Cobra Superlite: Will these new clubs be like 1980s Featherlites?

The golf equipment market is always evolving, but that doesn’t mean that the ideas of yesteryear are completely worthless. Enter the new Cobra F-Max SuperLite, a combination of a 30-year-old concept and modern technology, to allow every golfer to maximize their potential.

Cobra is introducing new light weight clubs for both men and women. They are called F-MAX Superlite and are available as individual clubs and in sets.

The F-MAX driver, according to company claims, has a 6-gram lighter clubhead, 5-gram lighter shaft and 7-gram lighter grip for a total of 18 grams of weight removed. The company believes that will allow amateurs to increase their clubhead speeds and therefore increase the distance they hit the ball.

“The Cobra Golf R&D team re-engineered our F-MAX Superlite to be our lightest, fastest and most forgiving game improvement clubs ever. Any player with a moderate swing speed will benefit from the design innovations in this product line,” Tom Olsavsky, Vice President of R&D for Cobra Golf said in a statement regarding the new clubs.

Now, while this sounds good in theory, light weight clubs have been tried in the past with mixed results. Invented by golf guru Dave Pelz in the 1980s and called Featherlites, the clubs got a test drive by Raymond Floyd and Tom Kite . It made enough of an impression that other companies followed suit and began to offer their own lightweight clubs.

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My recollection was that Floyd won a tournament with them, but he did not win any PGA Tour events in 1983, although Kite did. Floyd did win the 1982 PGA Championship, so any club change he made after that surely would have made some headlines in golf.

What did happen, according to Texas Monthly, is that Golf Digest called Featherlites the “second coming.” They were, as Ron Burgundy is fond of saying, kind of a big deal.

The Featherlites were, quite simply, lighter. Instead of drivers having a D or E swing weight, the Featherlites were C-weighted. A number of manufacturers caught the bug, and before long a lot of people jumped on the bandwagon.

While Floyd and Tom Kite played them for a while, the trend did not last long. The trade-off was between feel and clubhead speed. Pros opted for feel and after a while, they left the Featherlites and their spinoffs at home in favor of heavier clubs.

However, just because it wasn’t great for Floyd and Kite doesn’t mean there aren’t others who could benefit. In theory, the clubs would be good for seniors, women, juniors and anyone who has a hard time achieving impressive swing speed. Anything to hit it longer is the golfer’s motto. If the cobra F-Max clubs add 10 mph to your swing speed, they may be worth a try.

You could get a good surprise like the one I had the first time I hit a Ping iron, which was my dad’s. It was eons ago – the Jurassic period, I think – on a par 3. I was accustomed to hitting a 5-iron on that hole using some old MacGregor, forged, muscle backs.

“Try the seven,” he insisted.

I said, “I can’t get there with that.”

“Try it,” he said.

Really, there was just no arguing with my dad when it came to golf. So, I hit it. To my shock, the ball landed on the green.

“See,” he said. “I told you.”

Well, the Pings must have been significantly lighter in weight than the MacGregors I had been using so I probably swung faster. They may have had a different loft, too, but still, it was 2 clubs less. So, I’m guessing these new Cobra clubs could be a similar kind of experience for golfers.

Now, you should know that neither Lexi Thompson nor Rickie Fowler will be using these new clubs. Yes, it’s disappointing, but really, do either of them need more clubhead speed? No. They are fine with the Cobras they have. You and I, on the other hand? We would use a bazooka club to get more distance if we could find one.

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So, if you want to try something semi-new – meaning it’s news since the last time it was tried 35 years ago – look out for the new Cobra F-MAX Superlites.

Drivers for men and women, with offset or non-offset hosels, $299. F-MAX Superlite Fairways in multiple lofts and for right and left-handed players, $199 each.

There are also complete men’s and women’s sets with driver, 3W, 5W, 4H, 5H, 6i-PW, SW and a Cobra blade putter for $ 1,199. No full sets for lefties yet.

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