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Get Ready to be Baffled!
Some 34 years after the original Baffler was launched, the latest advancement in the industry’s best-selling line of utility metals features the innovative Triple Weighting System, as Mike Sebastian discovered in our Taking the Test series.
When was the last time your long irons saw some serious action? I’m prepared to bet that most of you have never touched your long irons and if you even tried to peek at them now, chances are that they are going to be rusted over.
So what am I trying to get at? Heck, just grab hold of your neglected long irons and dump them in a dump site where you won’t get hauled up for littering! You don’t need your long irons any more.
The King Cobra Bafflers are here and these new utility clubs from the ‘hissing giant’ are ready to cause some serious damage on golf fairways all over this planet.
Cobra’s brand manager Rick Brown looks upon these new clubs like a doting dad fussing over a new baby. “It’s a great set of clubs and they are highly versatile and an easy-to-hit substitute for the traditional long irons,” he gushed.
You sure about that, Rick? ‘Hell yeah!’ was the spontaneous response from the normally reserved Cobra man. Okay, send me a couple of these wonder sticks from Cobra and let’s see if they really baffle me out of my wits.
Asian Golf Monthly took delivery of three brand new Bafflers bearing lofts of 18, 23 and 26 degrees and I am told that Cobra will be rolling out as many as 15 versions for regular golfers, seniors and women with lofts ranging from 16 degrees to 35 degrees.
These Bafflers are good-looking clubs – one look and you know that they have been designed, engineered and manufactured to very stringent and demanding standards.
Brian Zender, Cobra Golf’s general manager, had this to say about his latest line of hybrids. “The Cobra Baffler has been the best-selling utility on the market since March of 2006, providing players with unmatched performance from a variety of lies.”
He went on to add: “We’ve taken the previous Bafflers’ proven technologies and made them even better.”
It will be worth noting that the 2009 edition is the latest in a long line of Bafflers stretching all the way back to 1975, when the club became the first utility metal on the market.
The Cobra Baffler set the pace for utilities and hybrids way before anyone even thought of the idea. You’ve certainly come a long way, baby!
All right, so what’s the verdict on the Baffler TWS hybrids? Hold on guys – let us first give you the lowdown on the technical specifications.
To start with, these clubs feature a triple-weighting system, which aims to strike a balance between the club’s moment of inertia (MOI) and centre of gravity (CG). Explain yourself on this tech-speak? Well, to put it in really simplistic terms, the technology is designed to help you get a higher and more penetrating ball flight. That’s incredible! Something that most of us can’t get with our irons, especially the long fellows.
It all sounds too good to be true, but once you try out the TWS Bafflers, your whole take on these clubs will change.
Anyway, in the field trials, I found the clubs to be very easy to handle. Visually speaking, the club head looms large behind the ball and you know what this does to one’s confidence.
It is very reassuring because it inspires you into believing that you can’t miss a ball with a large clubface. The next positive relates to the fact that the weight is positioned at the back of the club head and this makes it very easy to launch the ball upon impact. This is complemented by a high quality light shaft.
Wow! Every shot from the fairway was a cinch. Every ball that came bouncing off the Baffler’s clubface felt strong and consistent. I felt good with the higher trajectory that I got on all my hits, ball flight was more consistent and the clubs were a dream to play with. Full marks for playability.
Who needs those long irons any more? It’s time to flush them out of our bags for good. Even the big professionals are doing that. Tiger Woods carries two hybrids and he reckons that he hits his two-iron hybrid replacement between 10 to 15 yards longer. Now if that is not the best testimony in support of utilities and hybrids, what else can I say?
Hey Rick, these new Cobras a super! “The Baffler TWS is very forgiving across the whole face and this is a hybrid that delivers exactly what it promises – long iron length with the higher trajectory, playability and consistency of the utility club,” is Rick’s positive comeback.
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