PING s159 Wedges: 2024 Forum Member Review

[bens197]

2 hours ago, russtopherb said:

I don't think I could have gotten that wedge (or any other wedge for that matter) to check up like that. Well done.

Thanks Russ…not sure if the video accurately shows the reaction but I definitely did a “wait…what…”

[johngschulz]

PING s159 Trackman Numbers

Hey there spies!

On Tuesday I went to my session for a club tuneup with Jordan. He's a club fitter I met at the Family Golf and Learning Center in the Greater St. Louis area during my Winter Sim League. The purpose of the "tuneup" was to check the loft and lies of clubs, look at my gapping, and see if there were any adjustments needed to the bag or clubs. I was surprised to find out that all of my irons were essentially lofted 2* weaker than I thought they were! 
Before we get into the results a caveat, I've been recovering from a bit of a cold, so I felt like my speed was a little low going into it, especially on the tail end after hitting a bunch of shots. The numbers still look good to me though!

Along with the rest of my bag, I brought in the PING S159s to take a closer  look at the numbers...

Dispersion:
Let's start with the dispersion. The 58* was at the bottom of the bag and was the first club I hit after warming up with my 7 iron and it shows. The two most solid strikes we most definitely an over the top pull where I still managed to find the center of the face. which is fairly common miss. I rarely use the 58* for full swings so this wasn't particularly concerning especially starting this process at the bottom of the bag As you can see the 54* and 50* overlap nicely with eachother otherwise, and without the pull the 58* distance should be relatively close:

 

Trajectory:
Next up is the trajectories. Across the board my full swing wedge shots maintained a fairly nice peak height. I was clearly struggling a bit with the 58* to kick things off, and I have a feeling that the low bounce of the T-6 option probably wasn't helping me in that respect and the ball flight was a bit lower compared to the 54* and 50*. That said, with my normal swing I'm staying pretty consistent and not seeing any sort of ballooning* (indoors on trackman no wind). Overall very happy with how the ball is flighting with these wedges, averaging a bit under 70ft!

Average Peak heights:
58* - 49ft
54* - 69ft
50* - 68ft

 

PING S159 vs Maltby (gamers)

At the end of the session I was pretty beat, but convinced my fitter, Jordan, to help me get some quick numbers comparing my current gamer of the Maltby wedge vs the S159 on the 54* and convinced myself to keep going and do it for the greater good of the MGS forum.

I really wanted to see and compare the spin numbers... but across the board everything ended up being closer than expected! Of note, I did hit the Maltby's with a consistently lower launch angle and height with a steeper angle of attack. Because if these factors I think I was getting a bit more spin than I was expecting out of them on the full shots. I also had a faster club speed with the PINGs, I think this is do to the PINGs having a bit longer shaft and slightly lighter weight. I don't have spin numbers on the chips I've practiced with, but I definitely do feel like I am getting more spin on the shorter shots consistently with the PINGS. Ultimately the spin I got between the two was pretty similar, but I found the dispersion a bit closer to my preference for the PINGs (not sure how the extra shot got in there haha).
54* Spin Average:
Maltby - 10323
S159 - 10268

Summary:
Ultimately on the full swing from the Trackman numbers, I am seeing the PING S159 wedges hit the numbers I would expect at this point in my game.
The spin is good.
The trajectory has a nice low flight for wedges.
It gaps nicely with my current set.
Even with my toey tendency with them, I am seeing a tighter dispersion compared to my current gamers.
 

 

And now, for the rest of the Numbers:

 

Edited May 9 by johngschulz

[bens197]

30 minutes ago, johngschulz said:

PING s159 Trackman Numbers

Hey there spies!

On Tuesday I went to my session for a club tuneup with Jordan. He's a club fitter I met at the Family Golf and Learning Center in the Greater St. Louis area during my Winter Sim League. The purpose of the "tuneup" was to check the loft and lies of clubs, look at my gapping, and see if there were any adjustments needed to the bag or clubs. I was surprised to find out that all of my irons were essentially lofted 2* weaker than I thought they were! 
Before we get into the results a caveat, I've been recovering from a bit of a cold, so I felt like my speed was a little low going into it, especially on the tail end after hitting a bunch of shots. The numbers still look good to me though!

Along with the rest of my bag, I brought in the PING S159s to take a closer  look at the numbers...

Dispersion:
Let's start with the dispersion. The 58* was at the bottom of the bag and was the first club I hit after warming up with my 7 iron and it shows. The two most solid strikes we most definitely an over the top pull where I still managed to find the center of the face. which is fairly common miss. I rarely use the 58* for full swings so this wasn't particularly concerning especially starting this process at the bottom of the bag As you can see the 54* and 50* overlap nicely with eachother otherwise, and without the pull the 58* distance should be relatively close:

 

Trajectory:
Next up is the trajectories. Across the board my full swing wedge shots maintained a fairly nice peak height. I was clearly struggling a bit with the 58* to kick things off, and I have a feeling that the low bounce of the T-6 option probably wasn't helping me in that respect and the ball flight was a bit lower compared to the 54* and 50*. That said, with my normal swing I'm staying pretty consistent and not seeing any sort of ballooning* (indoors on trackman no wind). Overall very happy with how the ball is flighting with these wedges, averaging a bit under 70ft!

Average Peak heights:
58* - 49ft
54* - 69ft
50* - 68ft

 

PING S159 vs Maltby (gamers)

At the end of the session I was pretty beat, but convinced my fitter, Jordan, to help me get some quick numbers comparing my current gamer of the Maltby wedge vs the S159 on the 54* and convinced myself to keep going and do it for the greater good of the MGS forum.

I really wanted to see and compare the spin numbers... but across the board everything ended up being closer than expected! Of note, I did hit the Maltby's with a consistently lower launch angle and height with a steeper angle of attack. Because if these factors I think I was getting a bit more spin than I was expecting out of them on the full shots. I also had a faster club speed with the PINGs, I think this is do to the PINGs having a bit longer shaft and slightly lighter weight. I don't have spin numbers on the chips I've practiced with, but I definitely do feel like I am getting more spin on the shorter shots consistently with the PINGS. Ultimately the spin I got between the two was pretty similar, but I found the dispersion a bit closer to my preference for the PINGs (not sure how the extra shot got in there haha).
54* Spin Average:
Maltby - 10323
S159 - 10268

Summary:
Ultimately on the full swing from the Trackman numbers, I am seeing the PING S159 wedges hit the numbers I would expect at this point in my game.
The spin is good.
The trajectory has a nice low flight for wedges.
It gaps nicely with my current set.
Even with my toey tendency with them, I am seeing a tighter dispersion compared to my current gamers.
 

 

And now, for the rest of the Numbers:

 

Great stuff here…and I love how you point out your tendency to hit off the toe which supports the added forgiveness.  

[bens197]

For those of you following along, my final review is posted on page 1.  Thanks for your questions and comments along the way.

Big thanks to the MGS Admin & Mod staff for allowing me the privilege to test and finally, thank you PING for this wonderful opportunity.  

I hope to “Play your (my) best.”

Edited May 9 by bens197

[Rearviewmirror]

15 minutes ago, bens197 said:

For those of you following along, my final review is posted on page 1.  Thanks for your questions and comments along the way.

Big thanks to the MGS Admin & Mod staff for allowing me the privilege to test and finally, thank you PING for this wonderful opportunity.  

You’ve given me the wonderful opportunity to “Play your (my) best.”

Did you rely solely on the Webfit, or do any in person fitting? I'm trying to find someone to do an on-grass fitting and it's proving surprisingly hard to find a Ping fitter who has all the grinds and will also be able to let me hit off of both grass and out of bunkers around the green...

[bens197]

7 minutes ago, Rearviewmirror said:

Did you rely solely on the Webfit, or do any in person fitting? I'm trying to find someone to do an on-grass fitting and it's proving surprisingly hard to find a Ping fitter who has all the grinds and will also be able to let me hit off of both grass and out of bunkers around the green...

Partial web fit. 
 

I was suggested to go 50 S, 56 @ 55 S and 60 T

I selected 50S 54 @ 55 H and 58 @ 59 T

So all said I was close to the recommended with the SW being the only I did not follow.  I’m happy with what I chose and know that after some time, I’ll get better with the SW and that bounce.

As far as the grass option, more than likely your best bet would be a fitting day at a private CC. You could call the pro and ask nicely if that’s an option. Or call PING directly for guidance. 

[johngschulz]

8 hours ago, bens197 said:

Great stuff here…and I love how you point out your tendency to hit off the toe which supports the added forgiveness.  

Here’s something interesting the fitter pointed out… From what he’s seen, a reason for that toey tendency, in particular off of mats, is that the bounce on my Maltby’s are closer to 8-10* vs. 12* on the PINGs on the 54* and 50* wedges. He seemed to think the added bounce accentuated that tendency a bit. That said, I did still see a bit of toey tendency on the course too. Regardless, the forgiveness seems real, no matter what you chalk it up to.

Edited May 10 by johngschulz

[bens197]

7 hours ago, johngschulz said:

Here’s something the fitter pointed out from what he’s seen and a reason for that tendency particularly off of mats… The bounce on my Maltby’s are closer to 8-10*, vs 12* on the 54* and 50*. He seemed to think the added bounce was causing that tendency a bit… that said I did still see a bit of that tendency on the course too, so maybe a combination - but the forgiveness is real no matter what you chalk it up to.

It’s definitely a possibility. Whatever the cause, I like it. 

[johngschulz]

Last round before my final review

Last night I had my last round of my Spark golf league before my final review write up. I played really well despite having no grips on any of my clubs an hour before we teed off. I rippes off the old ones the night before and had to rush to blow them on with the air compressor and get to the course. This process included the PING S159 wedges - not to bury the lead but they’ll be sticking around.

With the new grips, the wedges just felt better in my hands. On the first hole I pitched my approach with the 54* to about 10 feet. On the second hole par 3 I essentially shanked my shot into the drop zone. I grabbed the 58* and hit a little spinner to 1 foot for my kick in par. I was driving the ball well, but all of my best shots came from the wedges. I had plenty of mis-hits with them, but nothing punishing. The forgiveness (there’s a trend here) is pretty surprising. 

Here’s a video of my last swing of the day after hitting a nice drive on a short dogleg left par 4. Using the 54* here, the 12* bounce really helped here on a tight uphill lie, with some residual wet earth from the storms.

These things really are pretty great especially with my new grips.

Video credit: @BChackes

Edited May 10 by johngschulz

[HikingMike]

On 5/9/2024 at 12:46 PM, johngschulz said:

PING s159 Trackman Numbers

Hey there spies!

On Tuesday I went to my session for a club tuneup with Jordan. He's a club fitter I met at the Family Golf and Learning Center in the Greater St. Louis area during my Winter Sim League. The purpose of the "tuneup" was to check the loft and lies of clubs, look at my gapping, and see if there were any adjustments needed to the bag or clubs. I was surprised to find out that all of my irons were essentially lofted 2* weaker than I thought they were! 
Before we get into the results a caveat, I've been recovering from a bit of a cold, so I felt like my speed was a little low going into it, especially on the tail end after hitting a bunch of shots. The numbers still look good to me though!

Along with the rest of my bag, I brought in the PING S159s to take a closer  look at the numbers...

Dispersion:
Let's start with the dispersion. The 58* was at the bottom of the bag and was the first club I hit after warming up with my 7 iron and it shows. The two most solid strikes we most definitely an over the top pull where I still managed to find the center of the face. which is fairly common miss. I rarely use the 58* for full swings so this wasn't particularly concerning especially starting this process at the bottom of the bag As you can see the 54* and 50* overlap nicely with eachother otherwise, and without the pull the 58* distance should be relatively close:

 

Trajectory:
Next up is the trajectories. Across the board my full swing wedge shots maintained a fairly nice peak height. I was clearly struggling a bit with the 58* to kick things off, and I have a feeling that the low bounce of the T-6 option probably wasn't helping me in that respect and the ball flight was a bit lower compared to the 54* and 50*. That said, with my normal swing I'm staying pretty consistent and not seeing any sort of ballooning* (indoors on trackman no wind). Overall very happy with how the ball is flighting with these wedges, averaging a bit under 70ft!

Average Peak heights:
58* - 49ft
54* - 69ft
50* - 68ft

 

PING S159 vs Maltby (gamers)

At the end of the session I was pretty beat, but convinced my fitter, Jordan, to help me get some quick numbers comparing my current gamer of the Maltby wedge vs the S159 on the 54* and convinced myself to keep going and do it for the greater good of the MGS forum.

I really wanted to see and compare the spin numbers... but across the board everything ended up being closer than expected! Of note, I did hit the Maltby's with a consistently lower launch angle and height with a steeper angle of attack. Because if these factors I think I was getting a bit more spin than I was expecting out of them on the full shots. I also had a faster club speed with the PINGs, I think this is do to the PINGs having a bit longer shaft and slightly lighter weight. I don't have spin numbers on the chips I've practiced with, but I definitely do feel like I am getting more spin on the shorter shots consistently with the PINGS. Ultimately the spin I got between the two was pretty similar, but I found the dispersion a bit closer to my preference for the PINGs (not sure how the extra shot got in there haha).
54* Spin Average:
Maltby - 10323
S159 - 10268

Summary:
Ultimately on the full swing from the Trackman numbers, I am seeing the PING S159 wedges hit the numbers I would expect at this point in my game.
The spin is good.
The trajectory has a nice low flight for wedges.
It gaps nicely with my current set.
Even with my toey tendency with them, I am seeing a tighter dispersion compared to my current gamers.
 

 

And now, for the rest of the Numbers:

 

That’s awesome. Great job getting this Trackman data with your new fitter guy!

In the Maltby vs Ping tables, did you notice the consistency numbers? At first I was looking at the spin and the Ping looked to have more consistency there, like 10k every shot, while the Maltby jumped around a bit. The consistency number at the bottom is smaller, and I think smaller indicates more consistent.
Then I noticed the Pings had better consistency on basically every number there! And this is despite your club speed being LESS consistent with the Ping shots. Haha. That’s nuts. Yeah they weren’t super far off or anything, but that seems significant. 

[bens197]

17 hours ago, johngschulz said:

Last round before my final review

Last night I had my last round of my Spark golf league before my final review write up. I played really well despite having no grips on any of my clubs an hour before we teed off. I rippes off the old ones the night before and had to rush to blow them on with the air compressor and get to the course. This process included the PING S159 wedges - not to bury the lead but they’ll be sticking around.

With the new grips, the wedges just felt better in my hands. On the first hole I pitched my approach with the 54* to about 10 feet. On the second hole par 3 I essentially shanked my shot into the drop zone. I grabbed the 58* and hit a little spinner to 1 foot for my kick in par. I was driving the ball well, but all of my best shots came from the wedges. I had plenty of mis-hits with them, but nothing punishing. The forgiveness (there’s a trend here) is pretty surprising. 

Here’s a video of my last swing of the day after hitting a nice drive on a short dogleg left par 4. Using the 54* here, the 12* bounce really helped here on a tight uphill lie, with some residual wet earth from the storms.

These things really are pretty great especially with my new grips.

Video credit: @BChackes

That sounded pure. Nice shot!

[johngschulz]

3 hours ago, HikingMike said:

That’s awesome. Great job getting this Trackman data with your new fitter guy!

In the Maltby vs Ping tables, did you notice the consistency numbers? At first I was looking at the spin and the Ping looked to have more consistency there, like 10k every shot, while the Maltby jumped around a bit. The consistency number at the bottom is smaller, and I think smaller indicates more consistent.
Then I noticed the Pings had better consistency on basically every number there! And this is despite your club speed being LESS consistent with the Ping shots. Haha. That’s nuts. Yeah they weren’t super far off or anything, but that seems significant. 

I wasn’t confident on exactly how those consistency numbers worked, so I didn’t comment directly on them. What you described was also my impression and I noticed that the PINGS seemed better lol.

Anywho, nice hat @HikingMike LGB!

[HikingMike]

6 hours ago, johngschulz said:

I wasn’t confident on exactly how those consistency numbers worked, so I didn’t comment directly on them. What you described was also my impression and I noticed that the PINGS seemed better lol.

Anywho, nice hat @HikingMike LGB!

Yeah buddy! LGB! Next year

I didn’t really know either. I was just eyeballing. But here we go, from the horse’s mouth-

So what exactly does the ‘Consistency’ number represent? It reflects the Standard Deviation of the collection of data within each parameter. The Standard Deviation is a measure of how spread out numbers are. The bigger the number, the wider the dispersion of the results.

https://blog.trackmangolf.com/how-to-utilize-the-consistency-number/#:~:text=So what exactly does the,the dispersion of the results.

[aguybadatgolf]

My final review is live on my main post! Thank you to everyone who has been following along and asking questions, please keep them coming . @bens197, @johngschulz, and @Leonvdwesthuizen it's been a pleasure being a tester with you all and reading your updates and reviews. 

[Leonvdwesthuizen]

Doing some Chipping excercises to make sure I understand how I get to spin the ball as much as I do, even with a steep swing, getting plenty of forgiveness..

Mind still blown by these wedges!

Very happy with the Pings thus far!

[Leonvdwesthuizen]

@aguybadatgolf, Thank you very much Chris, loving the write-up, it has been a pleasure!

 

[johngschulz]

To those following along my final review is also live. It shouldn’t come as a surprise but like the other two reviews so far from @aguybadatgolf and @bens197, I am really impressed with these wedges!

[aguybadatgolf]

@johngschulz great write up! I found it interesting that both you and @bens197 weren’t big fans of the Dylawedge grip. Was just the feel that you didn’t like?

[bens197]

29 minutes ago, aguybadatgolf said:

@johngschulz great write up! I found it interesting that both you and @bens197 weren’t big fans of the Dylawedge grip. Was just the feel that you didn’t like?

It’s the feel for me. More specifically the material. I gave it a dawn soap hot water bath and rinsed the way I clean my Lamkins and it didn’t offer much of a change. 
 

More preference on feel than anything else. Especially since I rarely prefer to wear a glove. I’ll go bare handed as often as possible until the humidity kicks up. 

[Rearviewmirror]

You guys are killing me with these reviews and videos Reaching out to Ping to try to find somewhere local where I can try the different grinds hitting them off grass and out of bunkers. I have enjoyed my Cleveland RTX wedges but I just don't see enough consistency from them in terms of direction and ground interaction. Hoping that upgrading to a 54º (and maaaaybe a 58º) S159 might be the ticket.

[johngschulz]

49 minutes ago, aguybadatgolf said:

@johngschulz great write up! I found it interesting that both you and @bens197 weren’t big fans of the Dylawedge grip. Was just the feel that you didn’t like?

It was definitely the feel. I *do* use a glove on about all of my full shots, and I just felt like I couldn’t hold the club well and had to grip the clubs tighter than my preference. When I put on new PURE Grips, I immediately felt more comfortable with wedges in hand.

[Leonvdwesthuizen]

24 minutes ago, Rearviewmirror said:

You guys are killing me with these reviews and videos Reaching out to Ping to try to find somewhere local where I can try the different grinds hitting them off grass and out of bunkers. I have enjoyed my Cleveland RTX wedges but I just don't see enough consistency from them in terms of direction and ground interaction. Hoping that upgrading to a 54º (and maaaaybe a 58º) S159 might be the ticket.

@Rearviewmirror, so have I, I must say.. My RTX's has been what gave me the confidence in my wedges again after many years of shying away from them as I was just so inconsistent.

But my goodness this test has been an eye opener and made me experience the forgiveness and spin I have been lacking!

Give them a bash..

[Rearviewmirror]

51 minutes ago, Leonvdwesthuizen said:

@Rearviewmirror, so have I, I must say.. My RTX's has been what gave me the confidence in my wedges again after many years of shying away from them as I was just so inconsistent.

But my goodness this test has been an eye opener and made me experience the forgiveness and spin I have been lacking!

Give them a bash..

I'm very excited to see your final review comparing them to the RTXs. I love the feel of the RTX but I feel like they can be a bit penal sometimes on full shots. 

[Leonvdwesthuizen]

1 hour ago, Rearviewmirror said:

I'm very excited to see your final review comparing them to the RTXs. I love the feel of the RTX but I feel like they can be a bit penal sometimes on full shots. 

@Rearviewmirror,I completely agree with you on the Clevelands' feel. My experience with them were very positive, but not forgiving.. but I'll touch a bit more on that on my final review.. which should be coming between Thursday and Sunday

Edited May 13 by Leonvdwesthuizen

[Leonvdwesthuizen]

Just me completing some commitments I made, from my last round played with the Ping S159's..

1st hole at Devonvale Golf Club, Stellenbosch.

 

Hopefully you can see the effect the wedges had.. just look at that placement..

This was my last round before doing my final review..

Enjoy!

[Leonvdwesthuizen]

Morning Spies!

Are there any other takers on my Easter Egg in one of my posts?

Hint... It is in the photo's..

[RohanVster]

1 minute ago, Leonvdwesthuizen said:

Morning Spies!

Are there any other takers on my Easter Egg in one of my posts?

Hint... It is in the photo's..

Favorite team is the Stormers, they are a rugby team in the Western Cape 

[bens197]

1 hour ago, Leonvdwesthuizen said:

Morning Spies!

Are there any other takers on my Easter Egg in one of my posts?

Hint... It is in the photo's..

I have to plead ignorance and say that I have no clue. 
 

On another note, the course pictures look great.  

[Leonvdwesthuizen]

@bens197, no problem man.. I was throwing a spanner in the works trying to do something.. at least I have 1 x taker, thanks @RohanVster.

Thank you for the compliment.. it is nearing winter time in South Africa, so most of our courses are dry atm, I just thought some of the guys would appreciate a good looking course after a dry sunny summer.

[RohanVster]

Yeah I must say @Leonvdwesthuizen the courses your side of the country are in excellent condition almost year round, up here in MP it's starting to become bone dry and super hard fairways