Is it just me or does the whole Christmas on a Sunday thing really make this week seem long? Not too many more days to go now though… guess I should start my shopping.Before I get going today I thought I’d mention that future LPGA star Morgan Pressel has signed with Callaway Golf. This spreads out the “future LPGA wealth” a bit giving Nike (Michelle Wie), TaylorMade (Paula Creamer) and Callaway (Pressel) each a future star. A very good signing by Callaway Golf! I think we’ll continue our look ahead to 2006 with a peak at what’s to come from Cobra Golf. Cobra seems to have the game improvement market figured out and it looks like they may test the PGA Tour waters again next year.
The Company
The biggest news from Cobra in 2006 should concern their reentry onto the PGA Tour. The company should announce a few PGA Tour player signings early in the year and this should really boost their already large profile. So who will sign? Acushnet (their parent company) has always been very tight lipped so there are no real answers yet. Watch for them to go after “personalities” to complement David Feherty in advertisements. Lots of names have floated around the internet with John Daly, Rich Beem, Ian Poulter and Peter Jacobsen leading the way. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see here. 2006 should be a very interesting year for Cobra Golf.
The Products – What We Know
As it stands right now… we basically know it all. Cobra released their new Speed Series woods late in 2005 and these will all carry over into 2006. Customer reaction to these has been mixed… the ball speed thing has confused some but others really enjoy being able to customize thier clubs a bit more. The SZ series was huge for Cobra and it’s going to be tough to top… many SZ users that have hit the Speed Series say that there isn’t enough of a difference between the two to warrant a change. The COMP woods remain for now but these should slowly fade away as the year rolls on.
The company also added a few more Baffler hybrid clubs to the mix in late 2005. The Baffler did very well this year and this line extension wasn’t a huge surprise. Added to the mix was a #1, #6 and a #7 (specifically designed for ladies). I don’t know if we’ll see any more additions here but if consumers demand it… Cobra is pretty good at delivering it.
The current iron line should remained unchanged until at least the summer. The Inertia irons aren’t Cobra’s best ever offerings but they definitely aren’t the worst either. The 3100 I/H seem to do well and they are a decent combination of looks and forgiveness. The 2300 I/M and the Forged CB’s could get a boost once the company gets some play on the PGA Tour. Some better players may look at Cobra in a new light and give these “players” irons a try.
No word yet on putters and wedges. These aren’t a huge part of the Cobra line but many golfers like them because they are good clubs for the price.
Products – What Might Be On The Way
If Cobra doesn’t want anyone to know what might be around the corner I guess we’ll just have to make some predictions. Let’s first get rid of a few possibilities… a golf ball… no. They tried that and it didn’t work. Sister company Titleist can have the ball market. A new line developed for “players”… no. This isn’t Cobra’s thing. They are a company that builds clubs for the average golfer. They may add a “players” club here and there but I think they will let Titleist have the better golfers. New woods… probably not. Cobra is one of the few companies that actually attempt to stick to a two year product life cycle and the Speed Series has lots of legs left. New irons… I could see them adding to the Inertia line but I’m guessing it will stick around for the year. Acushnet really likes the March 1st release date and March 1st, 2006 is sneaking up on us with no new info around. I think Cobra knows that they have a pretty good thing going so I don’t expect any major changes in the next year.
That’s all for today. We’ll sneak in another preview tomorrow and maybe even Thursday. I’ll just have to wait and see how the festive shopping/visiting/drinking/retail work is going. Keep the emails coming… SirPutts is caught up right now and will gladly get back to you. Thanks for stopping by and we’ll talk to you later!