2020 Official Member Review: PING G710 Irons

[GolfSpy BOS]

5 minutes ago, sirchunksalot said:

All of you are doing a great job so far! I'm interested in seeing how the iron only round goes for you, they're challenging and fun at the same time. Also, since you'll be sweeping some dew it'll be interesting to hear how the hydropearl finish work for you in terms of both spin and ball flight. 

We’re going to probably the best course around for a iron only round too. It’s not overly long, so he should still have some short irons in, and then there’s a few where he’ll need a really good 4 iron to have another long iron approach.

should be some good fun. I’ll try to get some more videos for you guys to enjoy of @Lacassem blistering some golf balls. 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

1 minute ago, B.Boston said:

We’re going to probably the best course around for a iron only round too. It’s not overly long, so he should still have some short irons in, and then there’s a few where he’ll need a really good 4 iron to have another long iron approach.

should be some good fun. I’ll try to get some more videos for you guys to enjoy of @Lacassem blistering some golf balls. 

If anything my 4 irons my $ club lol. I’ll be happy to go 4 iron 4 iron on a par 5. If these suckers are flying at 230 a whack truly, we’ll find out Thursday.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

So anyone that follow my initial impression. One thing I noted was the post round buildup of debris on the sole of the numbers. The numbers look great but the brush wasn't getting the stuff out well. I took a toothpick to it today and got it out, cleaned up well. Only downside I can not see myself hitting every club post round and I am sure a bath would get it out...I don't know anyone that gives them a bath every round though (3-4 times a year for me). One negative I have found so far and only because I have OCD

Before:

After:

 

[GolfSpy BOS]

1 minute ago, Lacassem said:

So anyone that follow my initial impression. One thing I noted was the post round buildup of debris on the sole of the numbers. The numbers look great but the brush wasn't getting the stuff out well. I took a toothpick to it today and got it out, cleaned up well. Only downside I can not see myself hitting every club post round and I am sure a bath would get it out...I don't know anyone that gives them a bath every round though (3-4 times a year for me). One negative I have found so far and only because I have OCD

Before:

After:

 

Just in time to get them filthy with an early morning dew round!    Looks like the finish held up through some sandy fairway and tee shots last week. 

[Pinger_MV]

Congrats to you Testers!

Look forward to the results!

[kgv0622]

Other than the dirt build up in the numbers, it looks like you guys are seeing decent wear with the black finish on these after the first few rounds.  I was all set last year to grab a set of G700's, but saw a lot negative feedback on wear issues even after just a couple of rounds.  I love the look of these G710's, but frankly have not seen many irons with a black finish hold up well.  I'm hoping Ping has found the answer with these.

You guys are doing a great job on the reviews here.  I really appreciate the insight.  These are high on my radar this year.

A question for y'all.  I'm sure in might have been covered somewhere earlier, but did any of you get fitted for the Power Spec lofts on these.  I'm an old coot and need extra help with distance, but have no trouble getting the ball in the air--in fact hit my irons very high.  I find that with senior flex shafts it accentuates that, and am thinking the stronger lofts might mitigate it a bit.  I couldn't test out that theory when I was demoing the G700 last year because no store I could find had a Power Spec head for me to demo.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

5 hours ago, kgv0622 said:

Other than the dirt build up in the numbers, it looks like you guys are seeing decent wear with the black finish on these after the first few rounds.  I was all set last year to grab a set of G700's, but saw a lot negative feedback on wear issues even after just a couple of rounds.  I love the look of these G710's, but frankly have not seen many irons with a black finish hold up well.  I'm hoping Ping has found the answer with these.

You guys are doing a great job on the reviews here.  I really appreciate the insight.  These are high on my radar this year.

A question for y'all.  I'm sure in might have been covered somewhere earlier, but did any of you get fitted for the Power Spec lofts on these.  I'm an old coot and need extra help with distance, but have no trouble getting the ball in the air--in fact hit my irons very high.  I find that with senior flex shafts it accentuates that, and am thinking the stronger lofts might mitigate it a bit.  I couldn't test out that theory when I was demoing the G700 last year because no store I could find had a Power Spec head for me to demo.

Not for me, plenty of distance don’t need the added distance. The round I have played (more to come tomorrow after my round) had plenty of spring off the club face with good distance.

[joen]

On 5/26/2020 at 11:09 AM, Berg Ryman said:

Ok, so I've played 36 holes over the past 72 hours with these irons and have some opinions, some ok, some that raise a slight red flag. Scoring wise I didn't really keep a running score, only kept notes of good swings, save for starting with a birdie on the first hole of the season for the third straight year.

The Positives

- I love the sound of these irons, as it's been said in this thread so far it has a distinct feel, almost like a crack and that's pretty true to form. They feel solid and sound solid, regardless of where you strike the ball, and that's something I can get behind.

- The finish is holding up pretty damn well, and given where I was hitting some shots that's an impressive feat. The club frames the ball well, especially the famous white line-up line on the bottom of the clubs

- My my Modus, what a nice feeling shaft. It really feels like I can be more aggressive on swings with it and it makes the irons feel wonderfully balanced and swingable.

The Negatives

- Distance so far has been lacking. Part of me wonders if this is because my swing is still in early days, but yesterday shots were coming up 5+ yards short of what I would have expected. I will put some blame of this on me because my swing is a bit of a shambles right now, but I will keep checking these numbers, especially when I get Arccos up an running on these bad boys.

- I know many of you see SGI irons as irons with training wheels, but let's be real, a bad swing = a bad result. I've adjusted to the wedges length and the short irons as well, but the longer irons will decidedly take time. I haven't struck a good 4 iron yet in multiple attempts and 5 iron is a rare beast at this point in time as well.

What Comes Next

Well, what comes next is some range sessions this week/weekend leading to one of the more interesting decisions I've made in a while. I signed up just under the wire to compete in the Local Newspaper Amateur qualifying tournament in 6 days. Yep, you read that right, a guy with a swing that isn't ideal with a bag he's pretty much played only 2 rounds with is gonna try and make the cut in a local amateur tournament after not playing in one for nearly... 8 years? What's the worst that can happen?

Nice write up!

 

Are you playing at Cazenovia Country Club or Timber Banks for the qualifier?  I played a practice round at Timber Banks the other day...it is in the best shape that I have ever seen it. Greens were fast AND rolling true. Good luck to you in your quest!

[Berg Ryman]

1 hour ago, joen said:

Nice write up!

 

Are you playing at Cazenovia Country Club or Timber Banks for the qualifier?  I played a practice round at Timber Banks the other day...it is in the best shape that I have ever seen it. Greens were fast AND rolling true. Good luck to you in your quest!

I'm at Timber Banks. I wanted to play Caz but they were on the waiting list. Good to know on the greens. Luckily I'm rolling it pretty ok right now so maybe I can steal a few strokes on the greens.

[JonMUSC08]

19 hours ago, kgv0622 said:

Other than the dirt build up in the numbers, it looks like you guys are seeing decent wear with the black finish on these after the first few rounds.  I was all set last year to grab a set of G700's, but saw a lot negative feedback on wear issues even after just a couple of rounds.  I love the look of these G710's, but frankly have not seen many irons with a black finish hold up well.  I'm hoping Ping has found the answer with these.

You guys are doing a great job on the reviews here.  I really appreciate the insight.  These are high on my radar this year.

A question for y'all.  I'm sure in might have been covered somewhere earlier, but did any of you get fitted for the Power Spec lofts on these.  I'm an old coot and need extra help with distance, but have no trouble getting the ball in the air--in fact hit my irons very high.  I find that with senior flex shafts it accentuates that, and am thinking the stronger lofts might mitigate it a bit.  I couldn't test out that theory when I was demoing the G700 last year because no store I could find had a Power Spec head for me to demo.

I did NOT do the power spec lofts. These lofts are already like 4-5deg stronger than my current gamers so i get like 1.5  more clubs out of them. I used to hit a 7-iron (33.75 deg) 155yds and now i hit the new G710 7-iron (29.5deg) a good 170 yds. A lot will depend on what gamers you are coming from. I'm a very strong advocate of getting fitted so changing your shaft might help you as well. The key is the trajectory and decent angles.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

Damn they look pretty don't they?

Had a good round today. As I said before was an IRON only day and if the 4 Iron is any tell on how this finish wears, signs all point to YES! Hit it on every hole except the Par 3's (sometimes twice per hole). Held up great no major signs of wear. Was wet so the dirt buildup was minimal if any and wiped right off.

The moisture definitely showed more today but DID NOT effect spin at all, had great bite on shots and was still able to go at flags. I think it has to do with the water does not stay in the grooves like a normal club:

As you can see here the grooves have barely any water build up

One thing I did notice was some marks on the 8 Iron (black stripe) not sure if its from rubbing the 7/9 iron in the bag? Not a lot of chatter and the other clubs are not doing it will keep an eye on this:

Lastly distance like I said is great and everything was right online, extremely straight ball flight which is different for me. Mishits were practically 0 factor. I was in almost no trouble, granted the course is more or less open but I was not off line with mishits by much.

Couple of shot traces (4 Iron has a classic response from me, I didn't swear either which is surprising...enjoy) That thing was pure and the feeling of these clubs are like nothing else, the compression feels FANTASTIC. That shot went about 210-220 with virtually no roll (wet conditions and caught the rough first). 2nd trace is a chip shot with the Utility/Gap wedge. I am liking these things around the green. The bite is great with a little roll and very easy to control. I am able to really get through the shot and have not chunked/skulled anything as of yet (jynxed myself here)

More to come, great things so far!

[kgv0622]

On 5/27/2020 at 6:11 PM, Lacassem said:

Not for me, plenty of distance don’t need the added distance. The round I have played (more to come tomorrow after my round) had plenty of spring off the club face with good distance.

Thanks for the feedback.  Great write-up today, man.  Loved the pics.  Happy to hear the early results you're seeing on finish durability.  We'll keep an eye on that.

[kgv0622]

10 hours ago, JonMUSC08 said:

I did NOT do the power spec lofts. These lofts are already like 4-5deg stronger than my current gamers so i get like 1.5  more clubs out of them. I used to hit a 7-iron (33.75 deg) 155yds and now i hit the new G710 7-iron (29.5deg) a good 170 yds. A lot will depend on what gamers you are coming from. I'm a very strong advocate of getting fitted so changing your shaft might help you as well. The key is the trajectory and decent angles.

You're  on point on getting fitted for these, and it is my plan.  I compared the regular lofts of the 710 with my current Cleveland gamers and my previous TaylorMade M2's.  The 710's are very close to the Clevelands (exact same on all but the 6-7-8 which are .5 stronger in the Pings).  The M2's are stronger than the regular 710 lofts, and the Power Spec lofts are about .5 stronger than the M2's across the set.    

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

Getting 2 9ers in Thursday/Friday before work (morning rounds again). Anything you guys want to see specifically. Really focusing on the wear aspect and moisture part of the club because I think that is their biggest selling point on top of the forgiveness/distant aspect.

Let me know will incorporate anything you folks want to see specifically.

[Berg Ryman]

Tomorrow is the tournament round for me in the morning. Gonna be interesting to see how I hold up in my first regional comp in nearly a decade and by proxy, how the irons can help me along.

Put two range sessions in the last 2 days, hit around 100 balls total with the irons. The swing thought I have is pretty simple right now. 

SEND IT

Full commitment on making these swings with speed and power instead of trying to get cutewith it. Live with the results of the full send whenever possible, your swing is decent and ingrained enough to be repeatable. 

Shota are currently flighing in a nice window with a slight fade the lower the lofts get, which is pretty much what I'd expect. I'm more in control of 5 iron, it's 4 that continues to baffle, slightly steering with a hook swing

In all, improvement, but anlong summer to go hopefully

[DarthGator007]

Those are some pretty irons. Excited to see how they perform for the chosen testers.


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[russtopherb]

On 5/31/2020 at 3:29 PM, Lacassem said:

Getting 2 9ers in Thursday/Friday before work (morning rounds again). Anything you guys want to see specifically. Really focusing on the wear aspect and moisture part of the club because I think that is their biggest selling point on top of the forgiveness/distant aspect.

Let me know will incorporate anything you folks want to see specifically.

How are they out of the rough? 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

3 minutes ago, russtopherb said:

How are they out of the rough? 

I touched on that a little in my first impression and for that my first thought was that “if there was any grab  I didn’t notice”. I am still in this camp today. For a large sole club they cut really well through the rough from what I have seen. 
hopefully I am not in the rough this week (a man can hope) but if/when I am (most likely the ladder) I will keep an eye and get some pictures of the rough with some video.

[GolfSpy BOS]

I touched on that a little in my first impression and for that my first thought was that “if there was any grab  I didn’t notice”. I am still in this camp today. For a large sole club they cut really well through the rough from what I have seen. 
hopefully I am not in the rough this week (a man can hope) but if/when I am (most likely the ladder) I will keep an eye and get some pictures of the rough with some video.

The rough at Highfields was pretty thick that day too. I’ll be happy to root for one of your tee shots to go into the rough “so I can get your recovery shot on video for the thread”


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[russtopherb]

13 minutes ago, Lacassem said:

I touched on that a little in my first impression and for that my first thought was that “if there was any grab  I didn’t notice”. I am still in this camp today. For a large sole club they cut really well through the rough from what I have seen. 
hopefully I am not in the rough this week (a man can hope) but if/when I am (most likely the ladder) I will keep an eye and get some pictures of the rough with some video.

Appreciate it. That's the thing with MGS review threads - they get so long and detailed you tend to forget or miss things from earlier on 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

8 minutes ago, russtopherb said:

Appreciate it. That's the thing with MGS review threads - they get so long and detailed you tend to forget or miss things from earlier on 

Ask away my friend! This is stuff I would forget to go over again so I am glad you asked!

[Berg Ryman]

So, I played in the tournament qualifier yesterday and well, let's not bury the lede, I played like trash. I shot 92, 52-40. The 52 on the front was tied for the worst score on the front side, the second nine was top third of the field. Cut score was 81 (+9), medalist was 69 (-3). So, what went wrong really on the front nine had nothing to do with the irons, it was a driver issue. I just didn't have it with the big stick yesterday and that hurt me on the way to 2 balls in lateral hazards and one ob. I did hit a wedge into the water but that was more an issue of a random gust from the gods that cost me, Tin Cup style.

Yesterday taught me a few things. One, with these irons I need to step on them to get the most out of them from a performance standpoint for me. I also need to take a look at hand position in the swing. From going to the old set-up of One Length where everything is consistent, maybe I need to go back to my older style of swinging irons that I had in high school where I would get my hands ahead of the ball as the clubs got higher in loft instead of keeping things static.

Another thing I learned, I sure can play with these long irons. I'd go as far as to say my 4 iron yesterday was a great club to have for bail out shots when I got myself in tough spots. But, I will take that positive with a negative. I'm struggling to get through the shot with these irons. What I mean by that as that I'm rarely taking a divot and that's not good. Sure, it's nice on the more sweep type clubs, but on shots where I should be taking a divot I'm just not getting down through the ball right now. Where this is playing to my advantage is on par 3's. I'm striking it clean of tees and hit some great shots yesterday on par 3s, including one to around 5 feet that I lipped hard on for what would have been the day's only birdie.

Last note, because it happened a bit yesterday, another comment on the finish. I know if you watched Rick Shiels' video on these he hit 10 shots out of a bunker with the 8 iron and then remarked on how the finish did or didn't hold up. Well, no duh. You hit any club out of the sand it's gonna take a touch of damage. I hit 3 or 4 shots out of fairway bunkers yesterday with the g710 and they took a small blight, but nothing I could say would be out of the ordinary. Sure, a bit more visible on a black face, but nothing I would say disqualifying.

Now, I know if you've read this far you're wondering... Berg, what about the data from Arccos, what about the pictures and videos and what not. Well, let's answer the second question first. Right now I have not seen my girlfriend in person since March 15, and for those of you who know my other reviews, Monica is the photo genius that makes me look good and solid. I will hopefully have those in hand for you by the time the final review is due on this, which is... JULY 19. 

But to answer your first question... a little box showed up today.

Looks like it's time to join the #datacratic revolution.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

Has an unplanned visit to the range today. They opened yesterday (thank you @GolfSpy Stroker for the heads up). Great range day and was able to work on some distances also have some comparison pictures with my new set.

First negative with these clubs today and @Berg Ryman already hit on it with his post today. Clubs are starting to show wear. Of note my 4 iron. Finish is getting scratched which on all clubs is totally normal but shows really bad on the black finish. Any pebble or slight hard service is dinging them up (see below the scrapes on the sole)

also to note my 8 irons flew the same distance roughly (160) with the 790s being slightly less height but a full degree of loft difference which speaks to the insert on the 790s (34 for the 710s and 35 for the 790s)
 

Lastly now that I can compare club size the 710s really see large and in charge:

[GolfSpy BOS]

Has an unplanned visit to the range today. They opened yesterday (thank you [mention=64519]GolfSpy Stroker[/mention] for the heads up). Great range day and was able to work on some distances also have some comparison pictures with my new set.
First negative with these clubs today and [mention=55883]Berg Ryman[/mention] already hit on it with his post today. Clubs are starting to show wear. Of note my 4 iron. Finish is getting scratched which on all clubs is totally normal but shows really bad on the black finish. Any pebble or slight hard service is dinging them up (see below the scrapes on the sole)

also to note my 8 irons flew the same distance roughly (160) with the 790s being slightly less height but a full degree of loft difference which speaks to the insert on the 790s (34 for the 710s and 35 for the 790s)
 
Lastly now that I can compare club size the 710s really see large and in charge:

That’s quite a difference in size! I wasn’t expecting that 710s to be that large in comparison, or maybe the 790s are smaller than I was expecting. Maybe a bit of both?

Did you notice any difference in left/right tendencies?


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[Berg Ryman]

Cool news from Arccos I got a couple of hours ago. They're extending our trial memberships with Arccos caddie so he get a whole year for free! Really awesome on their part.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

12 minutes ago, B.Boston said:

That’s quite a difference in size! I wasn’t expecting that 710s to be that large in comparison, or maybe the 790s are smaller than I was expecting. Maybe a bit of both?

Did you notice any difference in left/right tendencies?


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Tough to tell yet I only brought the 8iron on the 790s (they deserve to see grass first lol) and I hit 10 balls with it and had 0 mishits (totally jinxing myself here) and the ball was as straight of a flight path as the 710s and I am thinking the shaft has a lot to do with this and my swing work over the winter
 

 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

Officially Arccos has been set up. Got all the additional sensors for my clubs and had to order the superstroke adapter. But we are now good to go and should have some official yardage data soon

 

[bens197]

7 hours ago, Lacassem said:

Officially Arccos has been set up. Got all the additional sensors for my clubs and had to order the superstroke adapter. But we are now good to go and should have some official yardage data soon

 

Looks like someone in the background is also living their best life. 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

8 minutes ago, bens197 said:

Looks like someone in the background is also living their best life. 

The other one was in the AC upstairs, dogs are spoiled as hell

 

[Rickp]

Officially Arccos has been set up. Got all the additional sensors for my clubs and had to order the superstroke adapter. But we are now good to go and should have some official yardage data soon
 

Your Pups not particularly interested
Nice looking pup


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