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Nike had been selling golf balls and Tiger Woods sightings for a couple of years before it finally put its swoosh on a set of irons. The 2002 Pro Combo was part of that first wave, and it surprised a lot of skeptics. People expected a marketing exercise. What they got was a legitimately well-made forged players iron, built in Japan by Endo, the same forging house trusted by several boutique Japanese brands.
The idea behind the Pro Combo was progressive set design before that phrase became a catalog cliche. Instead of one head shape stamped across nine irons, Nike changed the construction as the set descended. Long irons got a deeper cavity for help getting the ball up. Mid irons ran a shallower cavity. Short irons were close to a muscle back, compact and workable where precision matters most. In 2002 that was still a fresh concept, and Nike executed it cleanly.
Two decades on, these show up on the used market for not much money, and they remain a sneaky good buy for a golfer who wants soft forged feel without paying modern forged prices. The lofts are weaker than today's jacked-up spec sheets, so your 7 iron won't fly like a 2020s 7 iron. Judge them on gapping and feel, not the number on the sole.
In short
The Nike Pro Combo (2002) is a players cavity that adds forgiveness without much extra size.
Refresh due soon
Brands in this category update about every 2 years, and the Pro Combo is 24 years old with no successor yet, so a new model could land any time. Grab it at clearance pricing now, or wait a few weeks to see what replaces it.
Based on release timing and this line's typical refresh cycle, not a live price quote.
Stock steel shaft. Lofts are approximate and subject to manufacturing tolerances.
Each head is forged carbon steel with a satin finish, a fairly thin topline, and modest offset for the era. The cavity geometry does the heavy lifting. In the 3 and 4 iron the weight sits low and back to raise launch, then the cavity progressively shrinks until the scoring clubs are essentially a split muscle design. Address views stay consistent through the set, which was the hard part to pull off, and Nike mostly did. Feel is the reason to seek these out. Endo forgings from this period have a dense, quiet sensation at impact that a lot of modern multi-material irons can't match. Miss it toward the toe and you'll know immediately. That feedback is a feature for the player these were built for, and a warning for everyone else.
Forged. The heads are carbon steel forgings produced by Endo in Japan, which is a big part of why the set earned respect despite Nike being brand new to clubs at the time.
Not really. The long irons offer some cavity-back help, but the short irons are nearly muscle backs with a thin topline and small sweet spot. A mid-to-high handicapper would be better served by a true game improvement iron.
The standard offering was a True Temper steel shaft, typically in stiff or regular flex. Most sets on the used market today still carry the original steel, though twenty-plus years of play means many have been reshafted, so check before you buy.
They're traditional, meaning weaker than current specs. Expect roughly a club's difference against a modern distance iron, so the Pro Combo 7 iron flies more like a modern 8 iron. Distances will look shorter on paper but gapping through the set is consistent.
If the grooves and faces are in decent shape, yes. They're one of the cheaper routes into a genuine Japanese forging, and the progressive design still holds up. Budget for fresh grips and possibly a loft and lie check, since older forged heads bend out of spec over years of use.
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Other players cavity iron models from different brands, closest to its model year.
Use as your baseline in the recommendation tool, or compare side-by-side with another set.