Nike Inc. will launch new golf clubs this month without the promotional muscle of golfing great Tiger Woods.

That will be a challenge for the sporting-goods giant, which was largely a nonentity in golf before it built a sizable business around the superstar’s image.

Nike says that its Victory Red STR8-FIT Tour fairway woods, which will go on sale Jan. 28 for $299, were designed with input from all 13 U.S. golf stars who promote Nike’s golf products. But the promotional materials make no mention of Mr. Woods, whose tradition of wearing red shirts on the final day of golf tournaments inspired the Victory Red name.

Instead, the materials trumpet that the clubs were tested in tournament play by a respected but lesser-known golf pro, Lucas Glover, who claimed his first major victory last year when he won the U.S. Open Championship.

Nike’s inability to bank on Mr. Woods — who remains a Nike-sponsored athlete but is postponing his career as he deals with the fallout from his alleged extramarital affairs — comes at a problematic time. The Beaverton, Ore., company has faced deteriorating golf sales because of the recession. Annual revenue at the Nike Golf division fell 11% last year to $648 million after peaking at $725 million the year before.

Still, some of Nike’s retail partners said they expect the company’s clubs to sell well in 2010, with or without Mr. Woods to champion them.

“They have certainly established themselves as a very successful golf manufacturer over the past 10-plus years, and we believe we will have a very solid year with them,” said Matt Corey, senior vice president of marketing at Golfsmith International Holdings Inc., the nation’s largest specialty golf retailer.

Nike declined to discuss the effect of Mr. Woods’s problems on its business, where overall revenue grew 3% to $19.2 billion in fiscal 2009. But in a conference call with investors last month, Chief Executive Mark Parker played down the ramifications, even as he acknowledged that larger economic factors were hurting golf sales.

“We feel very good about how we are managing our golf business through this period and our position in the broader golf market,” Mr. Parker said, adding, “We’ll continue to support Tiger and his family as we, of course, look forward to his return.”

Nike’s golf slump mirrors a wider plunge in the market for golf apparel and gear, as consumers put off discretionary purchases. Sales of clubs and other hard equipment fell 11.9% in the first 11 months of 2009 at golf-course shops and specialty stores, according to Golf Datatech LLC, a market research firm. Retail experts estimate that such locations make up roughly three-fourths of total golf sales.

While Mr. Woods’s alleged peccadilloes have forced him out of the limelight for at least part of this year, some golf-industry experts say Nike has a larger set of options because of the recent emergence of other stars.

Like Mr. Glover, Stewart Cink, also a Nike-sponsored athlete, captured his first major title last year when he won the British Open. .

“Nike golfers won two major tournaments last year, and neither guy was named Tiger Woods,” said Tom Stine, co-founder of Golf Datatech. “What Tiger gave Nike is credibility. When you have the top guy out there winning with your stuff, it tells the public that you have top-line equipment. But they have plenty of other golfers doing that now.”

Michelle Wie, also under contract with Nike, won her first professional women’s tournament last year, one of the first signs that the 20-year-old phenom could yet fulfill her potential to become the female version of Mr. Woods.

Nike first dabbled in golf in 1985 with a shoe called the Air Linkster, and pro Curtis Strange donned its gear while winning U.S. Open championships in 1988 and 1989. But it was not until Nike signed a huge endorsement deal with a 20-year-old Mr. Woods in 1996 that the swoosh became an upstart in the business side of the sport.

The golfer draped himself in Nike apparel as he won a dizzying succession of major titles, and the company blanketed the airwaves with emotional ads playing up his historic ascent, notably a landmark spot called “I am Tiger Woods” that showed children of numerous races playing the game.

Mr. Woods started using Nike golf balls rather than the Titleist balls favored by other stars, and later picked up Nike clubs, moves that experts say greatly helped the company win over skeptical golfers raised on such brands as Callaway Golf Co. and TaylorMade Golf Co, a subsidiary of Adidas. Titleist is part of Acushnet Co., a subsidiary of Fortune Brands Inc. that also includes Cobra golf clubs and FootJoy golf shoes and generates annual revenue of more than $1 billion.

Mr. Woods has also helped Nike craft new clubs, boosting the company’s reputation for cutting-edge sports-gear design. “This is my iron. This is what I created. This is what I’ve been playing,” Mr. Woods said in a promotional video for a Victory Red line of golf irons two years ago. “Now that consumers get to feel and play what I’ve been playing, they’ll understand why I love it so much.”

Perry does not agree that the new grooves will be a huge problem. “It will cause some problems but I don’t think it’s going to be a real big issue,” Perry (49) said.

“I think guys will adjust pretty quickly and you will still see good scores. I have struggled a little bit with my wedges. My sand wedges and stuff don’t bite like they used to bite, they want to release on out. But out of the fairway with my irons I haven’t noticed much difference at all.”

As of January 1st, new rules for club-face grooves were implemented at the top level after research found modern configurations could allow players to generate almost as much spin with irons from the rough as from the fairway. All clubs, with the exception of drivers and putters, have been affected by the change which limits groove volume and groove-edge sharpness, effectively replacing U-grooves with V-grooves.

Larger volume grooves can help channel away more material such as water or grass while sharper groove edges allow better contact between club and ball, thereby increasing the chance of backspin. “Chipping the ball is a big difference but even from the rough I have been hitting little jumpers, not big jumpers,” added Perry, a 14-times winner on the PGA Tour. “They are all great players out here and I think guys will adjust in a hurry.”

South Korean Yang Yong-eun, who won his first major title at last year’s PGA Championship after overhauling Tiger Woods in the final round, agreed. “I think it will be no problem,” Yang said. “Maybe this week, the first tournament of the year, there will be some problem but after three or four months of the players using these V-grooves they will be getting better.”

While most top players began experimenting with the new grooves toward the end of last year, it had been widely predicted that flyers from tangly rough would become a much more common occurrence on the leading tours around the world. “Previously with the squaregrooves, you’d get these certain lies in the intermediate cut (of rough) or in the rough where it’s questionable whether it was going to jump,” former Masters champion Zach Johnson said.

“Now it’s not questionable; you know it’s going to jump. It’s just a matter of how much it’s going to jump. It’s not an advantage. It’s just the way it is.”

Yang felt next week’s Sony Open could present a stiffer test for the players because of the harder, smaller greens at Waialae Country Club. “This week we have big fairways and therefore it’s easier to avoid the rough,” Yang said of the PGA Tour’s season-opening event being held on the Plantation Course. “And with 100 (yard) shots, 150 shots there is a lot of spin because the greens here are a little bit soft. The loft may be a little bit different but the ball is still spinning.

“But next week, at the Sony Open on hard greens, maybe it will be very different.”

The Titleist AP2 Irons’ high-tech, multi-material construction features a steel body, tungsten nickel sole, elastomer bar and aluminum cavity plate. AP2 Irons is built to deliver both performance and feel. The dual cavity design of the Titleist AP2 irons pushes weight to the perimeter for forgiveness. A central cross member featuring a soft elastomer cushion provides structural rigidity behind the impact area while also dampening face vibration for better overall feel. The lower cavity of the AP2 irons is enclosed by a tungsten nickel box. This high-density material locates the weight low and deep while providing structural rigidity and low frequency vibration dampening for outstanding solid feel. The tungsten nickel box helps reduce the sole and back flange width for better turf performance and shot control.

Titleist AP2 irons provide a comfortable and confidence-inspiring appearance in the set up position with a traditional blade profile and hosel junction. The metallic back cavity plate contributes to the AP2’s great looks and bag appeal.

Features:

Multi-material, dual cavity, technically forged

Advanced performance with a traditional solid feel and looks provide shot control for the skilled player (handicap 5-9)

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What they forget, or were not aware of in the first place, is that loft is only part of the distance equation. The three major variables for club distance are loft, length and weight. In the case cited above, the 7 wood is the longest club, and the 3 hybrid and 3 iron are normally the same length. Weight-wise, the 7 wood is the heaviest, 3 hybrid in the middle, and the 3 iron is the lightest.

Golf Digest reported that hybrids averaged about 8 yards longer than same numbered iron.  I am sure this information was based on many OEM hybrids that are built ½” – 1” longer than an iron as well as lofts that are often 1-2 degrees stronger than the corresponding iron.  Remember that hybrids more often than not are assembled with graphite shafts.

You’ll also need to be aware that these clubs may produce varying trajectories. For instance the typical hybrid shaft is less flexible in the tip than a corresponding iron shaft, thus producing a lower trajectory.

The Bottom Line
Concentrate on replacing a club that you are not hitting well or fill any yardage gaps you might have, but don’t necessarily go by the number engraved on the sole. Think about the loft, length and weight.  A lower (stronger) loft will hit the ball farther, but a shorter assembly length will reduce speed and distance. It is possible to carry two clubs with the same or similar lofts, that fly different distances, and at different maximum heights.