If there were a Tropicana bikini contest for drivers it is doubtful that PING G25 driver would ever get to wear the victory sash or even crack the top 5. Yet, somehow PING drivers have been a steady contender in everyone’s “hot list” and a staple in golf bags for what seems like forever. Sure Bubba Watson swings a PING driver and is no doubt a flashy ambassador, but the brand as a whole still wears a one-piece bathing suit.

So does this mean the marketing folks at PING should be set out to pasture and replaced with a bunch of wizbang spiffed up go getters? I say no and I actually believe that PING has never set their sights on the sexy award.

If you think about golf clubs as girls, they can be divided into two groups: those you date and those you marry. What if PING is the marrying type? You know the one that does NOT make your life a soap opera, the one that does NOT break your heart, the one that does NOT stand you up, and the one that is NOT a potential train wreck every time you see her. Instead, what if PING is your steady, your life long companion, the one you know and trust, the one that has your back. What if being the girl you marry is what PING is going for? Too creepy? Stay with me . . .

I have had many PING clubs in my bag over the years and currently still carry a PING G10 five wood because it is the safest most consistent club I own. At 185 yards, I feel like I can land it on a dime and it gets me out of so many jams I am going to be hard-pressed to ever replace it. So, while  it has been years since I had a PING driver in my bag, I was pretty darn sure I was going to enjoy reviewing it.

My PING G25 driver review started like buying any other PING club – the online fitting. While probably not as good as an in person fitting with a Pro, the online version does a good job of recommending the right shaft and loft. In my case, I am always right between a stiff and regular shaft as my swing speed is about 94 mph. For what it is worth, I ended up with the regular shaft 10.5 loft driver.

The club itself is not fancy but I would classify it as distinguished. Matte black with a simple alignment aid on the top and a shiny bottom that features only the branded PING G25. Worth noting is that even after 20 or so rounds, the bottom of the club has shown very little wear, which is very refreshing compared to many drivers we review that look 2 years old after a month of play.

As with most PING clubs, the first thing that comes to mind is forgiveness. While PING has definitely earned their reputation for forgiving with clubs like the G25 irons, they also make darn good player clubs like the S55 irons. With that said, the G25 driver is more on the forgiving side. That is not to say a player cannot benefit from the G25 driver. I am a 9.5 handicap and hit the ball straight but not particularly far. My average drive is about 225 with 265 being my outside range. I have reviewed about 5 drivers this year and the PING G25 driver is as long as any of them and longer than most.

Regardless of the distance, the reason the PING has remained in my bag for so long is that it just goes straight all the time. Even with mis-hits I am not wildly far off. The large clubhead gives you a tons of room for mistakes, but when you catch it just right it is a bomber.

Again, not super sexy but when I am hitting 12 fairways and never playing out of the woods, I am all in. I also don’t want to give the impression that the G25 is ugly, because it is far from that. It is just that you don’t have any extra glamour. It is your basic step up and smash it driver. Your working class bigstick.

Under the hood, the PING G25 driver does offer a touch of adjustability. You can change the loft by plus or minus a half degree which will make a 1% adjustment to the face angle. Per usual, I don’t mess with the setting, but that’s just me.

As I mentioned, the PING website takes you through a basic fitting which in part will spit out a recommended shaft. The shaft that came with my driver and was used for this review was the TFC189 which is weighted toward the butt end of the club in order to partially offset the heavier club head. I am a self-admitted dope when it comes to shafts, but I am convinced that the shafts PING uses are well matched to the club (plus they look super cool).

Hey what about the PING G30 Driver? Yep, the PING G30 driver has just come out which means the G25 driver is now an older model. Unlike many companies, PING does not roll out multiple versions of a club each year (which, by the way, I believe is a business model that is proving to be counterproductive for both consumers and companies). My guess would be that it will be the PING release cycle that becomes more normal as we enter into 2015. But, my point is, that even though the G25 is now one generation old, it is still a rock solid choice for the majority of golfers.

Anyone who plays to a 10-30 handicap is a perfect candidate for the PING G25 (and likely a bunch of single digit handicappers as well). At every level, PING nails it. The sound is great, the looks are fine, the adjustably is sufficient, the forgiveness is welcomed and the distance is plenty respectable. Get it, you get the whole ball of wax. Maybe you miss out on one “wow” factor, but you don’t get burned by a glaring deficiency.

So for all those married guys out there, when you go shopping for your next driver, think about your wife (I assume you love her). Think about why you are still married (besides the huge inheritaence from her dad). Yea, it is the stability, the dependability, the no surprises that keeps you together. Sure you might miss the wild nights in Vegas with that girl in the short dress, but in the end it just meant trouble. Meet PING: the girl you can marry.

Learn more on the PING website.

It’s Ping-apalooza here at Three Guys, with Mathew reviewing the Ping G25 irons and Wade reviewing the Ping S55 irons, and I’ve spent the last few with the i25’s. With that I give you the Ping i25 irons review.

First, let me give you the technical scoop. The Ping i25s are intended for players that reside in that gap between the game-improvement G series and the low handicapper/professional S series irons. The predecessor, the i20 iron, was a successful product for Ping and the i25 is an evolution of the same bloodline. The i25s are designed as a progressive set, with forgiveness and high-launch characteristics in the long irons giving way to softer, feel-oriented short irons. The intended demographic appears to be mid-handicapper with a good stroke all the way up to tour players (Kirk Triplett is the only Tour Pro I could confirm to have them in the bag, but hey, that’s enough).

Ping accomplishes this progressive concept by utilizing wider soles, longer blade lengths, and more offset on the long irons (leaning more towards game-improvement characteristics), while the short irons have a smaller blade, less offset, and a narrower sole. I’m boring you to death, but Ping has also utilized weighting to achieve it’s desired center of gravity by way of the “Custom Tuning Port”, which allows them to manipulate the center of gravity on each iron.

My first step in getting my mitts on the Ping i25 irons was completing the nFlight Web Fitting process that Ping offers through their website. Ping considers themselves to be the leader in custom-fitting, and my childhood memories of them being the only folks with color codes and various graphs hanging on golf store walls makes me inclined to believe them. That said, I was actually a bit surprised that Ping would endorse online clubfitting, as obviously nothing beats actually taking some swipes and having a proper session, but I guess this is the age we live in. Anyway, the nFlight program starts with easy enough questions, learning your handicap, height, distance from wrist to floor, hand length, and length of your longest finger. That last one may sound a bit too personal, but Ping actually provided me with a “duh” moment when I realized they were interested in customizing my grip size, which makes total sense. For folks with hands like carnies, perhaps a smaller grip would be helpful, right? nFLight then walks you through your current clubs, how far you hit them now and with what trajectory, then what your desired trajectory would be. All in all, there is enough data going in that you have reasonable confidence that Ping is hooking you up with the right set of sticks.

One thing to note, however, is that I initially misread the question of how long my driver goes, thinking they meant carry, and I was prescribed a set of Karsten hybrid/iron combos with a regular flex shaft, which would have been a huge disappointment had they turned up at my door (they are super game-improvement clubs, not what I’m looking for). Luckily, I knew enough about requiring a stiff flex that I went back and did the process over, feeling better about the results the second time. So like anything, go in with your eyes open because the slightest tweak of certain variables will drastically alter the recommended clubs and shafts. Wade actually mentioned the same thing in his S55 post, so . . . you’ve been warned.

Anyway, doctor’s orders were for the Ping i25s with stiff steel shafts (Ping CFS), a blue color code for lie angle (0.75 upright), and a grip code of aqua. Bring it!

Real quick about me and Pings. Since day 1 I was keenly aware that Ping was making top-caliber sticks because, I swear, for the first 5 years I played golf almost every good golfer I got paired up with was wielding a set of Ping Eye 2s. I’m talking almost EVERY time I played with a legit baller, he had the Eye 2s. Being a lefty, I never got a chance to try them out until they were long discontinued and I was foraging 2irons out of a Play It Again Sports barrel (hint, it’s not the same). But because I had Ping on the brain, every time I got fitted for a new set I would be sure to give the Pings a whirl, and every time I would come away just thinking that the Ping feel was too “soft” for me. Pings struck me kind of like Saabs – their owners are fiercely loyal and way into something that might not be my cup of tea, but their decision is to be respected. As it went, I would always get hooked on a set of irons that had a harder, more explosive feeling at impact and the Pings would go back on the shelf.

Ping has also changed the looks of their clubs pretty significantly over the years, but they always seem to retain a bit of the funky-shape-deal that was started with the Eye 2s and Ping Zings; I expected to get a bit of that vibe somehow with the i25s. Well, overall the i25s have fairly traditional, smart, handsome looks, but of course they still have that Ping character in the shape. This is the worst paragraph I have ever written, by the way, my apologies. Basically they look like Pings . . . just look at the pictures, leave me alone.

At address, I immediately fell in love with the blue color code . . . the slightly flatter lie angle was a perfect fit and, unexpectedly, a sight for sore eyes because I had always been fitted for standard length/lie and never knew a club could rest so much better at address. Now, one could argue that my in-person fittings should probably trump anything based just on my wrist-to-floor numbers, but in hindsight I can remember the various pros kind of hustling through my fitting process and breezily declaring that I am standard. Who knows . . . at this point I’m gonna call this one 50/50.

Another thing you immediately notice at address is that the i25 does indeed progress from longer, slightly thicker blades in the long irons to shorter, thinner on the short irons. Nothing so obvious that it seems gimmicky, I just remember looking at the 7 iron and thinking “if my 3 iron has a similar profile, I’m in trouble”. Alas, when I set up with the 3 iron it was a bit more confidence inspiring with a thicker topline and overall larger clubface. I should clarify that I currently play Titleist AP1s, and while I always thought that even Titleist’s game-improvement iron still leans toward the “player” end of the spectrum, I immediately noticed that the i25 was less chunky and definitely more of a player club.

That theme continued when I started smashing pills, as I quickly learned what it felt like to hit a club that leans more towards the player side. The i25s had a much more refined, delicate, and precise feel to them than my AP1s, which feel more like they are just smashing through the turf and ball like The Hulk. With the i25s, I was feeling a click/thump combination, and I wasn’t yet sure whether to attribute that to the “player club” aspect or to the softer feel that I always expect from Ping. This sounds like a cop-out, but I think the answer is both. The only way I can possibly make sense from this point is to just separate the 3-7 irons from the 8 and up.

When hitting the long and mid irons, it was easy to see the results of Ping’s efforts to create a high-launch club. Because I am coming from the AP1s that are – turns out – definitely game-improvement irons, I was to this point unaware of how bad a mis-hit could actually feel. Relatively speaking, the i25s would produce Simon Cowell-like negative feedback, but I would look up and see the ball doing a decent job of going where I wanted it to. So in that sense they are forgiving, because mis-hits are not viciously punished by landing 50 yards short, but the unsatisfying feeling at impact would just leave me pissed and wanting another crack at it. Then every once in a while I would pure one, and the ball would rocket gloriously off the clubface and follow a perfect medium-high/boring trajectory that I would stare down all day. Even when I ripped it, though, I always had the feeling that I wasn’t getting all I could out of the club . . . perhaps this iron was best reserved for true studs. I DID rip that one though, so what gives? This is where I think Ping’s softer feel comes into play, and obviously it has to do with my own personal taste. I think Ping would agree that they have always provided a unique feel at impact with their irons, it’s part of their appeal to golfers. I do want to reiterate, however, that the contact always felt “clean”, like I was just picking the ball off of the turf and putting it on a very precise line of flight. Kind of a cool feeling when you are swinging well.

The fact is, ripped shots and slight mis-hits all flew on an ideal trajectory, with mis-hits being a tad lower and landing 0 – 10 yards short (pretty much what you would want out of a player-club-with-forgiveness). And for the record, on my first hole playing with the i25s I hit a circus-shot fade/slice around a tree that was a bit ridiculous and something I had never done with such authority with any other clubs, a testament to the “workability” of the i25s. Then I broke 70 for the first time. Now I’m lying.

When I got to the 8 iron and up, I was again faced with trying to sort out whether I was feeling the softness of a Ping or the softness of a player iron. Or at least that was the case for the first 3 swings, then I realized I didn’t give a damn because these things feel frick-en awe-some. Impact with the short irons feels soft, but not in a wimpy way – in an accurate way. I had no idea how “foggy” my AP1 short irons felt because I didn’t know any better. Every swing I made with the i25s gave me such precise feedback that I would look up already knowing what that egg was doing. I instantly became a convert to the blade side of life, like ‘this must be what everybody gets so lathered up about’ . . . I felt like I was carving iron shots with total accuracy, throwing darts. And the softer feel at impact was not a detraction, it was addictive. The trajectory was high, but not ballooning – it would go up in a hurry and go down in a hurry, at least that’s how it seemed to me.

So if you can’t already tell, I’m a believer in the i25s and their level of performance. The soft Ping feel is still there, but this time around it is less of a drawback for me. With the short irons, that soft feel is ridiculously sweet. With the long irons, I do crave a tiny bit more “smash” feedback when I pure one, but I really think it’s just a cleaner feel that Ping produces, and that is something I am not used to. I may grow to love it even more (as these i25s have taken up residence in my bag, btw), but obviously there are a ton of Ping loyalists who will find it superior right from the start . . . in other words, take my personal taste with a grain of salt because I could just be a total meathead. And as a final hammer onto your skull: if forced into a stream of consciousness regarding the vibe of the i25 irons, I would mutter very little about distance, even though they hit the ball as far as expected. Instead, the words “clean” and “precise” would just keep bubbling up to the surface.

I do want to make it clear to those on the hunt for new sticks – the “game-improvement” aspect of the long irons is relative. I do think that the word forgiveness gets thrown around WAY too much in the golf equipment industry, and we have to always question what the context is when we hear that word. The i25 long irons are certainly forgiving, as I have hit numerous shots not-so-great and watched them still land on greens, but there was a definite rap on the knuckles from the swing nuns on each of those strikes. So you can step up to the ball with confidence, just don’t get cocky, and bring at least your A- game. Anyway, I now understand the genius behind the concept of a progressive set, as I think every golfer could benefit from moving towards blade in the short irons, and the progressive concept allows us to keep the long irons within reach of our skill level.

My apologies for making my own game such a prominent part of this review, but I think it helps illustrate my takeaways from the i25s. Ultimately I think the i25s are clearly a premier set of irons, perfectly capable and accomplished in what they set out to be – a progressive set of irons that give a little assistance in the long irons and allow for true scoring feel in the short irons. If you hit the ball pretty well, you owe it to yourself to give these a run because even the short irons alone could open your eyes to something great. And if you are one of those low-handicappers, the i25s are a no brainer for your next clubtesting session – they will perform as well as any other top-tier club, and you could very well fall in love with that signature Ping feel.

You can learn more on the Ping website.

Karsten Solheim, the founder of Ping, came to the game of golf later in life but left his mark as a recognized product innovator. In the early 60’s Solheim began tinkering with equipment and was often found peddling is homemade putters around the practice greens on the PGA tour, and yes it was because of the metal he used which created the now iconic ‘ping sound’ that gave birth to the name. The metal of the putter head may have sounded a bit funny and looked dull compared to the shiny offerings of other companies, but when Pros started to win on tour with his putter the Ping reputation grew  to what is now a global brand. 

My introduction to Ping irons came in the form of the classic beryllium-copper Eye2. It was with those clubs that I learned to play golf and  for many years they remained in my bag. To this day, years apart from their introduction, the perimeter weighting, square grooves and softer metal are all testaments to the innovation, risk-taking and technological improvements that Ping has brought to the table.

Primarily known for their game improvement irons, Ping has launched the innovative new S55 irons, which are targeted to low handicap players. On tour, guys like Bubba Watson and Hunter Mahan have added these clubs to their bag. In fact Bubba made the change mid-season during the 2013 FedEx Cup after years with the S59’s. Suffice it to say that I was excited to see what new stuff Ping had put under the hood.

As a reference point, I have been playing the ‘09 Callaway X-forged irons for several years and have enjoyed the challenges of playing a forged club with its smaller profile and head size but with the forgiveness of a cavity back. Given that I saw similar features in the Ping S55 and read about their added forgiveness, I felt confident they would be a good match for my game.

The first thing Ping did was send me through their online fitting program. It’s available from when you first log onto their website at Ping.com and enter the dropdown menu telling them what continent you’re from. You then click on the blue “Get Fit with nFlight web” tab, and after answering a few questions about your game and giving them some measurements like height, height of wrists from the floor, and hand length, they provide you with a club, shaft and grip recommendation. For experimental purposes, I spent more than an hour making small changes to my answers in order to see how much difference it made in Ping’s recommendations. Interestingly, the differences in what Ping recommended were fairly significant with only small changes to my reported stats, like 7-iron distances for example. Also, since they spit out a specific ‘solution’ for you, it makes sense to also familiarize yourself with the whole product line so that you will like the look and feel of what they suggest.

My recommendation was for the S55 irons, white dot (three degrees upright) with .25’’ added to the shaft length and Ping z-z65 stiff shafts, and grip color-code white. While I think the online Ping fitting process it very solid, I would also recommend visiting a shop that sells Ping clubs via one of their club-fitting booths, so you could demo some of the subtle differences between shafts, lies (color dots) and lengths. For example, fellow blogger Mathew who reviewed the Ping G25 was able to determine that he wanted a different dot color than the website recommended after trying them in person.

When I first pulled my set of Ping S55 from the box, I was struck with how good-looking the clubs are to my eye as they carry a classic blade shape and shiny finish. It guess it is understandable for veteran golfers, who are used to the traditional dull Ping finish and over-sized shape, to actually question “Is this a Ping?” when confronted with the new S55’s.

Since I recently had the opportunity to review a new Miura muscle-back blade, the MB-001 6-iron, I wanted to see how it and my Callaway compared to the new set of Pings. So with those two irons and the S55’s in hand I headed to the range. As I warmed up with all of the S55 irons, my first impression was how solid they felt and how easy they were to hit high and soft. I also noticed a slight click that was sharper than the sound of hitting the other forged clubs. Some reviewers have made a lot of the sound difference between this click, and the thud of a forged club. Although it was noticeable to me it was not overbearing but rather it gave me the sense that I was hitting a slightly harder face with the ball jumping off of the club and into the air. So while there is still the Ping click, they have added a CTP, or custom-tuning port which is part of the mechanics you see on the back of the club. Basically this adds an air pocket behind the club face which is then filled with their thermoplastic elastomer. Note that the Ping S55 is made with 17-4 steel, which is harder and more durable than forged steel, so this ‘cushioning’ created by the CTP acts to reduce sound and vibration when the ball is struck.

As I worked from PW to 3-iron, all of the clubs felt very consistent through the set in terms of how solid they felt – even on slight miss-hits. Each club was easy to hit with a beautiful, high trajectory. The three 6-irons I was testing seemed about the same in terms of distance and trajectory on well-struck shots, but the Ping was noticeably more forgiving on off-center shots. The feedback was still coming off the face as far as mis-hits, but I wasn’t penalized to the same degree as with the other two irons. These irons are designed with their MOI to be able to get a ball into the air quickly and to feel very solid through the ball. The result is that I have been able to hit high soft shots, even with the 4 and 3-iron, much easier than other blades I have hit.

As I moved to the course after a few more range sessions, I was able to forget about having new clubs, and work on knocking off some winter rust. I found pulling the right club for the yardage was easy and appreciated the club’s top-line visuals which are classic and familiar to other forged clubs. Unlike many of the other Ping clubs, the size of the S55 is similar to other blades with all of the benefits of a blade in terms of workability, ability to knife through deep rough, and tendency to keep from getting hung up in the turf through impact.

As I tested the clubs further, I was very curious as to how the Ping PW and 9-iron worked in my short game. I’m a huge fan of the SCOR wedges on multiple levels and I was pleasantly surprised as to how the Ping clubs compared to them around the green. While the sound of the club was still a bit ‘clickier’ than the SCOR wedge, the performance was very similar. One big difference in the Ping S55 compared to most blades is the sole which is more rounded, both from leading edge to the back, and from heel to toe. The roundedness from heel to toe opens up the variety of shots you can hit off of different lies and this roundedness is positioned in about the same place as the bounce ground into SCOR wedges. What I found was that chipping with 7-iron through PW was a breeze with the Ping irons. Additionally, this same forgiving technology is built into the sole of all their clubs, right through to the 3-iron.

Ping recommends the S55 clubs for low single-digit handicappers and retail for around $1000 for 3-PW with steel shafts. If you are looking for something that sets up and feels like a blade but want a touch more forgiveness than a true blade then I recommend you give these irons a very serious look. Ping’s club fitting is clearly one of the best in the business, and their commitment to innovation and excellence that stretches all the way back to their founder Karsten Solheim, is very visibly demonstrated in these new S55 irons.

You can visit the Ping website to learn more about the S55 irons.

I’ve always been leary of the term “Game Improvement” iron. For whatever reason, it seemed like code for “your game stinks”.  Plus, even if my game is not where I want it to be, I don’t want to sacrifice all opportunity to hit “real golf shots” and get feedback from the club. Like most mid-handicappers out there I struggle with consistency more often than not, and much like my awakening to the fact I shouldn’t be playing from 6,800 yards, I’ve recently come to terms with the fact that game improvement irons are not the evil cheater clubs I’ve always assumed them to be.

Recently we were sent us a new set of PING G25 irons which fit under the moniker of a Game Improvement iron. Since I currently reside at the low end of the totem pole when it comes to Handicap stats here at Three Guys, I gladly accepted the assignment to review this vastly popular iron set and see if I could show some real improvement with my game.

The review process started with me first finding my way to the PING website where I went through their online fitting process. Quite a few different measurements are taken like your hand size, finger size, how far off the ground your wrist is, and so on. After those figures are calculated you then look at ball flight patterns such as lefts and rights and how you would like the ball to fly with a low, mid or high trajectory.

With my current irons (that I was using prior to this review) my ball flight was pretty low, which makes it difficult to come softly into a green on a makeable approach shot, so I decided to give the higher ball flight a try and PING paired the clubs up with a shaft that would fit that need.

The only club I have ever had fitted was a driver at GolfTEC years ago so I was intrigued to see how the clubs came out. One of the more appealing aspects of the fitting process was how they take into consideration your hand size and match your measurements with one of their grips.

Speaking of the grips, the ones that come on the G25’s are from PING and I’ve found them to be quite comfortable – not overly aggressive and very receptive to my hands. When I compare them to the grips on my other clubs it was easy to see that the off-the-rack irons are made for people without pigmy hands like I have. With the correctly sized grips to go along with the club cut to the right length to match my height and posture, I could tell a difference almost instantly the first time I held the clubs and I really felt in control of my swings.

The look of the G25’s is very appealing. In my mind I was sure that I was going to be swinging some grossly oversized, offset clubs that looked more like a kids toy than a golf club, but that wasn’t the case at all.

You can see from the pictures that the G25’s have a unique color and when standing over them addressing a ball there is virtually no glare or any type of distracting aspects. They have a very traditional look and in no way do they feel like an oversized beginners club. Shows you what I know.

I was able to spend a good 4 days with the irons before I had to pack them up for Florida. Yes, I would have like to spend some more time with them at the range but with setup that I currently have at the house it was easy for me to get a feel for the new clubs before I headed out to the East coast.

Without a doubt the best feature of the irons is their ability to handle off-center hits. With my previous irons any off-center impacts sounded like a piece of lead being dropped on a broken cymbal. I’m still working on my over the top move, and because it’s still a dominate component of my swing, I find the toe side of the club more often than not. With the G25’s a swing that would have previously resulted in either a penalizing shot or one I really didn’t like attempting instead puts my rock down the fairway in a very manageable situation.

Even more impressive than the miss-hits was the elusive “catching it flush” right in the sweet spot. I don’t like saying I have a favorite club, I want to think love all my clubs equally so I’m never in a situation where I don’t want to make a swing with a specific stick, but the G25 6iron has rapidly climbed to the top of chart as my go to club. With the CFS shafts  PING included with the irons I was flighting the ball like I had never done so before, hitting some beautifully high shots that came down like a feather falling from the sky. Unlike anything I had ever experienced before on the course.

It wasn’t just the 6 iron though; all of the irons in the set have the same high trajectory shot. The game improvement approach of the G25’s allows the ball to get higher, quicker, with its deep cavity-backed heads and when it was combined with the CFS shafts I was getting that dreamy ball flight I’ve been wanting for so long.

Although it was very appealing to see that high ball flight it did take a little while to get familiarized with the new distances I was hitting. The PINGs were cut down a .25” and that made a big difference when combined with different degrees of loft compared to my previous clubs. With my short game improvements though I was able to get up and down a lot more often because the miss-hits were still in the general area I was aiming for.

It also didn’t help that I was playing at nearly sea level which is very much different than what I’m used to playing here in Vegas. That being said I couldn’t have been happier with the performance of the G25’s. With each additional round I played (6 in all) I started to get a better feel and understanding for the clubs. At the end of my six straight days of golf adventure it was no brainer to me that the G25’s were going to be a taking up a permanent residence in my bag for the 2014 season. It may be too soon to tell but I most definitely foresee see some better scores coming my way.

Custom fit to my specs, amazing forgiveness on miss-hits, superb ball flight and to top it off a gorgeous looking iron set. PING certainly did it right when they created the G25’s and this blogger couldn’t be happier playing with a game improvement iron!

You can visit PING the website and go through the same nFLIGHT Web Fitting that I did where you can then take the specs to a certified retailer and have your very own custom clubs ordered. The G25’s have a retail price of $699 for a 3-PW set with steel shafts.

When making a list of Golf Mecca’s a few places come to mind. Let’s see, Pinehurst, Myrtle Beach, Las Vegas and a little town they call Scottsdale. For those of you who have not visited Scottsdale, think of it as the Beverly Hills of the Phoenix area with the crown jewel (at least in terms of golf) being TPC Scottsdale. It seems reasonable, then, that when Ping went looking for a name for their newest Anser putter, slapping the moniker ‘Scottsdale’ on it seemed to make sense.

Ping Scottsdale Anser 2 TR

Right Hand, 350g Head Weight

Ping took a different approach to their new line of putters – the Scottsdale TR series. TR stands for “True Roll” and that’s the outcome you’ll expect thanks to their new innovation called “Variable-Depth-Grove Technology”. Yes, I agree, TR is a much better term than VDGT. By varying the depth of the groove from the deepest in the center to shallow as you move out from the center area of the putter face, Ping has proven that the TR system provides a much more consistent distance control when hit flush in the center or just off center towards the heel or the toe, and since none of us strike every putt perfectly (not even the Pros), this is a new technology that I was eager to try.

To start, I used the Anser 2 on my putting green at home to get a feel for it and it didn’t take long before I was draining those 7 foot putts with relative ease. I was truly surprised at how well the putter felt in my hands. I’m not sure what it is about the Ping grip, maybe Tiger could clarify, but it felt like an extension of my hands as I was hitting my putts. Never before has a putter felt that good in my hands as I was using it.

The insert that Ping uses is made from Aluminum so you’ll get the typical “ping” sound the clubmaker is known for but not the high-pitch version from years past. The TR technology I think is here to stay, and just like Ping proclaims, the off-center putts don’t come up short at all. Deliberately making off-center putts is nothing that I wanted to practice but I had to bite the bullet for the review and I was literally stunned at the results. I nailed my distances all day long on all three courses. My lag putting was outstanding and watching the alignment line on my ball stay straight as can be and not wobble back and forth was neat to watch.

I put the Anser TR though a three round test and came away feeling like my putting was clearly the better part of my game. I was rolling the ball better than I ever had and my distance control was not only a big surprise to me but my playing partners as well. The solid feel of the putter in my hands and the remarkable roll and touch that I was able to put on the ball let me know that Ping certainly has a winner with the TR series and their variable-depth-grove technology.

You can see the whole line of Ping products on their website.