We saddled up Nike's traditional looking but technologically advanced VR Pro fairway woods.
skysports.com road tests the NIke VR Pro range of fairway woods
The Nike VR Pro line is the manufacturer's flagship section of clubs, including the new fully-adaptable range of fairway woods they released at the start of 2011.
Skysports.com luckily got our greedy mitts on a couple of VR Pro fairways woods to test out to see if they had come up trumps again with their latest offering.
Nike proudly state in their product material that they have consulted fully with their stable of Tour pros such as Paul Casey, Tiger Woods and Charl Schwartzel to name but a few, to see what they wanted in a fairway wood.
With so many new whacky shapes and colours on the market, especially in woods and hybrids, the verdict came back that they wanted a traditional look - and that is certainly what the VR Pros have.
Traditional pear shaped three and five woods often look a scary prospect to higher handicappers who think it will be a tough prospect getting the ball off the deck from the fairways, but the VR Pros despite being traditional do have a low profile to make it a less daunting task at address.
Adaptable
With drivers now being more and more adaptable, Nike are looking to do the same with their fairway wood so both their three and five woods have adjustable heads on them to align the face anyway you see fit depending on what shape of shots you want to play.
For higher handicappers, it also offers the prospect of adjusting your fairway woods the same way you would with your driver if you want to try and nullify the odd hook or slice you might have in your game.
In fact, the Str8-Fit Tour technology, which is Nike's version of the moveable club head, actually gives you up to 32 possible different options to your club face angle.
"The work with our tour staff lead us to a fairway wood which is hotter over a larger area of the face and has a flatter sole for ease off of tight lies," says Nike Golf's Director of Production Creation Tom Stites.
"The STR8-FIT Tour adapter allows us to position the head precisely where the player wants it which maximises visual confidence and performance."
Traditional
The look of the clubs is traditionally stunning, and although they don't look as easy to use as some at first glance even a hacker like myself eventually got a good tune out of them from the deck, mostly the five wood but even the three.
The distance is definitely there when you connect cleanly - which is, according to Nike, down to the 'Variable Compression Channel' which sits between the club face and the rest of the head, similar to the VR Pro driver.
This adds the amount of places you can strike the ball on the club face and still achieve great club head speed, which results in greater distance, although not all players will be able to master all of the 'draws, stingers, high cuts, fades and straight bombs' that Nike pros can pull out.
Distance and usability though means that the three or even the five, as in one particular case I know, can replace a driver for those players who cannot control their 'big dog' driver and need to get their tee-shots in play, without sacrificing much in yardage.
Working so closely with their players, mainly at 'The Oven' headquarters in Texas, means that these clubs are styled and designed for the pros, but with distance and a decent ease of use even for higher handicappers, they can be a welcome addition to anyone's bag.
