Finally a Normal Looking Wood From Ping

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Saturday, 08 March 2008

Pros Solid distance and forgiveness with a nice traditional look. Cons A little heavy feel to them. The Bottom Line Ping finally got the design right, the best looking Ping fairway wood ever. Forgiving and accurate off the tee or the deck. For years Ping has been one of the most well respected iron companies in the industry. Despite their success in the iron and custom fitting programs, their woods had lagged behind, mainly due to their odd shape and slight on set. The G5 addresses this issue, this is the first Ping wood that does not have their traditional hosel design, it looks like a traditional fairway wood. It has a larger head than the G2 fairway wood with an improved weight placement to increase forgiveness while maximizing launch conditions. The club face is machined from a 455 stainless steel which gives the club a hotter feel and increasing performance. The center of gravity is controlled by using internal weight pads that create optimal launch conditions based upon which wood it is. A rocker sole design replaces the traditional Ping color code system, the club will lie square no matter what angle you hold the club. The club head is put together with robotic plasma welds that ensure consistency of feel, forgiveness, and control. Being an assistant PGA Pro, I am constantly testing new products and trying to get a feel for them so I can give my members the best advice I can. So I took the new Ping G5 3 wood out to the range and then for a few practice rounds. On the range I found that I like the G5 far more than any other Ping fairway wood that has come out before it. The club inspires confidence upon address, the new design frames the ball well. I also like the fact that Ping dulled the half moon alignment aid a little bit, it is not as distracting in it's newer form. I found that I could hit any shot that I wanted, a draw or fade, low or high shot were all easy to hit with this club. The ball jumped off the face and flew with a nice mid to high level trajectory. Ping changed the lofts, traditionally Ping fairway woods had been a degree stronger than those of other manufacturers. With the G5, Ping has matched the standard lofts from most all of the other companies. As far as performance on the course, the G5 was far better than I expected. I was expecting a dressed up version of the G2 which left me a little disappointed. The G5 performed extremely well distance wise, despite having a stock shaft in my demo version, I was still able to hit the G5 within ten yards of my R7 3 wood (which has a premium shaft) off the tee. Off the fairway it would fly with a nice mid high trajectory and would land softly on the greens and still get a decent roll through the fairway. When it came to shaping shots, I could easily hit a draw but had to work a little harder to hit a controlled fade. I also found it was fairly easy to hit a higher shot but it took some concerted effort to keep the ball under the wind. Accuracy was great with the G5, the ball went very straight and didn't curve wildly on off center hits. I personally would have been better off with an after market shaft, but the TFC stock shaft is one of the best stock shafts on the market and is more than adequate for most players. While by far the best that Ping has ever released, I think that the G5 falls a little short of the R7 TP Fairway Wood and the V Steel, but on the same level as the Launcher and the Big Bertha. One of the few things that I didn't like about the G5 was the fact that it felt a little heavy to me. This just took a little getting used to, but an average player may lose a little clubhead speed due to the heavier feel. I would recommend this club to the mid to high handicap player that is looking for forgiveness and ideal launch conditions to maximize distance and accuracy. For the advanced player that is looking to play Ping, this club would be a great choice with a shaft upgrade, the Aldila NV75 or Grafalloy Pro Launch 75 are offered by Ping at no additional charge. The MSRP is $219.99 with a graphite shaft and $199.99 in steel.

 

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