Are These Ping’s BEST Irons Yet?!

Ping are back with a brand new addition to their iron line-up. The tour inspired i240 irons replace the previous i230 offering but look to offering more forgiveness and more height.

The cavity back irons are Ping’s highest-launching Players model, providing golfers with more control and the ability to consistently hit their desired distance and stop the ball close to the hole. So will they be replacing the Ping Blueprint S irons in my bag? Let’s go find out in my Ping i240 irons review…

About the channel:

Hello I’m Hannah Holden a +2 golfer from Yorkshire, England and this is my brand new YouTube channel Hannah Holden Golf.

Make sure you hit subscribe so I can keep you up to date on all the latest golf gear with my golf equipment reviews.

I’ll also be bringing you tips on how to sharpen up your game with my experience playing in big amateur events and working as a performance coach for England Golf!

If that wasn’t enough I’ll make sure you’re on top of the latest rules of golf.

00:00 Introduction
00:53 9 iron testing
03:44 7 iron testing
07:41 5 iron testing
12:03 Data round up

About the channel:

Hello I’m Hannah Holden a +2 golfer from Yorkshire, England and this is my brand new YouTube channel Hannah Holden Golf.

Make sure you hit subscribe so I can keep you up to date on all the latest golf gear with my golf equipment reviews.

I’ll also be bringing you tips on how to sharpen up your game with my experience playing in big amateur events and working as a performance coach for England Golf!

If that wasn’t enough I’ll make sure you’re on top of the latest rules of golf.

Are these Ping’s best players irons yet? Let’s go find out. So, today we’re testing out the Ping i240 irons. This is very much a tour inspired model. We’ve seen loads of players using the i230s over the last few years, and you can expect them to move into this model. This means it’s still a fairly compact players club, but actually it’s Ping’s highest launching players iron, which means it’s just going to give you a lot more hang time, height, and crucially a lot of stopping power into the green. I think that’s why we see this used so much on tour, especially on the PJ tour. The greens are super quick and firm, and having something that goes high and stops quickly is crucial. Now, I’m really interested to see how these perform because I’m currently using the Blueprint Sons from Ping, which I absolutely love. These kind of sit one model below these. So, these probably a little bit more forgiving, obviously, a little bit higher launching. That’s the key story here. And I’m interested to see the differences between mine and these. First up, we’re going to start with the N. and then I’m going to move up through the bag to see how they perform through the set. First thing that I like is these are still really compact behind the golf ball. Obviously, if loads of tour players are using them, that’s crucial. They’re going to have to look nice. I really like the shaping of these. And actually think they’re really similar to my blueprints. Maybe a slightly thicker top line if anything, but I also really like the fact there’s not too much offset here. I would say the sole looks a little bit thicker than mine, but that does make sense. If you want something that’s higher launching, you want to pull the weight down to the bottom. So having a slightly thicker so is going to help with that. Okay, visually that definitely looks like it flew higher than my blueprint does. It’s got a lot further down the green than I thought it would as well. So 131 yards of carry out of that. That’s pretty much where I’d expect my kind of n to sit. Usually look between like 130 135. I do think you don’t tend to see too much difference in distance at this part of the bag between different clubs. What’s interesting there though is my launch angle was 25, which is very high, and my descent angle coming into the green was 48. That’s really steep. It’s going to give you loads of stopping power. Typically, you want to look around the 45 mark is probably like optimal for most golfers, but I generally think if it’s a little bit higher, that’s not really going to harm you. Spin was 6,696, which Skyrack is saying slightly under optimal, but I am hitting off a slightly wet turf here, which is going to affect that. Now, the stock shaft in this is the Nippon NS Pro 115 stiff. I’ve actually opted to go down to the 105 instead because, you know, I’m only little and I have these in two flat. That’s just like my typical setup. I actually really love the ball five. That’s super solid. I can literally, it’s just one hopping and stopping on the green, which is really nice. Those numbers were almost identical again. 25 launch, 48 descent, tangle, which is really strong. 6,952 spins. So nearly at 7,000. I mean, all those are literally within 10 foot of each other, which is pretty nice. Okay, hit that without a teg, which feels very weird on a par 3, but I just wanted to see how much the spin changed, and it’s jumped up to 7,522. So that’s literally perfectly optimal. 24 degrees launch angle there and 51 descent angle. That is seriously steep. You’re definitely going to get a lot of height control and stopping power from these. Let’s go hit the longer irons and see if that story continues there. Just pausing for a second to give you a chance to hit that subscribe button. Over 80% of people watching my channel aren’t currently subscribed. And actually having a bigger subscriber number really helps in terms of what kit I can get my hands on to review and what places I can go to make great videos for you. So, please hit that subscribe button. And while you’re there, you might as well drop this video a like and drop us a comment about what else you want to see on the channel. Okay, seven iron time. I think this is probably where we’ll start to see more of the tech changes taking place up to the longer irons. You kind of see the changes more. The biggest change we’ve got this year is this new badge on the back. This is 8.5 g lighter and it’s also combined with an elast meter insert. So making it lighter means they can move more weight to the perimeter. That’s going to improve MOI, add forgiveness, and they’re saying actually they think dispersion’s 11% tighter now because of this. The elastimeter in there is just going to make the feel a little bit softer off the face, which is what we all want. Again, really love the shaping behind the golf ball. Very kind of that classic pink shaping. Not too much offset. And I really like the size of the top line. Like there’s enough that it’s comforting, but it’s not too thick. No teeth this time. I’ve learned my lesson. That is such easy height. I can’t believe how much higher that’s coming out than my irons. I don’t even need to see the data. I can just see it in the ball flight. Lots of green in the numbers there from Sky Track, which we like. It is quite windy today. We’re playing uphill into the wind. So, saying that’s carried 145, which is kind of what I’d expect in these conditions. Typically, I’m looking more around the 155 mark. We’ve got 20° of launch angle, 44° of descent angle, which is really good. Remember that we’re looking around that 45 mark if we want the ball to stop really quickly on the green. And then the spin’s 6,110, which is green. I think we have this idea in our head that the spin should match the number on the club. So, if we’re hitting seven iron, it should be 7,000. That’s kind of like a old belief because of how clubs used to be structured. I think if you were going more into a blade club, that would be true. But because we’ve got so much more height from modern clubs, you don’t actually need quite as much spin. It does feel really soft, but also solid at the same time, which is quite interesting. And I really wouldn’t say they feel too dissimilar to my blueprints at all, which I think is really nice. I don’t think you want to get to a point where you’re picking on looks or feel over performance. You really want to be more data driven and be able to pick the one that works best for you and performs the best without being put off by the sound or the feel or the looks. And I think they’ve nailed that with this club. It feels really nice. Pretty similar data again there. 146 yards of carry. We’ve got 20 launch angle, 46 descent angle, and again, the spin’s really good in the 6,000s. They just feel really nice and solid when you hit them. I really like that. Just managed to get my spin above optimal there, which is very nice. 7,012 spin from a cavity back 7 iron. That’s pretty impressive. That’s paired with a 48 descent angle. That is going to stop the ball on the green very quickly. And it is. It’s literally stopping dead on the surface of there. Let’s just hit one with my blue pin really quickly to see the differences. This is a slightly different setup because I’ve got a different shaft in this. So in this I’ve got the dynamic gold mid 100 stiff. So still in a fairly similar ballpark, but obviously slightly different. Does something look quite a bit smaller when I’m looking down at it. pulled it a tad, but the strike was good. 149 in terms of carry. I think that’s because the launch angle was down a little bit. So, we were 18 degrees there verse 20. Spin 6,953. So, very similar. Descent angle 45. Probably the biggest difference between the two is that the i240 is launching a bit higher. It was getting up to 27 yards, whereas with this, I’m looking at 25 yards. So, that’s about an extra 10 ft in height, which you could definitely see in the ball flies. I would say looking at those numbers, I could literally get in either of these. Like both of them are pretty optimal. But interestingly, I was getting a little bit more ball speed out of my blueprint, but that could be shaft related or just that I’m kind of so used to hitting these clubs. Right, five iron time. Definitely the point where I feel like I could almost combo into this set of clubs because feel like when you get to five iron, four iron, you just kind of look at it and you think, I don’t quite feel as good about this. I want a little bit of extra height and this is probably where this model’s going to shine. So, let’s see how we get on. Blade length definitely a little bit longer at this point. Obviously slightly thicker top line, a tad more offset, but I think you kind of want that at this point because you want to feel like the club’s going to help you out. Does just feel a little bit more comforting than my five iron does. I’m not going to lie. My blueprint 5 is very small. Oh, flush dead straight at it. That felt so soft, so easy to hit, and so easy to launch. And it’s six foot from the pin. So to say we’ll take it. 165 yards carry. Again, I’d say that’s being hit a little bit by the wind. We’ve got to the face there. But 17 launch angle, which is good. That’s really high. And that’s givingven me a 42 descent angle, which is something I struggle with quite a lot with long irons is getting enough stopping power. So I’d be really pleased with that. They also got 24 yards in terms of height, which is good. When we’re looking at height, we want it to stay as consistent as possible through the back. So that hasn’t dropped off too much there. A lot of times we see when we get into the long irons, people’s height drops down and that’s where I’d encourage you to move up into a bigger model. Thing was over 5,000 as well. Getting really good control with these. I do think when it comes down to picking irons, you really need to be focusing on what it is you want to improve. At the end of the day, these are precision clubs. We want them to go a specific distance. We want them to go that distance over and over again. And we want to be able to hit them in a way that’s controllable and that we can control them on the greens. So, I know we love to see big numbers and different distances, and for me, maybe this is going half a club or four or five yards shorter than what would be in my blueprint, but actually the control is really good. The height’s really good, and I know for me on my bad days, if my strike’s not quite there, I don’t get enough height, especially with those longer clubs. So, it’s really about balancing what it is that’s most important to you. I also know I’m a really random golfer because unconventionally compared to everyone else, I tend to hit smaller irons further and that’s just because I’m very steep at the top but then I get quite shallow. So if I have a thicker club sometimes I don’t strike it quite as good and don’t get maximum distance out of it. Whereas typically most golfers aren’t like that and you’re probably going to get more ball speed out of this club than you would a smaller ping model. That’s where knowing your game is really important and what you want and what you think would actually improve. That’s why a lot of the time keeping statistics can be really helpful because you can see really clearly what you need to be better at. If I look into my shot scope data, I know with my approach play, it’s my longer irons that cost me shots because I can’t necessarily stop them as quickly or I look down, I just don’t feel that confident because they are quite small sometimes and I maybe feel like I’m going to miss strike it. Sometimes just having something that looks comforting can help you out. It’s golf’s so psychological as well as being a technical game. I just really love the easy height of that. I think that’s going to help so many golfers. So again, 165 yards. Extremely consistent on distance so far. Technically, my launch was a tad too high according to Skyrack, but with five iron, we will take that at 17° and again 42 descent angle, so it’s going to be really controlled. Also, my spin is managing to be higher than optimal somehow. So, in terms of control, we’ve definitely got that with this club. I just can’t get over how easy this is to hit high, which is obviously not something that normally happens with a fire. Okay, that one went 167, so a tad further. Again, spin higher than optimal in the mid 5,500s, which should definitely take with a five iron. My descent angle and my height have been identical on every shot. 42° descent angle, 24 height. I’ve just been so impressed with how consistent the ball flight has been with this, which you don’t often get with a five iron. It just feels really easy to get height on it, which I really love. And I think that’s going to help so many golfers. Having more height generally gives you more hang time. It’s going to give you more distance as well. So, it’s not just control and stopping power of the story here. Also, all my shots have gone really straight, which leads into that kind of forgiveness and dispersion story that Ping were telling here. So, are these Ping’s best players irons to date? Well, I would say looking at the data, they’re pretty close. What I’ve been seriously impressed with is just how high these launch, how steep they come down, and just how much they spin. and Ping have actually changed the grooves this year. So, we have much wider spacing in the grooves and that’s designed to increase that spin from the fairway and it certainly worked. What’s also interesting to note here is I lost about 800 RPM of spin on my initial shots with N iron when I was using a teeg. So, so if you’re on a hole and it’s playing into the wind and you want less spin, tee it up. If it’s downwind and you need to spin it, don’t use a teg on a par three. To be honest, I pretty much loved everything about these clubs. They sound and feel exceptional. They look great behind the golf ball. I really like the new design of the badge at the back and how it looks sitting in the golf bag. And also, my dispersion was seriously impressive. I didn’t miss a shot onto the green throughout the whole set with these. And they just consistently felt like they were going to set off in the same place. Had a really consistent ball fly, and that’s just going to give you more control. Now, the only one thing I could be slightly disappointed with was the distance. It probably goes about 5 yards shorter than mine through the bag on average. Some of that may be down to weather conditions, but actually some of it might just be that I already hit it quite high, so I’m launching it high, spinning it a lot. And actually, I think what I would do is if I wanted to move in this model because it feels more confidence inspiring, more consistent, and higher launching than my irions, maybe I’d buy them in the power spec instead. So, these come in three different loft offerings. When purchasing them, you can choose from the standard loft, which is what I’ve got today. You can go for a power loft which is two degrees stronger or you can go for a retroloft which is two degrees weaker. I think this is great for players of differing swing speed who maybe want that high consistency forgiveness but they don’t necessarily all need to hit at the same distance. That’s definitely going to help a wide variety of golfers move into this club. And I have seen this a lot in the past. Sometimes the best irons I’ve played have been ones that I’ve had set a little bit strong because for me I like that sole. I like that workability of a smaller model. But I’m only little. Sometimes I need a little bit of help in the distance category. But also, we’re only 5 yards out. And actually for me, consistency is probably a little bit more important than distance. So, as much as I would love to test those power lofts out, if it didn’t work out, if it in any way changed my flight, I would be really happy to game these. At the end of the day, irons are clubs that you want to go set distances consistently in your bag and you want to be able to control on the green. These tick those boxes exceptionally well. I think we’re going to see a massive uptake of these on tour for that reason. I don’t think I’ve ever tested a club before that in both seven and five iron, especially five iron, I could spin it more than optimal on Skyrack. I think we’re going to have to do some serious head-to-head testing of these with my blueprints and see if I’m going to combo set or if we’re going to make a swap.