After Tiger Woods' much-ballyhooed switch out of a Nike Golf driver back to an old Titleist 975 D earlier this summer, Nike Golf Category Manager for Golf Clubs Mike Kelly expressed confidence that Woods would eventually put a Nike driver back in his bag. It's no surprise that Kelly was right, as Woods earlier this month used a Nike Golf driver called an Ignite to help him win the American Express Championship in Atlanta.
What is surprising -- even to Kelly -- is the timing.
When Woods went through a scheduled club testing session with Nike Golf club engineers last month, it figured to be just a warm-up for his return to a Swoosh-labeled driver later this year or early next year. Woods' decision to put the Ignite in play at the American Express Championship, Kelly said, caught Nike Golf execs a bit off guard.
"Usually when you do a test like this, especially when you have some new elements, you basically make some directional type product that he gets a chance to hit. Then you go back for round two, round three and usually round four and combine a lot of those things together,"Kelly told PGA.com.
"What Tiger looks for in a driver really hasn't changed. It's control and distance. He wants to work the ball and he wants to hit (certain) shots, which this driver allows him to do. We went into (the testing session) knowing that and hit upon something right away, which was great.''
Great, yes, but don't get the idea that designing and building the Ignite, or any quality driver, is as easy as it sounds.
"People in general are too focused on one thing," Kelly said, referring to a driver's coefficient of restitution -- the so-called "spring-like" effect.
"COR is important but now the amount of COR and the breadth of COR is important,"Kelly said. "There are still three CG (center of gravity) locations on a driver that have to be dialed in. There's also offset, there's face progression, there's weight, there's thickness. There are so many things that go into a driver.
"Anybody who makes a quality metal wood knows there's a lot of things to do. And when you put a player like Tiger behind the wheel, it becomes incredibly difficult. I don't think people realize that.''
The Nike Golf Ignite driver Woods now has, Kelly said, has a low loft -- between eight and nine degrees -- and has a club head size of 335cc, considerably larger than the 265cc club head size of the 975D.
It should be remembered that the Ignite driver Woods is using is a prototype, meaning it's still a work in progress.
"We're not done with this driver," Kelly said. "We want to make sure that we are able to adjust this driver with (Woods') needs as they adjust.
"The pressure is on again, so to speak. The last time he switched to our driver he went on to win two majors (the 2000 Masters and U.S. Open) in the first three tournaments he played with it, so we've been down this road once before. It's important for us to keep that perspective and to keep learning.''
Now that the Ignite, even in a prototype version, has found its way into Woods' bag, the question becomes: Will a consumer version of the Ignite find its way onto pro shop shelves?
Given the Ignite's current specs, Kelly said, "nobody else on the planet" other than Woods can hit the club, so whether or not it ever sees the market place becomes a product line management question.
"Do we want this driver and in what capacity?" Kelly said. "Do we have to revise it to make it playable for people? We don't have a firm answer yet.''
