Cobra S3 Irons Review – Are They Forgiving & Good for High Handicappers?

Cobra S3 Irons Review – Are They Forgiving & Good for High Handicappers?

“The Cobra S3 irons fall somewhere between a game improvement and players performance iron set.”

They are from 2011 so they aren’t ancient. But are they any good for beginners and high handicappers? Read on to find out!

Cobra S3 Irons Overview

“The Cobra S3 irons feature what Cobra calls the Sweet Zone which is apparently bigger than a sweet spot.”

I could definitely feel the effects of the “sweet zone” in the long irons. It felt like I simply couldn’t miss with them. And like the Cobra S9 irons, the S3’s have a polymer top line instead of a full metal top line. This helps save weight to hopefully get your club head speed up.

The Cobra S3 irons also feature the famous E9 face which is basically a metal-wood face elded onto the body of an iron. When you combine the E9 face with the large oval-shaped sweet spot of the long irons, you end up with a pretty forgiving iron.

At address, my assertion that these are game improvement irons were confirmed. The Cobra S3s have a moderately thick top line and soles to match. They aren’t massive; but no one will mistake these irons for blades either.

The Cobra S3 irons also feature the urethane cavity badge which covers a good portion of the cavity. On mis-hits, the Cobra S3s felt very smooth as a result of this urethane badge.

The biggest advantage to using these irons though is distance and launch. I found that they played about an iron’s worth of distance longer than my gamers. So the Cobra S3 6-iron played as long as my 5-iron.

And the Cobra S3 irons get the ball up in  a hurry. The face plays very hot and gets the ball to its apex height very fast. I also really liked chipping with the shorter irons in this set. I felt that I had total control over height and side spin. Knockdown shots are a breeze with these irons.

Are the Cobra S3 Irons Forgiving?

“I felt like I could use the whole face and still get the same results.”

The overall shot dispersion I got from these irons was very tight. With the 7-iron, I was landing just a few yards right of the hole – even on shots I felt were thin. The long irons are very forgiving. Mis-hits were picking up and maintaining good ball speed and the side spin wasn’t ridiculous.

For the most part, mis-hits were veering no more than 9 yards off-line. In the short irons, the margin for error got a bit thinner. But the dispersion was still tight overall. You just have to be careful about hitting the ball thin with the short irons – your ball will fall much shorter than you want.

The Cobra S3 irons have moderately chunky soles as well. This proved to be advantageous in the semi-rough. I had no problem plucking the ball out of the grass with the Cobra S3 irons. And in the first place, you probably won’t be hanging out in the weeds if you’re using these irons. They play straight, long and high.

Are the Cobra S3 Irons Good for Beginners & High Handicappers?

“I would have no issue recommending these irons to high handicappers; but I would reserve my recommendation of them to beginners.”

The short irons in this set are made for better players. And that’s not a knock on this set at all. It’s actually really cool that they made the long irons playable for all skill levels while reserving more workability in the short irons. It makes the overall performance of this set more dynamic.

But a lot of that workability will be lost on pure beginners. I would say that these irons are really good for high and mid handicappers – say, anyone in the 12-24 handicap range. The Cobra S3s are the irons that will help mid handicappers transition to low handicappers and high handicappers into mid handicappers.

Should You Buy the Cobra S3 or the Cobra S3 Max Irons?

“As the name implies, the Cobra S3 Max is a set of oversized irons.”

Whereas everything is moderate in the standard  Cobra S3 irons, everything is big in the Cobra S3 Max irons: top line, soles, cavity and offset. The Cobra S3 Max irons are super game improvement irons and would be the better choice if you are a beginner.