Three retail-bound RKT models, four mystery listings: seven Srixon drivers on the USGA conforming list in a single day. Most aren’t coming to a shop near you. One of them might be.
We covered the three retail-bound Srixon ZXi RKT drivers that hit the ground at the Travelers earlier today. This is everything else. In addition to the original three, there are four more Srixon drivers ZXi RKT drivers on the USGA conforming list. My read: three of them will never see a retail shelf. The fourth? I can’t be certain, but there’s reason to think maybe.
The three you can (probably) actually buy
Taking a page from the Titleist playbook, Srixon soft-launched three new drivers at the Travelers Championship: ZXi RKT, ZXi RKT LS and ZXi RKT Max. Not entirely coincidentally, all three also turned up on the USGA’s conforming list this morning.
Credit to Srixon for sticking with the semi-established nomenclature of the driver space. The suffix-less RKT should hold up as the “core” model. The LS should run lower spin, at least relative to that core, and the Max should set the brand’s standard for forgiveness. Nothing here requires a decoder ring which, these days, counts as a win.
A new face material (and maybe a sound story)
The binding technology appears to be a new face material called RKT. I can’t say that with total certainty but the USGA docs note RKT is printed on the face so it’s not a stretch to think the face leads the story. That tracks with where Srixon has been heading. The recent ZXi irons leaned on MainFrame and i-FORGED, and the wedges have their SeRM spin coating. Srixon likes a materials-driven narrative and RKT looks like the next one.
The soles, meanwhile, are printed with “Acousticore” which more than hints at a sound story. For my money, I’d bet on internal geometry tuned for acoustics rather than some literal core material but I’ve learned never to rule anything out.
And then there were four more
All well and good, all reasonably understood. Worth a mention, though: four (yes, four) other Srixon drivers also landed on the USGA list. For anyone struggling with math on a Monday morning, that’s seven drivers in a single day. Somewhere, even Callaway is blushing.
The tell on these four is the sole. On three of them, the black finish that will almost certainly define the retail models has been swapped for what I take to be standard polished titanium. That’s usually code for “not for you.”
The wildcards, one by one
ZXi RKT LS T262. The name alone screams “prototype” and it’s probably a one-off built for a specific PGA Tour player. Somebody (not you) still gets the dual flip-weights and a presumably low-spin design. Beyond that, who knows? These numerically driven prototypes are pretty standard fare for Srixon.
ZXi RKT LS Type D. Same silver sole as the T262 which tells me it’s either not retail-bound or not fully baked. By standard naming conventions, “Type D” suggests a draw bias which would actually have some appeal in the LS space where a fade bias is often baked in. Best of both worlds, in theory. Probably not coming anytime soon. The two listed lofts (eight and nine degrees) only muddy the water.
ZXi RKT LS+. The third silver-bottomed entry and the one worth pondering. Does the “+” mean even lower spin (in which case, shouldn’t it be a minus sign)? Or is it the higher-spin LS option, as in LS plus a little spin back?
ZXi RKT TR. “TR” reads like some flavor of Tour spec although the naming rules get fuzzy here. I’d have ruled it out for retail except, unlike the other three, the TR looks fully finished. It carries the same production-ready aesthetics as the core, LS and Max models, black sole and all. Frankly, I don’t know what to make of it. But it exists and that’s worth knowing.
So what’s actually coming to retail?
The three RKT models from the Travelers? Bank on those. Of the four bonus listings, three look like tour-truck specials destined to live and die on the conforming list. The TR is the genuine wildcard. If any of these four sneaks its way to a shop, the smart money’s on the one that already looks ready for it. Either way, Srixon hasn’t announced pricing or availability on the retail RKT models yet.
Have your say
See anything you like? Intrigued by the RKT face story, the LS+ riddle or the mystery TR? Or is seven drivers in a day roughly six too many? Let us know.
More information as it becomes available.
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