PING G Series Driver Review vs. PING G30 - What's different?
by Donnie Baucom - AmateurGolf.com Equipment
Panel
Ping unveiled its new G driver earlier this year at the
Hyundai Tournament of Champions with the goal of
increased aerodynamic efficiency leading to greater
distance. The G has already been added to the bags
of
Ping Staffers Bubba Watson and David Lingmerth and
I
set out to see if it’s worth adding to yours as well. I
have laid out the visual and physical changes below,
along with the trackman results from testing the G
versus the G30.
The biggest change visually is at the top of the
driver.
Ping expanded the original turbulators and added a
crown design inspired by the wings of a dragonfly.
This inspiration is called Biomimicry, in which
innovation emulates the patterns of nature. The
dragonfly wing wasn’t solely for visual purposes,
however, as the new structure allowed them to
remove
eight grams from the crown of the club. This allowed
Ping to reposition the center of gravity lower and
further back in the driver which reduces spin and
increases forgiveness.
Ping also added Vortec technology which minimizes
the
turbulent wake behind the club during the
downswing
for faster club head speed with increased club head
stability. According to Ping, this coupled with the
crown
turbulators leads to 37% less drag through the
impact
zone for sizeable distance gains from all swing
speeds.
Let’s take a look at two sample results, one from
each
driver. For my tests I used the stock Tour 61g stiff
shaft for both drivers along with ProV1x golf balls
for
each shot. Each driver was set at 9 degrees with a
D1
swing weight.
|
Launch
monitor numbers for the PING G30
|
The G30 launched with 2300 rpm and went nearly
300
yards. 15 degree launch is a bit higher than my
average but 108 mph club speed and 158 mph ball
speed is pretty normal for what was slightly off
center
hit shown by a 1.47 smash factor.
|
Launch
monitor numbers for the PING G
|
Looking at the numbers from the G, you can see
right
away that my spin went down dramatically to under
2000 rpm. While a spin rate less than 2000 rpm
isn’t
recommended, it does show the effect of the lower
center of gravity.
I also noticed that with slightly less club head
speed
I
still managed to have a faster ball speed than the
G30
by just over three mph. This is likely due to the
thinner face and is a theme that was common to
my
peers who had also demoed the G. In fact, with
less
launch angle (13 degrees versus 15) I still carried
it
3
yards farther and had much more roll which led to
the
increased distance of 308 yards.
Also worth nothing is that on average, I swung the
G
at
107.5 mph and the G30 at 107 mph throughout the
duration of my testing.
Thus, while I’m not fully convinced that the
improvement in aerodynamics significantly
increases
swing speed, I was impressed by the added
distance
and lower spinner rate that the G produced. If you
are
someone who is looking for a lower ball flight and
more
roll out of their drives, upgrading from the G30 to
the
G is definitely worth considering.