COBRA Golf first used HP‘s BinderJet to make putters in 2020, releasing a line in 2021. The King series putters had 10 models and were made of 316L stainless steel by Parmatech. The club heads also incorporated polyamide MJF parts, reducing weight and improving the balance of the clubs. These clubs cost around $100 more than comparable ones.

Now the company is continuing its 3D printing dominance, which includes further releases of clubs, some of which we reviewed here. They are now putting the 3DP Tour Putter Family on the market. These clubs also have a 3D printed polyamide component at their core, the so-called cartridge. The clubs also have a MIM-ed body made out of 304 steel and tungsten weights for balance. The components all work in concert to help in “creating a structure that maximizes MOI while precisely controlling center of gravity for improved launch, roll and stability” and “provides crisp acoustics and a solid, responsive feel.” MOI is golfspeak for Moment of Inertia, a measure of how stable the club head and face are to swinging and hitting the ball. A better MOI means that you can afford to hit a bit off center, and the ball will still fly OK. Less MOI and a small mishit may lead to a bad stroke or, indeed, a painfully embarrassing hit. The face of the club is milled, and the club comes replete with a carbon fiber crown (top of the club head).

Senior Product Line Manager at Cobra Golf, Chad DeHart says,

“3D printing gives us total freedom to design for performance first. By shifting mass out of the center of the putter, we pushed MOI higher than ever while engineering CG placement for exceptional stability. Pairing that with a fully milled 304 stainless steel face delivers the precise, Tour-validated feel players love. This is the kind of innovation that defines Cobra.”

The putters cost $379, which is a hefty price tag. These clubs use less additive than before. It would be interesting to have a better 3D printed club face that makes the club hit balls even straighter and further. 3D printing the tungsten components could also make the clubs much better to handle, but it will be cost-prohibitive. Using binder jet or DMLS on the club head could work; it has before, but this way is probably more profitable for COBRA.

Just because someone uses 3D printing at one point doesn’t mean that that firm will continue to do so, or indeed if they’re on some unstoppable march toward increased additive adoption. Once, 3D printing was used to 3D print the antenna for tens of millions of cell phones, but subsequently, other technologies were chosen. This happens. We’re not modernity or some kind of technological chasm. We’re not a Rubicon, and companies using additive are not burning bridges or indeed burning their ships on the shore to make return impossible via them, as Alexander the Great did.

We are a choice, an option. We must therefore remain competitive and think of the long term. This is a lesson that some, who are printing millions of Apple phone cases, are not heeding. This is the full-steam-ahead crowd that is riding roughshod over convention, common sense, and accounting to hell or high water to chase scale. That play may very well work for one player, but not many more than that one player. This is a high-risk, high-return stratagem. Following in those footsteps is probably going to be a high risk low return play. Why risk it all on a 3% margin contract manufacturing business? COBRA, therefore, is being sensible here, careful with its shareholders’ money.

Will the company press ahead? Definitely, if this club family is popular. We are quietly seeing polymer 3D printed cores become a potentially commonplace option in golf clubs. This should be celebrated. For binder jetting, this looks like a setback. But better club faces and weight distribution could lead to increased adoption once again in future clubs.

If COBRA can sell many of these clubs, then maybe even higher-end clubs with more 3D printed components could be possible. 3D printing is expanding in golf. But we need to be cognizant of high material and machine prices because they could keep us smaller than we could be.