The Green Fee The PING G410- Fairway wood honestly a huge game changer. The people who play them love them but they didnt set any ball speed or distance records. It was simply a consistent performer. I didnt hear any hate from the people who have it
Wrap it up!
LIke I said earlier the PING G410 wasnt exactly known for its massive distance. When people talked about it the word was usually consistent not long. In term sof distance PING has always been willing to let that go in the name of playability
Distance still sells though and PING has realized that. If the Japanese website is any indicator PING is going to put a large emphasis on distance. The biggest and probably most notable change in the G425 is a wrap around face. We saw this with Cobra this past year on the Speedzone driver. The G425 uses C300 maraging steel on the face and they have extended that face up onto the crown as well as on the sole of the face. PING is claiming this will increase maximum deflection and increased ball speeds. Increased ball speeds simply mean more distance. There are obviously more factors to it (Launch and spin) but ball speed is a huge part. This seems to be the big piece of technology but again lets see when the English marketing materials comes out!
Check your spin
Spin is another huge part of distance. With fairway woods a problem you can often get is a lack of consistent spin. Youll sometimes get a low spin bullet that will go 15 yards further than the golfer wanted. Sometimes you will also see a ball that balloons. With the new wrap around face PING is introducing their new “spinsistency”. They have redone the bulge and roll on the face to produce maximum carry and distance. Since ball speed is up, it will be more consistent even on a mishit.
Max, LST, or SFT
Like the driver, the fairway wood is going to be offered in 3 different models. The MAX is going to be the standard, The LST is the low spin offering that will be for the better player and the SFT will be the draw weighted version.
The MAX is the standard sized fairway wood. It is also offered in a 3,5,7,and even a 9 wood. This gives slower swing speed players an incredible opportunity. Now, better players prefer a smaller size fairway wood and PING has reduced the size of the LST to be slightly smaller. While the MAX is offered in a bunch of lofts the LST is not. You can only get it in the 14.5 degree 3 wood. The SFT flips the LST story and offers a larger head than the MAX. It is offered in a 3,5, and 7 wood. If a golfer is missing left but doesnt want something with a ton of offset, I think the SFT is going to be great. The larger head will provide quite a bit of confidence and allows PING to pull that weight low and back. It should be a great club for higher handicaps
The Look
The biggest change you will see in the club is the new crown. PING has had the turbulators on the crown but with the new wrap around face it seems they are not able to do this. The gains of the Turbulators appears to be taking a back seat to the gains of the wrap around face. I wasnt a big fan of the Turbulator look but the new crown looks great!
I am also a big fan of the new color change. I am a big red guy but the stealth look of the new clubs is great. It should pop on the shelves and get people to give it a swing.
Final Thoughts
I really like the new fairway woods. I will give that LST a spin for sure. It will be interesting to see if the wrap around face produces ball speeds that are on the level of the Epic or SIM. If they can pull it off it makes PING VERY dangerous