Over the past few years Cobra have consistently come out on top for me when it comes to the longest and fastest irons of the year.
Through a combination of strong lofts, high launch properties, thinner faces and technologies designed to enhance ball speeds, their irons make it really easy to produce some impressive numbers when it comes to distance.
For 2025 the brand have introduced the new DS-Adapt range, with two iron models seeking to provide the ‘ultimate combination of speed, distance and forgiveness’. Stop me if you’ve heard that one before…
Who Are They Aimed At?
The Max is the bigger, chunkier older brother of the DS-Adapt range, designed for ultimate forgiveness and aimed at higher handicap golfers. Friendly footprint and … make it easier for golfers to get the ball launching easily and see gains in distance and ball speed, especially on mis-hits.
Cobra have also kept their commitment to value for money, with a full set of irons coming in at £799 which makes it cheaper than the likes of TaylorMade, Callaway and Ping.
The Tech
The big story with the woods in the DS-Adapt range is the new FutureFit33 technology, which offers more adjustability than we’ve ever seen before.
Obviously this isn’t quite possible with irons, so instead Cobra has introduced a new 360 Speedshell design, which is their largest face cup design to date. This expanded insert now covers a greater area of the toe and sole of the clubface, with a bigger internal Speed Channel to improve face flex.
This combines with Cobra’s HOT face to produce a 23% increase at impact to encourage more speed, higher launch, and more distance.
The hollow headed iron is filled with soft, lightweight foam microspheres to improve sound and feel, whilst the weight saved from the hollow head can be repositioned into the Pwr-Bridge, moving the CG down to help generate higher launch.
Tecflo construction uses different designs as you move through the set from long to mid to short irons, to optimise both gapping and performance as you go from longer to shorter shots.
The Max irons have a more oversized shape with a longer blade length, thicker topline and more offset for higher MOI.
They also have 2 degree weaker lofts and a wider sole than the standard model, which helps to promote easier launch for golfers with moderate swing speeds.
Cobra’s testing suggests that compared to the standard model, the Max will produce approximately 550rpm more spin, 2.4 yards higher flight and 8 more yards of draw bias.
Cobra DS-Adapt Max Irons Review
Looks and Feel
As you’d expect from a ‘Max’ iron model, the DS-Adapt Max have a large footprint and a very wide sole which is noticeable straight away when you first look at these.
Cobra’s game improvement irons have a distinctive ‘rectangular’ shape to me and this continues into the new range, as well as a slightly darker grey finish too.
The Max model comes with red detailing and on the whole it does look relatively smart, and when you put it down by the ball it does fill you with confidence that you’re going to hit the ball long and straight.
There is a fair bit of offset on these heads which will be reassuring to those golfers who struggle with a slice, and this becomes more prominent once you get into the long irons too.
You get the option of a number of different lightweight shafts which should help golfers to generate a bit more clubhead speed and launch, whilst there is a loud, clear whack when you strike the ball too which some golfers might enjoy.
The Data
Testing the irons out on the Trackman at Hukd Golf, the numbers produced were almost exactly what I was expecting to see, which is always a pretty good sign.
First things first, Cobra promise distance with these irons and they certainly don’t disappoint – averaging more than 160 yards carry with an 8 iron and nearly 190 yards carry with a 6 iron is more than a club longer than my current setup, and it really did feel easy to get the ball launching and flying long.
As you might expect, the spin rates were relatively low but I was pretty impressed with the overall consistency shown by the irons. The distance between my longest and shortest shots was around 10 yards with these two clubs, which is actually pretty tight and suggests that you’re not going to see too many of those ‘flyers’ which can sometimes happen with distance irons.
Whilst I do usually hit a slight draw with my irons, the fact that 28 of the 30 shots I hit during this test had some sort of right-to-left shape does suggest that the draw bias shape works too, which will be music to the ears of slicers out there.
On-Course Performance
Heading out on to the golf course, I really enjoyed the extra forgiveness and easy distance that these clubs provided in the cold, wet winter conditions.
It really does make it more straightforward to get the ball in the air and whilst the lofts are strong, it does still give you a bit of a thrill to pull one club less than normal from the bag and still see it go the required distance.
Testing in soft conditions also makes it easy to catch the ball heavy, but the wide sole made turf interaction really easy and definitely helps you out even when you don’t strike it great.
I would say that I struggled to control the draw bias at times, with the extra offset meaning that I did lose a few of my approach shots to the left. If you’re not somebody who struggles with a slice then you may be better giving the standard model a go as they do tend to fly a bit straighter – it’s definitely worth testing them both at the same time if you can.
Cobra DS-Adapt Max Irons Verdict
Overall I would say that the DS-Adapt are not a huge progression from the previous Darkspeed irons, with perhaps slightly improved cosmetics and a little more consistency in terms of the numbers.
Whilst I wasn’t a huge fan of the look at address, and did struggle to control the draw bias at times, they offered great distance, they were extremely easy to hit from a number of lies and flew nice and high too.
As mentioned earlier, the price point is also pretty attractive too which makes these a really good option for someone who does need help with their iron play.
