Today, our expert Lou is comparing 5 different generations of game-improvement irons from Ping! ⛳
We’re taking a trip back in time with this one as we try to determine which iron set provides the most forgiveness, which one is better suited for beginners, and which one provides the best BOOM for your buck! 🤑💥
To take a look at the iron sets featured in this video, visit the links below: 👀
– Ping G440 Iron Set – https://bit.ly/460BEyi
– Ping G730 Iron Set – https://bit.ly/4fPG3Yk
– Ping G425 Iron Set – https://bit.ly/460BLtI
– Ping G400 Iron Set – https://bit.ly/4lGkcnp
– Ping G25 Iron Set – https://bit.ly/45NYXdB
Need some help to find the right driver for you? Be sure to consult our Club Finder tool: https://bit.ly/3Hrz1fH
For all your golf needs, used or new, you can always trust Golf Avenue: https://bit.ly/45taWhG
Golf Avenue, Play it Forward!
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:40 Ping G20 First Impressions
1:40 Ping G400 First Impressions
3:10 Ping G425 First Impressions
4:13 Ping G730 First Impressions
5:49 Ping G440 First Impressions
7:14 Data Review
9:54 Summary
12:06 Conclusion
What’s up guys? Lou here for Golf Avenue and we’re back with another comparison video. This time we’re looking at a brand that is perhaps the most beloved by all golfers around. Of course, we’re talking about Ping. So, I have five Ping iron sets behind me from different generations and different years. We will be taking a look at each one of them, taking a look at their data, and I’ll provide you my feedback from testing them. Of course, they’re all game improvement irons. So, the point here is to look at how forgiving they are and how much help they will provide you on the golf course. But that’s enough chitchat. So, let’s look at our first iron set that we’ll be testing today, the Ping G20. So, I just got done testing the Ping G20 irons. I do have to say that the pitching wedge felt very nice, very decent distance, honestly. The dispersion was really tight, which kind of surprised me for a game improvement iron, but the look is really thin thick. If you’re looking for a game improvement, pitching wedge, this one is really up there. Honestly, nothing too much to complain about. The seven iron, sort of the same story. The face is really hot. The ball does fly off very well. Uh dispersion pretty pretty tight for a game improvement iron. Um distance were a bit short for what I would like for a seven iron, but nothing too much to complain about there. Honestly, good club. The five iron, I will point out that it was maybe not as accurate as some of the other clubs in that set. I felt like the ball was really exploding off the club face. There’s no doubt about that. But I didn’t feel as confident that I was going to end up with the ball in the spot that I wanted as much as I did with the pitching wedge or the 7iron. The 5iron felt like it was a little more wild. And they really are some good game improvement irons. Really nothing bad to say about the G20s. Moving on to our next set, we’ve got the Ping G400. And overall, there’s nothing really I can’t complain about when it comes to the pitching wedge. Very nice. Felt very forgiving. might be a little less forgiving than the G20 to the feel since it was slightly longer and it did feel a little more explosive of the club face, but the dispersion was pretty tight. So, really nothing to complain about there. 7 iron pretty much the same same story. Slightly longer than the G20. That’s really the most important part. But aside from that, nothing really to report. Spin rates were a little lower than the the G20, but very decent seven iron. Really nothing bad to report. good GI iron. But the five iron was my first happy surprise of this test. I gotta say that I forgot how nice it was to hit GI long GI irons. When I’d say GI, obviously game improvement. They feel really nice and they feel like they’re easy to make contact with. And I was able to be a little more accurate with these ones compared to the G20. And I felt like I was able to put the ball relatively close to where I wanted to with the 5iron from the G400’s and I feel like the ball rockets off the club face from that one. It was really easy to generate a lot of distance without necessarily putting the biggest swing speed behind the club head. So overall, the G400 very good in terms of distance so far. Very impressive so far. I’m just excited to see what the other models have in stock cuz this one I really appreciate it considering it’s almost 10 years old. a lot of respect for it. So, a little more of the same when it comes to the pitching wedge from the G425. It didn’t feel as forgiving as the last two ones, but it did provide longer distances. And this version again wasn’t too bad. So, nothing really to to put it down or put it up. Just a decent wedge for a game improvement iron. The seven iron pretty much the same story again here. Middle of the road, not the softest one, not the harshest one. It just felt all right and it was decent distances. So really can’t knock it down, but I can’t put it up on any pedestal for anything special. But the 5iron, again, much like the 400, it’s massive. It’s a missile launcher. It launches the ball so fast of the club face and so far, it flies forever. It was really a great great club that I could feel really confident standing over. But even if I wasn’t to hit it perfectly, the results were very satisfying nonetheless. So overall that the G425 maybe not the most outstanding set that I tried today, but it’s very respectable nonetheless and the 5iron was very very impressive. Moving on to the second most recent model, we’ve got the Ping G730. Those were released last year in 2024. They are um massively long. There’s no other way to say it. Um let’s address it right away. Um, the loft on these clubs is stronger, way, way, way stronger than the G20, for example, and definitely way stronger than the G410, uh, the G400 or the G425. These loft are designed to help launch the ball longer than ever. What does that produce? It makes it so that the wedge now feels more like a 9 iron and that the seven iron was closer to a 6iron. And what do I mean by that is that simply the total distance from the wedge and the total distance from the seven iron were closer to the one club above from what I would normally produce. So what I mean by that is that the wedge was closer to a 9 iron and the 7 iron was closer to a 6 iron which in some cases for some people they would really be glad about this. But if you’re actually trying to keep some decent gapping between your clubs and your set or if you’re actually trying to be more accurate with your clubs, h this is probably not it. Because the big thing that happened was that the carry distance was not too outlandish. It was pretty long, but not too outlandish compared to the other models. It was when it came down to the roll of the golf ball once the ball hit the ground. It was way longer cuz the spin rates were way lower. So, that’s really something to keep in mind. And and I could sort of feel that off the club face. Obviously, you won’t feel you won’t be able to tell about the spin rates, but the launch angle could really tell a lot right away when I was hitting them. But I’m really excited to take a overall look at the data from all the clubs we had and see just how little spin rates those were able to generate. Last but not least, we’re looking at this year’s release, the Ping G440. I have to say that the distances and the loft were a bit more reasonable with this set. They were still way stronger than what we had with the G20, but it’s definitely more reasonable in terms of like the ball flight that it produced and the distances uh especially the discrepancy between carry and total distance. It does have higher spin rates as well, which is a nice plus overall. But when it comes to the pitching wedge, if we start with the pitching wedge, the distance is a bit shorter than the G730, but it’s still pretty staggering for a pitching wedge, honestly. Around 136 yards total yardage. When it came to the 7ir, we’re looking at definitely more reasonable numbers. Something that I would p personally even accept in my own bag. uh spin rates were a bit lower than what I would expect from a 7iron, but it was still good enough to stop the ball faster than whatever the G730 was able to do. If we look at the 5iron here again, it’s pretty staggering how easy it was to launch this one and how far it flew and how straight it flew. It was really the nicest 5iron I tried of all the clubs I tried in this test, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the rest of the set makes it up for what this one was doing. So overall, yes, very, very impressive and powerful clubs, but where are they the best from this test? Well, we got to look at the data before we crown anyone here today. Now that I’ve given you my feedback on all of our clubs, it’s time to move on to your guys’ favorite step at home, it’s time to look at the numbers. So, if we start with our pitching wedges and we look at the overall chart, I think it’ll be pretty obvious that the G730 will jump out ahead of everyone else with its staggering distance data. Obviously, if you look at the spin rates, uh it’s probably not as good as what you would expect from a pitching wedge, which means that when it comes time to hold the green, especially if you look at the discrepancy between carry and total distance, it’s pretty damn obvious that our pitching wedge won’t hold the green as much as maybe some of the older models in this test. And it’s all the same for the G440. Honestly, I think we have to give the crown to the older models in this part of the test just simply for the fact that they did produce decent distance, but the spin rates were much higher, which means that’ll give you the chance to be much more accurate around the greens. Yes, if you do have slower swing speed, you might want to consider the more recent models, but in my opinion, I think you’re better off going with something that allow you to be more accurate, especially when you’re looking at your shorter irons or your pitching wedge. Looking at our seven irons, it’s more of the same from the G730, but I do have to tip my cap to the G440. It was able to limit the roll of the golf ball and produce higher spin rates, which made it more accurate when it came time to hitting good approach shot with the 7iron. But I think my personal favorite 7ir was the G400. It was really good at transferring energy from my swing into the golf ball at impact. It did not produce the longest strike, but it was really nice. So much so that it landed second in my rankings of the seven irons, right behind the G440 and right ahead of the G20. Yes, the G20 wasn’t the longest of all the seven irons I tried, but it was the one that produced the most spin and I really felt comfortable with every single strike, but maybe not as much as the G440 or the G400. Now for the five irons is pretty much of the same. The more recent models did produce the longest distance, but they also benefited from the highest club speed, which definitely explain why they got so much carry distance. And while spin rates may not be the biggest priority when it comes to five irons, I would argue that the spin rates from these five irons is probably too low to hold anything you’re trying to aim at with your five iron. Yes, you’ll get plenty of roll, but if you’re trying to stop the ball anywhere, they probably won’t be really good at doing that. In my opinion, the G425 was the best 5iron I tried today. It wasn’t the longest. Yes, it was the longest carry one, but it wasn’t the longest overall, but nevertheless, it produced decent spin rates, and the data overall that it provided me was very comfortable, and I felt very nice hitting it. It was very, very consistent. I really didn’t have much to complain about when it came to this club. So, now that we’ve looked at the data and I’ve given you my feedback, we’re pretty much done with our test. But there’s still one more thing we need to do, and it’s look at the learnings that we’ve gathered from today’s test. First off, it’s pretty obvious that new GI irons, especially from Ping, are perfectly designed for golfers with slower swing speed. I mean, just look at the data from our test. It turned middle of the road swing speeds into a massive ball speed that created very long distances. Yes, you could give them the knock that they didn’t produce the highest spin rates of all the clubs we tested, but if you’re dealing with slow swing speed, spin rates are probably the last of your worries. So, don’t need to pay too much attention to that part, honestly. Second, I think we can all agree that models, even 10 years old, definitely do match up with the performance of the newer models on the market. Are they as long as the newest models on the shelf? Maybe not. But they represent a very respectable and most importantly affordable alternative to the newest models that will probably run you a lot more than what you’re maybe willing to spend on your next iron set. And finally, we can’t deny that the G20 was trailing a little behind the pack. Does that mean that older clubs are not worth it? Absolutely not. But you do have to keep in mind that the G20 does have different loft angles than the more recent models on the market. And it’s pretty staggering when you’re looking at it. If you compare it to the G400 or the G425, it’s not that big of a difference. Especially when you’re looking at the pitching wedges, the pitching wedge loft angle of the G20 was 45°. While on the G400 and the 425, we’re looking at 44.5° for the pitching wedge. But if you’re looking at the newer models, the G730, the 440, we’re talking about 40 and 41° respectively for the pitching wedge. This is a massive difference and it definitely explains why there was such a big discrepancy in terms of carry distance and total distance between the G20 and the newer models in our list. So, does that excuse the lack of distance from the G20? No, that’s not what I’m trying to see here. What I’m trying to say is that there is an explanation as to why they are shorter and as to why they have more spin rates. So, considering how big of a difference there is between the older and newer model when it comes to loft, you need to keep that in mind next time you’re looking to upgrade your iron set. But that just about wraps it up for today’s video. But before I let you go, I just wanted to thank you guys for watching today’s video. We do put a good bit of time in each one of them, and that’s because we want to help you find your next set as easily as possible. And as usual, I’ll only remind you to leave a like on this video if you enjoyed today’s content, and make sure to subscribe to Golf A News Channel for more comparison tests in the future. And if you’ve got an idea for a future video or something you’d like to see on our channel, make sure to leave it down in the comments and we’ll be happy to take a look. for Gulf Avenue. I’ve been Lou. Until next time, see you.
