Review of Nike's New CCi Irons
Classic, Forged Look with Game Improvement Performance
"Radical" is the best description of Nike's SasQuatch Sumo2 driver. With the CCi Cast irons, they adhered to tradition, but they also made a solid game improvement club.
Compared to most other major golf equipment manufacturers, Nike Golf is a newbie. They’ve had some real duds in the past. In contrast to the past, recent years and new clubs have proven Nike is here to stay. Theirs have been among the "winningest" irons on tour for the past couple of years and their new iron sets should help that success spill over to the golfing public.
With their new CCi irons, Nike Golf has caught up with the competition. Offered in both investment cast and forged iron sets, the CCi’s can meet the needs of many golfers.
According to Nike, the CCi (Composite Cavity insert) cast irons are targeted to mid- to low- handicap golfers looking to maintain their shotmaking ability, but gain forgiveness. To accomplish those things, the Nike CCi Casts employ a high-density tungsten weight plug and a feel enhancing polymer. The tungsten weight plug creates a lower center of gravity that increases forgiveness while the polymer dampens vibration for a softer feel. The CCi Cast irons have a CNC milled face that provides more predictable distances and shot patterns.
These new irons are made from 431 stainless steel, which is considerably softer than the metal used in most other irons. They also feature somewhat of a thicker topline, a slight offset and a wider sole than the CCi Forged irons. As mentioned above, the "feel enhancing polymer" is actually two polymer-filled sole ports. The polymer ports dampen vibration to achieve a softer feel than a conventional cast clubhead.
Irons Tested: Nike Golf CCi Cast Irons, True Temper Dynalite Gold, S300 (stiff) shafts
MSRP: $799, steel; $899, graphite
Before testing, the concern was that with the softer metal and vibration dampening polymer, the CCi Cast irons would have no feel at all. Nike’s goals were certainly laudable, but it seemed they may have gone overboard in trying to create more forgiving shotmaker’s club. It was soon apparent that they had achieved their goal.
Their new irons were very forgiving, to be sure. Shots struck away from center in either direction, toward the heel or toe, didn’t loose much distance and remained relatively true to the target line (Forgiveness Rating: 9.0 out of 10). When purely struck, the distance was even better. The CCi irons delivered distances in line with other premium iron sets (Distance Rating: 9.0). A tough thing to achieve in such a competitive market.
Where these new irons begin to set themselves apart is in the areas of feel and design. The preconceived notion that there would be no feel was entirely wrong. The technology employed did dampen vibration on the off-center shots, but feel was still present when cleanly struck. Whether it was due to the polymer inserts isn’t known, much more than player testing would be needed to determine such a thing. As for shotmaking, Nike did an excellent job in maintaining that aspect while improving forgiveness. The CCi Casts aren’t oversized and aren’t significantly off-set, both of which often take away from workability. Testing revealed that shotmaking with these new irons was nearly as easily achieved as with irons made for that purpose alone (Feel/Workability Rating: 9.7).
The CCi Cast irons are simply a beautiful, classic-looking set of clubs. Although they’re made, somewhat, for game improvement, they adhered to the style that fits the eye of most of their target audience. In the set-up position, the clubs don’t appear to have a thicker top-line. They look just like a forged club. The stainless finish also gives them the appearance of a forged iron. Again, whether the technology employed by Nike was the reason for their great performance isn’t fully known. What is known is that they created a new iron that met their goals: maintain shotmaking ability; increase forgiveness (Design Rating: 9.8).
As demonstrated by the ratings, this is a recommended set of irons. A golfer that falls in the mid- to low-handicap range should try them on.
Overall Iron Rating: 9.375
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