New Nike VR Hybrids, Fairway Woods, And Drivers (Spy Pics)
Becuase of the success of the Victory Red irons and wedges, Nike has decided to extend the line into hybrids, woods, and drivers.
Nike worked closely with it's sponsored professionals to develop the new VR line up, which is considered to be much more traditional looking than what Nike currently offers in their Summo models.
Nike Victory Red Hybrids
The new Victory Red hybrids were created with the mid to high handicapper in mind. They offer a substantial amount of workability and distance. Engineers at Nike decided to open the face slightly and move the center of gravity forward, allowing for this increase in forgiveness, distance, and workability.
"We have accomplished what we wanted to with these hybrids. We wanted to achieve a higher launch angle with significantly less spin. We've done that through altering the face angle and finding the proper center of gravity measurements." - Tom Stites, Director of Club Creation for Nike
The new Nike VR hybrid also features a 455 Ultra Thin steel face with a Split Compression Channel, for more distance across the entire clubface.
Loft options range from 15° up to a 24°, with all but the 15° available for both right-handed and left-handed players.
The Nike Victory Red Hybrid will also come with a standard Aldila VooDoo graphite shaft, Nike Golf Crossline grip, and a suggested retail price of $203.99.
Nike Victory Red STR8-Fit Tour Fairway Woods
First, and maybe most importantly, the new VR fairway woods are much different than last years SQ Dymo fairway woods. The most noticeable difference is no square headed option, which is great because those were gross. However, if you're looking for the forgiveness of a square head, Nike will be releasing it's Machspeed lineup shortly.
Secondly you will find the added STR8-Fit adjustable(32 different options) technology that was only seen in previous 2009 SQ Dymo STR8-Fit drivers. The Nike Victory Red Fairway Woods will also feature the 455 ultra-thin steel face and Split Compression Channel for added distance, similar to the new VR Hybrid, and actually a variation of the new Victory Red Driver.
"Our athletes prefer a smooth sole design for optimized playability on tight fairway lies. In order to achieve that, we split the compression channel on the sole to provide improved performance from every lie." -Tom Stites
Loft options range from 13° strong 3 wood (for righties only), 15° 3-wood, 17° 4-wood, and 19° 5 wood.
The Nike Victory Red Fairway Woods will also come standard with an Aldila Voodoo shafts(A, R, S, or X flex) and a suggested retail price of $299.
Victory Red Tour and Victory Red STR8-Fit Tour Drivers
As you can see in the pictures, Nike has created two versions of the new VR Driver - the 420cc VR Tour(right top two pics) and the 460cc VR STR8-Fit Tour(right bottom two pics). Again, the most noticeable difference from past drivers is that they look more traditional, and basically badass. No more crazy yellow or boxy heads. Just smooth clean lines, with a techie graphical look on the sole of the head. It's seems as though Nike really did listen to the feedback from players, and as a result created some incredible new drivers.
The other very noticeable difference between the two clubs is the lack of STR8-Fit(32 different options) Technology on the 420cc head. We can only assume that Nike wanted to create a model for two kinds of players. The ones that like the big head, latest technology, and adjustability - and the ones that prefer a smaller cleaner head. Brilliant in our opinion.
The STR8-Fit comes standard with the Aldila VooDoo graphite shaft, while the VR Tour comes with the Project X graphite shaft. Both are available in Regular, Stiff, and X-Stiff flex profiles. Suggested retail price on both models is $479.99. Nike is also offering their "Signing Bonus" program, where upon the purchase of one of their new products, you're given credit to purchase other products such as apparel or balls.
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Golf Gear Updates: Rory McIlroy’s New Titleist Irons, Nike VR Hybrids and Martin Kaymer’s Winning TaylorMade Clubs
Titleist
Rory McIlroy, who finished third last week in Abu Dhabi, has switched from playing Titleist ZB muscle back blades to the company's new MB irons. McIlroy is carrying a 3- through 9-iron, 1 upright, with True Temper Project X Rifle 6.5 shafts. Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy and Robert Karlsson have also recently switched to the new clubs.
Nike
David Duval and Jamie Lovemark both experimented with an 18° Nike Victory Red Hybrid before the start of the rain-soaked Bob Hope Classic in Palm Springs, Calif.
Nike also reports that Sweden's Carl Pettersson had tour reps make him a Victory Red Split Cavity 4- and 5-iron last week. Pettersson, who plays Victory Red Forged Blades (5-PW), joins a group of several other Nike staff players who have created combo sets using various Nike clubs.
Paul Casey — Pro Combo OS (3), Nike Forged Blades (4-PW)
Stewart Cink — Pro Combo OS (2, 4), Victory Red Split Cavity (5-PW)
Justin Leonard — Pro Combo Tungsten (3), Nike Forged Blades (4-PW)
Pablo Martin — Victory Red Full Cavity (3-7) and Nike Forged Blades (8-PW)
Anthony Kim — Victory Red Full Cavity (3), Nike Forged Blades (4-PW)
TaylorMade
Martin Kaymer (right) won last week's European Tour event in Abu Dhabi. The win, which moved the German to a career-high sixth position in the world rankings, was his first using TaylorMade clubs. Kaymer had previously played Titleist equipment.
Kaymer played a TaylorMade R9 460 driver (8.5°) with a Ping prototype 824-X shaft, an R9 3-wood (13°) with a Mitsubishi Rayon Fubuki 73 X shaft and aBurner TP 5-wood (17.5) with a Mitsubishi Rayon Fubuki 83 X shaft. He also played TaylorMade's RAC TP irons (3-9) and wedges (54°, 58°) and the company'sPenta ball. Kaymer's putter was a Ping Karsten Series Anser 2.
At Torrey Pines this week, TaylorMade will be debuting the newest Kia Ma putters. According to the company, the new putters will have weight ports that will allow for easy and quick customization.
[Via Golf.com]
Nike Dymo 380 Tour
Here are some spy pics of the Nike Dymo 380cc driver (click read more to see more). So far it's only been seen on tour, and notably in the hands of players like Tiger, AK, and Duval. There are no official reports on whether or not Nike will release the driver to the public, but we hope there will be eventually. It seems to be a cleaner tour version of the Dymo drivers that are currently available. It also has a really cool black finish on the crown and is supposedly not that much harder to hit than the larger versions.
(Click read more to see more Nike Dymo 380 Tour spy pics)
Nike Dymo Drivers 2009
Nike will soon be releasing the Dymo series drivers for 2009
Sources claim that these new drivers have better feel, forgiveness, and added distance.
These Dymo Drivers will be replacing Nike's SQ line-up, which was not all that great in our opinion.
These new clubs will be offered in STR-8 Fit(above left) and Square(above right). The STR-8 Fit system is said to be similar to the Callaway I-MIX drivers in that they will be able to easily change shafts based on your own preferences. Needless to say its pretty exciting that Nike may be venturing into some decent driver designs.
Nike Air Zoom Elite II, Air Zoom Tour
The Nike Air Zoom Elite II and Air Zoom Tour were just released this past September. They will continue to be released in multiple colors and styles through out the next few months. This will also include the Tiger Edition(bottom picture) sometime in November.
Victory Red Nike Irons
The Nike Victory Red Irons are just one segment of an entire new collection set to start shipping on November 1st. They will also be releasing wedges, woods, and balls as well, but we felt as though the irons were the highlight of the line because of their look, and our positive experiences with other Nike irons in the past.
They will come in the three different sets listed above: Victory Red Forged TW Blade, Victory Red Forged Split Cavity Irons, and Victory Red Full Cavity Irons
The entire Victory Red line was obviously created with a large amount of Tiger inspiration, as most Nike Golf gear usually is; however, its funny to think about all the Pro's on Tour that will see his initials every time they take a club out of their bags.
Update: The tour edition blades have been seen with player specific initials.
