XXIO

Swing speed under ninety miles an hour is the design brief here, stated openly instead of implied. In 2000 Sumitomo Rubber Industries launched XXIO, and the name reads as a Roman numeral with a letter after it: XXI for the twenty-first century, O for onward. Srixon is that company's tour brand and Cleveland its wedge brand; this one is for the golfer whose clubhead speed has dropped and who'd rather not fight to get the ball airborne. In the United States all three are handled by Dunlop Sports Americas, so the customer service line for an XXIO driver is the same one a Srixon owner calls.

Everything follows from weight. Drivers come in under three hundred grams, and Weight Plus buries brass and rubber in the butt end of the grip so the balance point sits higher and the club asks less of the swing. Rebound Frame bonds a flexing titanium face to a stiffer steel body, ActivWing smooths the head through the downswing, and the graphite shafts are built light to match. The line runs from the numbered mainline through a plus version for quicker swings, a women's range given its own head shapes rather than a scaled-down men's club, and XXIO Prime above all of it, lighter again. Sales-value research by the Yano Research Institute has had these clubs leading the Japanese market for two decades.