Cobra 3DP Tour putters: What you need to know
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Cobra 3DP Tour putters, a range that includes a blade and five mallets, evolves the company’s additive manufacturing process for putter construction to incorporate multiple materials surrounding a weight-saving 3D-printed nylon crown structure with stainless steel and tungsten for increased stability for better strokes, better impacts and more consistent roll. Also included in every model is the descending loft face design for consistent launch regardless of impact location.
PRICE: $380. Models: 6 (Blades: Grandsport-35; Mallets: Agera, Agera RS, Agera RS-30, Supernova, Supernova-30). Lengths: 34, 35, 38 inches. Available March 13.
3 Cool Things
1. Third dimension. Cobra golf clubs have been breaking ground in the area of additive manufacturing and 3D-printing for the last few years, most notably in recent years with its irons including the recently launched 3DP X irons. But 3D printing’s use actually began with its putters, and the new 3DP Tour lineup offers its most complete integration of additive manufacturing techniques to redistribute mass. The fact is while 3D printing anything offers a certain kind of manufacturing efficiency, its real benefit right now is creating internal support structures that replace heavier metal with lighter, intricate elements that maintain sound and feel. Redistributing weight creates more potential for increasing stability (moment of inertia) for better consistency.
That’s part of the story with the latest 3DP Tour putter line, said Chad DeHart, Cobra’s senior product line manager. The larger point, of course, is that these complex parts couldn’t be done with any other manufacturing technique.
“It allows for more complexity and more consistency part to part,” he said, “and it allows us to move to much more extreme possibilities and design freedom on top of that.”
The intricate grid, which provides both stability and controls vibration for better sound, is produced from a material that weighs as much as 85 percent less than if that structure were made of typical stainless steel. For example, on the Agera model, the 3D-printed internal lattice structure occupies 16.34 cubic centimeters. The density of the nylon is about one-seventh that of stainless steel and less than one-half that of aluminum, both typical elements used in putter construction. That means the mass of the nylon lattice part is about 18 grams, while if it were made of steel that same section would weight nearly 128 grams, 44 grams if it were aluminum.
On the Grandsport blade, the lattice work sits under the flange and fills out the bumper areas on the heel and toe. On the mallets, it fills out the core and extends through the back flange, again providing for a way to extend perimeter weighting while not adding mass in the midsection.
That weight-savings frees up the design to include tungsten screws in the sole to add stability through the perimeter weighting of heel and toe sole weights. While the redesigned new models show an improved MOI over their 2024 counterparts, the big change is that these new putters include a shift to a stainless steel face design. The thicker steel face may work against MOI by pushing more mass forward, but the weight-savings of the nylon means MOI stays high while affording the preferred feel of the more robust stainless steel compared to the lighter aluminum insert used previously.
There’s one other benefit of the heavier steel piece up front, DeHart said. Typical mallets have pushed the head’s center of gravity farther away from the face in search of more stability. But that can change how much effort is required to get the face back to square, what’s called closure rate.
“This is getting our mallets to start to more act like a blade,” he said. “We’re able to get the CG more neutral so it allows the head to rotate and close quicker and easier.”
2. Aim game. Under this iteration of Cobra’s 3D-printed putters, that internal lattice structure not only occupies the space in the middle of the putter, it also provides the base to inlay an oversized alignment aid on the crown. Cobra’s team studied alignment and among the six models offers an array of lines and other alignment cues. In addition to the high-contrast white lines, the body of the putters are metal injection molded (MIM) parts. That manufacturing process allows for shapes and tiny lines to be more precisely built into the head (vs. milling patterns) to create consistent aiming features.
3. Lofty aspirations. Like in past years, the 3DP Tour putters again feature the LA Golf Descending Loft Technology face design. The face features four separate lofts, running from 1 degree at the lower portion of the face to four degrees at the upper portion of the face. The idea is that whether the angle of attack on a player’s putting stroke is slightly downward, level or slightly upward, the ball will launch at the same angle. The impact point will be lower when the stroke is upward so the loft imparted will be lower to counteract the added launch, while on upper face impacts, the stroke is downward so a higher loft will counteract that downward strike.