For roughly a century, golf clubs have been made one of two ways: forging or casting. Forged irons start as a solid billet of steel that gets hammered into shape. Cast irons begin as molten metal poured into a mold. Both methods work. Both have trade-offs. And both are fundamentally limited by the same constraint — you can only shape metal that's solid all the way through.
Cobra's 3DP iron lineup, which expanded to three models in January 2026, throws that constraint out entirely. These clubs are built layer by layer using direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), a process that fuses 316L stainless steel powder with a precision laser. The result is a one-piece iron head with an internal lattice structure that simply cannot exist in a forged or cast club.
That distinction matters more than it sounds.
What's Actually Different Inside
When you cut open a traditional iron, you see solid metal. The designer's only real lever is moving mass around the exterior — thickening the sole, adding tungsten to the toe, widening the cavity. It works, but it's working within tight physical limits.
Cut open a 3DP iron and you find something that looks more like bone than steel. The internal lattice is a honeycomb-like network of thin metal walls with open space between them. Cobra says this structure reduces weight by roughly 33% compared to a solid head — and that freed-up weight gets redistributed exactly where the designer wants it.
Think about what that unlocks. A muscle-back blade — traditionally the least forgiving iron design in golf — can suddenly carry tungsten weights in both the heel and toe without getting heavier. A game-improvement iron can have a thin, fast face supported by the lattice structure instead of a bonded face insert, eliminating a potential weak point in the design.
The lattice also controls vibration and sound. Cobra claims they can tune the acoustic signature of each model by adjusting the density and geometry of the internal structure. Whether you care about the sound your irons make is personal preference, but for players who equate feel with feedback, this is a meaningful variable that forging and casting can't independently control.
The Three Models
Cobra now offers three 3D-printed iron designs, covering a wide range of player types:
3DP Tour — The original. A compact players iron with a thin topline and minimal offset. This is the model you've seen tour pros like Max Homa, Rickie Fowler, and Bryson DeChambeau put into play. It's aimed at low-handicap players who want workability and precision.
3DP MB — New for 2026. A muscle-back blade, but not a traditional one. The internal lattice allows for heel-and-toe tungsten weighting that gives this blade more stability on off-center strikes than a conventional forged MB. Cobra targets this at players around a 10 handicap — golfers who want the look and control of a blade with a bit more forgiveness built in.
3DP X — Also new for 2026. A game-improvement iron comparable in size to Cobra's KING TEC X. Tungsten weighting in the toe and hosel provides stability, and the lattice supports a thin face without needing a separate face insert. This is the model that opens 3D printing up to recreational golfers who prioritize distance and forgiveness.
All three are manufactured from 316L stainless steel using DMLS as single-piece constructions — no welds, no bonded faces, no multi-piece assemblies.
Why This Isn't Just Marketing
It's reasonable to be skeptical. Golf equipment marketing has spent decades dressing up incremental improvements as revolutions. So is 3D printing actually different, or is this just the latest way to justify a price tag?
Here's the honest case for why this technology matters: it expands what's geometrically possible in a club head. Forging is limited by how metal deforms under pressure. Casting is limited by how liquid metal flows into a mold. Both produce solid structures. Neither can create internal voids, lattices, or varying wall thicknesses within a single piece.
DMLS faces none of those constraints. The laser builds the head 20-micron layer by 20-micron layer, so any geometry that can be modeled in software can be manufactured. The internal lattice isn't a gimmick — it's a structural engineering approach borrowed from aerospace and medical implant design, where controlling weight distribution at a granular level has been standard practice for years.
That doesn't mean 3D-printed irons are automatically better for every player. But it means the design ceiling is higher. Engineers have more variables to optimize, and that gap between what's theoretically optimal and what's physically manufacturable just got a lot smaller.
The Price Question
Let's address the obvious: the 3DP X set retails at $1,980 for six irons, which works out to $330 per club. That's expensive. It's more than most forged players irons and significantly more than any game-improvement iron on the market.
Some of that premium is the cost of the technology itself — DMLS machines are expensive to operate, and the build time per head is longer than casting. Some of it is the reality that Cobra is currently the only manufacturer with a full 3D-printed iron lineup at retail, so there's no competitive pressure driving prices down yet.
Will the price come down? Almost certainly. The same pattern plays out with every manufacturing technology — early adoption is expensive, scale brings costs down. Cobra partnered with HP on the printing technology for some of their earlier 3D-printed putters, and as more manufacturers invest in additive manufacturing capability, the economics will improve.
But right now, you're paying a real premium for a real technology advantage. Whether that's worth it depends on your budget and how much you value being on the leading edge. If $330 per iron makes you flinch, there are excellent forged and cast options at half the price. Nobody needs 3D-printed irons to play good golf.
What This Means Going Forward
The bigger story isn't Cobra's 2026 lineup — it's where this technology goes in three to five years. Right now, the industry is watching closely. When multiple tour pros voluntarily switch into 3D-printed irons (and players at that level don't switch anything without exhaustive testing), other manufacturers take notice.
The prediction that 10% of all club heads would incorporate 3D-printed components by 2025 was probably optimistic, but the direction is clear. Additive manufacturing gives designers tools that subtractive and formative manufacturing simply don't. As the technology matures and costs come down, expect to see 3D-printed elements show up in clubs across every price point — not just premium iron sets.
For now, Cobra has the first-mover advantage and a lineup that covers players from tour professionals to weekend 15-handicappers. The 3DP X, in particular, matters — it's the first time a 3D-printed iron has been designed specifically for the game-improvement category, which is where most golfers actually shop.
Should You Care?
If you're in the market for irons this year and your budget allows it, the 3DP lineup is worth hitting. Not because of the technology story, but because independent reviewers have consistently praised the feel and performance. Golf Monthly called them among the best-feeling irons in golf, and the expanding tour adoption suggests the performance holds up at the highest level.
If you're not in the market, file this away: the way your next set of irons gets made is probably going to look very different from the way your current set was made. Forging and casting aren't going anywhere overnight, but the ceiling on what's possible in a club head just got raised. That benefits everyone eventually, regardless of what you play today.