Should you play game-improvement irons? | Bag Builders

Cobra Golf's new for 2026 KING irons are for the golfer looking for help. Jake Morrow / GOLF Game-improvement (GI) irons, like the new for 2026 Cobra King irons, seem to get a really bad reputation, which is sad because I think they’re actually my favorite category of irons to test and talk about. The problem with GI-style irons is that they’re big, and that hurts people’s egos.

Nobody wants their buddy making fun of them on the first tee when they pull out a large and in charge 7-iron. The truth is, though, there are probably more golfers who could benefit from playing this style of iron than any other. Game-improvement irons are designed to be the most helpful and to make scoring easier. They aren’t just for slower players or beginners.

They’re for anybody who just needs a little assistance. The category has also grown over the past decade, and there are actually micro-categories within the GI bucket to really make sure that players are getting the level of help they need. The biggest problem that I see, though? We don’t talk about GI irons properly.

The Cobra King game improvement irons for 2026 Jake Morrow / GOLF Opportunity versus guaranteed results What I mean when I say we don’t talk about them properly is that it’s often incorrectly stated — even by me — what they actually do. Nothing in club fitting is black and white. There aren’t magical guaranteed fixes for any club in the bag, or any category of club that they fall into.

While GI irons are typically larger designs with more forgiveness (M.O.I.), wider, higher-bounce soles, and a lower center of gravity (C.G.) position, that doesn’t mean that they are going to be super straight high-launching options for every player. Instead, the correct way to think is that they are easier to launch higher or to get away with mishits.

The way they are designed gives them the chance to do those things better than other designs, but ultimately, performance is dictated by impact. Different players are going to get the club to the ball in different ways, and not everyone will have the same experience. I tested some offerings from Cobra using my Foresight QuadMax, and this data demonstrates what I mean.

Comparing averages across 10 shots with each offering Foresight Sports You can see in the data that the launch numbers don’t shift much between my Cobra 3DP MB irons and the new Cobra King GI style irons I tested. The big difference, though, is in spin and speed. Even with the Cobra King GI iron being 6.5º stronger than the 3DP MB, the launch remains about the same.

The good news, though, is that’s the real point, and the one I want to drive home. There’s a miscommunication in what “higher launching” actually means. Topline comparison between the Cobra King GI style iron and the Cobra 3DP.MB irons currently in the author’s bag Jake Morrow / GOLF Game-improvement irons and stronger lofts This is one of my least favorite topics to discuss.

The internet gets bent out of shape over it, and it’s the number one most mistalked about topic in the entire game of golf: loft jacking. Loft jacking is the process of strengthening the lofts of an iron set. Usually, that carries a negative connotation that OEMs like Cobra are just trying to fake extra distance by giving your 7-iron the loft of your 5-iron.

But that’s not the only reason they do it, which brings us back to launch. When designing a game-improvement-style iron, it’s important to give it as low a center of gravity as possible. This encourages launch, no matter who is swinging the golf club. The problem is that modern design and C.G. placement have started to launch the ball too high, to the point where other launch characteristics are negatively affected.