MEMBER REVIEWS: Cobra DS-Adapt Driver & Fairway Wood Member Testing | See What Members Are Saying

[KGrinols]

I know MGS can be a polarizing website/testing format, but for me as a filthy casual, I've had great success using their most wanted lists in the past.

 

I haven't owned a Cobra Club since the Amp Cell(?) series way back when I started this addiction.  After the 2025 MGS data, I went to the Cobra Website and saw the Palm Tree limited edition, and while I'm sure it's not a popular opinion, I have always been drawn to eccentric and colorful designs, but that club is absolutely beautiful.

 

I scheduled a fitting for this weekend to try and get fit into one of the Adapt heads to justify buying that special edition club.  But will go in with an open mind including the Titleist GT and Callaway Elyte, or whatever the fitter thinks is best, but I would love nothing more than to walk out with this beauty:

 

And then obviously I'll have to buy one of these to put it in.

 

Is there any talk or rumors of these limited designs making their way into woods/hybrids this year?  

[adamwon84]

16 minutes ago, KGrinols said:

I know MGS can be a polarizing website/testing format, but for me as a filthy casual, I've had great success using their most wanted lists in the past.

 

I haven't owned a Cobra Club since the Amp Cell(?) series way back when I started this addiction.  After the 2025 MGS data, I went to the Cobra Website and saw the Palm Tree limited edition, and while I'm sure it's not a popular opinion, I have always been drawn to eccentric and colorful designs, but that club is absolutely beautiful.

 

I scheduled a fitting for this weekend to try and get fit into one of the Adapt heads to justify buying that special edition club.  But will go in with an open mind including the Titleist GT and Callaway Elyte, or whatever the fitter thinks is best, but I would love nothing more than to walk out with this beauty:

 

And then obviously I'll have to buy one of these to put it in.

 

Is there any talk or rumors of these limited designs making their way into woods/hybrids this year?  

I have always liked the Cobra limited designs, I would have loved to have gotten my Max-K with one of the custom designs but I am not going to complain being selected for testing haha. 

That bag is also fantastic!

[BigBlue7]

Played in a Member/Guest over the weekend and I have been struggling with the DS Adapt LS over the last few weeks so I put the Ping G430 LST back in the bag and it was like putting on your favorite pair of jeans.  The toe misses that turned into low spin hooks with the Cobra were simply not as prevelant (and almost non existent) with the Ping.  The confidence that I had off the tee the past two years returned and I was putting on a stripe show over the 3 day event.

 

Unfortunately, I do not think the LS is going to be going back in the bag.  While it can get them out there longer than the Ping, it just cannot match the consistency.  Going to see if I can find a DS Adapt X head to compare it to.

 

The X3 wood and LS5  are still firmly in the bag and both performed excellent over the course of the event.  

[beluga99]

On 6/4/2025 at 7:20 AM, BigBlue7 said:

Played in a Member/Guest over the weekend and I have been struggling with the DS Adapt LS over the last few weeks so I put the Ping G430 LST back in the bag and it was like putting on your favorite pair of jeans.  The toe misses that turned into low spin hooks with the Cobra were simply not as prevelant (and almost non existent) with the Ping.  The confidence that I had off the tee the past two years returned and I was putting on a stripe show over the 3 day event.

 

Unfortunately, I do not think the LS is going to be going back in the bag.  While it can get them out there longer than the Ping, it just cannot match the consistency.  Going to see if I can find a DS Adapt X head to compare it to.

 

The X3 wood and LS5  are still firmly in the bag and both performed excellent over the course of the event.  

I have a G430 LST which I love but curious about the 10K.  Do you play the AD-DI in both drivers, and if so how do they perform?

[BigBlue7]

15 hours ago, beluga99 said:

I have a G430 LST which I love but curious about the 10K.  Do you play the AD-DI in both drivers, and if so how do they perform?

 

Yup, same shaft in both drivers.  Both feel extremely similar when swining.  I don't know if it is a confidence thing or what, but man I just hit the Ping so much better.

[DTorres]

Just as I’m about to give up on my long drive heads and move to a Max K, Cobra done released a LD version of the DS-adapt LS.

$599 head only, 4-8 degrees, no warranty and 3 shaft adapters included. Let’s party

 

 

[StillCantPutt]

17 hours ago, DTorres said:

Just as I’m about to give up on my long drive heads and move to a Max K, Cobra done released a LD version of the DS-adapt LS.

$599 head only, 4-8 degrees, no warranty and 3 shaft adapters included. Let’s party

 

 

Please post your impressions once you’ve hit it. I play the DS-Adapt LS and would love to know how this differs beyond the engineering specs. 

[DTorres]

On 6/23/2025 at 3:56 AM, StillCantPutt said:

Please post your impressions once you’ve hit it. I play the DS-Adapt LS and would love to know how this differs beyond the engineering specs. 

   I went and got refitted and to test a bunch of stuff hoping to fall in love with the Max-K after reading about it fitting some high swing speed players, and to test the whole line including the LD head before I settled on a buying the GT3 I have been eyeing. For reference I did all the testing with a GD VF7 TX at @ 44.5” OAL and currently cruise around a 118-120 CHS.

 

Max-K: Amazing Forgiveness and Ball Speed retention across the face. Spin was not high but was stubbornly medium and robbed me of some carry and roll. Very neutral ball flight

 

Max-D: Just as forgiving as max-K just a few MPH slower for some reason for me and was left side biased as expected. 
 

X: the head shape starts to shrink here and this driver is really well rounded. It launched about the same as the max-K for me with less spin which took back some of the yardage for me and the forgiveness was great.

 

LS: we are shrinking even more in size with the LS , I love this head shape the most out of all of them. Excellent profile that has wicked low spin numbers and was fairly consistent across the face for an LS. This was the most consistent driver for me distance wise and really excelled at handling my poor driver tendencies 

 

LD: This is a deep face. The head shape is obviously for maximizing ball speed, it’s like they took the LS and pumped it up with compressed air. Front to back it looks shorter than the LS which is already quite small. Head shape and size is VERY similar to the old Xr16 LD heads. Obviously this is the least forgiving of the bunch but when you center one up on a higher than normal teed up ball the speed increases jump out at you but the decreases and poor flights when not squared up also jump out at you. Not so typical LD head, there is at least a dash of forgiveness in there compared to all the other LD Heads. 
 

Overall I ended up buying a DSLS over everything else. Not an official tester for this one but I’ll post back when my components show up and I assemble

[J-Walker]

I’m not a tester here either but have been in the DS-Adapt LS 10.5° (A1 setting) this year with a Ventus Red Velocore+ 6S tipped 3/4”. It has been top of the heap of the driver releases for me this year. With an average SS around 105-110 mph and AOA sitting between 1°-4° I’m averaging 265-285 carry with this setup. On my bad swings, the low left knuckle ball is in play, but on good swings this setup is so long and straight. (I play around an 8 handicap for reference) 
 

I grabbed a 10.5° Max K last month to compare (using the same shaft) and so far I find it a little more forgiving on my misses, but have sacrificed distance as it is launching too high and spinning a bit much for me. Turned down to 8.5°, I’m still seeing high launch angle and too much spin. I’m about to throw a GD VF 6X in it to try to optimize spin and launch, but the LS (even at stock 10.5°) produces better numbers with my current gamer shaft. 
 

Has anyone here in their testing had success managing launch and spin on the Max K with a shaft swap? 
 

Also, if you have tried both 10.5° and 9° versions of this head, how much difference would you expect to see between the 10.5° Max K turned down in loft vs the 9° version?

Edited July 7 by J-Walker

[DTorres]

She has arrived @adamwon84

[schimmel]

On 7/3/2025 at 8:20 AM, DTorres said:

   I went and got refitted and to test a bunch of stuff hoping to fall in love with the Max-K after reading about it fitting some high swing speed players, and to test the whole line including the LD head before I settled on a buying the GT3 I have been eyeing. For reference I did all the testing with a GD VF7 TX at @ 44.5” OAL and currently cruise around a 118-120 CHS.

 

Max-K: Amazing Forgiveness and Ball Speed retention across the face. Spin was not high but was stubbornly medium and robbed me of some carry and roll. Very neutral ball flight

 

Max-D: Just as forgiving as max-K just a few MPH slower for some reason for me and was left side biased as expected. 
 

X: the head shape starts to shrink here and this driver is really well rounded. It launched about the same as the max-K for me with less spin which took back some of the yardage for me and the forgiveness was great.

 

LS: we are shrinking even more in size with the LS , I love this head shape the most out of all of them. Excellent profile that has wicked low spin numbers and was fairly consistent across the face for an LS. This was the most consistent driver for me distance wise and really excelled at handling my poor driver tendencies 

 

LD: This is a deep face. The head shape is obviously for maximizing ball speed, it’s like they took the LS and pumped it up with compressed air. Front to back it looks shorter than the LS which is already quite small. Head shape and size is VERY similar to the old Xr16 LD heads. Obviously this is the least forgiving of the bunch but when you center one up on a higher than normal teed up ball the speed increases jump out at you but the decreases and poor flights when not squared up also jump out at you. Not so typical LD head, there is at least a dash of forgiveness in there compared to all the other LD Heads. 
 

Overall I ended up buying a DSLS over everything else. Not an official tester for this one but I’ll post back when my components show up and I assemble

is there more bulge and roll on the ld head than the 9 degree adapt ls? could you compare it to the previous darkspeed ld head?

[DTorres]

26 minutes ago, schimmel said:

is there more bulge and roll on the ld head than the 9 degree adapt ls? could you compare it to the previous darkspeed ld head?

I cannot confirm or deny the bulge and roll differential on the LD vs the LS. I do not believe there is any significant bulge and roll difference but the face on the LD is MUCH deeper, center strikes have obvious ball speed increases but any heel or toe strikes are greatly punished. I have hit Krank drivers regularly and you can definitely tell the bulge and roll on those over these. I believe Cobra has focused more on sweet spot ball speed over realignment of miss hits. As far as a comparison to the original Darkspeed LD, outside of the crown and futurefit33 hosel they are very similar in head profile, face shape and ball speeds. As far as ball speeds are concerned on the Long Drive Cobra heads the biggest ball speed jumps came from Aerojet to Darkspeed. Radspeed to Aerojet were similar Darkspeed was a jump the new Darkspeed is similar to the prior.

Edited July 11 by DTorres

[StillCantPutt]

10 hours ago, DTorres said:

I cannot confirm or deny the bulge and roll differential on the LD vs the LS. I do not believe there is any significant bulge and roll difference but the face on the LD is MUCH deeper, center strikes have obvious ball speed increases but any heel or toe strikes are greatly punished. I have hit Krank drivers regularly and you can definitely tell the bulge and roll on those over these. I believe Cobra has focused more on sweet spot ball speed over realignment of miss hits. As far as a comparison to the original Darkspeed LD, outside of the crown and futurefit33 hosel they are very similar in head profile, face shape and ball speeds. As far as ball speeds are concerned on the Long Drive Cobra heads the biggest ball speed jumps came from Aerojet to Darkspeed. Radspeed to Aerojet were similar Darkspeed was a jump the new Darkspeed is similar to the prior.

So in your opinion, all things being equal, if you have a smash factor of 1.50 on the DS LS head and a factor of 1.50 on the DS long drive head, which will have faster ball speed?

[adamwon84]

15 hours ago, DTorres said:

She has arrived @adamwon84

Love seeing this combo, curious on how it does for you on the course! 

[stratgolf]

15 hours ago, DTorres said:

She has arrived @adamwon84

 

Awesome combo this.

[DTorres]

40 minutes ago, StillCantPutt said:

So in your opinion, all things being equal, if you have a smash factor of 1.50 on the DS LS head and a factor of 1.50 on the DS long drive head, which will have faster ball speed?

The LD head but efficiency wise would be tough as they are different animals, if they had the same smash factor the LD would have bigger numbers for sure. With the LS Head I was in the 1.45 efficiency range around 122/178, same swing with the LD head was 123/183 average, the efficiency was .2 higher but I believe that was due to spin and launch angle, and that’s also at the same swing and shaft, heel and toe misses were dreadful with the LD so I would absolutely use the LS combo on course. If I was competing in long drive I would be using a 3 1/2” longer shaft and really stepping on it.

 

59 minutes ago, adamwon84 said:

Love seeing this combo, curious on how it does for you on the course! 

I’ll definitely let you know! I’m excited about this build specifically going to a heavier shaft!

29 minutes ago, stratgolf said:

 

Awesome combo this.

a thank you sir

[SCOTT4099]

I have read a few reviews that say the max k is high spinning. For anyone that has one, is that the case?

 

I know it depends on many swing factors just generally is it higher spinning?

 

 

thanks 

[J-Walker]

5 hours ago, SCOTT4099 said:

I have read a few reviews that say the max k is high spinning. For anyone that has one, is that the case?

 

I know it depends on many swing factors just generally is it higher spinning?

 

 

thanks 

I have both the Max K and LS. The Max K is not “high spinning” by any means, but it is higher spin than the LS. Lots of peeps loving it. I’m still seeing better numbers in the LS, but that’s definitely not the case for everybody. 

Edited July 13 by J-Walker

[Bridges]

Quick update on the DS-ADAPT Max-K 10.5* driver

 

I am currently playing it at 44" with a cut down HZRDUS Black shaft. I added a 5g tip weight to the shaft and increased the weight on the rear of the sole to make swing weight D3. This thing is FILTHY! It is noticeably more forgiving than a mini driver and my drives are plenty long. I can plug the Ventus back in anytime but this combo is working great!

 

 

[DTorres]

I’m in love with my new DS-Adapt LS and Graphite Design VF 7-Tx. Today I had a great problem, I can usually Dial up a fat slice for a dogleg with my prior driver and I finally got the Adapt dialed in and it’s TOO Straight and Long. I went out today and deliberately tried to hit a super swing out of your shoes power fade around a dogleg and it went BALLISTIC. 333 yard carry over the top of some tall trees onto the green adjacent. 

 

 

[PNW]

For those that are higher speed 110-115, what kind of spin window are you getting on the Max K? Is the forgiveness difference between it and the X noticeable? I always like the idea of front/rear swappable weights because I play year round Seattle area wanting more launch/spin in a he winter and lower launch in the summer but it sounds like the Max K still doesn’t get too high spin?
 

8 hours ago, DTorres said:

I’m in love with my new DS-Adapt LS and Graphite Design VF 7-Tx. Today I had a great problem, I can usually Dial up a fat slice for a dogleg with my prior driver and I finally got the Adapt dialed in and it’s TOO Straight and Long. I went out today and deliberately tried to hit a super swing out of your shoes power fade around a dogleg and it went BALLISTIC. 333 yard carry over the top of some tall trees onto the green adjacent. 

 

 

Nile 12? They need to water those fairways!

[DTorres]

1 hour ago, PNW said:

For those that are higher speed 110-115, what kind of spin window are you getting on the Max K? Is the forgiveness difference between it and the X noticeable? I always like the idea of front/rear swappable weights because I play year round Seattle area wanting more launch/spin in a he winter and lower launch in the summer but it sounds like the Max K still doesn’t get too high spin?
 

Nile 12? They need to water those fairways!

Snohomish GC but they definitely need to water the fairways and the greens are massively fast, it’s been hot though. 
 

  I’m in the 115-118 MPH range with a heavier shaft (GD VF 7TX) I’m a fairly high spin player the Max K and I did not get along(3.2k plus spin and up), I think if your worried about spin but want to increase it during the winter you may still want to go with the LS, I’m hitting the LS right now and absolutely love it. It’s much more forgiving than my Aerojet LS and if you put the 10g weight in the back it manages adding some spin and forgiveness.

 

[PNW]

8 hours ago, DTorres said:

Snohomish GC but they definitely need to water the fairways and the greens are massively fast, it’s been hot though. 
 

  I’m in the 115-118 MPH range with a heavier shaft (GD VF 7TX) I’m a fairly high spin player the Max K and I did not get along(3.2k plus spin and up), I think if your worried about spin but want to increase it during the winter you may still want to go with the LS, I’m hitting the LS right now and absolutely love it. It’s much more forgiving than my Aerojet LS and if you put the 10g weight in the back it manages adding some spin and forgiveness.

 

Thanks, I’ve seen some reviews that it can spin in that range and I expect it to be higher by design. Sounds like I really need to test them though because the whole line is good (as always really with Cobra). 
 

Some of the munis I play down here around Seattle are looking the same. Tale of two courses around here between summer and winter conditions which is why I like swappable weights!

[DTorres]

33 minutes ago, PNW said:

Thanks, I’ve seen some reviews that it can spin in that range and I expect it to be higher by design. Sounds like I really need to test them though because the whole line is good (as always really with Cobra). 
 

Some of the munis I play down here around Seattle are looking the same. Tale of two courses around here between summer and winter conditions which is why I like swappable weights!

I did the same thing! Look around for some cobra fitting events and test them all out! I talked to @adamwon84 for a while about it and pretty much sold myself on getting one instead of my regular LS but ended up jiving with the LS the most. 

[PNW]

Any of the X model users happen to know their head weight along with which weights installed? I’m guessing with stock 10 and 3 it’s coming in at about 196g?

[TiScape]

On 7/10/2025 at 2:23 PM, DTorres said:

She has arrived @adamwon84

Will you leave the plastic on?

[J-Walker]

16 hours ago, PNW said:

For those that are higher speed 110-115, what kind of spin window are you getting on the Max K? Is the forgiveness difference between it and the X noticeable? I always like the idea of front/rear swappable weights because I play year round Seattle area wanting more launch/spin in a he winter and lower launch in the summer but it sounds like the Max K still doesn’t get too high spin?
 

Nile 12? They need to water those fairways!

I’m a high spin player and own the Max K and LS. SS currently around 110. No matter which of my shafts I use (Red Velocore+, AD-VF, Denali Black), I’m still finding the Max K to spin too high for me. The LS is consistently excellent in the spin and forgiveness category. The spin on this head is under control for me no matter where I seem to hit it on the club face. I tested the X in a fitting earlier this year and found it good but not great. Still spun a little more than I like. People who play with high spin should not be scared to give the LS a shot. It really offers an impressive level of forgiveness for this type of club.

Edited July 27 by J-Walker

[DTorres]

2 hours ago, TiScape said:

Will you leave the plastic on?

Nope stained it already

Edited July 27 by DTorres