Despite no longer making golf clubs and when doing so only for a relatively short time, Nike has left quite the legacy in the golf industry. This was thanks to the combination of innovation in their design, with the dominance of their athlete stable - led, of course, by Tiger Woods. Nike drivers can count numerous wins on the PGA Tour and European Tour, as well as multiple Majors, in the hands of Woods, Rory McIlroy, and more recently Tommy Fleetwood, who is still playing with some of his old Nike equipment.
Nike drivers have evolved over the years; from the breakthrough Ignite which Tiger used to win the 2005 Masters (the one with the chip in!), the SUMO and SQ years, into Covert when Nike really started differentiating themselves from the pack. They had previous for innovation bringing one of the first square-headed drivers to market in the form of the Nike SUMO SQ which turned heads when KJ Choi debuted it on the range, not only for the way it looked but the unique sound it made too!
It was with the Covert driver though where Nike really established themselves a proper alternative to the usual suspects. Taking cavity back technology from irons Nike engineered a huge cavity in the rear of the sole. This allowed engineers to position weight elsewhere to increase forgiveness. Following this, and what turned out to be their last drivers, was the Vapor family. More traditional in look, they still included the cavity back (on a smaller scale) and introduced moveable weight to Nike drivers for the first time with the Flex model. There was a small cartridge running front to back was heavier at one end to bring forward or push back the CG location - weight at the front for a spin killing distance machine, and at the back for max forgiveness.
Other keywords to look out for when browsing second-hand Nike drivers are Pro and Tour. These drivers are going to be geared to the better player with a slightly smaller head size for increased workability and slightly reduced levels of forgiveness.
Despite no longer making golf clubs Nike remains a force in the game providing apparel for the best players in the world including Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Brooks Koepka, all former world number 1s.
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