Are women's specific golf clubs right for your game?

It is always at this time of year when new golf club products are launched that you’ll see a plethora of images and videos filling your social media streams. More often than not, as this doesn’t apply to all brands, you’ll be seeing the “men’s” version of the club.

Obviously, at Women & Golf, we will show the women’s equivalent but with the large range of abilities out there, the “men’s” version may be more suitable to some women golfers. That makes it hard for us to make sure that we are pitching the products correctly and also giving all women the information that they need.

Today, Cobra has launched their latest range of clubs called DARKSPEED. Back in October, I headed to Spain for the media launch. Whilst there, I spoke to Jose Miraflor, Vice President, Marketing & Product Architecture, at Cobra Golf.

I was interested to find out directly from a brand that sells women’s specific products how it is possible to cater for all women golfers.

The starting point for this conversation was using me as an example. I currently game a driver that has a “men’s” head set to 12 degrees and the equivalent of a men’s senior flex shaft.

Where would a golfer like me sit in your new DARKSPEED driver range?

The word that comes here is choice. You are probably going to play with the DARKSPEED MAX but you have the choice of using the women’s 12 degree head built to your specs due to you being taller and having a faster swing speed. Or you could use the men’s head colourway with the same specs.

What about the average female club golfer?

What's great for the average woman club golfer is that you have choices, you have more choices, actually than a better woman golfer, because your choices are, most likely, in the Max line.

Depending on your swing speed, you have a myriad of ladies flex, senior flex, and men's regular flex shaft options depending on who you are as a club golfer. If you're using the MAX head, you have a range of 10.5 to 12 degree drivers, which can go down to nine degrees or all the way up to 13.5.

Not only that, you get to choose between two colours, you can either have the black with silver, and blue, or you can have the satin black with the red highlights. Those aren't masculine or feminine at all.

Is the choice still the same for lower handicap and/or faster swing speed player?

For better women golfers out there, with a lower handicap index you have less choice when it comes to colour but more choices when it comes to heads. You may still play a MAX head but as a better golfer you then bring the X, which has a great cross section between speed and forgiveness and you could also play with the LS head. For example, if you're really fast as a woman and you spin the ball a lot the LS is going to help reduce your spin.

The message Cobra wants to get across to women golfers is that we have choices for you, whether it’s colour choices, or just head choices along with the shaft that you’re going to use.

When Jose put it like that I realised that maybe I had been overcomplicating it for all these years. However, the problem still remains that if you see a golf club that is marketed as women's, you are more likely to try that club rather than think of using one that is marketed for men.

When you are ready to purchase a new driver, I can highly recommend getting custom fitted, especially as a female golfer. As you can see just from this new Cobra launch, there are plenty of options for every golfer, you just need to find the perfect fit for you and your swing speed.