Nike Vapor fairway woods and hybrids are re-engineered to be lighter and faster.
Longer, faster and stronger. That’s what Nike’s
staff of golfers wanted most out
the company’s new lineup of fairway woods
and hybrids.
Nike’s pre-existing line, the Covert 2.0,
wasn’t exactly chopped liver. Rory McIlroy
racked up a monster season in 2014 with a
bunch of them in his bag. I would even argue
that his 5-wood approach shot over water at
the Honda Classic’s dangerous finishing hole
would’ve been the shot of the year had he not
lost to Russell Henley in a playoff.
But that’s in the past. McIlroy has
moved forward with a new Vapor fairway
wood in the run up leading to the 2015
Masters. He, along with other Nike players
requested lighter designs for their
woods and hybrids, plus higher launch and
more forgiveness.
In describing the new Vapor fairway
woods, Nate Radcliffe, Director of Engineering
for Nike Golf said, “Athlete insights drove
significant chassis refinement. [They] wanted
tighter but forgiving leading edges, fuller
profiles and added ball speed. We’ve delivered
that with the synergy of our FlyBeam and
compression channel technologies.”
Let me paraphrase what Radcliffe is
saying. The Vapor fairway woods and hybrids
are better. I can attest to that having played a
Covert fairway wood and hybrid for nearly a
year.
Building off of the signature technology found
in the Covert line, namely the cavity back sole
which allowed mass to be repositioned
towards the front to improve ball speeds and
MOI, the Vapor woods and hybrids benefit
from a pair of FlyBeams that reinforce the
redesigned sole. When paired with a
compression channel that runs across the
bottom of the club just behind the face, these
clubs produce lower spin rates and better ball
speeds compared to their predecessors.
Vapor Speed and Flex Fairway
Woods
The Vapor fairway woods are available
in two models, the Speed and Flex. The
Speed weighs a little less than the Flex. It has
a larger, shallower face that makes it easy to square up. According to Nike, the Vapor
Speed fairway wood has a 25 percent larger
head than the previous model. It also features
a sloped crown that allowed engineers to
lower the center of gravity cutting down the
spin rate.
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Nike's
Vapor Speed fairway wood emphasizes high
launch, low spin and excellent forgiveness.
|
The Vapor Flex has many of the same
characteristics as the Speed. It’s lighter than
last year’s Covert Tour model and spins less.
And much like the Covert Tour wood, the Flex
features a smaller head (relative to the
Speed) and uses Nike’s FlexLoft 2 adjustable
hosel to let golfers optimize their launch
conditions.
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The
darker, bolder Vapor Flex features Nike's
FlexLoft 2 adjustable hosel. |
Side by side, I personally prefer the
darker face material on the Vapor Flex woods
and hybrids over the silver finish on the Speed
models. The dark finish blends better with the
glossy black crown, makes the adjustable
hosel appear less chunky and generally makes
the head on both woods and hybrids look
more compact which some golfers naturally
prefer. As a fan of adjustable hosels, I like
being able to change the loft incrementally to
better suit my gapping needs. Keep in mind, if
you plan on playing the bonded Vapor Speed
fairway wood, you’ll need to decide between
two lofts (15 and 19 degrees) which certainly
limits your choices.
Performance - Fairway Woods
I demoed a 15-degree Vapor Speed
paired with a stock Mitsubishi Rayon Fubuki Z
60 shaft (stiff flex). The Vapor Flex was set at
the same launch angle and used a stock
Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana S+ 70 shaft (stiff
flex).
My gamer, a Nike Covert 2.0
performance 3-wood, registered 4000 rpm of
total spin and a 13-degree launch angle using
a Foresight GC2 launch monitor. Using that as
a baseline, the Vapor Speed launched three
degrees lower and generated a spin rate of
3000 rpm, a significant reduction. The Vapor
Flex launched lower (8.4 degrees) than the
Speed, but spun more (3700 rpm).
All three clubs generated solid numbers.
Predictably, both the Vapor Speed and Flex
were longer than my Covert by six to eight
yards on average. As much as I like my
gamer, I ended up preferring both Vapor
models. The ball really jumps off the face;
maybe it’s due to the compression channel,
maybe it’s the larger heads. As far as
accuracy, both the Speed and Flex flew pretty
straight (less than 15 yards offline) and
outperformed my Covert which pushes balls to
the right when I miss hit the club.
Vapor Speed and Flex
Hybrids
Like the fairway woods in the Vapor
line, the new hybrids from Nike also benefit
from the FlyBeam reinforced cavity back and
a compression channel which has an optimized
shape for the smaller heads found on these
clubs.
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A side-
by-side comparison of the Nike Vapor Speed
and Flex hybrids. |
If you like your hybrids on the generous
side, you’ll definitely prefer playing these.
Nike’s hybrids are designed more like
miniature woods than driving irons. Both
models launch high and go far.
From fairway lies and out of the rough, I
personally still prefer the slightly more
compact head design of the Covert Tour
hybrid. Nike did a respectable job replicating
the half-moon shape of my gamer on the new
Vapor Flex, but it’s not a carbon copy. That
being said, the Flex still behaves more like a
tour model than the Speed. It has much lower
center of gravity and a straighter leading edge
that sits tighter to the turf that amplifies its
versatility. Players who want a little higher
ball flight and a little more forgiveness will
prefer the Vapor Speed.
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FlyBeam structure and a
NexCOR face offer excellent stability and
increased ball speed on all Vapor fairway
woods and hybrids. |
Like the fairway woods, the Vapor
Speed hybrid is not adjustable. It comes in the
following lofts: 17, 20, 23 and 26 degrees. The
Vapor Flex hybrid has a FlexLoft 2 adjustable
hosel. Nike’s system has five loft options - 17
to 21 degrees in the 3H and 21 to 25 degrees
in the 4H. When paired with three face angles,
FlexLoft 2 lets you adjust the club 15 different
ways.
Performance - Hybrids
I tested a Vapor Speed 3H (17 degrees)
with a stock Mitsubishi Rayon Fubuki Z 70
shaft (stiff flex). The Vapor Flex (same loft)
came with a stiff-flex Mitsubishi Rayon
Diamana S+ 80 shaft. They went up against
my Covert 2.0 Tour hybrid which launched at
10.2 degrees and delivered an average 3400
rpm of total spin.
Both models excelled in accuracy, but
the Vapor Flex won the blue ribbon for
performance. It launched slightly higher than
my gamer and knocked the spin down by 100
rpm. The Vapor Flex carried the ball 11 yards
further than the Covert, and 13 yards more
than the Speed.
Out of the three hybrids, the Vapor
Speed launched the highest and spun the most
(3650 rpm). Depending on how you intend to
use your hybrids, the Vapor Speed might end
up being the better of the two clubs if you’re
willing to sacrifice a little distance in favor of
a higher launch and softer landing.
Who’s It For?
They may not have delivered a
resounding knockout, but the new fairway
woods and hybrids are more than capable of
out-performing the previous generation
Coverts. Pound-for-pound they may not offer
massive distance gains (your own results may
vary) but they do make it easier to find the
sweet spot shot-after-shot and can’t be bested
for accuracy.
Anyone who is currently playing a set of
Coverts should give these clubs some serious
consideration. For everyone else who is
thinking about upgrading to a newer
generation of fairway woods or hybrids that
are lightweight and easy-to-handle, Nike
offers a set of balanced clubs that appeal to
players who like bigger-than-average head
shapes and and ultra-modern designs.