Why Max Homa is playing Cobra’s ‘working prototype’ driver | Tour Report

Max Homa is playing a new Cobra driver this week at the American Express, but it’s not the one Tour Rep Ben Schomin fit him for a few months ago. Nor was it a driver anyone expected the six-time PGA Tour winner to play.

At last week’s TGL match, Homa was still playing the Cobra DS-Adapt FX Tour head that he used for most of last season. That head was a big influence on the shaping of Cobra’s new core model driver, the OPTM-X.

But when it became time to get his 2026 PGA Tour season — his second with Cobra Golf — underway, he made the surprising choice to game Cobra’s OPTM Max-K driver after a late testing session with Schomin Sunday evening in Palm Desert. The specific model was a prototype known as the Max LS-K.

What’s so surprising is that Schomin fit Homa into the OPTM-X a few months ago in the lead-up to the driver’s launch last week.

While Schomin said he was happy with the fit, Homa was going through swing changes with his coach, Mark Blackburn, last fall.

“That FX was obviously the driver that he was hitting best,” Schomin told GOLF. “So, he kind of just wanted to keep using that to prove out what he had been doing with Mark. And some of those things were related to his delivery and his launch. For him to work through it, it was easier to keep the same driver because then he was able to see exactly what was happening in his swing.”

Homa’s driving has taken a dive the past two seasons, dropping from 25th in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in 2022 to 164th in 2024 and 106th last year. Since reuniting with Blackburn in the fall, Schomin said he’s been working on maintaining his posture and covering the ball more through impact.

With that change, Homa wanted a driver that launched a touch higher, so he didn’t feel like he had to lift the ball into the air. That’s where the LSK driver came in.

The prototype was first put into play by Gary Woodland last month at the PNC Championship and Schomin called it a “working prototype.” Because it’s not a production model like the regular OPTM LS, X and Max-K, they can still make changes to it. The goal is to test design and performance concepts to potentially utilize in future production models.

Compared to the production Max-K, the LSK has a similar shape, but a lower and deeper CG to lower spin and produce a neutral-to-fade bias, Schomin said.

That gave Homa the launch he was looking for, even if it wasn’t the driver most thought he would play. Schomin said with the LSK, he can swing freer after seeing a drop in clubhead speed of about 1 mph the last two seasons.

“Because of the CG positioning in it, it is a different feel compared to what he’s been used to,” Schomin said. “So I was a little surprised that he right away was kind of feeling pretty good with it.

“Definitely not the norm on how we would get somewhere, but it’s a pretty cool way on how we got there.”

Homa has hit 68 percent of his fairways through two rounds and is averaging nearly 309 yards off the tee.

A trend we’re tracking:

Homa’s switch to the OPTM Max LS-K isn’t unique on the PGA Tour. In addition to his Cobra stablemates Woodland and Jason Dufner, more players are playing higher forgiveness heads than ever before.

Last year, of the winningest drivers on the PGA Tour, only the Titleist GT3 would be considered a low-spin head. The other big winners were the TaylorMade Qi10, GT2, and Ping G440 LST.

This year, the trend is the same with 12 TaylorMade Qi4D core models going in play versus just 4 LS heads. Five years ago, that number would likely have been reversed. You’re also seeing something similar with Ping G440 K driver, a high-forgiveness head that has found a niche with players of all swing speeds.

With Chris Gotterup winning last week with a G440 LST — Ping’s low spin head, but on par with many other companies’ high-forgiveness models — we’ll be keeping an eye out to see if more players end up winning with high forgiveness heads this season.

Cobra OPTM Max-K Custom Driver

$599.00 from Fairway Jockey

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore, Cobra

SM11’s big debut

Titleist Vokey wedges have built a loyal following both on Tour and at retail, and nowhere is that more evident than this week for the launch of SM11.

With Titleist having made very subtle tweaks to the SM11 platform — and those tweaks having a meaningful impact — a whopping 52 different players put a total of 149 SM11 wedges in play out of the Amex field of 154, making it the most played wedge model.

What makes this more impressive is that many players were seeing the final SM11 product for the first time this week.

Vokey Tour Rep Aaron Dill told GOLF that players who were in the field at the Sony Open last week were ineligible for pre-seeding before this week.

That includes players like Michael Brennan, Brian Campbell, Bud Cauley, Cam Davis, Russell Henley, Joe Highsmith, Billy Horschel, Johnny Keefer, Davis Riley and more who all made the switch at PGA West without being able to take wedges home to test.

But that doesn’t mean those players weren’t involved in the development of the new wedges. In an interview last month, Dill specifically called out Justin Thomas, Russell Henley, Robert MacIntyre and more.

“Billy Horschel’s great too,” Dill told GOLF. “Billy, he doesn’t hold anything back, and I love that about him. He’s one of those guys that’ll tell you straight up, ‘You know, this is what I like. This is what I don’t like.’

“There’s just a great list of guys, even guys who are not on staff that I’ll see often, I’ll rely on them too, because they’re close to me, they’re vocal and I really respect their vision and their taste.”

Among the 149 wedges, 28 were Vokey pitching wedges, including Charley Hoffman and Haotong Li, who gamed the 44.10F, a new third pitching wedge loft option in the SM11 line after being a WedgeWorks exclusive last year.

Titleist Vokey SM11 Tour Chrome Wedge

Titleist Vokey Design’s new SM11 wedges feature a new precise CG position across each grind in a loft, meaning every wedge will now perform the same way with the same strike.

$199.99 from PGA Tour Superstore

Notable SM11 setups this week:

Ludvig Aberg: 50.08F, 54.10S, WedgeWorks 60L
Russell Henley: 48.10F, 50.08F, 54.10S, 60.04T
Max Greyserman: WedgeWorks 60L
Max Homa: WedgeWorks 60L
Billy Horschel: WedgeWorks 60V
Johnny Keefer: 46.10F, 50.12F, 54.10S, 60.04T
S.H. Kim: 52.08F, 56.10S, WedgeWorks 60K*
Keith Mitchell: 60.04T

Getting to the Quantum realm

Sam Burns, Akshay Bhatia and Si Woo Kim were all players who held on to older Callaway drivers last year.

But this week, all three are firmly into the new Quantum Triple Diamond drivers.

Perhaps the most notable is Bhatia, who was still holding on to a 4-year-old Rouge ST Max LS last season, despite trying multiple Elyte models.

Bhatia has unique needs with his extreme out-to-in swing path and his unique Quantum Triple Diamond Max setup matches that. Instead of having a heavy weight and light weight in the rear to give the driver a flight bias, Bhatia has two 6g in the back ports and 7g in the front to get the driver to a beefy D7 swingweight and also push the MOI higher, a goal of Bhatia and his coach.

Callaway Quantum Triple Diamond Max Custom Driver

$699.99 from Fairway Jockey

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore, Callaway

“They don’t like him playing drivers where all the weight is forward because they feel like they lose so much control,” Callaway Tour Content Manager Johnny Thompson told GOLF “If he toes it, the spin can really plummet, and that’s where he gets in trouble. With the Triple Diamond Max, the spin isn’t dropping as much and the miss is way more manageable.”

He’s also playing the driver at a long-drive-esque 6.5˚ of loft because of the way he opens the face to counter his in-to-out swing path.

Akshay Bhatia’s Quantum Triple Diamond Max Specs:

Head: Quantum Triple Diamond MAX 8.5
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7-X
Tipping: 1” tip
Length: 45 1/8” finished 
OptiFit: N/-2 w/ A cog
Swingweight: D7
Weights: 6g Neutral and 6g Fade
Grip: Iomic Sticky Black 2.3 down 

Sam Burns was hanging on to a now-three-year-old Paradym Triple Diamond S, a driver that was specifically designed for him.

The big thing for him with the new Quantum Triple Diamond was maintaining the shape and bias he had with his smaller TD S head and getting the same start lines. Once the driver was set up to do that, Burns got a huge consistency boost thanks to the advances in the Ai face design on Callaway’s drivers.

Callaway Quantum Triple Diamond Custom Driver

$699.99 from Fairway Jockey

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore, Callaway

“The way he has it set up, it basically mimicked his start line and fall line. But when you think about AI Smoke and then Elite into Quantum, that’s basically three years worth of AI and swing data going into these faces,” Thompson said. “If you have a face that can’t handle toe balls and heel balls, the curve can grow really fast. Toe balls become straight pulls, heel balls over-curve, and it gets frustrating. For Sam, tightening that spin dispersion was huge.”

Sam Burns’s Quantum Triple Diamond Specs:

Head: Quantum Triple Diamond 9.0 
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 7-TX
Optifit: D/S
Weights: Neutral Weight (Heel)
Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Align Mid

Lastly, Si Woo Kim, whose Paradym Ai-Smoke Triple Diamond lasted an extra season for 2025, the Quantum was almost love at first sight.

“It was almost plug and play,” Thompson said. “I mean, there really wasn’t a ton of work that was done with Si Woo. He hit a few shots, and he was like, ‘This thing’s awesome,’ and literally that was it.”

The speed gains were important for Kim, who isn’t one of the longer hitters on Tour and will fight for whatever speed gains he can get.

Si Woo Kim’s Quantum Triple Diamond Specs:

Head: Quantum Triple Diamond 9.0 
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black+ 6-X
Length: 44 15/16″ EOG
Tipping: 1″
Optifit: N/S
Weights: Neutral Weight (Heel)
Swingweight: D4
Grip: Golf Pride MCC ND Blackout 58R

Check this out

This section is dedicated to one cool photo we’ve snapped recently on Tour, but haven’t had a reason to share yet. For this week, check out Rickie Fowler’s Cobra 3DP RFKT irons.

Odds and Ends

Some other gear changes and notes we’re tracking this week.

Both Danny Walker and Kensei Hirata added Fujikura’s new Ventus TR Blue with VeloCore+ 6-X shaft to their drivers. Hirata played with it at Sony and was second in accuracy … Aldrich Potgieter made his PXG debut with 13 clubs from the OEM, including a new Lightning Tour driver … Dustin Johnson is back in a TaylorMade driver, gaming a 10.5 Qi4D this week … Matt McCarty is playing TaylorMade’s unreleased 2026 TP5 golf ball … Newly minted gear free agent Wyndham Clark has a Ping G430 LST driver and a split set of Srixon ZXi5 and ZXi7 irons … Jason Day is playing with a “rubbish bin” top of bag with a TaylorMade M5 driver and M6 3-wood each with the unreleased KBS TG Black shaft … Day also has a new set of Avoda cavity-back irons. This is the third generation of his prototype curved-face irons with the company … Scottie Scheffler added a new Qi4D 7-wood while returning to his Qi10 driver and 3-wood … Neal Shipley switched to the Ping G440 K after playing the LST model last week … Patrick Cantlay officially put the G440 LST he initially used in TGL … Emiliano Grillo added Callaway’s prototype Apex TC irons … Project X’s new Titan wood shaft officially launched on Tour with Stephan Jaeger (driver and 3-wood), Johnny Keefer, (driver and 3-wood), Nick Dunlap and Sami Valimaki all putting it in play … True Temper launch a new ICON no taper putter grip … across all three tours in play this week (PGAT, DPWT, KFT), TaylorMade had 250 fairway woods in play including 112 at the Amex … Eric Cole added a Qi4D 3-wood.

3 things you should read/watch

A selection of GOLF content from the past week that may interest you.

How does a pro test a new driver? We show you with Charles Howell III – LIV Golf pro Charles Howell III takes the entire Callaway Quantum lineup out for a spin.

PXG makes another tour staff splash with Aldrich Potgieter signing – PXG makes its second major signing of an otherwise quiet start to the season, adding to its stable of youthful big hitters.

PXG Lightning Tour Custom Driver

$649.00 from Fairway Jockey

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ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PXG

The new Vokey wedges can do what!?… – Vokey Tour Rep Aaron Dill puts Johnny Wunder through the new SM11 line just like he would for a PGA Tour pro.

The author welcomes your comments at Jack.Hirsh@golf.com.

Want to overhaul your bag in 2026? Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.