Cobra Darkspeed LS Fairway Wood Review

The Cobra Darkspeed LS is a stunningly good-looking fairway wood. The LS model is the player’s club in this range. We see how it performs.

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Cobra Dark Speed LS Fairway Wood Review: NCG Summary

NCG SUMMARY

A gorgeous fairway wood. Designed for the better player with lower spin and forward weighting, however, with appropriate lofts and shafts, it could see its way into many bags.

PROS

• Gorgeous looks.
• Forgiving for this type of club
• Performed well from tee and fairway

CONS

• More forgiving clubs may suit higher handicappers.

Cobra Darkspeed LS Fairway Wood Review: First Impressions

The whole range of Cobra dark speed fairway woods are stunning, including the head covers. The LS is what I take to be their player’s golf club with a compact head and 14.5 degrees of loft with an adjustable hosel. The technology applied consists of Cobra’s pwr-bridge weighting to position the weight in the head and lower down to produce faster ball speeds a lower ball flight and the lowest spinning fairway wood out of the 3 on offer.

There is tech in the face with what they term pwr-shell H.O.T. face. This has employed machine learning to produce 15 hotspots across the face. As it is becoming more common, the head has a multi-material construction, including a lightweight, thin carbon crown and internal tungsten weighting. The LS has an adjustable weighting system to allow further fine-tuning. At first sight the head is slightly deeper than the other 2 Darkspeed fairway woods, which might make it more of a ‘off the tee’ club as opposed to a from the ground second shot club.

Cobra Darkspeed LS Fairway Wood Review: NCG Verdict

I tested this on a GC3 indoors to get the data. My club had a UST Mamiya LINQ M40X 7F4 75g shaft. I was not fitted for this shaft and this would explain why I felt it a little harder to launch, although the overall distance was similar to my current 3 wood.

There are 3 adjustable weights on the heel and toe and rear of sole of the head which, when toyed with, did produce some better results for me. It is amazing how much moving small weights can make to ball flight. Moving the heaviest weight forwards would increase ball speed and lower launch, whilst moving it to the heel or toe might make it more draw bias or fade bias.

The club looks terrific behind the golf ball. Despite it being more of a “player’s” club it was not intimidating to hit. The tech in the H.O.T face did seem to provide forgiveness both subjectively and in the data. While there was a drop off in distance with off-centre hits it was not precipitous and in real world play would keep you in the game.

I think this is a big plus for this type of club which in the past would have put off many golfers. From the tee I was gaining an additional 5 yards which is similar to my current 3 wood. This club could be used as a primarily tee club with the ability to loft it down it could be more of a 2 wood and play really nicely in the wind or on firm courses in summer.

There are more forgiving fairway woods in the Cobra Dark Speed range but the visual appeal of this makes it a joy to use. The adjustable hosel and varieties of loft make this very customisable. With a custom fit I think this club could well be in many bags.

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The Details

Available: Now

RRP: £279

Loft: 3+W 13˚ (11.5°-14.5°) , 3W 14.5˚ (13.0°-16.0°) , 5W 17.5˚ (16.0°-19.0°)

Shafts (Stock): UST MAMIYA LIN-Q M40X WHITE S and X Flex

More information: Cobra Website