Nike Golf announced the release of their new range of Vapor Fly clubs for 2016 back in early December last year - and now, they are in stock. You can grab the standard Nike Vapor Fly driver for £249.99 now with the Tensei shaft by Mitsubishi Rayon in your choice of flexes. We are excited to be selling the Vapor Fly Pro, as well as the brand new Nike Vapor Flex 440 that is released a week today on the 4th March. All three clubs have Flexloft 2.0 technology which allows 15 different launch conditions to tune in your shots. But how do they compare down the range and which ones should you be adding to your golf essentials? Read on for our Nike Vapor drivers review.

Overview

We wanted to put Nike's 2016 range of drivers to the test, so we fired up the launch monitor and did five swings on each. All drivers were set at 10.5 neutral, using a Diamana s+ blue board 60 X flex shaft, which comes as a standard option and a mid-launch trajectory. After testing the new Vapor Flex 440, the Vapor Fly and Vapor Fly Pro drivers, we were slightly surprised to find the Flex 440 was the overall the best performer. Take a look at the stats below:

Result highlights

1. The Vapor Flex 440 was the longest hitting driver out of the three, averaging an impressive 322 yards.
2. The Vapor Fly Pro produced the highest average club head speed at 121 mph and the highest ball speed at 176 mph.
3. The Vapor Fly driver was a good all-rounder, even if it lacked distance sometimes, it kept its line and launched the ball the highest. Which, after all, is the theory Nate Ratcliffe, Nike’s Golf Director of Engineering, is striving for, after describing the logic behind his latest driver designs; 

“We’ve verified that if we can launch the ball higher, while managing spin, it will ultimately fly farther”.

Launch angles:

• The Vapor Flex 440 produced the lowest launch angle at 11.5 degrees
• The Vapor Fly Pro was next at 11.8 degrees
• The Vapor Fly came in three degrees higher at 14.2 on average

The Nike Vapor Drivers Review

Nike Vapor Fly

On first impression the symmetrical C shape head, iconic of Nike’s club design is attractive. The cobalt blue explosion is vibrant to say the least. Nike are taking these bold colours forward as part of their promotion in 2016, so expect to see similar palettes running through their clothing lines. But look past the colour and this good-looking golf driver means business.

The new Nike Vapor driver were designed to have a lower CG and higher MOI vs the 2015 Vapor Speed driver. According to Nike, the light crown moves weight down increasing launch angle and creating less spin. And they weren’t wrong, when we put this to the test on our GC2 launch monitor the Vapor Fly delivered a launch angle 3 degrees higher than the other two clubs on average.

In our Nike Vapor drivers review, we found it was the least efficient of the three Nike drivers, generating an average of 115mph club head speed and a resulting 168mph ball speed. The launch condition produced less total spin than the Vapor Fly Pro at 2708 rpm on average and a back spin of 2686 rpm, maintaining a stable flight and distance most of the time.

In terms of distance, this club was the shortest of the three Nike Vapor Fly newbies, flying 10 yards less on average. Which sounds like a lot, but this was because of the high launch and relatively high spin. And regardless of the lower efficiency and distance scores, this club actually performed really well. It was just the other two clubs performance was outstanding.

The Vapor Fly driver has a re-engineered compression channel which creates an initial spring effect to amplify performance on mis-hits. With a higher Moment of Inertia, there is increased stability during flight. This all feeds into a greater overall forgiveness. With the five shots in the test, the range for offline scores was low at 11.

Golfsupport rating: 4.5/5

Nike Vapor Fly Pro

The Nike Vapor Fly Pro boasts a tour-preferred pear shaped head and looks nice from the top with the yellow Nike swoosh and cross-hatch pattern. And although this driver may have a smaller head than the other two, it produces a huge club head speed and ball speed. In our tests the Vapor Fly Pro peaked at a whopping 124mph club head speed and ball speed of 180mph. Producing the highest efficiency score of all three clubs. The smaller head also meant it was easier to manipulate your shot shape which was a nice touch.

The Vapor Fly Pro is an impressive club that feels superb and with the introduction of the flightweight crown which is 30% lighter than last year’s model. This promotes a lower CG, higher launch and higher MOI, meaning more forgiveness. It generates the highest rate of spin at 2873 rpm between all the clubs due to a lower centre of gravity. However, despite its high rate of spin, the Vapor Pro delivers the second highest driving distance at 319 yards and for those looking for lightning ball speed should consider this gem. 

Therefore, of our three Nike Vapor drivers review, this club had a higher range of offline shots with a range of 12 meaning it had the lowest score of forgiveness out of the three drivers.

Golfsupport rating: 5/5

Nike Vapor Flex 440

In your hands the Nike Vapor Flex 440 feels noticeably lighter than the other two drivers, which is down to the RZN composite crown, made from an extremely light titanium face, and an even lighter and stronger carbon fibre rear section that allows for even more weight to be repositioned toward the front and bottom of the driver. Meaning you can adjust weight for spin and flight control.

The Flex 440 has a wider compression channel than the previous Vapor Flex driver which achieves greater ball speed at impact than before. It kicked out an average of 173mph in ball speed, which was nearly as high as the Vapor Fly Pro.

The Nike Vapor Flex 440 was outstanding and the results speak for themselves. Clocking a consistent driving distance of over 320 yards, and the lowest rate of spin of the three Vapor Fly drivers at 2500 RPM. This club offers maximum distance and a great deal of workability. Interestingly, there was no loss of distance even though the ball flew at a lower trajectory, on average.

Golfsupport rating: 5/5

Verdict

All three clubs in our Nike Vapor drivers review were really nice to play with, and the Flex 440 certainly shone out for its gains in distance. Nike have made the face perimeter 30% lighter on their new drivers, as part of an initiative to maximise Rory McIlroy's ball speed named Project Max. Apparently he experienced an increase of 2-3 mph in ball speed from the new driver design, and almost 4 yards extra carry per additional mph. Therefore, you can expect similar results with your drives, if you're upgrading from last year's model.

Take a look at the all three pieces of equipment from this Nike Vapor drivers review now. Feel free to send us an email on sales@golfsupport.com to ask us any questions, or come into the store to get fitted. If you enjoyed this review, please let us know what you want us to review next on Twitter or in the comments!