PING G400 Driver Opportunity

[Fish]

Arrived at Gainsborough all fresh and ready to hit some balls. Drove through some horrendous weather but it's all clear & calm here now currently.

Full report to follow tonight 🏌️

🐟

 

[pokerjoke]

Arrived at Gainsborough all fresh and ready to hit some balls. Drove through some horrendous weather but it's all clear & calm here now currently.

Full report to follow tonight 🏌️

🐟

Well done on getting there safe there is some bad weather out there as you say.

Ive heard a report on the news that due to a dodgy driver in the Gainsborough area that everything within 180 yards have had a warning and to stay indoors[any ideas what it could be for]

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Be sure to post the correct Ping dog out
Would be a real shame if the wrong one(G400) found its way South instead of the other one

 

[Fish]

Well what a day

Firstly a huge thanks to Golf Monthly for the opportunity and for Jake hosting me at Ping HQ and the European Fitting Centre. Also to the photographer who's name escapes me but he's very thorough.

I arrived nice and early to warm up but there was really no need as you do that as part of the fitting with your own driver and end up hitting that many balls, warming up could be an overkill.





My fitter was Paul Rymer who was absolutely superb, if he took golfing lessons I'd drive to him because his knowledge and communicative skills were second to none. He spotted a few things for me to work on also, so thanks mate :thup:



What a place to work in every day, full of so many toy's.























After hitting a few balls with my own driver we then got a new Ping G400 out with the same 12* loft but with a regular shaft but I found it too whippy and overall a little light and I was spraying the balls everywhere

Paul then started to tweak the shaft and the clubheads working through stiff shafts, tour shafts, different tips and kick points, all very technical but slowly and surely he was getting my dispersion tighter as the fitting went on, which was my main goal.

I was happy to give up distance to increase my accuracy as not finding fairways is/was my biggest achilles heel and he was really pleased to hear that as everyone always just usually wants more length.



What was very well explained to me, was, my clubhead speed stayed pretty much the same throughout, but my ball speed was increasing with the changes he was making, this along with other stats like smash factors and attack angles led to increased distance and better dispersion without having to try and hit it any harder.

The only issue he had was my spin, but if I work on some of the tips he gave me and observations he made, if I can reduce that spin it will increase my distance without affecting my dispersion, so I have a few things to work on but I think the bay had an affect on the spin to some degree.

After getting through a good few combinations I've now got a club head loft of 9* +.6 with a Stiff Alta CB55 Shaft, he preferred to go up on a 9* by .6 than down .4 from a 10*.

This is a massive change from the current specs of my SLDR.

This set up gave me a much tighter dispersion and carry & roll out average of +15 yards, so a win win. I'm not naturally long anyway but accuracy with what I can hit has got be paramount and Paul has found that for me

I'm really looking forward to taking it out on the course when it arrives as I found the Academy bay very offset to where I was being asked to drive the ball to, which you can see from the photo's. If you set up square to the bay the markers are off to the right and you end up coming across the ball more, but when I did drive it plum straight, I drove it straight over the fences running up the left of the range





As you all know I can comfortably hit every shot in the book, I just don't know when, but I'm confident this is the last piece of the jigsaw and along with my newly fitted AP2's, I hope to start seeing some more cuts in this inflated handicap of mine.

I know some people frown and scoff at the sight of pink tee's, well if there good enough for the Ping European Fitting Centre, there good enough for me :thup:



I won't say too much about Johnny who I met there who was the other forumite, but I will say they need a longer range, 280 yards was too short







Jake had a swing in between the shoots and I sneaked a video of him, I'll try and load it later :smirk:

A great day, a great insight into all the fitting stats, amazing watching some guy off the Asia Tour in the next bay hitting it out of the range with a 3w and I think I over heard something about 175mph!

All in all a day and experience I will remember and hopefully I will repay it with a report in some weeks/months showing an improvement.

Thanks :thup:

 

[anotherdouble]

Great report Robin. Glad you had a great day mate. Roll on you getting the club and we will do battle again

 

[srixon 1]

Enjoy it when it arrives Robin. Can't beat New shiny stuff,especially free shiny stuff.

 

[fundy]

nice one Fishy, officially an old man now

 

[Fish]

Oh I forgot to mention, my shaft is being cut down 1" also.

My fitter went on to say, that, hardly any of the Pro's on tour have full length shafts, and when he put Bubba's up against mine, his looked like it was for a dwarf 😜

 

[upsidedown]

Good write up Robin, we'll have to get together and try them out side by side

 

[Durango]

Very thorough report and a pleasure to meet you Fish! Had a great day, thanks to GM for organising. I managed to add about 15 yards total distance from the Titleist 910 I've been using. Got fitted with an extra stiff Hzrdus shaft

Really is a great place to get fitted, Paul seriously knows his onions and I'm tempted to go back and do an iron fitting sometime soon.

 

[Tashyboy]

Totally agree about what you said re the slope on the range. Hit one with a bit of fade and it can look like a slice. But if anything it helped me to focus more on not putting spin on the ball.
Said it before and will say it again. If i am buying Ping again, and i will. I will be off to ping hq. The advice they give is 24 carat gold.

 

[paddyc]

Nice one Robin.You'll be able to leave the 5 wood in the bag now from the tee

 

[Fish]

Nice one Robin.You'll be able to leave the 5 wood in the bag now from the tee

I can hit that 4w further, better & straighter than my current driver at times, hopefully now it will be used in support of this new driver and not as a replacement 'go to' club.

 

[Bazzatron]

Good write up.

I remember winning the Ping competition a few years back and as you say the facilities and the people are second to none.

 

[Wayman]

Good write up robin
Let us know how you get on with the new shiney

 

[Fish]

Good write up robin
Let us know how you get on with the new shiney

It's not very shiney, it's stealth looking 🏌️

#DarkAndMysterious 😜

 

[Fish]

:whoo:















Thank you Jake and the GM team and also Paul at Ping :thup:

 

[Deleted member 1740]

Nice fishy, can I have 1st dibs when you realise you can't hit it :ears:

 

[drewster]

Very nice !!!

 

[JohnnyDee]

Lovely jubbly.

Just caught up on this Robin. Hope you really enjoy the driver.

I'm really enjoying the irons that I was recently fitted for courtesy of GM and Mizuno.

Good here, innit? :thup: