Golf Test Drive: Nike SQ DYMO STR8-FIT Beats the TaylorMade R9

When I hit a golf ball at full power, my drive distance is 230-250 yards. That’s how far I’ve hit it for years with the Callaway sitting in my golf bag, and that is the way it was the TaylorMade R9 I demoed during three trips to the range this weekend. My one gripe with these two clubs is that I have natural left to right slice, making it a crap shoot as to whether or not the ball will land on the fairway, and neither of them do much (if anything) to help me straighten out my shot. Then I tried the Nike SQ DYMO STR8-FIT…

By Steve

Upon hitting the Nike SQ DYMO STR8-FIT driver for the first time, I noticed how smooth the ball comes off the club. After hitting about half the bucket of balls on day one I decided to get experimental and cut my swing power down to about 80% – and this is where hitting the new Nike club got very interesting.

Usually when I “take a little off” my swing, the ball hooks to either the right or left – or goes straight, but travels a measly 180 yards.

Taking a little off my swing with the Nike driver allowed the juiced-up, larger than life head on the club and the stiff shaft to naturally correct the flaws in my swing and made the ball travel my standard 230-250 years, but straight nearly 100-percent of the time.

A cool feature on the SQ DYMO STR8-FIT is the Shaft Adapter and Hosel System. This allows you eight possible head positions resulting in eight different shot shapes – all in a single driver. Meaning if your ball is slicing to the right you can crank the club and readjust to make a your shot straight.

I found it extremely easy to pick up the little nuances of the SQ DYMO STR8-FIT, and by the end of the third day I was cranking away with the club wrench straightening out my shot to the point where I was hitting at nearly full strength which added about 20 yards to my drive while keeping the shot straight nearly 100-percent of the time. (Now, if I could only figure out my short game.)

In contrast, by the third day I was still trying to figure out how to hit the TaylorMade R9. Don’t get me wrong it is a beautiful club that, like the Nike driver, allows you to adjuct club head settings but it doesn’t hit as clean or have the explosive off-the-club action the Nike drive has. So if you’re picking between the two, definitely go with the Nike club.