Nike Ignite Driver Review

In the last couple of years Nike has made huge progress on their way to becoming one of the major players in the golf club industry. Their product designs and their marketing have both gotten better.   Several notable player endorsement deals in the off-season such as K.J. Choi, Justin Leonard, and Paul Casey should …

In the last couple of years Nike has made huge progress on their way to becoming one of the major players in the golf club industry. Their product designs and their marketing have both gotten better.

 

Several notable player endorsement deals in the off-season such as K.J. Choi, Justin Leonard, and Paul Casey should help too as will the recent success of Stephen Ames and Grace Park.

 

With the new Ignite, Nike has developed one of the best drivers on the market. It is available in two different heads; a 410 cc head with a square setup and a 460 cc head that sits closed to help draw the ball. The driver face is constructed using a metal that Nike calls NexTi; which is a very thin, strong, and light titanium alloy. The use of NexTi along with the Around the Crown design (similar to Callaway's cup-face) makes the Ignite driver extremely long and incredibly forgiving. The idea behind the Around the Crown design is to create a more effective energy transfer thus giving the club a larger effective hitting area. The Ignite comes stock with a Nike graphite shaft, the shaft is actually designed by Fujikura and is one of the best stock shafts available. It is suitable for most players including those with higher club head speeds. The golfer looking for a higher trajectory may have to look at a different shaft though.

 

Since it was introduced last summer the Ignite has drawn rave reviews. It is long, forgiving, and controllable. It has a pear-shaped head and is quite pleasing to look at although the traditionalist will likely prefer the 410 for its smaller head size and square setup at address. Custom shaft options are available but somewhat slow, and left-handed selection is fairly limited. Other than that there really are no drawbacks to this club.

 

Overall Rating – 97%

 

Target Handicap: Anyone

 

Ball Flight: 410 – mid-high, 460 – high

 

Lofts: 410 – 8.5, 9.5, 10.5 (RH only)

 

460 – 8.5, 9.5, 10.5, Lucky 13 (LH available only 9.5 and 10.5)

 

Shafts – Fujikura graphite in Ladies, Senior, Regular, Stiff, and X-Stiff