will report back to you how they feel, what my shot shape is like and, crucially, how far they go.
