Krank Formula Fire Pro review: Bryson's driver is a 105mph head, and Krank sells slower swingers a different face

Go to the long-drive end of the range on any club night and there is usually one of them. Shoulders like a barn door, a driver that sounds different, and drives that clear the fence at the end. Ask what he is hitting and there is a decent chance it is a brand you have never seen in a pro shop.

Krank is one of those brands, and the Krank Golf Formula Fire Pro is its best-known head. It is the driver in Bryson DeChambeau's bag, at 6 degrees on a Project X HZRDUS T1100. Krank says the original Formula FIRE was the driver he won the US Open with, and that the same face technology has won 36 long-drive championships. Krank now sells it as the Formula FIRE PRO TOUR, a head it says is 5 per cent smaller than the original. It costs around $550, bought direct from Krank.

This is a long-drive company selling to club golfers. The most useful thing about it is that Krank tells you plainly which club golfers it means, and most of them are not the buyer for this head.

Three faces, one head, and this is the thick one

This is the part almost nobody mentions when they write about Krank. The company makes the same Formula FIRE TOUR head in three face thicknesses and sorts golfers by average drive. The PRO TOUR is for drives of 250 yards and beyond, which Krank also puts as 105mph-plus swing speed, though the description text says 100mph and above. The X TOUR is for averages between 200 and 249 yards. The XX TOUR, which Krank calls Super High COR, is for 199 yards and under.

Krank's argument is that a thin face springs more at high speed, so slower swingers need an even thinner face to get the same trampoline effect. Whatever you make of the physics, the rules do not grade on a curve. Krank's own page says the PRO TOUR is on the USGA conforming list and the X and XX have not been submitted. That puts them outside any event that requires a listed driver. Our CT test explainer covers how that limit is set and why it is a property of the club, not of your swing.

So the Fire Pro is the thickest face in Krank's range and the only one built for the list. If you are fast enough to need it, you get a long-drive head that is legal in a qualifier. If you are not, Krank itself points you at a different driver.

What the head actually is

Krank says every head is 100 per cent handmade from beta titanium. The face is forged and deep-cupped, then micro CNC milled, and Krank rates it as over four times harder than a cast driver face. The head is approximately 440cc and 194 grams with two 1.5-gram weights in a dual weight port system. Lie angle is approximately 57 degrees and face height is 54mm. Lofts are 6, 7.5, 9 and 10.5 degrees. The shaft is a Fujikura Speeder X Tour or Speeder X Light Tour in flexes from Senior to X, at lengths from 44 to 47 inches with 45.5 as standard. A tri-sleeve adapter, headcover and torque wrench come in the box.

The spec I would pay most attention to is the face curvature. Krank uses 8.5x8.5 bulge and roll, and says the bigger brands use flatter 11x11 or 12x12 faces. More curvature means a toe strike leaves the face pointing further right, then relies on gear effect to draw it back. The same works in reverse from the heel. My reading is that this design assumes the ball is hit hard enough for the curve to finish the job. That is a long-drive assumption, and it is the right one for a long-drive head.

Who it is for

A specific golfer, and I would not stretch the list. You average 250 yards or more with the driver on a normal day, not your best day. Your swing speed is genuinely over 100mph, ideally 105, and you know that from a launch monitor, not from a guess. You hit the ball hard enough that spin, not launch, is your problem, which is why a 6 or 7.5 degree option matters. And you like the idea of a head built by a company whose customers are long-drive competitors, not of buying whatever was on the end-cap in March.

If that is you, the Fire Pro is a properly interesting alternative to the major brands. It comes in long-drive lofts the big brands rarely sell off the shelf, and it is one of the few places to get a head built specifically for top-end speed that is still on the conforming list. I would buy one in that position.

Who should skip it

Most golfers, and that is not my opinion so much as Krank's sizing chart. If your average drive is under 250 yards, the maker of this driver sends you to the X or XX TOUR. If you play club competitions, those faces raise a question you will want answered before the first medal. A thin-faced long-drive head built for 250 yards does nothing for a 220-yard driver except leave the face curvature and smaller head working against them.

If that sounds like your game, the honest buy is a mainstream forgiving head fitted properly. The PING G440 Max at around $450 is the one I would point most people at: a 29g movable backweight, the lowest centre of gravity PING has built, and a reputation for the tightest dispersion most amateurs will ever hit. It costs less than the Krank and it is built for the golfers Krank tells to look elsewhere.

Skip it too if you have not had your numbers measured. Buying a 105mph driver on the hope of becoming a 105mph swinger is how a long-drive head ends up in the garage. Get a session on a launch monitor first. Our explainer on what actually adds driver distance sets out why strike and fit beat the face every time.

The verdict

The Fire Pro is a well-made, honestly positioned specialist driver. The thing I respect most is that Krank does not pretend it suits everyone. It publishes a chart that tells most buyers to choose something else. Take the advice. If you are the fast swinger the chart describes, this is a serious head with tour lofts and a conforming face, from a company that builds for exactly your swing. If you are not, the most useful thing the Fire Pro can teach you is to find out your average driving distance before you buy any driver.