Ping G30 Driver reviews

[markb]

Had a round of 18 hitting the G30 and Callaway Optiforce on every driver hole side by side and today the Ping gave the Cally a good old fashioned butt whupping.

 

It seems I found the extra gear on the Ping that I could not find before.   I had four consecutive drives that went 300 or better and the overall score was like 8 to 3 with 3 ties. 

 

So what the hell happened?   If you'll read the post above, you'll see that I was getting pretty bored and blase' about the Ping before.  What changed?  Was it just a lucky day?

 

Well, the first change was the ball.  Generally I test clubs with ProV1's, but my preferred ball du jour is the Wilson FG Tour.   It's a 70 compression urethane ball that seems to go farther off of all irons, but it hasn't been as far off my Optiforce.   The Cally likes ProV's, but they tend to click off the Ping.  However, when the G30 got a taste of the softer Wilson, it was instant karma.  So I went from 5 extra for the Cally with the ProV and losing 5 with the Ping,  to losing 5 with the Cally and the Wilson and gaining 10+ with the Ping.

 

Also, I changed my swing with the Ping.  The Cally has to be swung with the very controlled upright and compact backswing or I lose it.   The g30 has a rather flat face, not much bulge and roll by my eye and it needs to be aligned at address with careful attention to the openness or closure of the face.  But if you start it square you can REALLY go at it.  The head is so forgiving that it hides your sins.   If haven't squared the face, I get a low hook.  But if I get it set up and take a big swipe, oh baby, it flies!

 

The G30 also has lower spin than the Cally and usually I find that I don't have quite enough swing speed to benefit from the really low spin drivers.  The Big Bertha Alpha was a turd in my hands, the i25 ditto, the SLDR would only marginally perform for me.   (This is with my controlled SS of like 105.)   But if I push myself to say 110 things change, a new gear is reached and somehow these lower spinning shots get airborne and they get big roll out.  

 

The drawback is, I can't take big 110 mph cuts at drivers like the BBA, i25 or SLDR!   They don't give me enough forgiveness to keep things in play, their misses are too punitive and so I slow down to control things and can't get airborne. But with a big swing the G30 seems to hide my defects with its high MOI and allows me to find that extra gear I couldn't find before. 

 

The coup de grace came into the breeze and the setting sun on the 18th hole, a par 5 with OB all the way down the right.  I hit a very good Opti that was straight into the wind and found the power alley.  Not too high and the wind didn't hurt it much.  The next G30 drive I lost in the sun.  I never saw it and thought I push-sliced it OB.   Got up to the Opti's drive in the fairway about 275 and there was the G30 in the fairway about 5 yards farther along.   Couldn't believe it came back (or rather, that it never got away).

 

Anyway, I several more rounds of confirmation before I'm sure.  But I shot a 69 today and hit 3/4 par 5's in two, so the theory and execution matched up for one day at least.

[Salmon]

Ball change aside, that's where I find it really interesing when your body learns how to hit a club optimally over a period of time, and may even perform better for you than a club that is technically plain better for you.

 

And that's not me saying that is is better for you, just an observation I have seen about my own driver as well

[markb]

Ball change aside, that's where I find it really interesing when your body learns how to hit a club optimally over a period of time, and may even perform better for you than a club that is technically plain better for you.

 

And that's not me saying that is is better for you, just an observation I have seen about my own driver as well

 

I agree with what you are saying and it's one of the reasons why I think you can't really make an informed decision based on a few brief launch monitor sessions.   My body has learned over a long time the subtle ways I have to control my swing with the Opti to maximize its performance.  Likewise, my body is only just beginning to learn the subtle shifts that work better with the G30.   It's not the same swing with both clubs and it's a little tricky to pull off swing A with the first ball on each tee, then switch to swing B with the second.

 

We'd all like more MPH on our swings, if we could get it reliably and with control.  That's the hard part.   I'm likening this extra "gear" with the lower spinning G30 to what the bigger hitters find with say a 2 iron.  For most of us, 2 irons are just a fantasy club that goes nowhere so we can't bag it.  We don't have the SS to get it up and make it go.  The higher SS guys have no problem hitting them high and far

[markb]

I played another 18 with the G30 and the Opti side by side and this time the results were exactly the opposite from last time! The Opti destroyed the G30 in both distance and accuracy. I could not find the G30's top gear this time and I made many bad swings with it, some of which the club's super high MOI saved from disastrous to pretty good, some of which stayed bad.  But in those cases where I hit both clubs well, the Opti was a solid 10-15 yards further.    Five were in the 295 - 320 range.

 

So now I'm split. I'm not selling either yet and must continue testing.   I know the swing that will produce great results with the Opti, but I can't always replicate it. Meanwhile, I don't really know the swing that will maximize the Ping yet.  On occasion I see brilliance and miraculous saves,   other times I just see odd shots that go about 280.

[SeeRed]

This thread just demonstrates how difficult the game is generally...when played by humans. I mean, you're a 2 hcp and are seeing different enough results with just one club. It also demonstrates the importance of club testing with actual golfers, as opposed to machines. Bit of a thread diversion with that last point, sorry. The topic has been beaten to death on this site and yet still surfaces with frustrating frequency.

 

All of that aside, it has been an interesting read and I am enjoying following the review. It has given me something to think about with regards to patience and figuring out how best to hit my own clubs. And made me think I would certainly like one of my "odd shots" to travel 280 yards.

[markb]

This thread just demonstrates how difficult the game is generally...when played by humans. I mean, you're a 2 hcp and are seeing different enough results with just one club. It also demonstrates the importance of club testing with actual golfers, as opposed to machines. Bit of a thread diversion with that last point, sorry. The topic has been beaten to death on this site and yet still surfaces with frustrating frequency.

 

All of that aside, it has been an interesting read and I am enjoying following the review. It has given me something to think about with regards to patience and figuring out how best to hit my own clubs. And made me think I would certainly like one of my "odd shots" to travel 280 yards.

 

Well, I am at 4500 feet in elevation, so there's that.

 

But I'm not joking or exaggerating about the Ping's mysterious ability to correct truly awful shots.   That oddball "fixed" shot I mentioned was one of about six I've seen so far. It was a low toey thing that started to hook, never got more than 15 feet off the ground, and somehow started to corkscrew back to the right just as it flew over the left rough.   It hit in the short stuff and skidded to a stop in the dead middle of the fairway after skipping like a stone.  All in all, I shoulda been happy with it, but the Opti drive on the same hole landed forty yards beyond where this one stopped.

 

I hit another into the sun that felt like a bad pop-up.   Nope, it ended up just fine.    These mysterious corrections are the only thing keeping the G30 in the game.   But if I ever find the Ping's groove and can deliver a repeatable swipe with it, watch out!

 

I'll also confess that most of the drivers I test go about the same distance.  A decent swing gets them to 280.  It's very hard for me to coax more than that with most drivers, but only occasionally are they noticeably shorter than that.  The 913D2 was a shortie but a straightie, as I recall.   So for most, it becomes a game of how erratic will this 280 shot be.

[markb]

Well, I'm done with my G30 testing.  It's not staying in my bag.  The Optiforce 440 remains my reigning champion.    I played two more rounds with the Opti and G30 head to head and the Opti won both times.   The Opti is just longer.

 

I hit some good straight shots with the G30 and I hit some bad shots that the G30 corrected.   But if I caught the Opti flush, the G30 just could not beat it, no matter how well or hard I hit it.   I might get even or 5 yards behind, but not past.   I hit lots of drives with the G30 that were just safe and mediocre.

 

In 5 rounds of testing and a half dozen range sessions, I crushed the G30 great for about 5 straight holes one round only ....  and I could never find its groove again.   I may not hit the Opti great every time, but when I miss it, I know it's my fault.   So off the G30 goes to Ebay and I'll start looking for a cheap BB V series as my next test candidate.

 

I will say this, the G30 is probably the best 2014 driver I've tried so far.   Much better than either the BB or BBA, the i25, the Adams, the SLDR 12, and the Bio Cell.  Perhaps a shade better than the Jetspeed, which was easier to hit and about as forgiving.  

[DavidVsqz90]

Awesome read. May have to upgrade soon #playyourbest

[DavidVsqz90]

The Ping factory is right in my backyard and I am sad that we are moving away from it. I really respect the peeps at Ping and use mostly Ping clubs except for my 5 wood. which will soon be replaced when I get my new set.

 

#playyourbest