Ping G425 Max - Loft/Lie Adjustments

[Delhump22]

I just finished a driver fitting, and was fit into the Ping G425 Max with the 9 degree head. I love it so far, and hit it well during the fitting, but think the driver I ended up purchasing may not be set correctly in terms of the adjustable hosel. 

My miss is a wicked slice. During the fitting, the fitter adjusted the 9 degree head to play like a 10.5 degree driver, and this definitely straightened out my ball flight. I didn't get a chance to check the hosel to see which setting it was left on. When I checked out, the fitter brought out a new driver and set it to my specs. However when I brought it home, I noticed it seems to sit more open at address, and is set in the "small minus" position. 

This is my first driver with and adjustable hosel, and I'm confused: wouldn't a "minus" setting be reducing loft, setting the driver down to either 8 or 7.5 degrees? If I slice the ball, wouldn't this be opening the face more, and increasing my chances of slicing the ball?

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I'm fairly new to this whole new tech era of golf, despite being only 32, as I've always played older hand-me-down clubs. 

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!!

[GolfSpy SAM]

Hello and welcome!!

  I think you may be right - based on what I can find with a quick Google search, "small minus" would be 1° less loft, so turning your 9° to 8°. You want to switch that to the Big + setting, which is 1.5° more loft than standard (10.5° total). 

 That's a fairly odd thing, but I guess it can happen. I'm not familiar with Ping hosels - maybe it's easy to choose the wrong setting? 

If it came with an adjustment wrench, you can probably fix yourself without too much trouble. If it didn't, I'd definitely Go back to the fitter and ask him/them to fix it for you. 

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

[Delhump22]

9 hours ago, GolfSpy_SAM said:

Hello and welcome!!

  I think you may be right - based on what I can find with a quick Google search, "small minus" would be 1° less loft, so turning your 9° to 8°. You want to switch that to the Big + setting, which is 1.5° more loft than standard (10.5° total). 

 That's a fairly odd thing, but I guess it can happen. I'm not familiar with Ping hosels - maybe it's easy to choose the wrong setting? 

If it came with an adjustment wrench, you can probably fix yourself without too much trouble. If it didn't, I'd definitely Go back to the fitter and ask him/them to fix it for you. 

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

Thanks a ton!! I have a wrench, so I went ahead and made the adjustment. Any idea what those F (I assume for "flat") adjustments would do? Any idea if they work for a slice? Also, what do you charge for this online club fitting advice?!

[RickyBobby_PR]

2 minutes ago, Delhump22 said:

Thanks a ton!! I have a wrench, so I went ahead and made the adjustment. Any idea what those F (I assume for "flat") adjustments would do? Any idea if they work for a slice? Also, what do you charge for this online club fitting advice?!

The F is for lie angle to make it flatter. All you need to do it look at Ping’s website and they have the setting for each marking on the adapter. No need to guess it’s all there if you look for it

[GolfSpy SAM]

3 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

The F is for lie angle to make it flatter. All you need to do it look at Ping’s website and they have the setting for each marking on the adapter. No need to guess it’s all there if you look for it

This^^^.  And honestly, @RickyBobby_PR can answer this better than I can, but I'm pretty sure that a flatter setting would make you more prone to a slice (depending on your delivery) as it would open the face more, whereas a more upright setting would close the face more.  As for what I charge, you can just venmo me at @ThisIsNotARealVenmoAccountDon'tSendMoney whatever you deem fair, lol. 

[Delhump22]

Thanks for all the help!

[RickyBobby_PR]

1 minute ago, GolfSpy_SAM said:

This^^^.  And honestly, @RickyBobby_PR can answer this better than I can, but I'm pretty sure that a flatter setting would make you more prone to a slice (depending on your delivery) as it would open the face more, whereas a more upright setting would close the face more.  As for what I charge, you can just venmo me at @ThisIsNotARealVenmoAccountDon'tSendMoney whatever you deem fair, lol. 

That is possible, really tho like most things in golf it’s really golfer dependent and how that type of change affects them visually and how that relate to what they do with their swing as a compensation.

I had a titleist fitting several years back for the 917 driver. After we finished the fitter asked if I was up to hitting some more balls since I was the last appointment and he had some time. He wanted to do some experimenting so he took the setup we found and made hosel adjustment but didn’t tell me what as to not influence my approach. I forget the setting he put it on but ot didn’t really change anything in my swing but we saw a different ball flight that neither of us liked. Then he made another adjustment, it was visually something I didn’t like and this time even without me feeling like I changed anything he told me after i hit a shot you changed your swing to try and get the club back to where you needed it to try and hit your shot.

[GolfSpy SAM]

11 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

That is possible, really tho like most things in golf it’s really golfer dependent and how that type of change affects them visually and how that relate to what they do with their swing as a compensation.

I had a titleist fitting several years back for the 917 driver. After we finished the fitter asked if I was up to hitting some more balls since I was the last appointment and he had some time. He wanted to do some experimenting so he took the setup we found and made hosel adjustment but didn’t tell me what as to not influence my approach. I forget the setting he put it on but ot didn’t really change anything in my swing but we saw a different ball flight that neither of us liked. Then he made another adjustment, it was visually something I didn’t like and this time even without me feeling like I changed anything he told me after i hit a shot you changed your swing to try and get the club back to where you needed it to try and hit your shot.

Isn't that amazing? Your brain fixed the issue even if you couldn't figure out exactly what it was.  I've got a fitting tomorrow that's really just for the experience (as much as I'd like new clubs, it's not in the budget just yet), and this is exactly the kind of stuff I'm intrigued by.  I know what my settings WERE 3 years ago the last time I had a fitting, but I've improved significantly since then, including having gotten some excellent lessons over the last year - excited to see if anything's changed, in the way I deliver the clubs, but also excited to see exactly where I'm at.  

[RickyBobby_PR]

20 minutes ago, GolfSpy_SAM said:

Isn't that amazing? Your brain fixed the issue even if you couldn't figure out exactly what it was.  I've got a fitting tomorrow that's really just for the experience (as much as I'd like new clubs, it's not in the budget just yet), and this is exactly the kind of stuff I'm intrigued by.  I know what my settings WERE 3 years ago the last time I had a fitting, but I've improved significantly since then, including having gotten some excellent lessons over the last year - excited to see if anything's changed, in the way I deliver the clubs, but also excited to see exactly where I'm at.  

The mind is a very interesting thing and how we see things and react to them is intriguing. Same with how we feel things like weight and balance of a club and some are more perceptive to it and affected by it than others.

I’ll be curious to see what happens in your fitting. My shafts in all clubs remain the same after a decade df swing improvements and going from a high to low handicap. My lie angles haven’t changed either.

[G56788]

I got fitted for a G425 LST recently. Here’s a picture of the hosel settings guide that came with my wrench. I’m pretty sure the LST and Max have the same hosel. I hope this helps!

[Dweed]

On 1/19/2023 at 1:12 AM, Delhump22 said:

I just finished a driver fitting, and was fit into the Ping G425 Max with the 9 degree head. I love it so far, and hit it well during the fitting, but think the driver I ended up purchasing may not be set correctly in terms of the adjustable hosel. 

\

Why not take it back to the place you purchased it from? Won't they help?

[Delhump22]

Thanks everyone! I actually ended up going back to the store and mentioned this to another fitter there. I brought the driver with me and showed them how it had been set when I left. The other fitter actually had me hit some balls, and after about 3 shots he was like, "oh yeah that's not what you need". He actually also tried a couple of different shafts at that point, along with setting the club to a draw setting, and we found one we liked that completely changed my ball flights and had me hitting about a 10 yard dispersion after about 9 shots. I was impressed. He let me also hit a few different drivers just to make sure the Ping was right for me.

I was a bit disappointed with the initial fitting. Out of 6 different drivers that were brought over for me to hit, I only got to hit 2 of them, despite asking to hit some of the other ones as well. The fitter said that I could try them, but you're not going to get a better result from any of the others I've brought over. They may have brought over some low spin versions, or other drivers with less forgiveness, so the fitter may have known that they wouldn't be good for my swing. But still, it felt a little strange to be told I couldn't try a different club at a club fitting. 

The second fitting was much better, lasted about twice as long, and was free of charge (less the cost of the shaft I bought), and I got to hit other clubs. I'm happy I went back, as I had a good experience during my iron fitting, and would've been disappointed if the first driver fitting had soured my experience.

Anyway, played with the new driver this past weekend. I typically maybe hit 2 or 3 fairways, and shoot in the low-mid-90s. This time I hit way more fairways, I think 10 in total, AND nearly drove the green on a short par 4. Ended up shooting an 86, which I was pretty proud of! Still had a few mistakes in there so there's definitely still lots of room for improvement, but I was happy with the result.

Thanks everyone for all the help!

[Kitsu]

@Delhump22 Where did you go to get fit for your driver from? I did the tour van fitting at PGATSS and had a similar experience with your first fitting, when getting my 425 Max. Not saying that it was a bad fit, he was actually very helpful. I told him that I was interested in the Max or TSi2 at that time, with stock shaft offerings.  I hit the TSi2 maybe 3-5 times and he said the spin was way too high, and that I was a Ping guy. The rest of the fitting was trying different stock shafts. Ended up with the Ping Tour 65 stiff. Coming from a $150 box set driver, this was my first real golf purchase. After watching millions of TXG videos, I must admit, that I was a little underwhelmed. But ultimately was happy with my purchase.

I think being so new, and not being able to hit my old flimsy box set driver, I wasn't able to give him a whole lot of feedback, since I really didn't know what I was looking for. He had me in set up in the Flat setting with a Fade bias, as I was fighting a diving duck hook during the fitting. I have since then turned that hook into a slice, so I moved everything to the stock neutral setting. Now I'm curious if I should schedule an appointment to get refit into my driver, for the correct settings. 

[MWLEFTY]

My experience with Ping clubs is that the best folks to fit them are Ping employees. I've experienced the good, bad and ugly with Ping over the years, but the good is so good and has always been with a direct Ping employee. These guys who arrive with the truck filled with literally everything are essential when you're left-handed like I am. Almost no store has every head available in left handed and even fewer have shafts with lefty hosels. I know righty hosels just work in reverse, but it's much easier to understand what's going on with appropriate equipment. A good example of this is a hybrid I was fit for a few years ago. It was a 5 hybrid with a 2 hybrid shaft. It got the launch/spin where I wanted, the ball flight I wanted, and the yardage I wanted. The week before, a regular pro at a regular golf course, told me to buy a 4 hybrid and a shaft I couldn't keep on the planet because it was too soft/high launching. If in doubt - always check with another fitter. Nice to hear you managed to get your driver set up correctly and it's having a positive impact on your game. 

[RickyBobby_PR]

2 hours ago, MWLEFTY said:

My experience with Ping clubs is that the best folks to fit them are Ping employees. I've experienced the good, bad and ugly with Ping over the years, but the good is so good and has always been with a direct Ping employee. These guys who arrive with the truck filled with literally everything are essential when you're left-handed like I am. Almost no store has every head available in left handed and even fewer have shafts with lefty hosels. I know righty hosels just work in reverse, but it's much easier to understand what's going on with appropriate equipment. A good example of this is a hybrid I was fit for a few years ago. It was a 5 hybrid with a 2 hybrid shaft. It got the launch/spin where I wanted, the ball flight I wanted, and the yardage I wanted. The week before, a regular pro at a regular golf course, told me to buy a 4 hybrid and a shaft I couldn't keep on the planet because it was too soft/high launching. If in doubt - always check with another fitter. Nice to hear you managed to get your driver set up correctly and it's having a positive impact on your game. 

My experience with these individuals has been hit or miss. The last fitting I did the two guys were no different than demo day techs. The guys the year before were really good.