January 17, 2025 • 30 mins
Shane and Marty are joined at the PING Proving Grounds by Dr. Erik Henrikson, PING Director of Golf Science, to dive deep into the G440 driver family. They discuss the evolution of the ‘G’ series, the driver R&D process, and the innovation and technologies that deliver more speed and distance off the tee than ever before.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The guys from Ping. They've kind of showed me how
much the equipment matters. I just love that I can
hit any shot.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I kind of want.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about
what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey, hey, everybody, welcome back to the Ping Proven Grounds Podcast.
Marty Jertsen. We have made it twenty twenty five, year
three of the podcast, and with the new year comes
some very new and exciting equipment.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Uh yeah, Shane. And we're gonna start with my favorite category,
which is the driver category. It's the most you know,
not quite a hot take anymore, I don't think, but
it is the most important club in the bag, you know,
the driver in the putter. And yeah, we're gonna have
some fun with this one, Marty. The driver's been so
close to you throughout your career. I know you said
(00:42):
it's obviously one of your favorite clubs and one of
your favorite clubs to talk about. But when something like
this launches, where's your excitement level?
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Super high? Because I think consumers and you know our
listeners out there are always wondering, well, what can Ping
do next? What can the manufacturers do next, and we're
gonna be able to kind of deep dive that here
today with doctor Eric Henderson.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Eric is with us. Is this your second appearance on
the pod? Second time on Okay? Weel learn some from
my first Go Good Go.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
We're gonna talk G four forty because obviously that is
the new product with Ping, and before we get into
some of the specifics and the excitement with the clubs,
I wanted to ask both you guys, how do you
come up with the name for a new product, Like,
where does G four forty come from? Marty?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Well, G G G kind of originally evolved from I,
like the I two, and then we made the I
series irons. You know, we had the I three irons,
the I three plus blades.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Then we created G out of that, right, and then
you know, G two, G five, G ten. We kind
of evolved it and then we had to go to
uh to triple digits there for a while.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
And from their card you got to make sure you
add enough numbers. How long is the meeting Eric about
G four forty? Is this like a week long or
like a month long uh?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
For the name for the then, yeah, that's starts pretty early.
I mean, depending on uh, there's a number of different
factors that go into it, so it can be a
week and it can be a lot longer depending on
how those meetings go.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I wanted to ask Eric when when product becomes official?
I mean, obviously we're launching and now people at home
have seen it, obviously have a chance to hit it
and buy it very very soon kind of at the
end of the month. When does the product become finalized
in terms of you seeing what people at home are
seeing right now?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, so I think I mean the process, I mean,
some of the technologies and the insights that go into
this are years in the making.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
We we have kind of this two year life cycle,
and so we here have been working with this product
and it's current embodiment for you know, i'd say a
good year already doing a lot of testing, you know,
making some you know, little tweaks, but in terms of
what you see here, we've probably had it in our
hands nine months to a year in its current embodiment.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Eric, talk a little bit about like just some of
the fundamentals of driver design. What is the foundation of
what we're trying to do, you know, And I would
say approach it with your golf physics hat on.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, So, I mean it comes down to implementing the
principles of conservation and momentum conservation of energy. You're trying
to deliver as much energy to the ball as possible,
increasing that ball speed, as well as thinking about launch
conditions and so you know, we talk about being in
the business of moving mass around. That was something I
(03:30):
first heard at like my first sales meeting. John A
got up and said, we've been doing this for fifty
one years, moving mass around in the most efficient way possible.
And we'll talk about some of the things that went
into this to give us some discretionary weight and allow
us to put the center of gravity in an optimal
location boost MOI maintain that industry leading forgiveness that we're
(03:53):
known for with our drivers. And then ultimately the geometry, right,
how do we design the package to transfer most energy
to the ball. It's face design that structure, how that bends,
so where we put the mass and what we do
with that structure pretty key to you know, unlocking the
(04:14):
most performance possible with the driver.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Eric, what's kind of the hot button topic words and
things right now around driving? Because you know what changes.
It feels like every couple of years. What we talk about.
You want to launch it high, you want to watch
it lower, less spin, things like that. Going into G
four forty, what was like the main focus for this
particular series.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, so I think our strategies tend to remain pretty stable.
You know, We've talked about moving that CG down and
back for as long as I've been here, right, maxing
moment of INERTI forgiveness out. And so for us it
was continuing kind of down that consistent trajectory of and
(04:54):
I think the success of our drivers just kind of
shown the merit of that trajectory. And so for us,
it was some small tweaks of unlocking some extra masks
to move the center of gravity a little lower in
order to improve energy transfer to the ball. And we
did that through a number of different number of different
(05:14):
technologies and design elements to help us get the CG
in the right spot. Aerodynamics always comes into play, sound
always comes into play, but the big thing here is
just optimizing the weight and the mass to deliver speed
and just overall performance.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Eric, you brought you brought up a few topics there,
but you know, I've always found it a very big
challenge to take two steps forward without taking one step back. So,
what's an example or a few examples in driver design
of a few different characteristics or properties that naturally kind
of fight each other. You know, I think you've seen some,
(05:54):
you know, our listeners have seen some drivers on the
market that have chased one thing myopically at the sacrifice
of another. You know, something we pride ourselves on is
trying to take this kind of holistic approach. What are
a few examples of things that fight each other and
how did we overcome those?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, so there's two ways. So we talk a lot
about trade offs, right, You're alluding to trade offs of
like these things that I can maximize this, but it's
gonna come at the cost of something else. So early
on we worked on aerodynamics and kind of go, we
can make something very very aerodynamic, but its mass properties
are going to stink, right, And that's where kind of
(06:30):
turbulators kind of came out of that. How do we
break the trade off? Right? Innovation for us is identifying
those things that fight against each other and figure out
a way to break that relationship. And so I think
aerodynamics and say forgiveness and center gravity placement are one
of those that tend to work against each other.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
So we're about i would say, probably about ten years
into two turbulators. Give the listener a little refresher on
exactly what they do and how they work.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, So ultimately these features we first put them on
the G thirty driver, one of the drivers that Marty
designed in his design days, and basically we saw this
identified this trade off we're like, well, came in and said, well,
we could do this to the shape of the driver
(07:21):
and improve aerodynamics. And the more we looked at it,
we realized, well, we're gonna make a big trade off
here and it's not worth it. And so drew some
inspiration from aerospace and from some other areas a sport
where we saw features being implemented, saying on the helmet
of some of these sports, you know, like downhill skeleton cycling,
(07:45):
and we felt that was a way to kind of
maintain our shape. And essentially on the crown of the driver,
flow comes over that leading edge, and by implementing these features,
it energizes the flow. So there's this thing in aerodynamics
called separation. It's bad leads to drive and so you're
trying to delay the separation. So those features influence the
flow as it goes over that leading edge trips the
(08:08):
boundary layer and gives us reduced drag, which breaks that
trade off layer. Yeah right.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I like that you mentioned the turbulator starting out and
Marty kind of being the king of the turbulators. I
feel like this driver kind of touches a little bit
of that driver that Eric had mentioned. Marty. I mean,
you think about the colorway with the G four to forty.
Also the sound, I mean the sound of this driver.
I hit it a couple of days ago. I mean
it is the best sounding ping driver that I've come
across to date. And I know, you know it sounds
(08:34):
so silly to talk about sound when you're talking about driver, right,
I mean, we want to hit the ball far, want
to hit it high, want to hit it straight. But
sound is so important in terms of something new one
hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
And that's that's another example of one of those trade
offs that we are constantly battling against. Is there's some
design changes that we know will be optimal for say
mass placement or launch conditions, and they might work against
producing a that's pleasurable. And I think you know, on paper,
sounds a hard thing to quantify in terms of performance
(09:07):
because you're kind of like, well, Newton didn't say anything
about kind of you know, sound in terms of like
you could do the equations and this is what's gonna
happen with energy transfer. But how that influences and how
the player interacts with it, is they begin to hear
that sound, it could definitely influence how they perform, right.
It's one of those kind of external elements that influence
(09:28):
the psychology of a player, can really help them. I mean,
you're gonna see if it sounds better, like evidence to
suggest they're going to swing it faster and with more confidence.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yep, yep. So it's one of those pieces that kind
of touches your is a golfer, it kind of touches
your soul, you know what I mean? Shane, Well, what's interesting, Marty?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, But I remember
years ago kind of average players wanted a little ting
your sound. They liked hearing kind of that ping, if
you will, And I always remember that the pros didn't
want to hear it. They wanted to hear more of
the thud. I remember you guys would use glue in
those instances to make it a little more thirty. And
it seems like we've moved more towards what the tour
players want in terms of sound versus maybe what we
(10:07):
were playing with a decade ago.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, definitely, And I think that's you know, that's one
of the advantages of using more carbon fiber in the driver.
I think that's a that's a good question, Eric for you,
is just that the advantages of the carbon fly wrap.
How have we expanded and built upon, you know, our
initial entry into that with the with the G four
to thirty. Now in what you see an expanded surface
(10:30):
area and volume here in the four forty.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, so here's an example of that piece. So it's
implemented now on all three of our models. So right,
we have the SFT, LST, and MAX and each of
those has their different lofts and we'll hit on that shortly.
And the big thing here is this is only eleven
grams and what really helped us kind of beat titanium
(10:54):
in that trade off was extending that rap around and
ultimately that's saves us, you know, about ten grams and
gives us ten grams of discretionary weight to then move
around and go into places like our backweight. And as
you mentioned, the other element of this is it changes
the acoustic right, A metallic and a piece of composite
(11:17):
are fundamentally going to have a different sound signature to them,
and so that's another tool that the designers can use
to then dial in that sound. And for the four forty,
players are going to notice a little bit more of
that muted kind of maybe even crunchy kind kind of
sound to it. And some of that's due to this
carbon fly wrap and that combination of materials producing that acoustic.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Eric you mentioned the models, you mind walking through the
new models for the G four to forty and maybe
something new in terms of MAX or LST.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah, so I think. So we have the MAX, which
is yeah, kind of that just middle of the road
comes in three lofts. We have our nine degree, ten
and a half and twelve in the MAX. It's gonna
have a slightly smaller footprint than the four thirty. Provide
some differentiation there with some of the other models that
we're offering. You have the LST, which is going to
(12:08):
be a similar size, the more pair shape kind of
footprint with the LST that's coming in the nine and
the ten and a half. And then we're really excited
about the SFT offering a nine degree loft, and we'll
hit on that in a little bit of why we
decided to add an extra loft skew and the s FT.
But that one's you know, geared to fighting the fade, right,
(12:30):
and we have two settings there with our CG shifter,
draw and draw plus. So those are the different models
and the different loft skews available in those different models.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Eric, I think it's fun just to look from the
fitting angle to look at, now how many options we have,
and you throw in the lower lofted SFT. I think
when I'm looking at the driver right now, the four
to forty driver, I think the first thing people are
going to know is just the enormous you know. We
like to call it the CG shifter because it shifts
the CG, but you know, otherwise knows the backweight. Tell
(13:00):
us a little bit about how much heavier that has
gotten over the years, you know. And also I think
when people first look at the four forty, they might
appear as if the CG shifter doesn't move that much, Right,
is it still moving the center gravity the same? Does
still change the ball flight the same amount? And why
is it moving less than what it used to?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah, So you know I talked about this discretionary weight.
Some of that we put into the backway. So we've
gone as a standard and our kind of stock build
gone from twenty six grams to twenty nine grams. So
I mean, if you have an opportunity to feel that backway,
that is a that's a pantload, a weight to put
back there. It comes with some engineering challenges when you
(13:41):
have that much weight concentrated in one area. But with
that added weight, we can be a little bit more
efficient with the movement of that weight, so it takes
a lot less movement to create the different shot shapes
we're looking for and fitting environment. And so with the
four to ten we had that right you work, you're
the lead designer on that driver. We worked a lot
(14:02):
on on dialing in that first CG shifter. We had
quite a bit of travel with that weight to kind
of get the movement we're looking for. And so now
with this added weight, not only does it give us
just like just net CG location that's really optimal we've
minimized the amount we need to move that weight in
(14:22):
order to toomball flight.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Marty co this is the thinnest face of a driver
that Ping has ever made. I'm always amazed by things
like this because you feel like, you know, you get
four thirty and that's the thinnest face, and obviously you
get a chance to see incredible distance with that driver.
How can you continue to kind of push the limits
of something like a thin face of a driver without
you know, finding a whole bunch of them being sit
back and broken.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yeah, No, it's uh, it's it's fun. I think a
big part of it is Eric's teams has incredible tools
to do some modeling, right, So we're getting better at
better at being able to model what happens without having
to make a physical prototype.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Are you doing? What are you doing?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
That?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Is that like all computer based? How does that work? Eric?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah? So a lot of it is uses finance element analysis.
So it's a computational technique where we can break the
CAD file down and virtually ram it into a ball,
right and predict the ball speed and the launch conditions.
And so we have a high power computer here on
(15:22):
campus send the simulations over there. It cranks away and
comes back and gives us the insights we're looking for.
It helps us to optimize. So indeed, this is the
thinnest face we've ever put into a driver, and part
of that is we've reduced the face height a little bit.
And so we found with all that research we were
doing and the model and we were doing that if
we reduce that face height, we can make the face
(15:44):
a little thinner and net extra ball speed can serve
more energy during the impact interval and ultimately lead to
that performance that we're super excited about.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Yeah, save a little weight from the face as well.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yeah, so we ended up saving two to three grams
out of the face by making it a little thinner,
and then we could talk about the free hozzle. So
another area that's really close to the face that we
looked at and ended up removing some weight from. If
you look inside where our hostle sleeve enters the head,
(16:20):
used to be this kind of titanium tube in there
that kind of held that together. In that tube is
then really close it's coincident to the heel side of
the face, and so we ended up doing is taking
that tube and removing kind of the centerpiece of it,
which did a number of things. It freed up four
grams for us to then redistribute in the head, but
it also kind of freed up that area of the face,
(16:41):
so we end up with a little bit more freedom
for that face to flex in the heel area. And
we talk about face design. We did go thinner, but
we also had to move that VFT a little bit
to kind of balance out the extra kind of heat
we were getting in the heel area. There's different kind
of thicknesses in that face. Again, the mean the average
(17:02):
thickness is thinner, but then we have kind of some
thicker areas that we moved over to the heel region,
so you'll see that on all the different models. This
kind of cutout in there, and again it frees up
the face, gives us some extra mass that we then
put in the back weight and used to kind of
lower our center of gravity.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
S This is this is why the driver is so fun,
because you know, you think how good the four thirty was.
Right here, we are right here talking about the four
forty and how much weight is a designer and a
driver if you can save one gram.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I was going to ask that is that like, is
that like losing twenty pounds? Yeah, human it is.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
It is one gram is is worth everything. As a designer,
here we are. We saved it, you know, we way
from the fazzle. So, uh, it's really really fun. We've
concentrated more mass than the CG shifter. One of the
other aspects of the driver design is just looking at
the whole system build. Right, So Eric, talk to us
a little bit about you know, what we've done to
(17:58):
the holistic design, the standard lengths, the head weight, the
system weight, how that research operates, and then how and
what we've converged upon for the four to forty.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah, so freed up all this extra discretionary weight. Some
of that went back into the backweight. But we were
doing a bunch of research on optimal headweight, right, and
so in a very simple way, you can say, we'd
go really light with a head, right, and you'd swing
it a lot faster. Right if we went a lot
(18:30):
lighter with the head, but now you're delivering less mass
to the ball. We go really heavy and you deliver
more mass to the ball, but you're not going to
swing it as fast. And so we had done a
we have a last time we chatted, we were over
in Focal, our motion capture system, and so we've had
everybody in the company go through mocaps, swing some drivers,
(18:52):
a lot of people from outside tour players, and for
different categories of player, we found these optimal head weights
where it's this kind of Goldilock zone where it's heavy
enough where you're delivering a good amount of mass to
the ball, but not so heavy that you're hindering clubhead speed.
And so it's just this is quirk of how conservational
momentum con conservation of energy kind of work together. And
(19:16):
so we use like a bowling ball analogy. It's like,
how do you know, my mom might use a really
light ball, but you give her, you know, a really
heavy one, she can't get it down there with a
lot of speed. You can throw the light one down
there really fast, but you're gonna find you're gonna be
more successful with something heavier because you can get it
down there. And so through all that research, all of
(19:37):
our headweights are about two grams lighter, two to three
grams lighter, and and so not only is the headwaight
a little lighter to kind of leverage, what we found
was optimal for the different player categories, and so the
alst's going to be a heavier head, SFT is going
to be our lightest head, but all of those about
(19:59):
three lighter. So while maintaining are really forgiving package right
and getting our center of gravity in the right spot.
We then took a look at the shaft and said, okay,
we got a head that's three grams lighter. Can we
remove some weight here in the shaft to help people
swing it gain more cliphet speed. So we ended up
(20:23):
taking three grams out of the structure of the alta
structure shaft structure. We ended up lightning. There's a plug
in the back end that helps caunter bounce. Took four
grams out of that, and then we went a quarter
of an inch longer. So those are a lot of changes, right,
but in the end we got a bill that's ten
grams lighter, a quarter of an inch longer, delivering a
(20:45):
very forgiving optimized head, which then leads to that mile
an hour ball speed increase we've seen in testing center
gravity locations a little lower, which lowers are spin rate
by one hundred and fifty rpm on average and leads
to yardage gains. You know, for for our end consumer.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
What is tour? What has tour feedback? Then about the
four to forty.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, we were just chatting to some of our tour
ups about today.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
First feedback chain just like when you hit it sound phenomenal,
it's they're very incentivized by it, and launch conditions are amazing.
I think one big piece we've seen in our testing
is that compared to the four thirty, because the center
gravity is lower, folks are having to fit into a
little bit less loft, so on average probably about three
(21:30):
quarters of a degree less loft than four to thirty.
So it's a great chance if you haven't been fit
for a driver recently, go in, get on a launch monitor,
be very open minded about what loft you might end
up in. But with that playing a little bit less loft,
they're even experimenting with a little bit longer lengths. We've
seen this with the likes of Victor and Joaquin Neman right,
going a little bit longer. They're seeing higher ball speeds
(21:52):
picking up two sticks and ball speeds are the the
one to two punch from the tour feedback so far.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
And the tour influence in terms of that is of
a new driver. I mean, are they telling you stuff
about four thirty they like and maybe don't love that
you guys will listen to and put into four forty.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, I mean there are most discerning, kind of detail
oriented of customers, and so we're constantly.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Getting got a golf So yeah, yeah, I know what
they're doing, and.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
So we get that feedback directly. We get that from
our tour reps, and that's you know, every time we're
looking at, you know, a driver design, we're kind of
outlining those those problems, those trade offs are trying to
break and take it into account, the tour feedback, the
feedback of the everyday golfer, and and some of that's
going to be weighted more toward the different models, right
(22:37):
depending on who they're geared for. But obviously they're a
huge influence and player in terms of their feedback and
what we decide to go tackle as engineers and the
trade offfs we're looking to break. On the innovation side.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well, Marty, I mean the models is so important. I
mean you think about, you know, the old introduction of
new drivers and here's your new driver. I mean this
is the head and we'll try to fit it for you,
and we'll also try to fit it for the number
five player in the world. I mean, now, obviously there
are options which are extremely helpful because the seven year
old player that maybe hits it two twenty can fit
into a model that maybe Victor Hoblin's not into.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah. Absolutely, And as Eric said, we put a premium
specifically on the LST for the PGA tour player to
kind of ent our LPGA staff because it's such a
high percentage of the usage is that low spin head
out on the tour, So you're gonna see the LST
be a little smaller profile at address. It's got a
little more domed crown to it, so it feels a
(23:33):
little more you can say, maybe bulbous or rounded in
the playing position. Really try to optimize what we call
the resting face angle or the face angle that you
when you set the driver down. The tour players obviously
very kind of sensitive to that aspect. Obviously the acoustics
as well.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Big question for me personally, Marty, the thrivers still in play,
can we still thrive for the four forty I mean,
you introduced me to it.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
I got mine in the back, Okay, I got mine
in the back.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Say so, what is your set up? Which driver? Which
driver head? Did you go with a big boy?
Speaker 3 (24:03):
The twelve with the big Boy? Yeah, twelve max?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Okay, twelve max for the thriver and then your main driver?
Did you go longer as well?
Speaker 3 (24:09):
I went longer? Yeah, so I went from forty five
and three quarter to forty six inches with the shaft
I use uh you pick up some speed too, yes, yeah,
added ball speed. I didn't increase my swing weight, so
I kept my head weight. Did get a little bit
lighter because I went a little bit longer at length
and then forty six inches max nine degree. I went
(24:30):
down and loft about a degree and a half. So
I'm playing it in the big minus uh at forty
six inches, So I'm getting a lot of dynamic loft
in a little bit more club at speed, which is
good CG shifter in the fade position, and uh so
far loving it. Especially the sound very incentivizing. I think
that that's kind of a you know, we've talked about
a little bit, but when you when you do have
(24:51):
that really good acoustics, it does kind of free you
up to swing it harder.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And the acoustics are so important for players. It's so funny. Again,
I just don't think it's something you would put number
one on your list. Maybe tour players would put it
higher on their list, but it's so important in terms
of like your relationship with a golf club is, like,
does it sound good? I mean even you know, I
mean we've talked about putters throughout the years, Marty, I
mean even putter sound. I mean so massively important for
the feel of the player and really getting a feel
(25:17):
for how that thing performs for you personally, and your
sound might be off from somebody else's.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Yeah, no doubt about it. A lot of different materials
in this driver ic we got an aluminum trajectory tuning sleeve, right,
seventy seventy five high strength aluminum. Tell us a little
bit about the two Titanum alloys that are used in
the in the driver head we talked about we talked
about the carbon fly wrap. Let's talk a little bit
about the face and body.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Yeah, so body's eight one to one cast titanium, and
then the face is our ten nine S plus alloy.
And so that's not all that we've been using and
having a lot of success with. Let's say alloy used
on the four thirty and we're continuing that through on
the four forty. Just gives a really good mix of
weight and some called modulus which is kind of how
(26:04):
how the material bends right, and so a good mix
of strength and weight and modulus that again we've had
a lot of success with and yeah, players will see
the advantage of that in the four forty.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
You mentioned the nine degree SFT, and I know that's
been a big, big point of interest in terms of
the four forty. Why that introduction.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, so that's a that's a new one for us,
offering that s FT and the nine degree loft, And
I think it's been really cool to see golf welcome
a lot of new players and and uh, and we've
actually seen a lot of people coming over, athletes from
other sports coming over and taking up the game of golf.
And so you know, they have clubhead speed, but they
(26:49):
could really benefit from something that can help, you know,
promote more of a draw trajectory fight to fade. And
so you know with the nine degree offering for those
higher clubheads, be players that need that need that type
of model offering in a little bit lower loft. Can
it kind of keep the spin down and I think
really unlock a good fitting option in the fitting environment
(27:10):
here at the proven grounds and out out of various
accounts for that type of player you're coming into the game,
have clubhead speed, but really want to, you know, help
help fight the fade and promote a draw.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
I think one of the things I'm always excited about
our our product is that you can kind of the
adjustability with both the trajectory tuning sleeve and the CG shifter.
You're not stuck, you know, let's say you do. You are,
you know, someone just getting into the game. You fit
into the nine s ft, you got the CG shifter
way over there in the draw plus and you start
(27:44):
getting better at golf, your path gets a little bit better. Uh,
you can adjust it. You can turn the loft down
a little bit. If you need to reduce your spin
a little bit, you can move that CG shifter more
more towward. And that that's an added benefit of having
all the adjustability and all the different model.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, Marty, I mean it's been such a point of
interest throughout the history of ping, is being able to
fit a golf club for you specifically, and you just
think about the way that has changed over the last
couple of decades in terms of actually putting that in
the player's hands as well. I mean, you go get fit.
You obviously have a club that makes the most sense
for you, but we change I mean, we pick up speed,
maybe the golf swing gets a little bit more tuned.
(28:20):
You have an instructor that you're working with. Now all
of a sudden, you're able to change that club as well.
And it feels like it feels like this driver more
than any that I've seen, have those options. You pick
up a club and then you can change it multiple
ways as your golf game changes.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Yeah, and we've gotten more efficient in the execution. So
all three of the positions of the CG shifter, so
whether you have it in the fade or the draw,
are all now higher inertia, so they're all more forgiving.
Right we first came out with it, if you put
it in the toe or you put it in the heel,
your inertia would drop a little bit. Right now it
(28:55):
still drops a teeny bit, but all those positions have
been elevated. The trajectory tuning sleeve. Again, it's one of
those things where when we first were looking to do it,
it was it was hard to pull it off in
a way that didn't add a lot of weight or
wasn't really bad to the aerodynamic performance. So it's easy
to take those things for granted, but those are a
(29:16):
big benefit to the golfer to be able to make
some little fine tune adjustments. And Andrew clubfitter out there.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Eric, is this like a stressful week for you when
clubs launch and you get to kind of introduce something
to the world or has that stress already happened, you know,
a month.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
So that stress came a while back.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
I now past that, your exits past.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
It's very exciting to then be able to kind of,
you know, all that stress leading to you know, a product,
being able to kind of start to talk about it
and let the world see it. It's super exciting for
the entire team, right everybody's itching to get it in
their own bag and be able to talk to it,
you know, talk to people about all the hard work
(29:56):
they put into the product. And so this is an
exciting season for everybody when we get to introduce the
world to the new G line.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Eric, Always appreciate your time. Always appreciate when you're a
guest on the podcast and always appreciate your work on
these golf clubs best drivers in the game, so thanks
so much, happy to be you. This is fun. Eric
Henrickson the doc. This is the Pink Proven Grounds podcast
The guys from Ping. They've kind of showed me how
much the equipment matters. I just love that I can
hit any shot.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I kind of want.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about
what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey, hey, everybody, welcome back to the Ping Proven Grounds Podcast.
Marty Jertsen. We have made it twenty twenty five, year
three of the podcast, and with the new year comes
some very new and exciting equipment.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Uh yeah, Shane. And we're gonna start with my favorite category,
which is the driver category. It's the most you know,
not quite a hot take anymore, I don't think, but
it is the most important club in the bag, you know,
the driver in the putter. And yeah, we're gonna have
some fun with this one, Marty. The driver's been so
close to you throughout your career. I know you said
(00:42):
it's obviously one of your favorite clubs and one of
your favorite clubs to talk about. But when something like
this launches, where's your excitement level?
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Super high? Because I think consumers and you know our
listeners out there are always wondering, well, what can Ping
do next? What can the manufacturers do next, and we're
gonna be able to kind of deep dive that here
today with doctor Eric Henderson.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Eric is with us. Is this your second appearance on
the pod? Second time on Okay? Weel learn some from
my first Go Good Go.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
We're gonna talk G four forty because obviously that is
the new product with Ping, and before we get into
some of the specifics and the excitement with the clubs,
I wanted to ask both you guys, how do you
come up with the name for a new product, Like,
where does G four forty come from? Marty?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Well, G G G kind of originally evolved from I,
like the I two, and then we made the I
series irons. You know, we had the I three irons,
the I three plus blades.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Then we created G out of that, right, and then
you know, G two, G five, G ten. We kind
of evolved it and then we had to go to
uh to triple digits there for a while.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
And from their card you got to make sure you
add enough numbers. How long is the meeting Eric about
G four forty? Is this like a week long or
like a month long uh?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
For the name for the then, yeah, that's starts pretty early.
I mean, depending on uh, there's a number of different
factors that go into it, so it can be a
week and it can be a lot longer depending on
how those meetings go.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I wanted to ask Eric when when product becomes official?
I mean, obviously we're launching and now people at home
have seen it, obviously have a chance to hit it
and buy it very very soon kind of at the
end of the month. When does the product become finalized
in terms of you seeing what people at home are
seeing right now?
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, so I think I mean the process, I mean,
some of the technologies and the insights that go into
this are years in the making.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
We we have kind of this two year life cycle,
and so we here have been working with this product
and it's current embodiment for you know, i'd say a
good year already doing a lot of testing, you know,
making some you know, little tweaks, but in terms of
what you see here, we've probably had it in our
hands nine months to a year in its current embodiment.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Eric, talk a little bit about like just some of
the fundamentals of driver design. What is the foundation of
what we're trying to do, you know, And I would
say approach it with your golf physics hat on.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, So, I mean it comes down to implementing the
principles of conservation and momentum conservation of energy. You're trying
to deliver as much energy to the ball as possible,
increasing that ball speed, as well as thinking about launch
conditions and so you know, we talk about being in
the business of moving mass around. That was something I
(03:30):
first heard at like my first sales meeting. John A
got up and said, we've been doing this for fifty
one years, moving mass around in the most efficient way possible.
And we'll talk about some of the things that went
into this to give us some discretionary weight and allow
us to put the center of gravity in an optimal
location boost MOI maintain that industry leading forgiveness that we're
(03:53):
known for with our drivers. And then ultimately the geometry, right,
how do we design the package to transfer most energy
to the ball. It's face design that structure, how that bends,
so where we put the mass and what we do
with that structure pretty key to you know, unlocking the
(04:14):
most performance possible with the driver.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Eric, what's kind of the hot button topic words and
things right now around driving? Because you know what changes.
It feels like every couple of years. What we talk about.
You want to launch it high, you want to watch
it lower, less spin, things like that. Going into G
four forty, what was like the main focus for this
particular series.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yeah, so I think our strategies tend to remain pretty stable.
You know, We've talked about moving that CG down and
back for as long as I've been here, right, maxing
moment of INERTI forgiveness out. And so for us it
was continuing kind of down that consistent trajectory of and
(04:54):
I think the success of our drivers just kind of
shown the merit of that trajectory. And so for us,
it was some small tweaks of unlocking some extra masks
to move the center of gravity a little lower in
order to improve energy transfer to the ball. And we
did that through a number of different number of different
(05:14):
technologies and design elements to help us get the CG
in the right spot. Aerodynamics always comes into play, sound
always comes into play, but the big thing here is
just optimizing the weight and the mass to deliver speed
and just overall performance.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Eric, you brought you brought up a few topics there,
but you know, I've always found it a very big
challenge to take two steps forward without taking one step back. So,
what's an example or a few examples in driver design
of a few different characteristics or properties that naturally kind
of fight each other. You know, I think you've seen some,
(05:54):
you know, our listeners have seen some drivers on the
market that have chased one thing myopically at the sacrifice
of another. You know, something we pride ourselves on is
trying to take this kind of holistic approach. What are
a few examples of things that fight each other and
how did we overcome those?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, so there's two ways. So we talk a lot
about trade offs, right, You're alluding to trade offs of
like these things that I can maximize this, but it's
gonna come at the cost of something else. So early
on we worked on aerodynamics and kind of go, we
can make something very very aerodynamic, but its mass properties
are going to stink, right, And that's where kind of
(06:30):
turbulators kind of came out of that. How do we
break the trade off? Right? Innovation for us is identifying
those things that fight against each other and figure out
a way to break that relationship. And so I think
aerodynamics and say forgiveness and center gravity placement are one
of those that tend to work against each other.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
So we're about i would say, probably about ten years
into two turbulators. Give the listener a little refresher on
exactly what they do and how they work.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, So ultimately these features we first put them on
the G thirty driver, one of the drivers that Marty
designed in his design days, and basically we saw this
identified this trade off we're like, well, came in and said, well,
we could do this to the shape of the driver
(07:21):
and improve aerodynamics. And the more we looked at it,
we realized, well, we're gonna make a big trade off
here and it's not worth it. And so drew some
inspiration from aerospace and from some other areas a sport
where we saw features being implemented, saying on the helmet
of some of these sports, you know, like downhill skeleton cycling,
(07:45):
and we felt that was a way to kind of
maintain our shape. And essentially on the crown of the driver,
flow comes over that leading edge, and by implementing these features,
it energizes the flow. So there's this thing in aerodynamics
called separation. It's bad leads to drive and so you're
trying to delay the separation. So those features influence the
flow as it goes over that leading edge trips the
(08:08):
boundary layer and gives us reduced drag, which breaks that
trade off layer. Yeah right.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
I like that you mentioned the turbulator starting out and
Marty kind of being the king of the turbulators. I
feel like this driver kind of touches a little bit
of that driver that Eric had mentioned. Marty. I mean,
you think about the colorway with the G four to forty.
Also the sound, I mean the sound of this driver.
I hit it a couple of days ago. I mean
it is the best sounding ping driver that I've come
across to date. And I know, you know it sounds
(08:34):
so silly to talk about sound when you're talking about driver, right,
I mean, we want to hit the ball far, want
to hit it high, want to hit it straight. But
sound is so important in terms of something new one
hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
And that's that's another example of one of those trade
offs that we are constantly battling against. Is there's some
design changes that we know will be optimal for say
mass placement or launch conditions, and they might work against
producing a that's pleasurable. And I think you know, on paper,
sounds a hard thing to quantify in terms of performance
(09:07):
because you're kind of like, well, Newton didn't say anything
about kind of you know, sound in terms of like
you could do the equations and this is what's gonna
happen with energy transfer. But how that influences and how
the player interacts with it, is they begin to hear
that sound, it could definitely influence how they perform, right.
It's one of those kind of external elements that influence
(09:28):
the psychology of a player, can really help them. I mean,
you're gonna see if it sounds better, like evidence to
suggest they're going to swing it faster and with more confidence.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yep, yep. So it's one of those pieces that kind
of touches your is a golfer, it kind of touches
your soul, you know what I mean? Shane, Well, what's interesting, Marty?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, But I remember
years ago kind of average players wanted a little ting
your sound. They liked hearing kind of that ping, if
you will, And I always remember that the pros didn't
want to hear it. They wanted to hear more of
the thud. I remember you guys would use glue in
those instances to make it a little more thirty. And
it seems like we've moved more towards what the tour
players want in terms of sound versus maybe what we
(10:07):
were playing with a decade ago.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, definitely, And I think that's you know, that's one
of the advantages of using more carbon fiber in the driver.
I think that's a that's a good question, Eric for you,
is just that the advantages of the carbon fly wrap.
How have we expanded and built upon, you know, our
initial entry into that with the with the G four
to thirty. Now in what you see an expanded surface
(10:30):
area and volume here in the four forty.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, so here's an example of that piece. So it's
implemented now on all three of our models. So right,
we have the SFT, LST, and MAX and each of
those has their different lofts and we'll hit on that shortly.
And the big thing here is this is only eleven
grams and what really helped us kind of beat titanium
(10:54):
in that trade off was extending that rap around and
ultimately that's saves us, you know, about ten grams and
gives us ten grams of discretionary weight to then move
around and go into places like our backweight. And as
you mentioned, the other element of this is it changes
the acoustic right, A metallic and a piece of composite
(11:17):
are fundamentally going to have a different sound signature to them,
and so that's another tool that the designers can use
to then dial in that sound. And for the four forty,
players are going to notice a little bit more of
that muted kind of maybe even crunchy kind kind of
sound to it. And some of that's due to this
carbon fly wrap and that combination of materials producing that acoustic.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Eric you mentioned the models, you mind walking through the
new models for the G four to forty and maybe
something new in terms of MAX or LST.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah, so I think. So we have the MAX, which
is yeah, kind of that just middle of the road
comes in three lofts. We have our nine degree, ten
and a half and twelve in the MAX. It's gonna
have a slightly smaller footprint than the four thirty. Provide
some differentiation there with some of the other models that
we're offering. You have the LST, which is going to
(12:08):
be a similar size, the more pair shape kind of
footprint with the LST that's coming in the nine and
the ten and a half. And then we're really excited
about the SFT offering a nine degree loft, and we'll
hit on that in a little bit of why we
decided to add an extra loft skew and the s FT.
But that one's you know, geared to fighting the fade, right,
(12:30):
and we have two settings there with our CG shifter,
draw and draw plus. So those are the different models
and the different loft skews available in those different models.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
Eric, I think it's fun just to look from the
fitting angle to look at, now how many options we have,
and you throw in the lower lofted SFT. I think
when I'm looking at the driver right now, the four
to forty driver, I think the first thing people are
going to know is just the enormous you know. We
like to call it the CG shifter because it shifts
the CG, but you know, otherwise knows the backweight. Tell
(13:00):
us a little bit about how much heavier that has
gotten over the years, you know. And also I think
when people first look at the four forty, they might
appear as if the CG shifter doesn't move that much, Right,
is it still moving the center gravity the same? Does
still change the ball flight the same amount? And why
is it moving less than what it used to?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah, So you know I talked about this discretionary weight.
Some of that we put into the backway. So we've
gone as a standard and our kind of stock build
gone from twenty six grams to twenty nine grams. So
I mean, if you have an opportunity to feel that backway,
that is a that's a pantload, a weight to put
back there. It comes with some engineering challenges when you
(13:41):
have that much weight concentrated in one area. But with
that added weight, we can be a little bit more
efficient with the movement of that weight, so it takes
a lot less movement to create the different shot shapes
we're looking for and fitting environment. And so with the
four to ten we had that right you work, you're
the lead designer on that driver. We worked a lot
(14:02):
on on dialing in that first CG shifter. We had
quite a bit of travel with that weight to kind
of get the movement we're looking for. And so now
with this added weight, not only does it give us
just like just net CG location that's really optimal we've
minimized the amount we need to move that weight in
(14:22):
order to toomball flight.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Marty co this is the thinnest face of a driver
that Ping has ever made. I'm always amazed by things
like this because you feel like, you know, you get
four thirty and that's the thinnest face, and obviously you
get a chance to see incredible distance with that driver.
How can you continue to kind of push the limits
of something like a thin face of a driver without
you know, finding a whole bunch of them being sit
back and broken.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yeah, No, it's uh, it's it's fun. I think a
big part of it is Eric's teams has incredible tools
to do some modeling, right, So we're getting better at
better at being able to model what happens without having
to make a physical prototype.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Are you doing? What are you doing?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
That?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Is that like all computer based? How does that work? Eric?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah? So a lot of it is uses finance element analysis.
So it's a computational technique where we can break the
CAD file down and virtually ram it into a ball,
right and predict the ball speed and the launch conditions.
And so we have a high power computer here on
(15:22):
campus send the simulations over there. It cranks away and
comes back and gives us the insights we're looking for.
It helps us to optimize. So indeed, this is the
thinnest face we've ever put into a driver, and part
of that is we've reduced the face height a little bit.
And so we found with all that research we were
doing and the model and we were doing that if
we reduce that face height, we can make the face
(15:44):
a little thinner and net extra ball speed can serve
more energy during the impact interval and ultimately lead to
that performance that we're super excited about.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Yeah, save a little weight from the face as well.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yeah, so we ended up saving two to three grams
out of the face by making it a little thinner,
and then we could talk about the free hozzle. So
another area that's really close to the face that we
looked at and ended up removing some weight from. If
you look inside where our hostle sleeve enters the head,
(16:20):
used to be this kind of titanium tube in there
that kind of held that together. In that tube is
then really close it's coincident to the heel side of
the face, and so we ended up doing is taking
that tube and removing kind of the centerpiece of it,
which did a number of things. It freed up four
grams for us to then redistribute in the head, but
it also kind of freed up that area of the face,
(16:41):
so we end up with a little bit more freedom
for that face to flex in the heel area. And
we talk about face design. We did go thinner, but
we also had to move that VFT a little bit
to kind of balance out the extra kind of heat
we were getting in the heel area. There's different kind
of thicknesses in that face. Again, the mean the average
(17:02):
thickness is thinner, but then we have kind of some
thicker areas that we moved over to the heel region,
so you'll see that on all the different models. This
kind of cutout in there, and again it frees up
the face, gives us some extra mass that we then
put in the back weight and used to kind of
lower our center of gravity.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
S This is this is why the driver is so fun,
because you know, you think how good the four thirty was.
Right here, we are right here talking about the four
forty and how much weight is a designer and a
driver if you can save one gram.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I was going to ask that is that like, is
that like losing twenty pounds? Yeah, human it is.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
It is one gram is is worth everything. As a designer,
here we are. We saved it, you know, we way
from the fazzle. So, uh, it's really really fun. We've
concentrated more mass than the CG shifter. One of the
other aspects of the driver design is just looking at
the whole system build. Right, So Eric, talk to us
a little bit about you know, what we've done to
(17:58):
the holistic design, the standard lengths, the head weight, the
system weight, how that research operates, and then how and
what we've converged upon for the four to forty.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah, so freed up all this extra discretionary weight. Some
of that went back into the backweight. But we were
doing a bunch of research on optimal headweight, right, and
so in a very simple way, you can say, we'd
go really light with a head, right, and you'd swing
it a lot faster. Right if we went a lot
(18:30):
lighter with the head, but now you're delivering less mass
to the ball. We go really heavy and you deliver
more mass to the ball, but you're not going to
swing it as fast. And so we had done a
we have a last time we chatted, we were over
in Focal, our motion capture system, and so we've had
everybody in the company go through mocaps, swing some drivers,
(18:52):
a lot of people from outside tour players, and for
different categories of player, we found these optimal head weights
where it's this kind of Goldilock zone where it's heavy
enough where you're delivering a good amount of mass to
the ball, but not so heavy that you're hindering clubhead speed.
And so it's just this is quirk of how conservational
momentum con conservation of energy kind of work together. And
(19:16):
so we use like a bowling ball analogy. It's like,
how do you know, my mom might use a really
light ball, but you give her, you know, a really
heavy one, she can't get it down there with a
lot of speed. You can throw the light one down
there really fast, but you're gonna find you're gonna be
more successful with something heavier because you can get it
down there. And so through all that research, all of
(19:37):
our headweights are about two grams lighter, two to three
grams lighter, and and so not only is the headwaight
a little lighter to kind of leverage, what we found
was optimal for the different player categories, and so the
alst's going to be a heavier head, SFT is going
to be our lightest head, but all of those about
(19:59):
three lighter. So while maintaining are really forgiving package right
and getting our center of gravity in the right spot.
We then took a look at the shaft and said, okay,
we got a head that's three grams lighter. Can we
remove some weight here in the shaft to help people
swing it gain more cliphet speed. So we ended up
(20:23):
taking three grams out of the structure of the alta
structure shaft structure. We ended up lightning. There's a plug
in the back end that helps caunter bounce. Took four
grams out of that, and then we went a quarter
of an inch longer. So those are a lot of changes, right,
but in the end we got a bill that's ten
grams lighter, a quarter of an inch longer, delivering a
(20:45):
very forgiving optimized head, which then leads to that mile
an hour ball speed increase we've seen in testing center
gravity locations a little lower, which lowers are spin rate
by one hundred and fifty rpm on average and leads
to yardage gains. You know, for for our end consumer.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
What is tour? What has tour feedback? Then about the
four to forty.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, we were just chatting to some of our tour
ups about today.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
First feedback chain just like when you hit it sound phenomenal,
it's they're very incentivized by it, and launch conditions are amazing.
I think one big piece we've seen in our testing
is that compared to the four thirty, because the center
gravity is lower, folks are having to fit into a
little bit less loft, so on average probably about three
(21:30):
quarters of a degree less loft than four to thirty.
So it's a great chance if you haven't been fit
for a driver recently, go in, get on a launch monitor,
be very open minded about what loft you might end
up in. But with that playing a little bit less loft,
they're even experimenting with a little bit longer lengths. We've
seen this with the likes of Victor and Joaquin Neman right,
going a little bit longer. They're seeing higher ball speeds
(21:52):
picking up two sticks and ball speeds are the the
one to two punch from the tour feedback so far.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
And the tour influence in terms of that is of
a new driver. I mean, are they telling you stuff
about four thirty they like and maybe don't love that
you guys will listen to and put into four forty.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah, I mean there are most discerning, kind of detail
oriented of customers, and so we're constantly.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Getting got a golf So yeah, yeah, I know what
they're doing, and.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
So we get that feedback directly. We get that from
our tour reps, and that's you know, every time we're
looking at, you know, a driver design, we're kind of
outlining those those problems, those trade offs are trying to
break and take it into account, the tour feedback, the
feedback of the everyday golfer, and and some of that's
going to be weighted more toward the different models, right
(22:37):
depending on who they're geared for. But obviously they're a
huge influence and player in terms of their feedback and
what we decide to go tackle as engineers and the
trade offfs we're looking to break. On the innovation side.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well, Marty, I mean the models is so important. I
mean you think about, you know, the old introduction of
new drivers and here's your new driver. I mean this
is the head and we'll try to fit it for you,
and we'll also try to fit it for the number
five player in the world. I mean, now, obviously there
are options which are extremely helpful because the seven year
old player that maybe hits it two twenty can fit
into a model that maybe Victor Hoblin's not into.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Yeah. Absolutely, And as Eric said, we put a premium
specifically on the LST for the PGA tour player to
kind of ent our LPGA staff because it's such a
high percentage of the usage is that low spin head
out on the tour, So you're gonna see the LST
be a little smaller profile at address. It's got a
little more domed crown to it, so it feels a
(23:33):
little more you can say, maybe bulbous or rounded in
the playing position. Really try to optimize what we call
the resting face angle or the face angle that you
when you set the driver down. The tour players obviously
very kind of sensitive to that aspect. Obviously the acoustics
as well.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Big question for me personally, Marty, the thrivers still in play,
can we still thrive for the four forty I mean,
you introduced me to it.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
I got mine in the back, Okay, I got mine
in the back.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Say so, what is your set up? Which driver? Which
driver head? Did you go with a big boy?
Speaker 3 (24:03):
The twelve with the big Boy? Yeah, twelve max?
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Okay, twelve max for the thriver and then your main driver?
Did you go longer as well?
Speaker 3 (24:09):
I went longer? Yeah, so I went from forty five
and three quarter to forty six inches with the shaft
I use uh you pick up some speed too, yes, yeah,
added ball speed. I didn't increase my swing weight, so
I kept my head weight. Did get a little bit
lighter because I went a little bit longer at length
and then forty six inches max nine degree. I went
(24:30):
down and loft about a degree and a half. So
I'm playing it in the big minus uh at forty
six inches, So I'm getting a lot of dynamic loft
in a little bit more club at speed, which is
good CG shifter in the fade position, and uh so
far loving it. Especially the sound very incentivizing. I think
that that's kind of a you know, we've talked about
a little bit, but when you when you do have
(24:51):
that really good acoustics, it does kind of free you
up to swing it harder.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
And the acoustics are so important for players. It's so funny. Again,
I just don't think it's something you would put number
one on your list. Maybe tour players would put it
higher on their list, but it's so important in terms
of like your relationship with a golf club is, like,
does it sound good? I mean even you know, I
mean we've talked about putters throughout the years, Marty, I
mean even putter sound. I mean so massively important for
the feel of the player and really getting a feel
(25:17):
for how that thing performs for you personally, and your
sound might be off from somebody else's.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Yeah, no doubt about it. A lot of different materials
in this driver ic we got an aluminum trajectory tuning sleeve, right,
seventy seventy five high strength aluminum. Tell us a little
bit about the two Titanum alloys that are used in
the in the driver head we talked about we talked
about the carbon fly wrap. Let's talk a little bit
about the face and body.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Yeah, so body's eight one to one cast titanium, and
then the face is our ten nine S plus alloy.
And so that's not all that we've been using and
having a lot of success with. Let's say alloy used
on the four thirty and we're continuing that through on
the four forty. Just gives a really good mix of
weight and some called modulus which is kind of how
(26:04):
how the material bends right, and so a good mix
of strength and weight and modulus that again we've had
a lot of success with and yeah, players will see
the advantage of that in the four forty.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
You mentioned the nine degree SFT, and I know that's
been a big, big point of interest in terms of
the four forty. Why that introduction.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Yeah, so that's a that's a new one for us,
offering that s FT and the nine degree loft, And
I think it's been really cool to see golf welcome
a lot of new players and and uh, and we've
actually seen a lot of people coming over, athletes from
other sports coming over and taking up the game of golf.
And so you know, they have clubhead speed, but they
(26:49):
could really benefit from something that can help, you know,
promote more of a draw trajectory fight to fade. And
so you know with the nine degree offering for those
higher clubheads, be players that need that need that type
of model offering in a little bit lower loft. Can
it kind of keep the spin down and I think
really unlock a good fitting option in the fitting environment
(27:10):
here at the proven grounds and out out of various
accounts for that type of player you're coming into the game,
have clubhead speed, but really want to, you know, help
help fight the fade and promote a draw.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
I think one of the things I'm always excited about
our our product is that you can kind of the
adjustability with both the trajectory tuning sleeve and the CG shifter.
You're not stuck, you know, let's say you do. You are,
you know, someone just getting into the game. You fit
into the nine s ft, you got the CG shifter
way over there in the draw plus and you start
(27:44):
getting better at golf, your path gets a little bit better. Uh,
you can adjust it. You can turn the loft down
a little bit. If you need to reduce your spin
a little bit, you can move that CG shifter more
more towward. And that that's an added benefit of having
all the adjustability and all the different model.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, Marty, I mean it's been such a point of
interest throughout the history of ping, is being able to
fit a golf club for you specifically, and you just
think about the way that has changed over the last
couple of decades in terms of actually putting that in
the player's hands as well. I mean, you go get fit.
You obviously have a club that makes the most sense
for you, but we change I mean, we pick up speed,
maybe the golf swing gets a little bit more tuned.
(28:20):
You have an instructor that you're working with. Now all
of a sudden, you're able to change that club as well.
And it feels like it feels like this driver more
than any that I've seen, have those options. You pick
up a club and then you can change it multiple
ways as your golf game changes.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Yeah, and we've gotten more efficient in the execution. So
all three of the positions of the CG shifter, so
whether you have it in the fade or the draw,
are all now higher inertia, so they're all more forgiving.
Right we first came out with it, if you put
it in the toe or you put it in the heel,
your inertia would drop a little bit. Right now it
(28:55):
still drops a teeny bit, but all those positions have
been elevated. The trajectory tuning sleeve. Again, it's one of
those things where when we first were looking to do it,
it was it was hard to pull it off in
a way that didn't add a lot of weight or
wasn't really bad to the aerodynamic performance. So it's easy
to take those things for granted, but those are a
(29:16):
big benefit to the golfer to be able to make
some little fine tune adjustments. And Andrew clubfitter out there.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Eric, is this like a stressful week for you when
clubs launch and you get to kind of introduce something
to the world or has that stress already happened, you know,
a month.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
So that stress came a while back.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
I now past that, your exits past.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
It's very exciting to then be able to kind of,
you know, all that stress leading to you know, a product,
being able to kind of start to talk about it
and let the world see it. It's super exciting for
the entire team, right everybody's itching to get it in
their own bag and be able to talk to it,
you know, talk to people about all the hard work
(29:56):
they put into the product. And so this is an
exciting season for everybody when we get to introduce the
world to the new G line.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Eric, Always appreciate your time. Always appreciate when you're a
guest on the podcast and always appreciate your work on
these golf clubs best drivers in the game, so thanks
so much, happy to be you. This is fun. Eric
Henrickson the doc. This is the Pink Proven Grounds podcast
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