There’s only so much engineers can do with a fairway wood, in theory. The size of the head and the characteristics it needs to perform can place limitations on design. Impressive it is, therefore, that with each model improvements abound. With the Ping G425 Max Fairway woods the focus has been on a couple of key areas: face, spin management, and look.
WHAT WE LIKE
+ Hugs the ground at address
+ Sounds very powerful with the steel face
+ Clean crown is very traditional
WHAT WE DON’T LIKE
× Face is very shallow for use off tee
× Limited camber on the sole for tricky lies
× Whacky tech terms like ‘spinsistency’
Technology
What Remains?
The carry over technology with the Ping G425 Max Fairway woods is the maraging steel face. A high strength steel that can be made very thin for both fast and consistent ball speeds.
The tungsten back weight also remains to help deliver stability and forgiveness, as does the 8-way adjustable hosel for fine tuning of both loft and launch conditions.
What’s new
Two new technologies headline the fairway wood and hybrid line: SPINSISTENCY, and FACEWRAP.
Forget the name and deal with the tech. The spin word means that roll (top to bottom) of the face has been tweaked to deliver consistent spin and therefore distance whether the strike is low or high.
The FACEWRAP is the way the maraging steel face is joined to the head. It literally wraps into the crown and sole leading to greater flexing and more distance.
Looks
The turbulators are gone from the crown and the clubs look infinitely better because of it. Behind the ball they hug the ground and with the shallow face will give you confidence in hitting shots off the fairway be it rough or tight lies.
They look fantastic.
Feel
Thanks largely to the maraging steel face these feel solid and sound powerful. It’s not a loud sound, just a pleasing tone that tells you things are looking good. Heel and toe strikes still feel solid thanks to the MOI and design. Tick.
Performance
Consistent was the word that kept being thrown around when we were hitting the 3 wood in particular. It was easy to get the ball in the air but at no stage did it balloon, giving further weight to the practise of SPINSISTENCY. If you are going to use it off the tee, you’ll need to be wary of how shallow the face is and adjust accordingly, but once sorted it will become a ‘go-to’.
conclusion
Whilst this was focused on the 3 wood, the findings could just as easily be applied to the G425 Hybrids. They look as classical as a Ping fairway has for some time, hug the ground aggressively, and sound fantastic on impact. Throw in the loft adjustability and you can’t go wrong.
Recent Comments