Cobra Golf's new AMP driver
When they hit shelves on Feb. 10, the most outstanding feature of Cobra Golf’s new AMP driver will be its orange and black cosmetics. Those colors were a constant on the Cobra Puma Golf booth at the PGA Merchandise Show and they fit Cobra’s “live life large” culture as well as the swashbuckling style of its marquee player, Rickie Fowler. The colors also happen to be the same as Fowler’s alma mater, Oklahoma State.
There is much more, however, to the AMP driver than just color scheme. The AMP’s story really about what most golfers can’t see and know very little about – bulge and roll.
The AMP (Advanced Material Placement) driver features a new canted bulge with dual roll design the company says provides more distance to shots hit above and below the centerline. Cobra says its research shows most average players miss shots low on the heel and high on the toe, which the company addressed with the E9 Face technology in its S3 driver.
Cobra is going farther in the AMP driver.
“We started looking at bulge and roll,” said Tom Preece, vice president of research and development for Cobra Puma Golf. “Drivers have always had bulge and roll, but it’s always been about the vertical and horizontal axis. The radius has never really changed going back to the old persimmon days.
“We did a lot of analysis we found that first, the bulge and roll should really be canted along this E9 axis, so instead it being vertical, we actually tilt the roll at seven degrees, as is the bulge. So it optimizes accuracy when golfers hit on the low heel and high toe.”
In addition, Preece said Cobra’s engineers moved away from the radius most drivers have had for years (280mm) and changed the AMP’s radius from top to bottom depending on loft.
“Essentially what we’ve down is kind of flatten out the bottom half of the face a bit,” he said. “We’ve actually rounded the top half of the face a little bit more. We’ve done it differently on an 8.5-degree driver versus an 11.5 driver. An 8.5 (AMP) driver has a 200mm radius top and 600 mm radius bottom; an 11.5 driver has 250mm on bottom.”
Don’t worry if you’re a bit confused with all the numbers. Just hit the AMP driver and check your numbers off the tee.
