EARLY LOOK! – Nike SQ MachSpeed Irons

Is Farther…Higher & Straighter Really a Good Thing With Your Irons?

So here it is…in all it’s glory. The new Nike SQ MachSpeed Irons that are supposed to hit the ball farther, higher and straighter for every golfer that buys in. Well that is what Tom Stites (Nike Designer) is of course saying and hoping for…so he and the company he works for (Nike) can hopefully sell some of these new sticks. How do they plan to do that? Well by allegedly adding a HOT FACE with a WIDER SWEET SPOT and putting more weight farther back to produce a LOWER CG. Heard any of these claims before? I feel like I have De Ja Vou 15 times a year when companies make these claims about their new products like the Nike MachSpeed Irons.

Strong Lofted Irons (Remember Those?)

Have you guys ever heard of “Strong Lofted” irons? Well about 15 years ago or so Cobra Golf became well known for making irons that hit the ball farther then any other brand at the time…this technology (scam) literally put them on the map. They were smart they listened to the consumer and gave them what they wanted…MORE DISTANCE! Every golfer wanted more distance with their woods…and their irons as well. So Cobra figured out a way to give them all that extra distance with their irons and believe it or not it was insanely simple. But in other industries would most likely be considered a SCAM.

THE SOLUTION: They would simply put a #4 engraving on what was really a #3 iron. And the same would go for the rest of the iron set…they would just make the iron you used to hit say 1 iron lower on the sole so you would now think you were hitting your new incredibly shiny and sparkly new irons one club further then you had with your previous set. But in actuality nothing had really changed. WOW! DID THIS REALLY WORK? DID WE REALLY GET SCAMMED LIKE THIS? YES…THIS PULL A RABBIT OUT OF A HAT TRICK ACTUALLY TRICKED ALL OF US!

And even when we found out no one raised any hell about it…why…because all they cared about was that they were now hitting it farther then the 4-some that they always played with. These Cobra irons started flying off the shelves. At first…people had no clue they were simply hitting irons that were simply “Strong Lofted” they actually believed that they were hitting their irons a whole club length farther. Even brands like Titleist jumped on the bandwagon and began using “SL” irons…because if your irons did not hit the ball as far people just weren’t buying.

So everyone was hitting the ball longer well at least they thought they were and over the years the standard iron set lofts changed accordingly to all be strong lofted because thats all anyone was making…so it became the standard.

So What Is Wrong w/HOT FACE TECHNOLOGY?

Companies know that distance sells and has since the beginning of golf. If someone claims you will hit it farther with their product…people will at least give it a shot. So companies like Nike and many others have tried and by the looks of this new release are still trying try to give you more distance with a so-called “BRAND NEW” (really old) technology called “THIN FACE TECHNOLOGY” in irons.

This is not a new technology at all…many golf companies have tried it but none have made it catch on. WHY HASN’T IT CAUGHT ON? Simple…because irons are supposed to be about accuracy and knowing your distances down to the yard for every iron in your bag not about being able to hit 200 yard 8-irons. The difference between a couple yards can be the difference between being pin high compared to being plugged in a bunker. And that is where the problem lies for the HOT FACE technology. The face generally is not as consistent as a typical iron face. Imagine jumping on a normal trampoline compared to one that is super thin but just as strong…with the super thin trampoline if you hit that perfect sweet spot it sends your soaring in the air…although miss that sweet spot by just a hair and the distance it propels you can be dramatically reduced. Same with the golf club…you could hit one shot 150 yards with your 8 iron but the next shot might fly 165 yards. This is because thinner faces rebound in a much different way compared to standard face wall thickness irons. So 2 almost identical swings can result in 2 dramatically different results and have you scratching your head wondering how the hell to fix the problem.

So…Has Nike Fixed The Issue With THIN FACE TECHNOLOGY?

We will have to wait and see…although none of the companies that have decided to incorporate this technology in the past have been able to. So we just wanted to warn you that…”Buyer beware about claims of THIN FACE TECHNOLOGY being the answer to your problems with distance in your irons.” You might get just what you asked for but that might just not be the best thing for your game and ultimately your handicap.

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