Cobra KING Tour and Forged Tec Irons Review: 2023 PGAPappas 12 Days of Christmas Golf Giveaway DAY 3

Every year companies try to make their equipment better.  And in large part they usually do.  Drivers, irons, wedges, all see some improvements.  It's rare however when a company designs new equipment that winds up being the best they've ever created.  And Cobra Golf did exactly that.  Twice.

The new Cobra KING Tour irons and new Forged Tec irons are the best irons Cobra has ever made in those particular categories (players and players distance).  And to go even further KING Tour and Forged Tec are the best irons Cobra has ever made, Period.  And one of you can choose a FULL SET of either the new KING Tour or new Forged Tec irons in DAY 3 of my PGAPappas 12 Days of Christmas Golf Giveaway.

Yes, you read that correctly.  A full set of Cobra KING Tour irons (4-PW), any stock shaft, flex, RH or LH available.  Or a full set of Cobra Forged Tec irons (4-PW), any stock shaft, flex, RH or LH available.

I already reviewed both KING Tour and Forged Tec for you this year.  But I'm going to highlight a few key things about both of these irons again, along with some mini-comparisons between them to help you decide which will be best for you.

Cobra KING Tour Irons

I'm starting with the KING Tour because they're straight up my wheelhouse irons.   I like the way you work it!  No Diggity, No Doubt!

KING Tour give me the most controllable distances of any Cobra irons I've ever hit.  And though not as long as Forged Tec these are also surprisingly long.  Above all else though KING Tour are irons deliver absolute precision accuracy.  And something about their design, weighing, CG, all of that also gets my swing slotted for great contact swing after swing after swing.

I should mention I'd consider myself an average ball striker.  I don't miss all over the face but I can miss a good ball-size area anywhere up, down, left, or right.  Yes these are irons designed for better players.  Compact, thin toplines and soles. very little offset.  But something about KING Tour, how they're built, weighted, just lets me put consistently good swings on them.  There is a degree of forgiveness with KING Tour you might not expect (I'll touch on below), but mainly I just make good contact with these more often than with other kinds of irons.

KING Tour forgiveness is damn impressive for this kind of compact iron.  I'd say miss a ball up, down, left, or right in any direction (which is not insignificant) and you're still keeping launch and spin really close to ideal sweet spot strikes.  You're also not being punished directionally both left to right and short to long.  No dramatic loss of any kind in fact.  Misses low or thin in particular retain launch and spin very well.  And any distance lost on these kinds of misses isn't losing more than a club, and in reality probably closer to just half a club.  Again, seriously just damn impressive.

Regarding feel (and I kid you not), guaranty there are players out there who say KING Tour are the best feeling irons they've ever played.  And it really always starts with feel.  Drives me nuts when people say feel doesn't matter, but I digress.  The reason KING Tour feel so great is Cobra's 5-Step Forging process.  In a nutshell what this basically does is align grains in these forged heads as close to perfect as you can possibly get.  And that translates to incredibly soft, strong, and resonant feel and sound.

And one last word about launch and spin.  KING Tour are closer in lofts to traditionally lofted irons and spin rates are very high.  Shots into the green land like they're dropped from angels onto a pillow.  My iron swing speed averages around 87-88 mph and KING Tour launch medium-high for me with a very strong flight that seems to get stronger and stronger until they fall from the sky.  And going back to spin on misses?  Because Cobra uses targeted weighting in the toe and heel I'm not getting crazy spin on mishits sending shots way off target.  KING Tour irons are truly exceptional.

Cobra Forged Tec Irons

Okay so there's the funny thing.  So I didn't hit KING Tour at the same time I hit Forged Tec (they weren't released yet).  And yes I do prefer KING Tour over Forged Tec.  But when I did hit Forged Tec for the first time and then play with them for a bit afterwards I thought I'd found my favorite Cobra irons to date.  And let's be honest at that point they were.

These newest Cobra Forged Tec irons are more compact with thinner soles and toplines than the previous version of Forged Tec.  But they're also somehow more forgiving over a larger area of the face (get to that below in a bit).  Forged Tec have a larger overall profile than KING Tour and also a little more offset, but still very clean, compact looking irons.

Forged Tec are hollow irons so not as solid feeling as KING Tour, but they're more solid feeling than hollow feeling.  And Cobra did such a good job with feel that many players probably won't even be able to tell they're hollow.  Compared to the previous gen Forged Tec these new irons are clearly softer, stronger, and more solid feeling.

When I was talking about missing around a ball size area in any direction with KING Tour it was to give you a sort of forgiveness zone.  And in the same way you can increase that forgiveness zone with Forged Tec to a ball and a half and even two ball size area.  Forged Tec aren't as all over the face forgiving as game-improvement irons like the AeroJet, but there's plenty of room to miss with these and still have great results.

Forged Tec are clearly longer than KING Tour, about 8-10 yards through the bag.  These just create more ball speed with my same swing speed.  And you'd expect that being stronger lofted irons than KING Tour.  What you might not expect however is launch, peak heights, and even descent are nearly identical.  That was a big surprise.  Forged Tec are slightly lower in all areas but barely enough to notice.  Cobra did a phenomenal job using tungsten and weighting lower to accomplish this.

Spin with Forged Tec is lower than KING Tour by about 1,000 RPMs but still excellent in a couple of ways.  First in an absolute sense these generate more spin than most hollow irons with stronger lofts on the market.  You're won't be moaning about hitting what appear to be good shots and then not holding greens with Forged Tec.  And secondly, spin rates are incredibly consistent on misses as well.  It's been amazing to hit shots a little low and not see them sail over the greens.  Forged Tec have excellent overall stopping power and even more impressive low miss stopping power.

Dispersion with Forged Tec is very comparable to KING Tour left to right.  With both irons your miss radius is pretty tight.  Where Forged Tec differ from KING Tour however is misses that have more of a left bias, while misses with KING Tour are more neutral and equally left and right.  Maybe that's because of more offset and the tungsten toe weight in the Forged Tec.  I've also found both Forged Tec and KING Tour retain average distances proportionately and consistently on misses short or long.  KING Tour does a slightly better job keeping misses tighter left to right but overall I'd say Forged Tec and KING Tour dispersion is more similar than dissimilar.

 

Ultimately when choosing between these irons I'd say if more distance and forgiveness is your goal go Forged Tec.  If more spin control and tighter dispersion is your goal (with a tad of extra distance and surprising forgiveness) go KING Tour.  Either way, Cobra will have you hitting a lot of great shots with both irons.

 

Remember you always have three different ways to win the daily gifts in my giveaway this year.  On X/Twitter just repost my giveaway announcement and follow all; on Instagram repost or mention in your story, like, and follow all; and here on my blog leave a comment in the section below in the daily review/giveaway, Jingle Bam, Letters from Santa, Jingle Bam Bigger, and Flash Kringle Gonna Kringle articles.

These gifts are great prizes of course, but also some of the best equipment and gear in their class that I played and reviewed this season.  And I hope these mini reviews and recaps give you an idea of why I rate them so highly.

Merry Christmas all!