Ocala, United States: Nike Golf athlete Michelle Wie is bringing her creativity to the course yet again, this time in the form of a new all-Volt Nike Vapor driver.
The 2014 US Women’s Open champion has also become the first golf athlete on the PGA or LPGA Tour to play the new Nike RZN Black Voltball.
Similar to the Nike Women’s Lunar Control shoes she customised and debuted on Tour last week, Wie took a new Nike product and put her own stylistic spin on it. The first time she tested the Nike Vapor Speed driver, she immediately asked if it could be made with a Volt crown.
The designers at The Oven went to work on a custom paint scheme. The result is the distinctive Nike Vapor Speed Volt. Wie immediately placed it in her bag at the LPGA Tour’s Coates Golf Championship.
While the colour design is customised specifically for Wie, the technology and club specs of her driver remain the same as the Nike Vapor Speed at retail.
The driver combines three key technologies: Nike’s new FlyBeam-reinforced Covert Cavity Back design, a re-engineered Compression Channel and FlexLoft 2. The Covert Cavity Back design spreads weight towards the heel and toe to maximise forgiveness.
FlexLoft 2 allows the golfer the functionality of five lofts and three face angles within 15 different settings. The new, improved system is five grams (30 per cent) lighter without compromising function. The redistribution of mass creates more stability, better launch conditions and faster swing speeds.
The Nike RZN Black Volt ball is not unique to Wie although she is the first athlete to play with it on Tour.
Nike’s proprietary Speedlock RZN core technology features an interlocking core design – the core’s surface is similar to that of a waffle iron – that inter-connects with the compression layer to form a tighter bond and helps promote better energy transfer through the layers at impact.
Similar to how snow tyres utilise aggressive treads to bond with a road surface, the Speedlock core’s interlocking geometry helps eliminate the slipping that normally occurs between a traditional, smooth-surface core and the outer layer.
When a core slides or slips on impact, the ball loses energy and, as a result, speed and distance. Speedlock technology helps to harness more energy between layers for faster ball speed, longer distance and more stability into the wind.
The Nike RZN Black Volt ball will be available at nike.com and other retailers this month. The Nike Vapor Speed Volt is not available for purchase and is a special custom-built driver for Wie.
Nike Golf is a Full Business Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.