Ping clubs have long been exceptional performers but they never looked as good as this. We’ll review the full range very soon but the stunning irons created the strongest first impression. Slightly embarrassingly some Ping employees even came out to watch, intrigued at the prospect of seeing the new clubs in action, hit by humans, for the first time. We weren’t allowed to talk about it until now, but before Christmas we became basically the first people who did not either work for Ping or are their tour players to see, hit and be fitted for the new range. We were invited to Phoenix as the company prepared to release its i20 range of irons and woods.īut the experience was about much more than that. Three stand out: the Anser putter heel-toe, perimeter-weighted clubs and, not as widely known, the lob wedge.
Since 1959, when Karsten introduced his first club, a putter, they have made countless innovations. Again, this is very much the company ethos. In fact, much of it feels like a university campus. Functional would be a better way to describe it. Ping’s headquarters is neither flashy nor showy. They still dominate what has become a global organisation yet remains at heart a family business. One is sent to the champion and the other kept by Ping.
And now, over 50 years since he started the company from his California garage, Ping remains true to his roots and those of the rest of the Solheims.Įvery time a Ping putter is used to win a major professional event, men’s or women’s, two gold-plated replicas are created. The founder, Karsten Solheim, was an engineer.
And this, remember, is an equipment company that does not currently make balls.
It was manufactured by Ping for Ping and and is a piece of kit worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. This then helps them understand how better to design clubs. The Sling Man allows Ping to fire balls at any speed, launch angle and spin rate they choose. In their continuing bid to make ever-improving clubs, they wanted to see how varying launch conditions affected ball flight. The Sling Man does to golf balls what Shane Warne did to cricket balls – impart weird and wonderful types of spin on demand. This helps the engineers build clubs that are more forgiving. Adapted and improved many times, it is now capable of reproducing a range of prescribed mis-hits as well as dead-solid contacts.
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