the holy grail with melvin poi

Melvin Poi reviews the latest equipment in search of golfs proverbial holy grail the ultimate club.

serendipitious find
Cobra AMPs Up The Ante With Their New Driver
Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

Rickie Fowler won the Wells Fargo Championship with the Cobra AMP driver and a new moustache

couple of months ago, I thought I had met my perfect match as far as drivers go. It was long, accommodating and sexy looking. I stayed faithful to it and wasnt the least tempted to play with any other driver not for a few weeks anyway. Which explains why a brand new Cobra driver was sitting idly in my car boot for the better part of a month. Anyway, duty bound I reluctantly took it out last week for a bash during my weekend round with my usual cohort of bandits. Called the Cobra AMP driver, it is Cobras newest offering and the Cobra AMP range probably represents the companys first real launch since its split a couple of years ago from Acushnet, the parent company of Titleist. I first heard of the Cobra AMP driver as early as February of this year. When Cobra signed up Rickie Fowler, they also announced the launch of their new Cobra AMP line. Not surprisingly, the Cobra AMP driver has vibrant splashes of orange on its shaft, club head and grip. Actually it wasnt the launch of a driver with a bright orange grip which drew my attention it was the fact that old Rickie boy has been absolutely annihilating his drives since taking up company with his new Cobra AMP driver. At Torrey Pines when he was paired with the super-long Dustin Johnson, he outdrove Johnson by a good 20 yards on a couple of holes. And he more than matched Johnsons drives on the others. At the World Matchplay, Fowler recorded drives of 350 and 379 yards on the 17th and 18th holes, which was a good 50 yards past everyone. In the flesh, the crown of the Cobra AMP is painted in a soft glossy grey shade which

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ironically gives it a retro look. My buddy Stanley Saw, who also happens to be Callaways Brand Ambassador, remarked that it reminded him of the early Big Berthas. For me, it is a little reminiscent of the old steel headed TaylorMade drivers of the 90s. There are liberal splashes of orange on the sole of the club head but thankfully none on the crown itself. The driver is also adjustable with three face settings Neutral, Open and Closed with plus/minus 2 degrees of variance per notch. Now Im a big believer that with drivers, pretty much like putters, you instantly know from the first strike whether its for you or not. From my first hit, the ball flew an absolute mile down the fairway. It even drew some gasps from my buddies. I knew I hadnt sweet-spotted it but it was long and clobbered well down the middle of the fairway. Subsequent hole and my drive sails an unholy distance into a stiff breeze. Im sitting a good 40 yards past everyone, and sniggering. Same result the next hole, and the next, and just about every hole the Cobra AMP was employed on. This club is an absolute winner. And its not just raw distance where the Cobra AMP is top trumps. The feel at impact is simply amazing, incredibly soft and marshmallowy, just like the old persimmon drivers. If there is any other driver in the market that has that kind of impact sensation, I havent found it. Where the AMP really comes into its own is in the forgiveness department. It has Cobras E9 Face Technology which has been a feature of Cobras past few drivers. Whats new in the Cobra AMP is that E9 Face Technology now comes with dual roll which they claim gives the driver 30 per cent larger sweet spot resulting in more distance, accuracy and forgiveness in shots hit from the low heel or high toe. And I dont doubt that claim for one minute. The AMP driver just

bombs your drives regardless where you hit it in the face. This is forgiveness with unreal distance. Suffice to say, if you crack a drive out of the middle of the bat, youll need to hail a cab to get to it. I have since played the AMP driver another round and it gave the same result outstandingly long and forgiving. Those of you who draw the ball may wish to adjust the club head to the Open setting which I found more conducive to hitting soft draws or straight drives. The club head appears slightly closed at Neutral setting, which is never a comfortable visual at address for those who hit draw-flighted drives.

Im going to stick my neck out and say this is one of the best drivers Ive played in recent years bar none. The AMP driver I played had a 10.5 loft and was fitted with a 60 gram Fujikura Rombax S (stiff) shaft and Ive since asked the good folks at Grand Slam Golf (Cobras Malaysian distributor) to set one aside for me. And Im going to ask all of you to go to your nearest store and buy one today its that good! n

cobra amp driver

technological features: Advanced Material Placement (AMP) technology allows Cobras designers to thin the walls and re-distribute up to 15 grams of mass deep and back in the clubhead this maximises g distance through optimised launch conditions. E9 Face Technology utilises an elliptical shape face that raTin hhhh eh creates a 30% larger sweet zone for more distance, accuracy and forgiveness in shots hit from the c rman low heel to high toe, which is where the majority of golfers hit shots from. A new canted bulge with Perfo ks hhhhh dual roll design provides more distance to shots hit above and below the centreline. Adjustable Flight loo hhhh hh Technology (AFT) provides golfers with the options of Open, Neutral or Closed face angles to feel h h ss hh optimise ball flight, while AMP Speed Tuning optimises the amount of dual roll, head weight, shaft ivene weight and length in each loft. forg Available Lofts: 9.5, 10.5 srp: RM1,690

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