Golfing News & Blog Articles

Complete 2024 Sony Open Friday tee times for Round 2 in Hawaii, featuring Ludvig Aberg, Matt Fitzpatrick, Kevin Kisner and more.

The post 2024 Sony Open Friday tee times: Round 2 groupings appeared first on Golf.

Cobra engineers have refined key technologies from its Darkspeed metal wood line to create the new and powerful Darkspeed irons.

The post Cobra Darkspeed hybrids and irons: Everything you need to know appeared first on Golf.

Thanks to a new technology platform, including the integration of new materials, Cobra's Darkspeed fairway woods deliver greater performance.

The post Cobra Darkspeed fairway woods: Everything you need to know appeared first on Golf.

Armed with a faster and more aerodynamic shape, plus new internal technologies, Cobra's Darkspeed drivers are primed to deliver more distance.

The post Cobra Darkspeed drivers: Everything you need to know appeared first on Golf.

The story of the COBRA DARKSPEED driver family is relatively straightforward. If you’re a higher swing speed golfer—let’s call it 100 mph or more—COBRA is going to deliver more speed by way of its best-in-class aerodynamics. 

But what if you don’t swing fast?

No problem.

For golfers who don’t generate enough clubhead speed to find quantifiable benefits from COBRA’s aerodynamic shaping, you’re still getting three (well, maybe four) outstanding drivers to choose from.

COBRA’s Unfortunate Reality

Before we dig into the tech, allow me a brief diversion to talk about something I think sucks.

Today, Srixon announces the fifth iteration of the popular Q-STAR TOUR golf ball. As per usual, the new Q-STAR TOUR will be available in Pure White and Tour Yellow as well as a host of Q-STAR TOUR DIVIDE colorways.

Let’s walk through the new Q-STAR TOUR lineup and what’s new for 2024.

Q-STAR TOUR: Five Things To Know

Retail for $39.99 Pure White and Tour Yellow (Q-STAR TOUR), Blue, Orange and Red (Q-STAR TOUR DIVIDE)Urethane CoverSpinSkin TechnologyThree-piece construction

What’s New with Q?

You’re probably wondering why the 2024 Q-STAR TOUR golf ball seems largely the same as its predecessor. Of course, appearance is only the tip of the iceberg.

The real difference lies within.

I’ll spare you the Shrek quote I wanted to use about peeling an onion (or ogre) layer by layer and instead give it to you straight: The core of the Q-STAR TOUR lineup of golf balls has been reformulated.

With a name like DARKSPEED, COBRA’s newest irons for 2024 better be fast. And, with the AEROJET ONE Length and standard irons taking the No. 2 and 3 spots in our iron testing last year, they have a stellar reputation to uphold.

Designed to be both forgiving and fast, COBRA’s DARKSPEED irons aim to make some waves as a dark horse (get it?) in the game-improvement iron category that’s only getting more crowded by the minute.

How does one stand out amongst the myriad of options? The dark finish is sure a good place to start. But the real cool stuff lies under the surface.

Here’s everything you need to know about the new CORA DARKSPEED irons.

Five Things to Know: Top Tech

Hollow-body design924D foam fillingPWR-BRIDGE weightingThinner face (as compared to previous-gen AEROJET)1/2 degree weaker than AEROJET

Trading Polymer for Foam

Perhaps the biggest story (outside of the sexy, dark finish) of the COBRA DARKSPEED irons is not the cavity itself but what COBRA filled it with.

Once the testing dust has settled, it won’t be any surprise if the COBRA DARKSPEED fairway woods and hybrids stand comfortably alongside the best-performing gear in the industry. 

Performance (or lack thereof) isn’t the reason COBRA doesn’t end up in the bags of more golfers. 

The reality is slightly more complex, though it’s rooted in a simple premise—plenty of companies make high-quality equipment and, for better golfers, it feels at times as though they need a reason to justify a COBRA purchase. 

Put differently, the R&D team is doing its job. Now, the challenge is primarily a marketing (read: storytelling) one. 

All that aside, let’s take a look at how DARKSPEED differs from the 2023 AEROJET line.

With today’s launch of the two new Wilson Staff Model irons, I would like to, with your permission, pose a question.

Does anyone (clears throat) make a blade sexier than Wilson Staff?

And also with your permission, I’d like to offer a simple yet emphatic answer to my own question:

No.

Make no mistake, there are plenty of other-worldly gorgeous blades out there. And I mean you COBRA, Mizuno and Srixon in particular (and I am rapidly warming to the PING Blueprint). Neither you, I nor maybe even Jordan Spieth, however, should put them in our bags.

Rory McIlroy made nine birdies in a bogey-free, 9-under 62 to take a two-shot clubhouse lead in the first round of the Dubai Invitational.

Manchester City defender John Stones and Formula One driver Alex Albon have joined Steph Curry in investing in a franchise in the high-tech golf competition created by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.

When you rehearse the proper take-away you will FEEL your hips and shoulders initiate the rotation for your swing. Recently I have seen videos and articles about Tiger Woods teaching his son Charlie to make a proper takeaway. David Leadbetter has also developed a device to attach to your club to see the right angle for your club takeaway. These are just 2 recent examples highlighting the importance of your takeaway.

When you rush your backswing you may never notice the flaw in your swing. Starting your swing with your arms is a major problem for most mid-handicap golfers. You will never develop enough rotation to generate more power unless you compound your rotation by using hips, shoulders, arms and wrists.

Professional golfers make the golf swing look so easy. If you can’t duplicate their swings you may want to try these suggestions:

1/ Slow Down Your Backswing: You can’t setup a proper downswing unless you take the time to make a reasonable rotation with a straight leading arm.

2/ FEEL Your Takeaway: By practicing a rehearsal takeaway, you will feel your hips and shoulders rotating at the start of your swing and incorporate that feeling in your backswing.

Phil Mickelson said on "The Pat McAfee Show" that he doesn't see himself as U.S. Ryder Cup captain because "I'm a very divisive character right now."

Golf star Rory McIlroy suggested Wednesday that players need to consider forfeiting their status as independent contractors in an effort to boost their collective value for sponsors.

The new XXIO 13 metalwoods line follows the tried-and-true XXIO recipe. 

We can talk all we want about the new technology and key improvements (trust me, we will) but the XXIO message remains the same and remains simple.

It’s a highly engineered line of lightweight clubs designed exclusively for two very specific subsets of golfers: Those who don’t swing the club very fast and those who don’t swing the club as fast as they used to.

If you’re a young bomber, or even a middle-aged one, fear not. Your day of XXIO reckoning is coming. Father Time, as Tiger famously told us, is undefeated.

Yeah, the new XXIO 13 metalwoods lineup is light. But as we’ve learned from XXIO over the years, it’s about way more than just sticking a light shaft into a regular clubhead. XXIO designs each generation from grip to tip with no one but low to moderate-swing golfers in mind.

There’s more to come before this month is over but, for now, Titleist has announced two updates to the ionomer/two-piece side of its golf ball lineup – the new Tour Soft and TruFeel.

Most of Titleist’s competitors outsource production of their two-piece and ionomer models to third-party factories. In contrast, Tour Soft and TruFeel, like Titleist’s other non-urethane offerings, are produced at Ball Plant 2 in North Dartmouth, Mass. Point being that while neither is a Pro V1, you’re still getting Titleist quality.

Titleist Tour Soft

Let’s start with this. Titleist would tell you that Tour Soft is the most underappreciated ball in its lineup, if not the market as a whole.

“It continues to punch above its weight class,” says Jeremy Stone, VP of Marketing for Titleist golf balls.

Whether that makes it a hidden gem or simply overlooked, Titleist wants you to know that the overall performance is shockingly good – better than you (or at least me) would expect from anything without a urethane cover.

If the new XXIO 13 irons were an overly dramatic love story set in Prague in 1968, we could call them The Unbearable Lightness of Being irons. 

If they were a Tennyson poem, we could call them golf’s Charge of the Light Brigade.

Or if they were a Doors song, we’d be singing “… c’mon baby, light my fire.”

(One week into Launch Season and we’re already punchy as hell.)

But every two years, XXIO gives us something to, ahhh, light up and talk about. XXIO as a brand is targeted toward a very specific golfer: those with driver swing speeds below 90 miles per hour. You may think that makes XXIO a niche product and it may very well be.

Gary Woodland dealt with loss of appetite and energy, jolting awake in the middle of the night, tremors and an overwhelming feeling of fear until doctors could figure out what was wrong.

I’ll bet you didn’t know XXIO makes golf balls.

Heck, I’ll bet you may not even know how to pronounce XXIO.

In any case, I’m here to help.

Introducing the XXIO (pronounced zek-si-oh) Rebound Drive II golf balls. Designed for golfers on the slower end of the swing speed spectrum, this $50 a dozen ball is not for everyone.

That said, it is for someone. Not much has changed this time around (this is the second iteration, if you hadn’t already figured it out by the Roman numerals). Here’s what you need know about the XXIO Rebound Drive II golf balls.