Nickent 3DX Ironwood
Andrew Penner
Posted 2005-04-01
By now, if you haven’t been living under a rock, you know what a hybrid club is. The benefits of these saucy little sticks have been well cited. Easier to get the ball airborne than the long and lanky long irons, the hybrids are here for a good time – and a long time. Every equipment manufacturer, it seems, is making one. So, with so many choices, which one is right for you?
Well, if you play on the Nationwide Tour, the answer appears to be the Nickent 3DX Ironwood. Obviously, this hybrid club, by far the most popular on this tour (last week, at the Rheem Classic, 30 of them were in play), is a great option for strong players. (Important note: Nickent, a medium-sized company based in Los Angeles, does not pay any player to play their clubs).
The Nickent 3DX Ironwood, which comes in 17 different lofts, features visible weight pads that move the weight well back for a low centre of gravity. The stock shaft, an Aldila NV hybrid, is definitely a great bonus. Another unique feature of the club is the stock V-17 Winn grip – a spongy but more rippled version of the original Winn.
I recently hit the Nickent 3DX at my friendly neighbourhood driving range and came away with mixed feelings. I absolutely loved its sharp appearance. The slight purple glow and clean look was mighty fine. However, the results were iffy. I found this hybrid to be a bit finicky and, surprisingly, not all that kind on mis-hits. On good swings with centre-face contact I enjoyed the fairly low, strong ball flight. However, anything slightly off of centre - especially toe hits, which came off really dead and were easily lost to the right – was unusually punishing. There seems to be a bit of a heel bias on this club (perfect contact seems to be slightly to the heel side of the face). This, however, is something that great strikers may not mind.
So is Nickent’s 3DX the best choice for you? My advice: if you’re a strong player, you should definitely give this weapon a look. High-handicappers, though, especially chronic slicers, would probably be better off spending their money on hybrids with more forgiveness.
Andrew Penner writes for a number of magazines in North America. He can be reached at andpenner@shaw.ca.
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