sparkospunky's Full Review: Cobra Ld F Speed Driver
After a seemingly endless odyssey of demoing drivers in search of the one that suited me best, I finally settled on the Cobra LDF Speed Driver, a launcher that I think gives me the maximum in distance without sacrificing accuracy. I've been playing with this driver for several months now and would like to share my impressions of it with those of you who are interested in golf equipment.
The Cobra LDF Speed Driver that I selected has a 10.5 degree loft and came equipped with a regular flex Aldila graphite shaft. The head of the club is black, with flashes of red on the gray-silverish bottom, which makes for a pretty attractive color combination. Cobra has moved the weight of the head low and well behind the face, resulting in a shape that's almost oval, except for the straight face, which is big and deep. The back of the head simply tapers off to a sharp point in a design feature that's intended to provide more inertia, ideally resulting in more distance. Except for the sharp back and the two dimples on the top of the head, this one looks like an oversized version of a traditionally shaped driver.
The first thing that I noticed when I limbered up with this driver was that it felt extremely light. I made a mental note to slow down my swing when I stepped up to the practice tee, but my first couple of swings resulted in dead pulls to the left. As I got settled in with this driver and slowed my swing down, I began really laying into the ball and hitting my natural high fade.
The first thing I noticed about the Cobra LDF Speed Driver was the sound--when I hit a ball flush, I was rewarded with a satisfying "tink" that let me know I had struck it well.
Misses were another matter--when I didn't hit one in the screws the sound was like an annoying "clunk", sort of like the sound you would get if you dropped a bucket of mud on a concrete slab. Needless to say, the Cobra LDF Speed Driver was very informative, not only with the feel of striking the ball, but also with good audio feedback.
When I made contact with the ball, I detected just the right amount of clinginess, but at the same time the face seemed to have a lot of spring to it. The ball literally jumped off the clubface, adding as much as 20 yards to my normal and probably below average distance. The trajectory of the ball started low and midway in flight seemed to hop upwards, resulting in a ball flight that got the most out of airtime and roll. Even misses produced acceptable mileage, even though the sounds of those misses were somewhat annoying.
I was looking for distance first and foremost, but accuracy is almost as important. Once I got accustomed to the Cobra LDF Speed Driver, I slowed down my swing accordingly and began hitting a lot of fairways. I still have the tendency to get a little quick with my swing at times, but the resulting pulls are the fault of the Indian, not the arrow. Most of my drives are now high, gentle fades that I can rely on to land in the short grass.
The Cobra LDF Speed Driver has delivered what I was searching for in a driver--added distance, but not at the cost of sacrificing accuracy. I'll probably stick with this one for the foreseeable future, and I recommend this driver for those of you who need a little more pop in your drives.
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