The new concepts, technology and look of some of this year's new drivers took club design in a new direction. Nike's SQ Sumo2 driver leads that revolutionary group.

Until now, metal drivers had not strayed far from the original shape of the increasingly ancient "wooden" woods. Now, the Nike SasQuatch Sumo2 driver (actually it's "Sumo²", but for the sake of simplicity we've opted for "Sumo2"), along with the Callaway FT-i, has chucked the old, traditional look in favor of a square clubhead. It wasn't done simply for aesthetic appeal. Had it been for that reason only, they made a serious mistake.

According to Nike

The SasQuatch Sumo2 features a 460 cc, square geometry clubhead. It boasts the highest MOI in the golf industry. MOI is the hot new buzzword in the golf industry that stands for "moment of inertia." In a nutshell, a high MOI results in less twisting of the clubhead on off-center hits and produces a shot that stays closer to the target line.

The high MOI and clubhead geometry combine to make the Sumo2 (Sumo2 = SUper MOment of Inertia Squared) the most forgiving, longest, and most accurate driver available. The driver comes in 8.5°, 9.5°, 10.5°, and 13° right-handed models, and 9.5° and 10.5° for left-handers. For women, the new driver comes in the 10.5° and 13° right-handed models. All models are shafted with Mitsubishi Rayon's Diamana shaft, which comes in extra-stiff, stiff, regular, senior and women's shaft flexes. For men, the swing weight is D3.5, for women it is C8.

Driver Tested: Nike SasQuatch Sumo2, 9.5°, stiff flex

MSRP: $479.99

Forgiveness Results

A golfer who buys this new driver, which is designed as a game improvement club, is looking for forgiveness. The high MOI should have produced a supremely stable and forgiving club. It did just that.

Particularly noticeable was the lack of stinging negative feedback from a heel-struck ball. Balls struck toward both the heel and toe produced good results. Although a playability test alone could never prove the squared design and increased MOI was the reason, the mis-hit performance was markedly better than some other drivers from both this year and previous years. The shot performance of balls struck across the clubface of this new driver was well above average. Forgiving? It certainly was. Forgiveness Rating: 9.9 (out of 10)

Feel and Workability Results

The Sumo2 was designed as a game improvement driver. Prime importance was necessarily placed on forgiveness and distance. However, given it's priorities this new driver was surprisingly workable, both right to left and left to right. The shot trajectory was most often middle-of-the-road, but trajectory was easily modified, though not as easy as some drivers designed for such workability.

Feel is generally reduced when forgiveness is the goal. The Nike Sumo2 was no exception. It was reduced, but not non-existent. Lack of feedback is sometimes a good thing, especially on those horribly mis-hit shots, but there should be some transfer of information on every shot. With this new driver, such feedback was there, but a ball struck on the sweet spot was not all too different from slightly off-center hits. Feel and Workability Rating: 8.5

Distance Results

Let's cut to the chase, distance on center-hit shots was good. When compared to some other new, highly rated drivers, there wasn't a noticeable difference between any of them. For example, the Nike SQ Sumo2 was on par, distance-wise, with the Cleveland HiBore XL Tour driver, already reviewed and rated highly by Suite 101 Golf. With the competition very tight and performance level exceptional among the major-manufacturer models, it is tough for any one golf club to truly stand out. This new driver is right up there among the best. Distance Rating: 9.0

Design/Concept: From the traditionally-minded eye of Suite 101 Golf, if points were taken away for looks, it would be overly detrimental to the Sumo2. So, aesthetics will be overlooked in this case. The science behind the squared clubhead design and resulting increased MOI is sound. Nike squeezed every nanometer of allowable size into their driver, which also aided in increasing the MOI. In the case of this new driver, the real test of the concept is in results, and the results were great - mis-hit shot simply landed closer to where they were intended than in years past and with other drivers. Design/Concept Rating: 9.9

The Nike SasQuatch Sumo2 was a pleasure to test. Despite it's unusual look, Nike more than achieved what they set out to with this new driver. It is supremely forgiving and just as long as the other premium drivers. Although Nike Golf is in it's infancy when compared to the other manufacturers, they have reached the top with this driver. Millions of high- to mid-handicappers will find this to be a great addition to their golf bag.

After reviewing this club, it is apparent why K.J. Choi chose the Nike SasQuatch Sumo2 driver to help him win the Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament and Tiger Wood's AT & T National this year. Yes, there's the endorsement money, but that's beside the point.

Overall Driver Rating: 9.325

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