NIKE GOLF RELEASES SECRET BEHIND NEW
IGNITE DRIVER
Evolutionary New Material and
Unique Construction Redefine Distance, Forgiveness
BEAVERTON, Ore. Nike Golf's next generation
driver, the Ignite, has already been part of three professional
victories thanks to Tiger Woods, Rory Sabbatini and Trevor
Immelman. It's benefits and the goals of Nike Golf's team of
golf club engineers, peak distance and forgiveness, have already
been showcased yet it's the secret behind why Ignite helps
players get hot that Nike Golf has not disclosed until today.
Not one but two milestone advances in golf club technology -
NexTi and the Around the Crown design - provide the Ignite
driver with "unequalled control and workability," according to
Woods, and "the greatest combination of distance and forgiveness
I have ever experienced in a driver," according to Sabbatini.
The following outlines the steps Nike Golf took to achieve its
goal of a driver that reaches peak distance and control beyond
current standards.
Step 1: Material Matters
Nike Golf's club team determined that the goal of reaching peak
distance and forgiveness in a driver beyond current standards
meant, simply, raising the standards.
NexTi is the next generation in the evolution of Titanium,
following Beta-Titanium, which is currently the standard for
driver face material. Some of the world's top metallurgists
developed NexTi exclusively for Nike Golf; it has never before
been used in the construction of the face of a driver club head
in the U.S.
Although the creation of NexTi, a titanium-based alloy that can
be directionally engineered, is a proprietary process that
cannot be disclosed, the result is a layered yet tightly
compressed metal that is thinner, lighter, and stronger than
Beta-Titanium. Additionally, NexTi microfibers can be bent,
shaped and formed unlike previous forms of titanium. NexTi's
unique strength even when bended and formed allowed Nike Golf's
engineers to free their minds and push the limits of current
standards of club head design. It also allowed Nike Golf to
increase the COR to previously unimaginable limits during the
development process.
Step 2: Design Outside the Box
The unprecedented strength of NexTi gave Nike Golf's engineers
the freedom to expand the effective hitting area or "sweet spot"
of the club head face - the area of the face with the highest
and most consistent COR - creating the most efficient loss of
energy from the center of the face to the edges of the face.
Common club head design has a face much like a trampoline that
begins to lose its effective bounce the further you move away
from the center and the closer you move towards the edges.
Nike Golf's engineers developed the Around the Crown
construction that actually wraps the face over the top line of
the club head. Before the introduction of NexTi, the Around the
Crown construction was effectively unattainable in the more
forgiving larger head drivers without the risk of the face
collapsing. The expanded Sweet Spot was the next step toward
reaching peak distance and control.
Nike Golf also discovered that by combining NexTi with the
Around the Crown construction, it could increase the COR to as
high as .890. In the development of the Ignite driver Nike Golf
started with club head faces that significantly exceeded the
USGA and R&A standard of .830 then dialed it back to legal
limits rather than starting with a lower COR and building upon
it. The result is a face that is toeing the line of the legal
tolerance.
Step 3: Size Does Matter
With the goal of peak distance virtually within its grasp, Nike
Golf's club team focused on reaching extreme forgiveness. They
already knew that a larger face meant increased forgiveness and
control and that the ability to create a large head driver was
not rocket science. With that said, the team investigated taking
the driver head size to the maximum tolerance allowed by the
USGA, or 460cc, to see how it would perform with the combination
of NexTi and Around the Crown construction in an effort to reach
the goal of peak distance and forgiveness.
The team settled upon two sizes to appeal to a broad golfing
audience - a 460cc and a 410cc - with one design shape that
makes the heads not appear as large as their actual size. Often
a barometer for acceptable standards, players on the
professional tour have already begun to switch to larger head
drivers for the performance enhancements they provide. This
includes Woods, typically one of the most traditional players on
tour.
Ignition
The Ignite driver is the result of the right combination of
design, construction and material and Nike Golf's quest to reach
peak distance and forgiveness in a club intended for the
broadest audience of golfers.
By combining a thinner, lighter, stronger metal, or NexTi, with
a unique club head design that expands the effective hitting
area, or Around the Crown construction, in a larger club head,
Nike Golf is treating golfers to a driver that attains and
maintains peak distance and forgiveness performance. In a
word…Ignite.
Woods, Sabbatini, Immelman and a growing number of professional
golfers across all major professional tours including John Cook,
David Duval, Spike McRoy, Stephen Ames, Carl Petterson, Nick
Faldo, Kyle Thompson, DJ Trahan, Bo Van Pelt, Lanny Wadkins,
Grace Park and Keiichiro Fukabori, have already experienced the
wonder and results of peak performance.
Availability
While the 460cc was designed for the ultimate distance and
control through increased forgiveness, Nike Golf's club team
also knew that some players would prefer a slightly smaller head
design, and therefore created the 410cc. The following outlines
the Ignite availability:
Size Loft (Flexes)
460cc 8.5-degree (X/S);
9.5-degree (X/S/R); 10.5-degree (S/R/A); Lucky 13-degree (S/R/A)
410cc 8.5-degree (X/S);
9.5-degree (X/S/R); 10.5-degree (S/R)
460cc (LH) 9.5-degree
(X/S/R); 10.5-degree (S/R/A)
Available
April 1, 2004 at golf shops and golf specialty stores nationwide
SRP - $469
Golf's Evolution Continues
Advances in equipment technology and design have sparked
widespread change throughout golf over the years - the persimmon
head driver gave way to the cast steel head in 1979; cast steel
head made room for 6-4 titanium drivers beginning around 1993;
more subtly, Alpha (rolled) titanium face plates replaced the
cast titanium head in popularity beginning in 1997; and the Beta
(forged) titanium face plates became the standard around 2001.
In 2004, the Ignite driver will herald the first use of NexTi in
driver face construction and the advent of the Around the Crown
design - combining for peak distance and control and setting a
benchmark for new-age drivers.
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