"One for the money, two for the show." That’s the way Nickent’s two lines of hybrids have started working for players on the world’s professional tours this year.
The winner of the Melwood Prince Georges Country Open on the Nationwide Tour used a 17-degree 4DX Ironwood and a 20-degree 3DX DC Ironwood en route to an 18-under par victory. In the process, he became the first player to earn more than $1 million in career Nationwide Tour earnings.
The two clubs used in the victory are designed to provide two different ball flights; the multi-material 4DX with a 2 mm deeper face makes for a more penetrating flight with less spin and the 3DX DC Ironwood that has a higher trajectory and more spin. One was used primarily off the tee, and the other as a more versatile club from the fairway and from the rough. Nickent now has 25 different hybrid lofts in their 2007 line, catering to every possible shot needed on the golf course. This is far and away the most hybrid lofts available through a manufacturer, a statistic Nickent takes pride in.
"We have a 4 different hybrids with 4 different ball flights," said Nickent Director of Marketing Jon Claffey. "There are a lot of different players out there with a lot of different needs. We feel the only way to truly be the King of Hybrids is to offer everyone a club and distance they are looking for. We now have the 4DX Ironwood and Utility, which use a patented brazing technique to fuse a thin titanium and stainless steel. This allowed us to add more depth to the face and in return gave us a penetrating ball flight that still lands very softly from long ranges."
The victory was Nickent’s 15th win on the PGA Tours over the last 3 seasons, 12 of which have come on the Nationwide Tour. No hybrid manufacturer has won more on the Nationwide Tour since the start of the
2005 season.
The winner moved up to 3rd on the 2007 Nationwide official money list with $197,588. The top twenty-five players on the Nationwide Tour will graduate to the PGA Tour at the end of the season. Nickent currently has 5 players using their clubs in the Top 25, including # 3 and # 5, both winners with Nickent clubs on the Nationwide Tour in 2007.
This year, Nickent has moved into the world of signing professional staff players to perfectly complement their 3-year exclusive OEM series sponsorship of the Golf Channel’s Nationwide Tour coverage. Nickent has secured some of the brightest young players in the game. Six of Nickent’s staff players finished in the Top 31 at this week’s event:
Jason Caron, Kevin Gessino-Kraft, Ryan Howison, Jeff Klauk, Sal Spallone and Scott Gardiner.
4DX Driver Makes Waves
Signing the staff was the start to Nickent breaking into the other club categories, especially a recent a surge in driver usage on tour. It all started with staff player Kevin Gessino-Kraft (who plays 13 Nickent clubs), who averaged 6th in driving distance and 12th in driving accuracy this week. He has finished in the Top 20 each of the last two weeks and has gained well over 10 yards in distance since switching to the 4DX Tour Driver. His season average last year was 282.4 yards, and his past two events have been 292.0 and 301.6 yards. The distance gain produced by the 4DX driver has caught the eyes of many of the players and is causing the club to climb the club count ranks after only a few weeks of availability.
Five 4DX Tour Spec Drivers were in play this week, all of which helped their users make the cut. One 4DX Tour Spec user finished 5th at this week’s event and was 20th in driving distance. Another 4DX player was 13th in driving distance at 297.5, while Nickent staffer Scott Gardiner averaged 291.5 yards.
Almost every Nickent product is now being put into play at the professional level. At the Nationwide event this week, 5 sets of 3DX Pro Irons, 9 of the new ARC wedges, 2 3DX Pro FW’s, 1 4DX Fairway Wood, one PIPE Putter and 34 4DX and 3DX hybrids were put into play. Last week at the BMW Charity Pro Am at the Cliffs, Nickent had a club finish in the Top 25 of every club category (Driver, Fairway Wood, Hybrid, Iron, Wedge and Putter) for the first time in company history.
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