The Green Fee Its been an exciting day. A few days ago, PING had their newest driver leak out on the USGA conforming list. I wildly speculated here on what we could expect from the new drivers.
Weight Changes
Looking at the new drivers that release don the Ping Japan site it doesnt seem we are getting a ton of changes in 2021 from PING. The biggest change I see is the dramatic change in the moveable weight. The old moveable weight was on the smaller side and would wrap around the head almost fully 180 degrees. On this driver the weight is much more prominent in the design of the club but it also doesnt move nearly as far. On the Ping Japan website they mention keeping the MOI up while still adjusting. Its pretty evident PING figured out how to change the ball flight while not requiring them to mess up the forgiveness of the driver. The G410 introduced the moveable weight for PING. The PING 425 does what PING does best and make a refinement. Every year all they do is improve. I can really respect that.
Change your face
The website is in Japanese and I am basing this off Google translate but a large part of the improvements in this driver are going ot be under the hood. The face has been modified to provide more ball speed across the face. In reality that is the true measure of forgiveness with a driver. If ball speed can be kept up across the face then distance doesnt really suffer and thats very important when analyzing a driver. Itll be interesting to see what is said when I can actually read the copy…
Dragon Fly Returns
One of the biggest pieces of technology that Ping introduced back in the G series was the dragonfly technology. Well it is back for the 4th straight driver. Its a technology that the company clearly believes and will continue ot use. The internal structure allows PING engineers to reduce crown weight and use those precious grams elsewhere. They have evolved this technology in the newest driver to make that CG deeper which just keeps increasing MOI and forgiveness
Looks Matter
As much as many of us deny it the most important part of a golf club in order of sales is the looks. If it doesnt look good golfers wont even grab it off the shelf and give it a go. Well I have to say Ping really knocked it out of the park here. The black and silver look is incredible. It looks fast, powerful and stealthy. In my original post I noticed the bottom had a few more shiny parts and it looked like the matte finish could be gone soon. Well I am actually very to happy to say I am wrong on this wrong. The matte is back and just from the pictures it looks great! On top the Turbulators remain. While I am not the biggest fan of the look of them I understand them and could get used to them.
Final Thoughts
Overall it doesnt seem like a massive upgrade. Nothing overly groundbreaking. The weight change will be interesting to see if it can affect flight as much as the 410 does with the reduced movement. Nothing to hate but not much to jump up and down for. Should be another solid release from PING.