Cobra King Tour CB and MB players’ irons are a model of consistency

The Cobra King Tour, MB and CB irons.

Cobra Golf’s new King Tour, CB and MB irons use an industry-leading forging process to deliver consistent clubs with an unmatched soft feel and precision shaping for better players.

The family of players’ irons sees a traditional forged muscleback in the King MB, a compact muscle cavity back in the CB, and a technical cavity back in the King Tour to ensure there’s a club for all types of better golfer. Early feedback suggests all three will feature highly in our guide to the best irons of 2023.

Cobra King Irons: The Forging Process

Made from 1025 carbon steel, Cobra’s irons go through an additional forging step when compared to many other manufacturers.

The forging process for all three King irons begins by heating carbon steel billets to 1,200ºC, before the billets are rough forged three times. These first three steps see the metal bent and forged to form the rough shaping of an iron head.

Step four sees 1,200 tons of pressure applied at 800ºC to each rough clubhead, refining the shapes and placing detail lines and logos.

The fifth and final step sees each iron head subjected to 2,000 tons of pressure at 700ºC to form a uniform and isotropic internal grain structure. Once cooled, the clubheads are then polished and prepped for the faces and grooves to be precision milled using a CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) machine.

But what does the five-step process provide that four-step methods don’t? Cobra say it creates more precise shaping, more precise and flatter clubfaces, tighter weight tolerances, improved consistency of loft and lies, improved face thickness consistency, improved aesthetics, and significantly enhanced feel at impact.

The three irons complete an impressive King family that also includes the King Forged Tec and Forged Tec-X irons and the new King Tec Utility Iron and Hybrid.

Cobra King Irons: How the three models differ

All three of the new players’ irons target the more advanced golfer and you’ll see them in bags of Rickie Fowler, Gary Woodland and Ewen Ferguson in 2023.

The King Tour blends soft feel and playability with enhanced distance and forgiveness. Unlike the CB and MB irons which are one-piece forgings, the Tour irons feature an aluminum medallion, and a TPU insert in the back cavity. 

CNC undercuts in the back cavity of each iron allow weight to be repositioned from high center to lower center and heel and toe areas of the clubhead, creating improved launch conditions and more forgiveness on off-center hits.

These cavities progress from deeper in the long irons for enhanced stability, to shallower in the short irons for enhanced control.  To improve feel, each CNC undercut is filled with a soft TPU material and topped with an aluminum co-molded medallion, which both damp vibration for a more pleasing sound and feel at impact. 

The shaping of the Tour irons is progressively more compact than the King Forged TEC model, featuring a thinner topline, reduced offset. The updated Tour shape also features a slightly shortened blade length than the previous King Tour MIM irons to inspire improved control and workability. 

The Tour irons have two-degree stronger lofts than the CB and MB irons for more distance and are available in 3-iron to GW.

The CB and MB irons have been designed to work as a ‘flow combo’ set, with the stock set coming with CB 4-6-irons and MB in 7-PW. That set makeup provides more forgiveness in the longer irons and more precision in the shorter irons.

They feature the most compact shapes in the King family and have all the attributes a better player seeks – thinner toplines, minimal offset, thinner soles, and shorter blade lengths. The forging process ensures the CB and MB feature perfectly centered CG locations without the need for additional Tungsten.

Cobra say the CB iron, with its more forgiving cavity back shape with slightly more offset, and the traditional MB muscle back, offer players a variety of customizable set configurations to fit their gapping and aesthetic preferences.

Both the CB and MB are available as full sets in 3i-GW through custom fitting.

Read our full review of the three Cobra King irons for full details.

Available from January 13 in the US and February 3 in the UK, the King Tour irons are priced at $1,299/ £1,099 (4-PW), with the CB and MB at $1,199 / £999 (CB 4-6, MB 7-PW).

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