Jennifer Gardner
Jennifer Gardner is a regular contributor to http://GolfBrief.com, specializing in equipment. She has also written for http://Golf.com, The Wire, The Tour Van, http://USGA.org, Reuters and Golfweek.
Resurrected patent bolsters Nicklaus Golf's irons
- By Jennifer Gardner
- Published 02/21/2008
- Equipment
-
Rating:
What goes around, comes around in the golf industry — usually seeing a great deal of improvement on the way.
That's the story behind the new Polarity MTR irons from Nicklaus Golf, which are based on a patent owned by club designer Clay Long.
Long, who has been designing clubs for Jack Nicklaus over a 25-year period and designed some classics — including MacGregor Muirfield metal woods, Muirfield irons and the MacGregor Response putter, which was in Nicklaus' bag at the 1986 Masters. He also worked for the Arnold Palmer company in the 1990s, where he developed a method for weighting the hosel of an iron to improve stability.
"(It was) then licensed to King Cobra for the King Cobra 2 iron. It's been dormant since then," Long said. "I purchased the patent from the Arnold Palmer Company when they ceased operations and I've been sitting on this patent for a pretty good while."
Using the 1994-era technology, Long designed an iron that had a very high moment of inertia and a perfectly balanced face — something that the irons in the mid-90s lacked. At that time, Moment of Inertia (MOI) was not a high priority for designers.
"We got the center of gravity dead center in the middle of the face, which is something that none of the previous products that were made with this patent achieved. They all were a little heel-biased. So we thought wow, we've really got something good here."
The Polarity MTR (Maximum Twist Resistance) irons — distribute weight between the hosel and the toe of the club to earn a higher MOI score than other game-improvement irons on the market, based on independent testing.
Long said that the idea behind using the weighting system came last year when he saw what was garnering buzz in the golf industry.
"We were looking at industry trends and what everyone's talking about," he said. "We decided that geometry drivers were a big story, and moment of inertia was a big story, and everyone's talking about changing the shape of drivers to make them more forgiving.
"We decided to try and design an iron that would be in a moment of inertia category, much like the square drivers are, and go for a super-high inertia iron, and build something that was more forgiving than anybody else's iron."
The irons also feature an extended face that further adds to the club's stability, a 431 pH stainless steel head, progressive offset and a urethane insert.
"It has a big urethane piece in the middle that the medallions sit on, that dampens the vibration at impact and make them very solid at impact," Long said.
Nicklaus Golf is selling the Polarity MTR irons in sets with 3-iron through pitching wedge as well as Plus Sets and Super Sets that include the company's new Claw Hybrids. The Plus sets offer 3 and 4 hybrids with 5-PW in irons; the Super Sets have 3, 4 and 5 hybrids with 6-PW irons. The irons are also available in gap, sand and lob wedges.
"We all know the importance of a great drive," Long said. "But our customers are asking for equipment to help get to the green.
"So far, all the feedback has been tremendous."
The Polarity MTR irons will sell for $449.99 to $549.99 depending on the shafts. Plus sets range from $499.99 to $599.99 and Super Sets are $549.99 to $649.99.
For information about the Polarity MTR irons and other new club offerings from Nicklaus Golf, see www.nicklausgolf.com.
That's the story behind the new Polarity MTR irons from Nicklaus Golf, which are based on a patent owned by club designer Clay Long.
Long, who has been designing clubs for Jack Nicklaus over a 25-year period and designed some classics — including MacGregor Muirfield metal woods, Muirfield irons and the MacGregor Response putter, which was in Nicklaus' bag at the 1986 Masters. He also worked for the Arnold Palmer company in the 1990s, where he developed a method for weighting the hosel of an iron to improve stability.
"(It was) then licensed to King Cobra for the King Cobra 2 iron. It's been dormant since then," Long said. "I purchased the patent from the Arnold Palmer Company when they ceased operations and I've been sitting on this patent for a pretty good while."
Using the 1994-era technology, Long designed an iron that had a very high moment of inertia and a perfectly balanced face — something that the irons in the mid-90s lacked. At that time, Moment of Inertia (MOI) was not a high priority for designers.
"We got the center of gravity dead center in the middle of the face, which is something that none of the previous products that were made with this patent achieved. They all were a little heel-biased. So we thought wow, we've really got something good here."
The Polarity MTR (Maximum Twist Resistance) irons — distribute weight between the hosel and the toe of the club to earn a higher MOI score than other game-improvement irons on the market, based on independent testing.
Long said that the idea behind using the weighting system came last year when he saw what was garnering buzz in the golf industry.
"We were looking at industry trends and what everyone's talking about," he said. "We decided that geometry drivers were a big story, and moment of inertia was a big story, and everyone's talking about changing the shape of drivers to make them more forgiving.
"We decided to try and design an iron that would be in a moment of inertia category, much like the square drivers are, and go for a super-high inertia iron, and build something that was more forgiving than anybody else's iron."
The irons also feature an extended face that further adds to the club's stability, a 431 pH stainless steel head, progressive offset and a urethane insert.
"It has a big urethane piece in the middle that the medallions sit on, that dampens the vibration at impact and make them very solid at impact," Long said.
Nicklaus Golf is selling the Polarity MTR irons in sets with 3-iron through pitching wedge as well as Plus Sets and Super Sets that include the company's new Claw Hybrids. The Plus sets offer 3 and 4 hybrids with 5-PW in irons; the Super Sets have 3, 4 and 5 hybrids with 6-PW irons. The irons are also available in gap, sand and lob wedges.
"We all know the importance of a great drive," Long said. "But our customers are asking for equipment to help get to the green.
"So far, all the feedback has been tremendous."
The Polarity MTR irons will sell for $449.99 to $549.99 depending on the shafts. Plus sets range from $499.99 to $599.99 and Super Sets are $549.99 to $649.99.
For information about the Polarity MTR irons and other new club offerings from Nicklaus Golf, see www.nicklausgolf.com.
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Comments
Comment #1 (Posted by WALLY STEFANIUK)
Rating:
I FIND YOUR COMMENTS EXCELLENT AND WOULD LIKE TO SEE AN IMPROVEMENT ON YOUR LH DRAW FAIRWAY WOODS ( 3&5).
Comment #2 (Posted by patrick)
Rating:
i did some research and bought these clubs...i haven't used them yet..but i did test them at the dealer. they felt very natural in your hand and the weighting pronounces that. i bought them for the price and the salesperson told me his experience was that they were more forgiving. that's one of the other things i was looking for.
Enough, already. We get the point. Actually, we got the point four months and 3,762 references ago, because that’s about how many times we have been subjected to this nonsense about something Ben Hogan may have said 57 years ago.
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