Nickent Golf offers both looks and playability

Date September 27, 2006

If you’re looking for a set of mid-priced clubs with a wealth of technological enhancements, Nickent Golf is a lesser known name but a brand of equipment you may wish to consider.
Based in City of Industry, Calif., Nickent is relatively new to the golf equipment business, having been organized in 1995. Since then, it has been manufacturing a full portfolio of drivers, fairway woods, irons, wedges, putters and accessories.
Nickent’s motto is “performance-specific design engineering,” and it’s clear from just a glance at its array of clubs that the company is a serous player at the forefront of technological advancements.
Recently, Nickent introduced a hybrid iron set that, in early GolfWeb testing, has won solid praise for its looks and playability. Along with the new Genex 3DX Hybrid irons, the company produces one of the widest selections of hybrid ironwoods available along with a very credible oversized forged driver.
Here’s a closer look at selected Nickent Golf equipment.
HYBRID IRONS
The new Genex 3DX set is just one of five models of irons offered by Nickent. The other models include Genex Titantium and Genex GH Plus, both with undercut cavitybacks, GH Plus Tour with a shallow cavityback and the Genex ARC Blade.
The Genex 3DX irons come in two configurations: men’s 3-4 ironwoods and 5-PW irons; women’s 4-5 ironwoods and 6-SW irons.
“The success of the rapidly expanding hybrid category is hardly surprising,” said Michael Lee, CEO and co-founder of Nickent Golf. “Every golfer wants to play better golf and hybrid technology makes it easier to do that.”
The new clubs derive their name from a proprietary 3D weighting system which strategically places weight lower, deeper (back from the clubface) and towards the heel. Both the ironwoods and the irons are hollow-cast with visible weight pads at the rear, and are fine-tuned to provide an optimal launch angle and trajectory based on relative loft.
In playing terms, the Genex 3DX irons help getting the ball airborne from a variety of lies while also delivering a soft landing. The unique weighting enhances both stability and directional control. Although playable for all skill levels, the 3DX set should most help players who have been struggling with their long and mid irons.
“With the Genex 3DX irons, we take the technology a step further, introducing a hollow architecture for the entire set,” said Lee, a former club pro who is also Nickent’s head of product development. “The three-dimensional hollow-cast construction allows us to radically manipulate the center of gravity for each club, building in easy-playing characteristics while maintaining consistency.”

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In testing by a group of players assembled by GolfWeb, the 3DX clubs were noted for some resemblance to other brands of both irons and ironwoods. With a wide sole designed to reduce turf draf and a wide topline, the 3DX irons were praised for setup, feel through impact and trajectory achieved. The ironwoods, with a deep burgundy top finish, received considerable praise for looks, feel and playability.
As an eight-club set, suggested retail prices for the Genex 3DX Hybrid irons are $599 with steel shafts and $699 with graphite.
IRONWOODS
On their own, Nickent makes five lofts of ironwoods: No. 2, 17 degrees; 3, 20 degrees; 4, 23 degrees; 5, 26 degrees; and 6, 29 degrees. These clubs are meant to supplant regular irons with the same numbers.
As mentioned, in testing, GolfWeb found universal praise for Nickent’s ironwoods, rating them as good or better than any competing brand.
Made with three flex choices in steel shafts and five speed-rated flex choices with graphite, suggested retail prices for the ironwoods are $109 with steel and $149 with graphite.
FORGED WOODS
Nickent’s Genex 425 Forged driver actually comes in two sizes: 425cc for clubs with face lofts of 10, 11 and 12 degrees; and 428cc for lofts of 7, 8, and 9 degrees.
All the drivers are four-pierce titanium construction, featuring a thin SP700 forged faceplate and SP700 alloy body, geared strategically for launch angles and directional control.
There are six counterpart titanium fairway woods with mid-sized faces: two No. 3s, with lofts of 13 and 15 degrees; 4, 16.5 degrees; 5, 18 degrees; 7, 21 degrees; 9, 24 degrees.
Both the drivers and the fairway woods offer a wide selection of graphite shaft flexes, ranging from X and S, to R-Firm, R and R-Light, to L.
Suggested retail price for a Genex 425 driver is $299; fairway woods are listed at $229 each.
Source: golfweb.com

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