Nike Lauded VPR Strike Driver Won’t Be Sold To Golfers
Nike left the golf equipment biz last year. Yet, there are still some excellent Tour players (Tway, Finau, Koepka, Casey and Fleetwood) who still wield their sticks. And a hoard of players still wear the Swoosh brand at every event though.
Now, an Instagram user–and ex-Nike-employee he says–shares knowledge of a Nike VPR Strike driver that supposedly was going to be a game changer.
The former employee, who goes by the handle of oli_wilson13, told Golfwrx.com that the driver, which featured a massive speed slot and deviated from the previous year’s blue-and-neon color scheme, was actually illegal in certain parts of the face. “Was going to be marketed potentially as ‘The legal, illegal driver,'” Wilson told Golfwrx.com. Wilson also shared that the VPR Strike gained eight mph of ball speed versus the 2016 Vapor Fly Pro, and that Rory McIlroy loved the driver so much he begged to put it in play at the 2016 Open Championship. (Nike announced it was discounting its club and ball business just three weeks after the Open.)
It looks pretty sweet from the top view, no?
“It was very much a done product,” the source told Golf Digest. “It was fully cooked and athlete-tested. It was locked and loaded.”
The source said the rumors swirling since the photo appeared may have several “embellishments” and “partial truths.”
But, the source said, “What might have been…”
My question is if the club is indeed all that and enough pros begged for the driver, would another manufacturer pick up the slack, buy the design from Nike and market it?
