October 29, 2025 • 24 mins
Shane and Marty discuss how to determine the best clubs between your driver and longest iron. They compare all of the equipment options, identify the fitting tools golfers can utilize to gap the top-end of their bag, and review PGA Tour trends at that end of the bag.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The guys from Ping.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
They've kind of showed me how much the equipment matters.
I just love that I can hit any shot.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I kind of want 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, everybody, it's the Ping Proven Grounds Podcast. I'm Shane Bacon.
That of course is Marty Jerts and Marty. I like
the shirt, I like the fit, I like the look,
and I like the topic. Today we're gonna discuss kind
of the top end of the golf bag. It's i'd say,
what Ping offers these days has become pretty expansive. I
mean it is. You can have a lot of different
clubs in the bag in terms of fairy Woods and
(00:33):
Drivers and Thrivers and IDI, you know, long irons, a
lot of different irons out there, and I'm assuming when
you go to maybe upgrade it can feel slightly overwhelming
for people. So we wanted to kind of discuss the
right options for people out there if they're starting to
look across kind of the catalog the PING offers these days.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, definitely, Shan's I think it's a very fun time.
You know, if you look at the history of golf.
It used to be you go, you go driver, maybe
a three wood or a four wood and then boom
right there three iron, nothing in between. And now we
have so many options in there. It's really fun that
we have these options for the everyday golfer. And then
(01:17):
how much diversity we see even with our tour players, right,
and what clubs are playing basically that whole topic of
between your driver and your longest iron. What do I do?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, I mean what we have done and what you
have done is created a golf club that can we
say was ahead of its time, Like like, can we
talk about the Thriver for.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Just a moment?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
This golf club is I don't know if I get
more any more messages on or dms on Instagram than
about anything paying related than the Thriver. It's a golf
club that you when'd you when did you introduce it?
Two years ago? Three years ago?
Speaker 1 (01:53):
It's been in my bag two and a half years now.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, okay, yeah, I mean just explain to people that
they've never heard us talk about it or never listen
to the pod before. What is a Thriver?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah? The high level concept, Shane, is that if you
drive the ball let's say two seventy five or more
so like three hundred ish, you know, to ninety three hundred.
We we looked at the data, and my own personal
data on this too showed that I'm hitting that that
three wood or that longest club most of the time
off the tee. For me, it was like eighty five
(02:24):
to ninety percent of my t shots in my local
Arizona golf when I hit my threewood, it was off
a tee and I was kind of struggling with threewood
off the tee through it for mechanical reasons, mental reasons.
It was a little fragile, let's just call it.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
And so I built this uh and welcome to the club,
my friend, Welcome to the club.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Fragile. You know, it's a good, good, good framing on
every golfer that you know. So you know, if you
if you cure someone's fragile point in their golf game,
you can do magical things. So that's what this driver
has done for me. So it's three wood drivers, how
the name came to be. But it's basically a twelve
degree driver build that we put that we build a
(03:04):
basically effectively around three wood length. Some people got minds
like forty three and a quarter three wood shaft plugged
in there goes into forty three and a quarter. I
build a little flatter, a little heavier swing way. I
put the CG shifter in the in the in the
fade position or the toe position, and I can tee
it really low. In The dispersion you get when you
(03:26):
use it as a t shot club compared to a
traditional three wood is phenomenal. Like your your downline dispersion
when we do a player test on this is like
fifty percent smaller, so you literally hit it twice as
straight off the tee. And so it's just a fantastic club.
We had Christo win with it on the corn Ferry
Tour event here, you know, a few few weeks or
(03:47):
a few months ago, and so we see a lot
of tour players doing this because they drive the ball far.
So it's a great three wood replacement club for folks
who hit it far off the tee. But but your
your everyday golfer, let's you hit it two fifty off
the tee or shorter, and and your course kind of
just demands a lot of shots down there. A lot
of fairway finders, maybe you're not as comfortable sometimes with
(04:09):
the driver. It's also a good option there as well
for the everyday golfer that isn't hitting in a majority
of the times off the tee.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah. I mean I had a friend of mine. I
played golf with a lefty buddy of mine probably two
three months ago, like he was going to Scotland. You know,
he hits it two fifty. I mean he's not a
bomber yep. But we were talking through it. I had
the Thriver in the bag. I've been playing the Thriver
for a long time. I actually now I kind of
go between the Thriver and the four Wood depending on
(04:38):
the golf course. Perfect, but I do love the Thriver
for my golf club. I don't hit a lot of
fairy woods, like you don't really hit them into the
par fives, yep, and you don't really hit them off
the tee. So the Thriver's great because I can hit
it on a couple of squeeze holes. But ye, he
was asking a lot of questions about it, and I
gave him my old Thriver to hit, you know, to
go play with. I said, take this one out, you know,
the four point thirty hit it, let me know what
(04:59):
you think, and he immediately said, like, I'm buying one tomorrow.
And he bought one the next day and took it
to Scotland and he said he hit it the majority
of the time. He said it was a great club
for a Scotland trip because you know, he knew it
was going to be controllable. He could see it low,
like you said, get it in play and he could
trust it. And again when you're like the driver for
(05:19):
elite players is one of the easiest clubs to hit
these days, but the average player still can struggle to
spray it. And the fact that this club exists and
allows you it's a little shorter. I love the length
of it. I mean, I think that might be my
favorite part of the golf club. But if you're not
a big Fairwywood fan, I think it's an incredible option,
you know, within your golf bag to maybe consider.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, no, it's very magical, Shane, And yeah, you just
think about like you play that big four un and
sixty cc head basically as a three would in the
inertia of that fairway Wood is three or four times
more of the Thriver build is three to four times
bigger than a fairway would and that manifests itself in
(05:58):
that dispersion being so much. You got a lot of
flexibility with T height. Like most of the time on
T mind, you probably do the same like tat low
and kind of chip it or chip cut it. But
if you ever get to that hole where you need
to hit a high draw or a high one, maybe
driveable par for it's kind of downwind, but you got
to launch it up, you couldn't do it with your
driver boom you could tee at high. So it does
(06:20):
have a lot of flexibility there. So not not a
club for everybody, but it's certainly when we're talking about
this suite of options between your driver and your longest iron,
that's that's one that's certainly an option there, and we
have a great build for that with our twelve degree heads.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, I mean you think about Thriver and then obviously,
I mean, you know, people are gonna have a driver
in their bag every time. I mean, it's going to
be in every bag in the world. And then you know,
I mean, I do think that the traditional three wood
I think is we're not seeing as many traditional three
woods in bags these days. Obviously, the four wood has
come back in four to forty, which I'm a huge
fan of. I mean, I loved it. I think it
was G twenty series. One of my favorite clubs of
(06:55):
all time was the Ping four wood. Now the four
wood is back. But you know, this high loft fairwe
would concept has become extremely popular as well. Why do
you feel like the five woods and the seven woods,
even the nine woods have become way more popular than
we've ever seen before in the history of golf.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, no, I think it's great. I think what people
are realizing is that, you know, we is equipment designers.
We've been able to get the center gravity lower, you
can get under the ball more, you can launch them
higher fair way woods, especially for like you know, tour
players and then every day golfers alike. They allow you
to swing a little bit steeper, so you can kind
(07:33):
of swing a little bit steeper on it. What we're
seeing a lot of our tour players do, Shane, is
go shorter with the length, right, and this is not
necessarily something the everyday golfer needs to do is to
go shorter than our standard length, but the tour players
doing it to manipulate the peak trajectory and the height
and to take a little bit of that distance off.
(07:53):
I think we probably talked about that with Kent Oates
of the Magic how they fit those out there with
the PGA Tour players. One of my favorite examples of this,
Shane is a guy you know well, also is Matt McCarty.
So he plays your traditional three wood. Is his three wood,
you know it kind of average tour length, slightly above
(08:14):
average tour length, pretty medium trajectory in terms of launch conditions.
If we look at his seven iron launch conditions and
then he plays the he plays our seven wood, but
he plays at I think forty and three quarters inches,
so this is an inch and a quarter short. He
basically plays his seven wood at hybrid length, right if
(08:35):
you think about it. And then he also has it
in a little stronger position he has in our big
minus position. So with going shorter in length, stronger on
law through our Hauzal setting, he's kind of got the
peak trajectory down closer to a hybrid, but he can
hit down on it a little bit steeper, steeper, easier
(08:55):
to get out of the rough. And as you know,
Shane on the PGA Tour there's so many of those
long threes that are like two twenty five to two
forty that that club is magical. That's one of the
big reasons why the tour players use it. When when
you look at the stats of of a par three
distance on tour, there are so many par threes like
(09:17):
two twenty to two forty and and that's just seven
would heaven out there for the PGA tour player. And
that's what Matt talked about when we talked to him
on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
It's been a it's been a really cool club, you know.
I think you know, for me with my relationship with
Fairway Woods has always been an interesting one. I just
have never loved my three woods, like over the years,
it's always been a club in my bag that's given
me the biggest fits. Even in like my college days,
I kind of had the driver yips. I'd go two iron,
you know, I would just say stinger, two iron all.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Over the place.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I just I never like it was still a wood
in my opinion, But you know, the four wood was.
It was a huge change for me. I remember I
leaned heavily on that. I love the fact that it
was a little bit thicker you know, it wasn't the
that trend in the in the late nineties, kind of
the tight lie or lamar like really skinny face Fairway
wood shot. It wasn't great for me. I was steep
and you know, I'd hit it up on top of
(10:09):
the face that that four wood still had some some
girth to it and some and some thickness to it.
And uh and I feel like the same with the
five wood in the seven wood. And the recent iteration
that Ping has offered is they're lofty, but you don't
feel like you're you're giving up kind of the the
depth of face that you maybe used to have to
give up when loft was was was introduced.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I I love that, Shane. I remember uh Man with
Hunter Mayhan. I was with with Hunter Mayhand and uh
and Sean Foley on the range and they're working on
taking divots with the Fairway wood, you know, and it's
it's I think that's you're nailing. And I kind of
mentioned it when I said we've been able to get
the cig's lower. Well, the secret that I think you
hit the nail on the head is that the cieg's low,
(10:50):
so they fly nice, but we don't have to do
it through making the face shallow so you don't need
to be afraid of hitting down on it. A little
bit more going down and getting it, and now you
can go down and get it and still get that
ball to launch high. So you get that. That is
the magic of why these clubs are have been more prevalent,
a little easier to hit, more functional, more fitting options. Yeah,
(11:14):
it's the face height with the center gravity is being low. Marty,
fourteen clubs sound like a lot. It's not a lot.
We all battle. I mean you travel with like one
hundred clubs when you go on these golf tournaments. I
now travel with fifteen or sixteen. When I go on
golf trips, I always have, you know, either an.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
IDI in the bag, or I'll have maybe my three iron,
or I'll have maybe an extra lofted would in the bag.
As we dive into this top end fitting process in
terms of the top end of your golf bag, let's
say it's a five wood, it's an IDI four iron,
it's the I series three iron, Like, how do you
(11:49):
distinguish what a certain player might need it? Or a hybrid? Like,
how do you figure out what a player might need
is it is it club at speed? Is it attack angle?
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Like?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
What are you looking at in terms of figuring out
that for an individual versus somebody else.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah, it's a great question because we do now have
so many options in their shane. I think it the
way to think about it. I think for the golfer
out there is you want to think about gapping. So
you want to think about gapping though in two different ways.
There's your your downline gapping. That's your distance gaping either
carrier total, and that's going to spend on your course conditions,
your weather and your wind and things of that nature.
(12:27):
And then you want to think about your vertical gaping,
and that's your peak height. You know your peak height
and your land angle. So that's the base. Okay, it's like, okay,
we got we got to build these clubs in here.
How much or how far do you need it to
go and how high do you need it to go?
And that's your vertical and downline gaping. And then within
that we have plenty of flexibility for your course conditions.
(12:50):
Is it windy? Is it firm? Are are you playing
most of your golf at one home course where you
always have a you have a couple of long part
threes where you're always going to need that seven wood,
and the greens are firm, maybe the greens are elevated,
maybe you have to carry some bunkers in front. Right,
Is it always windy or is it not? And then
are you are you a kind of a tournament golfer
(13:11):
competitive golfer? Do you travel a little bit and you
need a couple options in there? That's more like you
and I are the tour player. You know, I usually
carry sixteen clubs and I got three options right there,
that's in you know, either three IDI, a hybrid or
five wood. Right, those are my kind of three options
depend on the course conditions. And again to me, Shane,
(13:32):
it still comes down to down line distance, vertical gaping,
and then wind and land angle right and how much
control do you need for those environmental conditions.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
The IDI has been just a savior for me. I mean,
you know, I always I've always loved kind of the
driving iron concept again kind of going back to you know,
I was a sprayer of the driver in my early
days when when technology couldn't save me like it can today,
and I always would default to a long iron, to
a drive in iron just something a little bit meteor
(14:08):
but still trust in that long iron versus a fairway.
Would this IDI series dude is just changing it for me.
I mean I got two, three four, I'll sometimes play
two depending on the golf course. Uh, in the bag
like I might take a fairway wood of the thriver
even out of the bag at times. Yes, But I
d I if you, if you struggle off the tee
in terms of getting the ball in play, let me
(14:30):
tell you the I d I is at least worth
a look.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
It is.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
They're beautiful, they're they're they're meaty. The top line's great.
I'm obsessed with this thing.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, I think the fun part about the Idichan is
it's it's shorter heel to toe. You know, we've had
the crossovers of the past, which has been great, Don't get
me wrong, it's been great. But I love how you
get the shorter heel to toe length. And then whether
you're going to I two forty or blueprint ass or
blueprint te uh, it just blends right in both visually
and the can like the forces you're applying to square
(15:02):
the face. Everything marries up a lot better with the idea,
which which one do you playing day to day? Are
you playing the three three as you're like two forty
five two fifty club?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, I mean, like like out here probably around that
two forty number, I will say.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
So.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I did the two and the three with graphite shafts,
you know, with more of a fairway wood level shaft, right,
and then I did the four with a steel shaft,
the same cheft I play in my irons. Yeah, and
that loft on the four, when you look down at it,
it's like it looks like you can't at a bad
golf shot.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Mean it like I almost wish is a full set
of idea eyes, you know. I look down and it's
just it's it's crazy, Like how much I want to
put it in play on golf courses, I probably shouldn't
put it in play.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Yeah, I'm playing the four like I replaced my blueprint
s with the id I four, and I'm playing our
two or ninety X hybrid shaft in it. And this
thing is perfect. I think, not that it surprise me,
but you know, I think on a pod earlier this summer,
I was like, the id I is the sleeper club
of the year. Yeah, And right when they went on tour.
(16:07):
Shamee man. These things exploded in terms of usage with
with players that were playing some legacy crossovers and things
of that nature, like Victor Hoblin put it right in
over there for the Open and the Scottish Open, and
then the ultimate ball striker out there, Corey Connors. He's
playing the four I D I as his four iron,
just just like me and you Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Crazy, I mean, now you know what you might have
convinced me. I mean I literally might get done with
this podcast and walk six feet and put it in
the in the bag instead of my eye. My eye
four iron in there right now. But the mixed bag
is important. I mean, I think it's a big thing
in terms of trends on tour. Which way does do
the tour players go? In turn? I mean, I know
it's kind of all over the bag, but which way
(16:48):
did the tour players go in terms of kind of
the top end of their golf bag? Yeah, no, it is.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
I think I think it is kind of generally all
over the bag. I was just looking at our tour
specs and we have the Matt McCarty playing the seven
woods short. Then we got Corey Connors. He's playing what's
effectively like a six wood, you know what I mean.
He's taken the five wood, adding a little loft, not
playing it quite as short as is Matt McCarty. We
(17:12):
got Victor playing the three IDI pretty much week in
and week out, right, So some of the guys that
can elevate the ball a little bit more on command
for those long part threes IDI being shorter heel to
toe is way better out of the rough now. So
we're seeing a lot more ID eyes go in the
bag and staying in there week to week, where before
maybe it would be a crossover. They put it in
(17:34):
for Harbor Town and the Open, then they come back
and it'd be all five wood seven wood hybrids. Again,
we're seeing the IDI stay in the bag longer because
the shorter heel to toe, they can launch the ball
up in the air, especially with a three. So the
two ID, I think you're gonna see that maybe more
is a come and go club. Fours are in there,
a lot of high lofted fairway woods on the PJ Tour.
(17:59):
We still have a full of hybrids in play, but
really I think where the everyday golfer can draw a
little bit more inspiration from in terms of similar distance
peak trajectory is the LPGA Tour. We absolutely are dominating
over there with hybrids, right, Okay, so if you're a golfer,
is that is having trouble getting your four five six
iron in the air. The hybrids are absolutely magical. And
(18:23):
what we've done with the hybrids over the year, Shane,
is hybrid's let's say five ten years ago, they had
a bad rap. But maybe in some maybe even some
better players still think, oh, hybrids go left. We've really
solved that problem. Like the low lofted ones kind of
anti left with dialed in the lining gal you got
the trajectory tuning sleeve, you can dial in, you can
go a little heavier on the shaft, a lot of
(18:44):
things to take that whole stigma of hybrids go left
out of play. But then are high lofted ones are
five six hybrid, They turn over really easy, and they're
meant to blend better with like our G series irons. Right,
So those are absolutely fantastic. We have this face design
called spinsistency, where if you hit them low on the face,
(19:05):
they no longer balloon up in the wind like they
used to, so they give you like effectively a lot
more spin forgiveness, trajectory forgiveness. So those are great options, Shane.
And then one thing we've done to help our fitters,
and if anyone's interested in spoiling this themselves, they can
do it by booking of virtual fitting with our master fitters.
We have a tool in Pink co Pilot now, Shane,
(19:28):
where just like Matt McCarty did where he changed the
hosel setting and then he went shorter on the length,
that we can help you dial that in specifically to
you if you want to go shorter in length or
maybe change your hozzle setting, and we can simulate what
that will do to your peak heite and your carry
carry distance. So even though you may not be able
(19:48):
to try that club out in your fitting environment, we
can get you dialed in just like our tour players do.
Is a shorter hot is a shorter seven wood or
shorter nine wood or shorter high ybrid good for you?
And we have these really cool simulation tools down in
Pink Copilot.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
When you get fit for kind of the top end
of the golf bag, what are some important questions to
ask your fitter, like what should you be presenting in
terms of information so that they can best kind of
fill out your bag and make sure you got the
right stuff in there.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah. No, it's you know, I think it's a little
bit of what is your success rate? And when in
that longest club in your bag do you start not
being as successful as often as you should be? Maybe
you you know, like maybe you can hit that five
iron good one out of four shots, but if you
hit that five hybrid it'd be a good shot, very
(20:39):
good functional shot three out of four times, right, or
eight out of ten times. And so that's really I
think what you should think about and give yourself a
little honest assessment. And this is where stats tracking comes in.
But even if you don't do that, Shane, it's just
having some reflection on what is my success rate with
my five iron or my six iron, right, And then
(21:01):
the fitter can really help you by looking at your
clubhead speed, looking at your launch conditions to create that
right mix and combination from a distance and peak height standpoint.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah, I mean again, it's I can imagine, you know,
golf is an overwhelming sport in general, you know, I
mean you think about beginning golfers getting into it, all
the you know rules and and and you know things
we don't talk about and you know, knock and stand
off your shoe when you walk out of a bunker,
like all these little things that that you you learn
as you go. But I love the idea of more
(21:34):
things available by paying, but to make it easier for
people to know what to put in the bag. And
it feels like that's kind of the idea between both
getting fit in person and virtual fitting specifically for kind
of the top end of the bag, as more stuff
get introduced, because it feels like every year something new
gets introduced by paying. In terms of a longer a
longer distance golf club, and I mean we didn't even
(21:56):
really talk about long irons, you know, like long irons
are another option like the two of the three iron
and something like that in the I series. It's like
those are options for players as well if they're long
iron golfers.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
You know, Yeah, I go, right, I go. I go
back to pink co pilot our gaping app, Shane, because
the gaping app recommends when's you when you should switch
and maybe build a blended set. So we build our
blueprint t Blueprint ass I two forty perfectly to do
blended sets. I mean, you're seeing like Neil Shipley playing five.
He's like you more than you.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
He's playing so many irons my bag right now, he's.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Playing five if you count the IDI, he's playing five
different iron models, right So.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
What is he is?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
The ID I and then I. Yeah, he goes I
D I I two thirty, Blueprint s Blueprint t and
then he plays our S one eight degree.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Five. Awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
How about that man that is so and we when
we plug his numbers into our pink Copilot gaping app
it suggests, just like with with our other players that
do split sets into either Blueprint ass in, Blueprint tee
or Blueprint ass In I two forty, it suggests where
he should split almost exactly where he does. So again,
it's kind of taking that tour level service. But you know,
(23:09):
if it works for Neil Shipley, h and you, it
could work for work for everybody out there. Shane Man,
Neil's a stud man.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
It's been so cool to see his success this season,
that's for sure. I H. You know, you think about
early the early in the year, and you know he's
in he's in the commercials for paying and he's kind
of the star of these commercials, right, and then to
have the season he's had and to go out there
and then play so well on the corn Ferry Tour,
it's a it's been a lot of fun. He's a
really good dude. He's a fun dude to watch play.
I love him. I'm in our windows, you know. It's just, uh,
(23:38):
it's great.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
I can't wait to watch him on the big, big
show next year. And we got we gotta get we
gotta get Neil on the pod. You know what'll be fun.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
You need to get Neil on the pod. We got
to get the team on it. That's top end fitting.
I mean, I think it's a great conversation had As
we said, this isn't your grandfather's you know, golf equipment anymore.
I mean, this is a lot of options, all make
a lot of sense a certain golfer, and it could
be complicated, and we're here to try to make it
a little easier on you, so so dive into it.
(24:07):
I'm waiting for the Thriver to change names to like
the Jertson and the next iteration. We'll see if we
get there. But uh, I'll have my fingers crossed if
we could ever get there in that world. But uh,
it's definitely your baby and I and I love it
in my bag, just like I love the IDI. That's Marty.
I'm Shane. This is the Pink bruven Grounds Podcast.
The guys from Ping.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
They've kind of showed me how much the equipment matters.
I just love that I can hit any shot.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I kind of want 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, everybody, it's the Ping Proven Grounds Podcast. I'm Shane Bacon.
That of course is Marty Jerts and Marty. I like
the shirt, I like the fit, I like the look,
and I like the topic. Today we're gonna discuss kind
of the top end of the golf bag. It's i'd say,
what Ping offers these days has become pretty expansive. I
mean it is. You can have a lot of different
clubs in the bag in terms of fairy Woods and
(00:33):
Drivers and Thrivers and IDI, you know, long irons, a
lot of different irons out there, and I'm assuming when
you go to maybe upgrade it can feel slightly overwhelming
for people. So we wanted to kind of discuss the
right options for people out there if they're starting to
look across kind of the catalog the PING offers these days.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, definitely, Shan's I think it's a very fun time.
You know, if you look at the history of golf.
It used to be you go, you go driver, maybe
a three wood or a four wood and then boom
right there three iron, nothing in between. And now we
have so many options in there. It's really fun that
we have these options for the everyday golfer. And then
(01:17):
how much diversity we see even with our tour players, right,
and what clubs are playing basically that whole topic of
between your driver and your longest iron. What do I do?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, I mean what we have done and what you
have done is created a golf club that can we
say was ahead of its time, Like like, can we
talk about the Thriver for.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Just a moment?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
This golf club is I don't know if I get
more any more messages on or dms on Instagram than
about anything paying related than the Thriver. It's a golf
club that you when'd you when did you introduce it?
Two years ago? Three years ago?
Speaker 1 (01:53):
It's been in my bag two and a half years now.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, okay, yeah, I mean just explain to people that
they've never heard us talk about it or never listen
to the pod before. What is a Thriver?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah? The high level concept, Shane, is that if you
drive the ball let's say two seventy five or more
so like three hundred ish, you know, to ninety three hundred.
We we looked at the data, and my own personal
data on this too showed that I'm hitting that that
three wood or that longest club most of the time
off the tee. For me, it was like eighty five
(02:24):
to ninety percent of my t shots in my local
Arizona golf when I hit my threewood, it was off
a tee and I was kind of struggling with threewood
off the tee through it for mechanical reasons, mental reasons.
It was a little fragile, let's just call it.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
And so I built this uh and welcome to the club,
my friend, Welcome to the club.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Fragile. You know, it's a good, good, good framing on
every golfer that you know. So you know, if you
if you cure someone's fragile point in their golf game,
you can do magical things. So that's what this driver
has done for me. So it's three wood drivers, how
the name came to be. But it's basically a twelve
degree driver build that we put that we build a
(03:04):
basically effectively around three wood length. Some people got minds
like forty three and a quarter three wood shaft plugged
in there goes into forty three and a quarter. I
build a little flatter, a little heavier swing way. I
put the CG shifter in the in the in the
fade position or the toe position, and I can tee
it really low. In The dispersion you get when you
(03:26):
use it as a t shot club compared to a
traditional three wood is phenomenal. Like your your downline dispersion
when we do a player test on this is like
fifty percent smaller, so you literally hit it twice as
straight off the tee. And so it's just a fantastic club.
We had Christo win with it on the corn Ferry
Tour event here, you know, a few few weeks or
(03:47):
a few months ago, and so we see a lot
of tour players doing this because they drive the ball far.
So it's a great three wood replacement club for folks
who hit it far off the tee. But but your
your everyday golfer, let's you hit it two fifty off
the tee or shorter, and and your course kind of
just demands a lot of shots down there. A lot
of fairway finders, maybe you're not as comfortable sometimes with
(04:09):
the driver. It's also a good option there as well
for the everyday golfer that isn't hitting in a majority
of the times off the tee.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah. I mean I had a friend of mine. I
played golf with a lefty buddy of mine probably two
three months ago, like he was going to Scotland. You know,
he hits it two fifty. I mean he's not a
bomber yep. But we were talking through it. I had
the Thriver in the bag. I've been playing the Thriver
for a long time. I actually now I kind of
go between the Thriver and the four Wood depending on
(04:38):
the golf course. Perfect, but I do love the Thriver
for my golf club. I don't hit a lot of
fairy woods, like you don't really hit them into the
par fives, yep, and you don't really hit them off
the tee. So the Thriver's great because I can hit
it on a couple of squeeze holes. But ye, he
was asking a lot of questions about it, and I
gave him my old Thriver to hit, you know, to
go play with. I said, take this one out, you know,
the four point thirty hit it, let me know what
(04:59):
you think, and he immediately said, like, I'm buying one tomorrow.
And he bought one the next day and took it
to Scotland and he said he hit it the majority
of the time. He said it was a great club
for a Scotland trip because you know, he knew it
was going to be controllable. He could see it low,
like you said, get it in play and he could
trust it. And again when you're like the driver for
(05:19):
elite players is one of the easiest clubs to hit
these days, but the average player still can struggle to
spray it. And the fact that this club exists and
allows you it's a little shorter. I love the length
of it. I mean, I think that might be my
favorite part of the golf club. But if you're not
a big Fairwywood fan, I think it's an incredible option,
you know, within your golf bag to maybe consider.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Yeah, no, it's very magical, Shane, And yeah, you just
think about like you play that big four un and
sixty cc head basically as a three would in the
inertia of that fairway Wood is three or four times
more of the Thriver build is three to four times
bigger than a fairway would and that manifests itself in
(05:58):
that dispersion being so much. You got a lot of
flexibility with T height. Like most of the time on
T mind, you probably do the same like tat low
and kind of chip it or chip cut it. But
if you ever get to that hole where you need
to hit a high draw or a high one, maybe
driveable par for it's kind of downwind, but you got
to launch it up, you couldn't do it with your
driver boom you could tee at high. So it does
(06:20):
have a lot of flexibility there. So not not a
club for everybody, but it's certainly when we're talking about
this suite of options between your driver and your longest iron,
that's that's one that's certainly an option there, and we
have a great build for that with our twelve degree heads.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, I mean you think about Thriver and then obviously,
I mean, you know, people are gonna have a driver
in their bag every time. I mean, it's going to
be in every bag in the world. And then you know,
I mean, I do think that the traditional three wood
I think is we're not seeing as many traditional three
woods in bags these days. Obviously, the four wood has
come back in four to forty, which I'm a huge
fan of. I mean, I loved it. I think it
was G twenty series. One of my favorite clubs of
(06:55):
all time was the Ping four wood. Now the four
wood is back. But you know, this high loft fairwe
would concept has become extremely popular as well. Why do
you feel like the five woods and the seven woods,
even the nine woods have become way more popular than
we've ever seen before in the history of golf.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, no, I think it's great. I think what people
are realizing is that, you know, we is equipment designers.
We've been able to get the center gravity lower, you
can get under the ball more, you can launch them
higher fair way woods, especially for like you know, tour
players and then every day golfers alike. They allow you
to swing a little bit steeper, so you can kind
(07:33):
of swing a little bit steeper on it. What we're
seeing a lot of our tour players do, Shane, is
go shorter with the length, right, and this is not
necessarily something the everyday golfer needs to do is to
go shorter than our standard length, but the tour players
doing it to manipulate the peak trajectory and the height
and to take a little bit of that distance off.
(07:53):
I think we probably talked about that with Kent Oates
of the Magic how they fit those out there with
the PGA Tour players. One of my favorite examples of this,
Shane is a guy you know well, also is Matt McCarty.
So he plays your traditional three wood. Is his three wood,
you know it kind of average tour length, slightly above
(08:14):
average tour length, pretty medium trajectory in terms of launch conditions.
If we look at his seven iron launch conditions and
then he plays the he plays our seven wood, but
he plays at I think forty and three quarters inches,
so this is an inch and a quarter short. He
basically plays his seven wood at hybrid length, right if
(08:35):
you think about it. And then he also has it
in a little stronger position he has in our big
minus position. So with going shorter in length, stronger on
law through our Hauzal setting, he's kind of got the
peak trajectory down closer to a hybrid, but he can
hit down on it a little bit steeper, steeper, easier
(08:55):
to get out of the rough. And as you know,
Shane on the PGA Tour there's so many of those
long threes that are like two twenty five to two
forty that that club is magical. That's one of the
big reasons why the tour players use it. When when
you look at the stats of of a par three
distance on tour, there are so many par threes like
(09:17):
two twenty to two forty and and that's just seven
would heaven out there for the PGA tour player. And
that's what Matt talked about when we talked to him
on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
It's been a it's been a really cool club, you know.
I think you know, for me with my relationship with
Fairway Woods has always been an interesting one. I just
have never loved my three woods, like over the years,
it's always been a club in my bag that's given
me the biggest fits. Even in like my college days,
I kind of had the driver yips. I'd go two iron,
you know, I would just say stinger, two iron all.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Over the place.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
I just I never like it was still a wood
in my opinion, But you know, the four wood was.
It was a huge change for me. I remember I
leaned heavily on that. I love the fact that it
was a little bit thicker you know, it wasn't the
that trend in the in the late nineties, kind of
the tight lie or lamar like really skinny face Fairway
wood shot. It wasn't great for me. I was steep
and you know, I'd hit it up on top of
(10:09):
the face that that four wood still had some some
girth to it and some and some thickness to it.
And uh and I feel like the same with the
five wood in the seven wood. And the recent iteration
that Ping has offered is they're lofty, but you don't
feel like you're you're giving up kind of the the
depth of face that you maybe used to have to
give up when loft was was was introduced.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I I love that, Shane. I remember uh Man with
Hunter Mayhan. I was with with Hunter Mayhand and uh
and Sean Foley on the range and they're working on
taking divots with the Fairway wood, you know, and it's
it's I think that's you're nailing. And I kind of
mentioned it when I said we've been able to get
the cig's lower. Well, the secret that I think you
hit the nail on the head is that the cieg's low,
(10:50):
so they fly nice, but we don't have to do
it through making the face shallow so you don't need
to be afraid of hitting down on it. A little
bit more going down and getting it, and now you
can go down and get it and still get that
ball to launch high. So you get that. That is
the magic of why these clubs are have been more prevalent,
a little easier to hit, more functional, more fitting options. Yeah,
(11:14):
it's the face height with the center gravity is being low. Marty,
fourteen clubs sound like a lot. It's not a lot.
We all battle. I mean you travel with like one
hundred clubs when you go on these golf tournaments. I
now travel with fifteen or sixteen. When I go on
golf trips, I always have, you know, either an.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
IDI in the bag, or I'll have maybe my three iron,
or I'll have maybe an extra lofted would in the bag.
As we dive into this top end fitting process in
terms of the top end of your golf bag, let's
say it's a five wood, it's an IDI four iron,
it's the I series three iron, Like, how do you
(11:49):
distinguish what a certain player might need it? Or a hybrid? Like,
how do you figure out what a player might need
is it is it club at speed? Is it attack angle?
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Like?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
What are you looking at in terms of figuring out
that for an individual versus somebody else.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Yeah, it's a great question because we do now have
so many options in their shane. I think it the
way to think about it. I think for the golfer
out there is you want to think about gapping. So
you want to think about gapping though in two different ways.
There's your your downline gapping. That's your distance gaping either
carrier total, and that's going to spend on your course conditions,
your weather and your wind and things of that nature.
(12:27):
And then you want to think about your vertical gaping,
and that's your peak height. You know your peak height
and your land angle. So that's the base. Okay, it's like, okay,
we got we got to build these clubs in here.
How much or how far do you need it to
go and how high do you need it to go?
And that's your vertical and downline gaping. And then within
that we have plenty of flexibility for your course conditions.
(12:50):
Is it windy? Is it firm? Are are you playing
most of your golf at one home course where you
always have a you have a couple of long part
threes where you're always going to need that seven wood,
and the greens are firm, maybe the greens are elevated,
maybe you have to carry some bunkers in front. Right,
Is it always windy or is it not? And then
are you are you a kind of a tournament golfer
(13:11):
competitive golfer? Do you travel a little bit and you
need a couple options in there? That's more like you
and I are the tour player. You know, I usually
carry sixteen clubs and I got three options right there,
that's in you know, either three IDI, a hybrid or
five wood. Right, those are my kind of three options
depend on the course conditions. And again to me, Shane,
(13:32):
it still comes down to down line distance, vertical gaping,
and then wind and land angle right and how much
control do you need for those environmental conditions.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
The IDI has been just a savior for me. I mean,
you know, I always I've always loved kind of the
driving iron concept again kind of going back to you know,
I was a sprayer of the driver in my early
days when when technology couldn't save me like it can today,
and I always would default to a long iron, to
a drive in iron just something a little bit meteor
(14:08):
but still trust in that long iron versus a fairway.
Would this IDI series dude is just changing it for me.
I mean I got two, three four, I'll sometimes play
two depending on the golf course. Uh, in the bag
like I might take a fairway wood of the thriver
even out of the bag at times. Yes, But I
d I if you, if you struggle off the tee
in terms of getting the ball in play, let me
(14:30):
tell you the I d I is at least worth
a look.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
It is.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
They're beautiful, they're they're they're meaty. The top line's great.
I'm obsessed with this thing.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, I think the fun part about the Idichan is
it's it's shorter heel to toe. You know, we've had
the crossovers of the past, which has been great, Don't get
me wrong, it's been great. But I love how you
get the shorter heel to toe length. And then whether
you're going to I two forty or blueprint ass or
blueprint te uh, it just blends right in both visually
and the can like the forces you're applying to square
(15:02):
the face. Everything marries up a lot better with the idea,
which which one do you playing day to day? Are
you playing the three three as you're like two forty
five two fifty club?
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, I mean, like like out here probably around that
two forty number, I will say.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
So.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I did the two and the three with graphite shafts,
you know, with more of a fairway wood level shaft, right,
and then I did the four with a steel shaft,
the same cheft I play in my irons. Yeah, and
that loft on the four, when you look down at it,
it's like it looks like you can't at a bad
golf shot.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Mean it like I almost wish is a full set
of idea eyes, you know. I look down and it's
just it's it's crazy, Like how much I want to
put it in play on golf courses, I probably shouldn't
put it in play.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Yeah, I'm playing the four like I replaced my blueprint
s with the id I four, and I'm playing our
two or ninety X hybrid shaft in it. And this
thing is perfect. I think, not that it surprise me,
but you know, I think on a pod earlier this summer,
I was like, the id I is the sleeper club
of the year. Yeah, And right when they went on tour.
(16:07):
Shamee man. These things exploded in terms of usage with
with players that were playing some legacy crossovers and things
of that nature, like Victor Hoblin put it right in
over there for the Open and the Scottish Open, and
then the ultimate ball striker out there, Corey Connors. He's
playing the four I D I as his four iron,
just just like me and you Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Crazy, I mean, now you know what you might have
convinced me. I mean I literally might get done with
this podcast and walk six feet and put it in
the in the bag instead of my eye. My eye
four iron in there right now. But the mixed bag
is important. I mean, I think it's a big thing
in terms of trends on tour. Which way does do
the tour players go? In turn? I mean, I know
it's kind of all over the bag, but which way
(16:48):
did the tour players go in terms of kind of
the top end of their golf bag? Yeah, no, it is.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
I think I think it is kind of generally all
over the bag. I was just looking at our tour
specs and we have the Matt McCarty playing the seven
woods short. Then we got Corey Connors. He's playing what's
effectively like a six wood, you know what I mean.
He's taken the five wood, adding a little loft, not
playing it quite as short as is Matt McCarty. We
(17:12):
got Victor playing the three IDI pretty much week in
and week out, right, So some of the guys that
can elevate the ball a little bit more on command
for those long part threes IDI being shorter heel to
toe is way better out of the rough now. So
we're seeing a lot more ID eyes go in the
bag and staying in there week to week, where before
maybe it would be a crossover. They put it in
(17:34):
for Harbor Town and the Open, then they come back
and it'd be all five wood seven wood hybrids. Again,
we're seeing the IDI stay in the bag longer because
the shorter heel to toe, they can launch the ball
up in the air, especially with a three. So the
two ID, I think you're gonna see that maybe more
is a come and go club. Fours are in there,
a lot of high lofted fairway woods on the PJ Tour.
(17:59):
We still have a full of hybrids in play, but
really I think where the everyday golfer can draw a
little bit more inspiration from in terms of similar distance
peak trajectory is the LPGA Tour. We absolutely are dominating
over there with hybrids, right, Okay, so if you're a golfer,
is that is having trouble getting your four five six
iron in the air. The hybrids are absolutely magical. And
(18:23):
what we've done with the hybrids over the year, Shane,
is hybrid's let's say five ten years ago, they had
a bad rap. But maybe in some maybe even some
better players still think, oh, hybrids go left. We've really
solved that problem. Like the low lofted ones kind of
anti left with dialed in the lining gal you got
the trajectory tuning sleeve, you can dial in, you can
go a little heavier on the shaft, a lot of
(18:44):
things to take that whole stigma of hybrids go left
out of play. But then are high lofted ones are
five six hybrid, They turn over really easy, and they're
meant to blend better with like our G series irons. Right,
So those are absolutely fantastic. We have this face design
called spinsistency, where if you hit them low on the face,
(19:05):
they no longer balloon up in the wind like they
used to, so they give you like effectively a lot
more spin forgiveness, trajectory forgiveness. So those are great options, Shane.
And then one thing we've done to help our fitters,
and if anyone's interested in spoiling this themselves, they can
do it by booking of virtual fitting with our master fitters.
We have a tool in Pink co Pilot now, Shane,
(19:28):
where just like Matt McCarty did where he changed the
hosel setting and then he went shorter on the length,
that we can help you dial that in specifically to
you if you want to go shorter in length or
maybe change your hozzle setting, and we can simulate what
that will do to your peak heite and your carry
carry distance. So even though you may not be able
(19:48):
to try that club out in your fitting environment, we
can get you dialed in just like our tour players do.
Is a shorter hot is a shorter seven wood or
shorter nine wood or shorter high ybrid good for you?
And we have these really cool simulation tools down in
Pink Copilot.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
When you get fit for kind of the top end
of the golf bag, what are some important questions to
ask your fitter, like what should you be presenting in
terms of information so that they can best kind of
fill out your bag and make sure you got the
right stuff in there.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah. No, it's you know, I think it's a little
bit of what is your success rate? And when in
that longest club in your bag do you start not
being as successful as often as you should be? Maybe
you you know, like maybe you can hit that five
iron good one out of four shots, but if you
hit that five hybrid it'd be a good shot, very
(20:39):
good functional shot three out of four times, right, or
eight out of ten times. And so that's really I
think what you should think about and give yourself a
little honest assessment. And this is where stats tracking comes in.
But even if you don't do that, Shane, it's just
having some reflection on what is my success rate with
my five iron or my six iron, right, And then
(21:01):
the fitter can really help you by looking at your
clubhead speed, looking at your launch conditions to create that
right mix and combination from a distance and peak height standpoint.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Yeah, I mean again, it's I can imagine, you know,
golf is an overwhelming sport in general, you know, I
mean you think about beginning golfers getting into it, all
the you know rules and and and you know things
we don't talk about and you know, knock and stand
off your shoe when you walk out of a bunker,
like all these little things that that you you learn
as you go. But I love the idea of more
(21:34):
things available by paying, but to make it easier for
people to know what to put in the bag. And
it feels like that's kind of the idea between both
getting fit in person and virtual fitting specifically for kind
of the top end of the bag, as more stuff
get introduced, because it feels like every year something new
gets introduced by paying. In terms of a longer a
longer distance golf club, and I mean we didn't even
(21:56):
really talk about long irons, you know, like long irons
are another option like the two of the three iron
and something like that in the I series. It's like
those are options for players as well if they're long
iron golfers.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
You know, Yeah, I go, right, I go. I go
back to pink co pilot our gaping app, Shane, because
the gaping app recommends when's you when you should switch
and maybe build a blended set. So we build our
blueprint t Blueprint ass I two forty perfectly to do
blended sets. I mean, you're seeing like Neil Shipley playing five.
He's like you more than you.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
He's playing so many irons my bag right now, he's.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Playing five if you count the IDI, he's playing five
different iron models, right So.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
What is he is?
Speaker 1 (22:32):
The ID I and then I. Yeah, he goes I
D I I two thirty, Blueprint s Blueprint t and
then he plays our S one eight degree.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Five. Awesome.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
How about that man that is so and we when
we plug his numbers into our pink Copilot gaping app
it suggests, just like with with our other players that
do split sets into either Blueprint ass in, Blueprint tee
or Blueprint ass In I two forty, it suggests where
he should split almost exactly where he does. So again,
it's kind of taking that tour level service. But you know,
(23:09):
if it works for Neil Shipley, h and you, it
could work for work for everybody out there. Shane Man,
Neil's a stud man.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
It's been so cool to see his success this season,
that's for sure. I H. You know, you think about
early the early in the year, and you know he's
in he's in the commercials for paying and he's kind
of the star of these commercials, right, and then to
have the season he's had and to go out there
and then play so well on the corn Ferry Tour,
it's a it's been a lot of fun. He's a
really good dude. He's a fun dude to watch play.
I love him. I'm in our windows, you know. It's just, uh,
(23:38):
it's great.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
I can't wait to watch him on the big, big
show next year. And we got we gotta get we
gotta get Neil on the pod. You know what'll be fun.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
You need to get Neil on the pod. We got
to get the team on it. That's top end fitting.
I mean, I think it's a great conversation had As
we said, this isn't your grandfather's you know, golf equipment anymore.
I mean, this is a lot of options, all make
a lot of sense a certain golfer, and it could
be complicated, and we're here to try to make it
a little easier on you, so so dive into it.
(24:07):
I'm waiting for the Thriver to change names to like
the Jertson and the next iteration. We'll see if we
get there. But uh, I'll have my fingers crossed if
we could ever get there in that world. But uh,
it's definitely your baby and I and I love it
in my bag, just like I love the IDI. That's Marty.
I'm Shane. This is the Pink bruven Grounds Podcast.
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