TESTED: Nike Vapor Fly irons

MODEL AND SHAFTS PLAYED: Nike Vapor Fly Pro 4-iron to pitching wedge, fitted with stiff-flex steel shafts.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: I love the look of these irons, they’re really pretty-looking clubs. I like how the clubheads have enough ‘meat’ in them to be forgiving but aren’t so big as to appear like high-handicappers’ irons.

VERDICT: My first strike with the Nike Vapor Fly Pros was an attempted lay-up with a 5-iron that travelled about 220 metres, reached the green and almost went in the hole, so they had my full attention pretty quickly! I haven’t seen such a perfect trajectory in a long while. Overall, I was hitting the ball ten or 15 metres further with each club and that was right through to the pitching wedge. Impact felt fantastic – soft and pure. You know you’ve found the sweet spot yet the mis-strikes weren’t punished. The Vapor Fly Pros are a players’ club that remain forgiving. I struggled with my alignment early but once I adjusted, I felt like they were as accurate as anything else I’ve hit. I’ve never used Nike irons before but these were absolutely beautiful clubs to hit.

WHAT I LIKED: The look of them sitting in the bag – and of course the way they performed.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: The grips weren’t as tacky as I would have liked.

MODEL AND SHAFTS PLAYED: Nike Vapor Fly 4-iron to pitching wedge, fitted with regular-flex steel shafts.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Through the set the clubs feel balanced and sit well at address. They appear very slightly offset and remind me a lot of my set of irons. I also like the feel and colour of the grips.

VERDICT: From the 7-iron to pitching wedge, shots with the Nike Vapor Fly irons flew roughly the same distance as my irons do, but from the 4- to 6-iron, I hit the ball considerably further – as much as ten metres further. They felt really good at impact – you almost don’t sense the strike – and are extremely forgiving when you do mis-hit one. For accuracy, I’d say the Vapor Flys were moderately more accurate than I’m used to flighting my irons and the trajectory was similar. Other than flopping across bunkers, I use a pitching wedge for most of my around-the-green shots and found I got used to the Vapor Fly wedge straight away; I pitched with it a lot. The distance generated from the longer irons, the purity of the strike and the general forgiveness were these clubs’ greatest assets.

WHAT I LIKED: The feel, and how quickly I was able to adapt to the whole set.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE: There’s nothing I didn’t like about them.

FACTS & FIGURES

SUITABILITY: All golfers, with the Vapor Fly Pro model walking the line between game-improvement and a better player’s iron. The Vapor Fly is aimed at higher handicappers.

SHAFTS: Standard in the Vapor Fly Pro is True Temper’s XP 95 steel, while it’s True Temper’s ZT 85 steel for the Vapor Fly.

SET COMPOSITION: Both Vapor Fly Pro and Vapor Fly include 4-iron to pitching wedge. Nike also offers a 2- and 3-iron with the Vapor Fly Pro line.

LEFT-HANDED MODELS?: Yes, but only in Vapor Fly.

HOW MUCH?: $1,370 to $1,500 for Vapor Fly Pro and $1,250 to $1,350 for Vapor Fly.

NIKE SAYS: “Engineers from ‘The Oven’ set out to create a set of irons that launch the ball higher and farther, offering forgiveness with more workability than a traditional game-improvement iron. Meet the Vapor Fly Pro irons.

“Lightweight RZN material enables more mass to be distributed lower and deeper for a higher ball flight. The combination of a variable thickness, flexible Nexcor clubface supported by a stiffened, FlyBeam-reinforced chassis delivers increased ball speed, with less penalising mis-hits for longer, more consistent shots across the entire face.

“Hollow RZN cavity long irons (4- and 5-iron) feature a metalwood-style construction with FlyBeam reinforcement for superior distance and forgiveness. RZN pocket mid-irons (6-, 7- and 8-iron) utilise Nike’s proprietary RZN material to redistribute weight to combine stability with refined feel. RZN cavity short irons (9-iron and pitching wedge) also feature RZN material in the cavity of the irons to enable shot-making creativity.

“The complementing Vapor Fly irons feature three unique RZN-enhanced, game-improvement constructions pushing weight lower and towards the perimeter for consistent, high and long approach shots with tremendous feel.”

Contact Axis Golf on 1800 777 793 or visit www.nikegolf.com