Ping (http://www.pinggolf.com)

The undisputed King (until recently) of the custom-fitting world, Ping, while not a huge name on the PGA tour has done exceptionally well on the LPGA tour, and even better with the well-to-dos on the weekend and executive circuits. Ping’s color-dotted fitting system is the easiest, and perhaps most well known in all of golf. You want a club one-degree flat, no problem, buy a red dot. Ping also has a variety of both grip and shaft options. While all manufactures now offer some degree of custom fitting, Ping continues to distinguish itself as the total solution by offering fitting for all of your clubs; including your putter and your woods.

While I love their fitting system, and thought very highly of their G4 driver (I nearly bought one a year and a half ago), and I love the fact that they don’t saturated the market with 50 new products every year (yup, still talking about TaylorMade) my enthusiasm for Ping has waned over the last couple of years. There are two reasons for my diminishing enthusiasm: First, while other manufactures offer irons in the $650-$750, you can’t touch a current-year’s set of Pings (Ebay excluded) for under $1000. My other problem has to do with the aesthetics and nomenclature of the new clubs. I loved the pings when the lettering was gold and black and the clubs had names like Eye3, but now, man, it’s just gotten out of control. The new clubs feature toxic green graphics, and their new lineup is called “Rapture”. Stupid colors, stupid names, and stupid prices (at least for the irons), it’s really not an appealing combination. Anyway…

Drivers

New for ‘07 is the Rapture series. The driver features a titanium face and composite crow with a “visible web-shaped crown design”, which is made up of a lighter composite which allows Ping to place more weight further back in the club. 20 grams worth of internal weight pads are placed on the rear edges to promote a higher launch and lower spin. Ping claims the variable thickness club face is hotter to increase ball speed. The Rapture driver is available in lofts of 1.5 degree variations beginning at 9 degrees.

As I said, I find the appearance of this club to be borderline hideous. The visible web design on the crown is distracting, and the half-moon alignment design used on all Ping drivers was the single biggest reason why I didn’t buy the G4. The Rapture will not be on my demo list this year.

Fairway Woods

The Rapture fairway, like the Rapture driver features an internal weight pad, which in the case of the fairway wood, is placed directly below the center of gravity. It features a larger head size to increase MOI, which results in a more forgiving club. The Rapture Fairway is available in 3, 5, and 7-wood lofts.

Hybrids

The Rapture Hybrid has about the largest head I’ve ever seen on a hybrid club. Ping claims the larger head (and trailing edge relief) provide control from any turf condition. Like last year’s G5, the Rapture hybrid features a sloped crown design which aids in increasing launch angle, and reducing spin. Finally, the Rapture is build from a 3-piece design which maximizes the performance characteristics of each material (tungsten, nickel, steel). The as you can probably surmise, helps to produces higher launching, longer carrying shots.

Irons

As many of the other manufactures have done, Ping has released to new iron sets for ‘07. The Rapture Iron, and the S58 blade.

The Rapture is billed as a game-improvement iron, and has been given the same hideous paintjob as everything else in the Rapture series. Like the hybrid of the same name, the clubhead features multi-material construction (17-4 stainless steel body, tungsten toe weights, titanium face). The wide sole design created by the undercut cavity moves the center of gravity further to the back; improving launch angles, and lowering spin.

The idea of a titanium face is somewhat unique to the market. Early reports on the Rapture irons are that they are extremely forgiving, but also tend to play shorter than other clubs in their class.

The S58 blade is a true players iron with a more traditional (non-neon green) appearance. The center of gravity has been moved to the back for the longer irons, and placed in the front for shorter irons which gives the better player complete control over ball flight and distance. They S58 is as beautiful as the Rapture series is ugly. If I were anywhere near ready for blades, I’d certainly give these a try, but since I’m clearly not, it’s unlikely any Ping irons will find their way into my bag this spring.

Wedges

It looks like cooler heads finally prevailed at Ping. Instead of a Rapture series of wedges, Ping instead is offering the iWedge; inspired by the original Ping Eye2 sand wedge. The iWedge features a unique concave sole, which helps to prevent digging and gets under the ball quickly. The U-groove design promotes spin and control from all conditions.

The iWedge is fine looking club. The major drawback is that unlike major players, Cleveland and Vokey, the iWedge has only one bounce options per loft, which really isn’t much of an option at all.

Putters

Since none of these manufacturers actually drop me a line and tell me what’s new, I’m pretty much on my own to figure it out. Ping does any especially bad job of segmenting new from old, so maybe just maybe new for 2007 is the Redwood series.

All putters in the Redwood series feature a 100% milled head. They’re made from 303 Stainless steel and feature a black nickel chrome finish. All 3 models in the Redwood line are heal-shafted blade style putters.

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