Episode 31: Straighter Flies Farther

Shane and Marty welcome to the pod PING Innovation Manager, Cory Bacon, the lead designer of the new G430
MAX 10K driver. They discuss our highest MOI, most forgiving and straightest driver to date, the G430 MAX 10K,
the research and development process, the entire G430 driver family, and PING’s commitment to optimization
without sacrifice.

The guys from ping they’ve kind of shown me how much the equipment matters I just love that I can hit any shot I kind of want we’re going to be able to tell some fun stories about what goes on here to help golfers play better golf welcome

Back to the Ping Proving Grounds podcast I’m Shane bacon joined as always by Marty Json Marty we have talked about a lot of things over the last six seven eight months on this podcast but as we know life comes back to the driver and I’m so excited today to talk drivers

With you and our good friend Cory bacon who uh doesn’t just share a name with me but you know we’ve played golf together we’ve competed against each other and one of the great dudes at pinging so pumped about this conversation yeah the driver is the most important Club in the

Bag it’s the most fun to hit and uh this is going to be super fun I think let’s lead off with setting the record straight are you guys related Shane that’s what everyone asks you know we’re we’re not we’re not related um I think if you watched our games you would

Really understand that very different in terms of the way we play the game um Corey a lot more dialed a lot more consistent uh I can be slightly more erratic at times on the golf course but yeah I I don’t Cory I want to ask you

This on that note I don’t get to talk to a lot of people with the last name bacon obviously how what is your response when people go so are you related to Kevin because I don’t really have a good response to that but I get it all the

Time Shane I’m in the same boat as you I have no idea how to respond to that and you know it’s one of the questions you always get growing up in the 90s right is like uh hey are you related to this famous actor Kevin and I was just go no

Not related uh and just leave it at that there’s no real good way around it yeah I lean into the uh I lean into the I wish a lot you know I kind of smile and do the I wish that’d be great if he was

You know my uncle or something and I got a little bit of the the movie residuals but yeah I I don’t I don’t ever have a good response it’s a little bit of like being a lefty and they say you know you’re hitting from the wrong side of

The ball and it’s kind of the dad joke you you Chuck at smile and try to move on exactly exactly I think Shane talking about driver design sh uh Corey’s the perfect one to do it because he is the ultimate driving machine here at ping he he does really good on tough golf

Courses because he can drive the ball very far very straight you know I know we’ve talked about this concept of having skin in the game being a being a product designer and having to use your own product in in competition when it counts uh just uh really elevates the

Care Factor the amount of passion you put into it so Corey’s the perfect one he’s been leading our last few Driver Designs and um yeah Corey I would say let’s kick it off with some high level uh perspective on let’s say Ping’s like last decade let’s say you look at it

From 10 to 12 years or so on our journey we’ve been very strong on drivers you’ve seen our numbers go up on tour non-staff players playing our driver leading the driver counts uh golfers from all over the world enjoying our technology what is your perspective kind of big picture

On what’s given us that kind of anchor to perform so well on the driver category in general yeah I I think we’ve experienced a a lot of growth in the driver category because we uh kind of approach driver design in a very balanced way um you know in a lot of

Every time we have come out with a new driver um we talk about an improvement or a new feature but that new feature gets put on the driver uh without sacrificing anything else about the total driver performance so I think that’s a strength of ours is balancing

You know you want a really high ball speed driver but also a really playable driver so a high Moi driver um and then on top of that I think we’ve done a a really industry-leading um job in in terms of offering a lot of driver SKS uh specifically to fit a diverse set

Of players right right um and so I I think like the g430 family uh really encapsulates that right is you have the low spin driver for players who struggle with spin an sft driver uh for um shot Bend correction Left Right shot Bend correction and then the the the max head

Being kind of the the the maximum forgiveness uh driver and so I think it’s you know like I said to kind of recap that it’s a balanced approach is kind of optimizing all the things that matter for driver performance without sacrificing anything else and then industry-leading fitting options Corey c

Can you take us back to the first time you were a lead designer on a driver what driver was that what was the feeling personally for you I mean I in my you know my business I remember kind of the first time I called Golf and I

Was like the main dude doing it and I mean it’s it’s a wild moment it’s a lot of responsibility but it’s also kind of what you were you were pushing to get to at some point in your career so what was that in your world and how did it feel

The first few days you were kind of lead designer on a golf club yeah it it was uh it’s it’s a very surreal moment for sure um and it’s uh so the first driver that I designed um was actually the g430 driver family and you know i’ had been

Working in design for uh you know about eight years uh prior to that I did a lot of work on Fairway woods and and some iron designs but um you know the the driver leads all the other product categories and so it’s definitely like the the the the main project that

Everyone wants to get on and it’s a lot of responsibility um and so it’s it was you know nervous but also uh you know very proud moment because you have a sense of responsibility to to the company and really yourself to to do the best job you can and the the other crazy

Thing about the the g430 project family was that whole development process happened during uh kind of covid plant plant shut down um just a crazy time for me personally um you know trying to work on a driver design mixed with you know stuff outside of work that was happening

That was maybe outside of our control um but I I think you know despite all of that I think I’m really proud of you know the work that we put forward and um I think the the the results in year one of the g430 family really speak for

Themselves Shane what was the first event you called uh 20 16 US Amer I believe I think Joe Buck was sick and so it might have been 2015 us ameter actually and I was I was I was supposed to drive from Connecticut to Arizona and my wife was gonna fly and I

Called her and said you’ve got to fly to Dallas and drive the rest of the way because I’ve gotta fly to Chicago and call this us Amer so yeah that was uh that was the first uh first time I was in the big chair the reason I brought

That up coring I trying to remember if you called the fourball Cory played the with Matt Simone our metallurgist in the in the usj fourball in Olympic club that was the first four ball right Corey yeah first four ball I think it was 2015 and I remember I remember Joe Buck was

Calling it at the time but I wasn’t sure if you were there or if you got hired on after but yeah I was I I’d done digital broadcasting at the US Open so they hired me to do I think I hosted featured holes at Chambers Bay and then I didn’t

Really have any other job with Fox at the time to do any other Golf and the producer at the time Mark Lumis kind of liked the job I did and had asked me to come on but I was not a part of the men’s fourball but I did I was a part of

The women’s fourball which was at Pacific Dunes at bayad Dunes so uh that was actually core you’ll like this I was at Bandon calling the for the women’s fourball so you know you get there couple days early I think the coverage was two or three days and then I had my

Dad my uncle and my best buddy from Arizona fly out so I and total was at Bandon Dunes for I think like 10 or 11 days the last day I got breakfast at Bandon trails and the waitress walked over and went oh you again and I was

Like I think it’s time for me to leave like I think I I think this is the this is the longest stint anybody spent at B and dunes but yeah that was uh that was fun but no I I wouldn’t I wouldn’t I wouldn’t around for Olympic how long did

You guys go into that how far did you make it uh we made it into the the last eight teams so we made match play and then we won two matches and ironically we lost to uh Sam Burns and Austin Connelly so a future Ridder cover uh was

You know it was uh we we played really good we ended up losing on 17 um but uh you know just knowing that loss to a future Ryder cover is uh is good you know I’m okay with that I have a question for the both of you guys on

This because I have an experience and I’m sure you guys have an experience as well Corey you mentioned playing with Sam Burns is there somebody that both of you and Marty I’ll start with you that both of you guys played with that maybe you didn’t know a ton about or was an

Amateur or a high schooler that when you played golf with them for the first time you went oh man this is this guy’s the real deal this guy’s gonna potentially play Tour golf win golf tournaments things like that for I’ll go first there the most impressive for me was uh Sun

Yul no s y no I played second stage of Q school with him and I had no idea who he was no idea who he was and he he he came in second Q school he made like a 10 on a hole and he absolutely dominated like

He hit it so far so high I felt like I was playing with Tiger Woods and he went on to win on tour like shortly thereafter then I think he had his stint in the military or something back Dy in Korea y he was the most impressive that

I had never heard of and I played with and he just exploded right after that Cory how do you have anybody s so Sam Burns is is the one that stands out to me and Ju just there’s even a little bit deeper background story there is uh Matt

And I actually played a practice round with them uh prior to the tournament so when you go you know when you go to the usj events you get two practice rounds on the courses and we ended up getting paired with them in one of them and like

I just remember after the first couple holes I was like this this kid’s gonna be on the PGA tour in a couple years I mean the difference between him and me was very dramatic and then you know five days later we end up playing them in a

Match uh and I knew we had our work cut out for us that day uh and then the the other one was uh um Ken tanigawa uh the the Assassin um he assassin baby yeah exactly um so I I actually played him uh in the Arizona Amer in 2016 in the

Finals and he had won the Arizona am in 2015 and then I beat him in the finals in 16 and then he won again in 17 so he I was the only person between him and three Pete and shortly after that when he turned 50 he got through Champions

Tour Q school and then won a major uh I think the Senior PGA and then also the Champions Tour event out at at Pebble Beach but uh you could tell right away um how consistent and straight he hit it that he was going to do good things on

On the champions tour yeah going back to Pink for a moment a buddy of mine uh Casey brus who grew up in my small town in Texas I mean 20,000 people he was the stud in GF kind of coming out of high school and played college golf and then

Played the tight Li tour at the time and I remember he got paired with Bubba and this was you know mini tour Bubba and he said the first hole Casey hit it you know like 275 down the middle of the Fairway he said Win was blown in the

Face and he said this Lefty aims 30 right of the Fairway and hits like a knee high cut about 310 yards in the middle of the Fairway and he said it’s the only guy he ever called his dad after the round and said remember the name Bubba Watson it’s you’re you’re

Gonna hear it again at some point he said he he said he like hand painted a shaft pink at the time because obviously didn’t have a club deal but uh you know I mean there are those certain players that you just see in person and you go

You know this guy is is the real deal and Corey I mean you mentioned some of your accolades I mean not just Arizona Amer winner you won Arizona stroke play in 2019 Marty mentioned a little bit of this but and it’s something I see so much at ping is there are plenty of

Handicaps across the board in terms of design team and marketing and everybody that works on campus but to have players like you and Marty that are working in terms of design has got to be so helpful because as Marty has talked so much about on this podcast being able to go

Out on the Proving Grounds and hit clubs and test them out and to use your great abilities on the golf course to lean into new product is so helpful to a golf company because you know you’ve got the ability to go out there and and see what it’s about yeah it’s it’s definitely

Something that we look for when we hire Club designers um and it’s you know it’s it’s it’s nice to as an engineer to be able to design something and then test it for yourself so um and and like Marty always says it’s it’s skin in the game

And I think that the more you can understand the problems that golfers face every day uh you can do a better job solving those problems right and the way you understand it is you play golf with people you play golf yourself You observe things that they struggle with

Uh and kind of all that plays into the empathy of of of understanding what they’re going through and how can we deliver better product to make their experience on the golf course more fun um so yeah it’s I think it’s really important yeah that’s a good point Corey

Is that and Shane as we talk about this is that as better players we can you know maybe get more Nuance in the feedback but at the same time we can’t be out of touch with the everyday golfer right it’s a great Point Corey’s you know I think building the empathy skills

Building those observational skills knowing that hey what works for me might not be the right solution for everybody is also something that we work on and really curate uh in that space Corey I want to go back to driver design I think you you nailed a point that’s very

Important there in terms of not a balanced approach I think another way I’ve kind of looked at that is you know I I think an important point for The Listener is that Driver Designs and techn Technologies isn’t just Zero Sum and I think that’s something that a lot

Of golfers think like oh the manufacturers need to uh are going to make it more aerodynamic therefore they’re trading something else off the CG is deep therefore it’s going to be high spin you know it’s high inertia therefore it’s going to be slow right we know that we can compound those things

Uh and they can be additive together so can you talk a little bit about how some of the Technologies and Driver Designs that have been more positive some as opposed to you know having to make tradeoffs for sure um I think the easiest one that we can point to on a

Ping driver that makes it stand out from the rest are are turbulators so that’s an example where we made significant aerodynamic improvements uh without having to modify the crown shape and sacrifice CG location or other Mass properties like like Moi um another one uh on on the g430 family is is uh the

Face height so um we made the faces just a little bit shorter which allowed us to thin the faces out a bit more and uh and get you know a pretty significant ball speed jump on on g430 drivers and that was without sacrifice to any of the other uh you know characteristics that

We that we think about um or or that we care about so like typically with a shorter face you might get a lower inera driver but uh with the g430 family that’s that’s not the case and then I think the the last thing um would be you

Know the composite Crown right and just the fact of like we wanted to do it in the Ping way where not only do we get a ton of crown coverage but we wrap it onto the sole as well and and really like no sacrifice maximize the the amount of composite coverage in in

Replacing the titanium um to really free up as much mass as as as we possibly can uh to achieve the the holistic design approach Corey a lot of people have asked us that question like why why composits now you know what changed what limit did we hit in design manufacturing

Technology that TI the scales that the time was now with the 430 family to to integrate composite yeah I I think that the really we just hit the limit for our casting technology um and so you know the casting process is how we form our driver and iron heads and uh it’s

Basically involved Wes you know pouring molten metal into a mold and the thinner you make the walls uh or or in this instance the crown of a driver the harder it is to get that metal to flow through the mold and and so we got to a

Point on our drivers where we were designing the crown at um you know 17 to 21,000 of an inch thick which is basically like four to five pieces of paper thick and we just couldn’t go uh any thinner um just due to the laws of physics right

And so um we look we started looking for Alternatives and that alternative came in the form of composits and the the benefit of composits is um the density is about onethird of titanium um so so you can make a part of similar to even slightly thicker but it will weigh

Significantly less and um it also still has the structural integrity and stiffness that um that you need in in that part of the driver uh so it was really the casting limit that drove us to composits and I really think that it’s it’ll be the future for for Ping

Driver design um and uh yeah it’s a platform that we’re we’ll we’ll look to build on in the future Corey I know we’re just getting out of the the holiday season I always think about this in terms of Club design you know that scene in elf where like Christmas is

Done and then the the the head elf’s like and let’s start preparing for next Christmas and everybody starts cheering I mean you think about the the g430 family and this driver which has easily been my favorite ping driver that I’ve ever had and this is on top of pretty

Much you know consistently being my favorite driver I’ve ever had in the bag I mean dating back to pre-t turbulator days how do you continue to build on an amazing product like this and gain speed gain distance gain accuracy what are what are you looking at like how do you

Go back to the drawing board to create something that’s new that’s Innovative that that performs better than something that’s already so great for golfers and so great in terms of modern technology that that’s a that’s a great question Shane and I always uh make this analogy

For people who ask me that question if if you’ve ever done like home renovations uh in your house and you know when when you do the work uh you notice all the little imperfections right um like you know we just recently redid our kitchen and I can see every

Little thing that I messed up but if you’re looking at a big picture No One’s Gonna see that right and I think the same can be said for you know Club design and um you know you as a customer are looking at the bigger picture and

How do you hit it on the golf course is it helping me play better golf am I having more fun uh you know me as as an engineer I’m like critiquing it and and looking at all the little things that I think I should have done better right um

And so there’s always you know regrets that we have at the end of the project that really spur on the drive to um you know make it make the the next one better um and I actually think that the g430 max 10K driver is a good example of

Of an example of a regret that I had um in the g430 family development project um you know it was uh we got to the point in the the timeline of the g430 driver family where we had to make a decision on when do we put the put or

What skews do we put carbon fly wrap on and um how you know are we do we think it’s ready to you know produce uh or take to the market and mass-produce it and we ended up choosing to put it only on the LST driver at the time but I

Think you know a year later This Is Us delivering um you you know a technology that we feel very strongly about to everybody in our highest Moi and biggest uh performing or largest footprint driver um and so I I I’m really excited about this addition to the g430 family

Cory let’s dive let’s dive deep into the 10K let’s dive real deep into the max 10K driver um what are golfers going to notice how’s it going to uh fly how’s it going to spin um you know I think when when you first put it down Shane you’ve

Hit it uh I’m personally playing it I love the big shape like how big is it and toally agree with you what are some of those uh car key characteristics of the of the driver core yeah it’s um it’s it’s really unique in that it’s a blend

Of the g430 max driver so the big footprint High Moi very consistent for M hits but has a little bit lower spin profile uh closer to the LST driver and I think that’s a unique combination in our g430 driver family that will really unlock performance differentiation and especially for certain players that need

A this specific combination of attributes yeah I totally agree Corey we’ve been having a lot of success uh one thing from the fitting side and Shane we’ve talked a lot about this kind of um the sweet the Holy Grail of performance in equipment my mind is is

Like a vend diagram of like the best designs with the perfect fitting and one of those pieces we’ve been doing with the max 10K in our early fittings at the pink Proving Grounds is golfers can play it at a little bit longer length because it’s so forgiving because the spin is

Low like normally when you go shorter on your driver length a it’s because you’re trying to Center your contact you know the your your dispersion on the face a little bit and B A lot of times in the fitting will go shorter and length to

Lower spin well now at the 10K you get some freedom in uh impact dispersion you get the lower spin so golfers have been able to play it a little bit longer length so Corey talk a little bit about that like in terms of you know where does the Forgiveness stand what does 10k

Stand for and any tips and tricks you have for golfers out there are going to look at the different models in the family and and maybe trying to identify if the 10K might be the right driver for them yeah so the the 10K stands for uh

Total Moi and what that means is when you measure the forgiveness in the heel toe Direction and the top bottom Direction when you add those up the total is over 10,000 and so like we already talked about a little bit this this driver fits in to our our driver

Family really nicely and I think completes it so now we have a a family of four and I talked a little bit about the the the other models and then a little bit about the max 10K I think that if you’re looking like the the person that would be best suited for a

Max 10K driver is perhaps someone who uh doesn’t hit the middle of the face very often someone who has uh level to downward attack angle and might need a little bit of spin reduction um yep or someone who hits it really far uh because they You Know M

Kind of a a a people think that Moi is for slow swing speed drivers but uh highi drivers actually mean the most to faster golfers and the further you hit it the more it matters and so I think that if you’re you know if you hit it

Really far this driver could be for you as well because it’ll straighten out your your bigger misses um and so funnily enough I I think that if all these things I’m mentioning Shane is probably going in the back of his mind yes that’s me yes that’s me yes that’s

Me uh so oh it’s in the bag Cory it is it’s not it’s not coming out you know what’s funny is I had a a good buddy of mine a high swing speed guy doesn’t hit the center of the face a whole bunch he messaged me couple days ago and said um

What driver do you have in the bag right now and I told him I have I have the new ping driver the 10K in the bag and he goes should I wait should I wait to hit this driver when it’s available to the public and I said I mean absolutely and

A lot of this was after reading Cameron Champ talking about the driver in 2023 him talking about how much he fell in love with this Golf Club I mean nobody swings the club faster in professional golf than Cameron Champ he was talking a little bit about a marriage he felt like

With this driver between the Max and the LST do you get that sense Corey does it feel like you’re kind of marrying like the two drivers that were available in the 430 family almost into one yeah definitely and I think like if we go back to those kind of characteristics of

You know what players would really benefit or fit into this driver category Cameron Champ um ticks a lot of those boxes right so he swings it really fast and hits it really far so Moi matters a lot for him because it will correct his slight Mish hits that for the average

Consumer might end up five yards offline but because Cameron Champs hitting at 330 those misses go 15 to 20 yards offline um and then the other thing is Cameron tends to hit down a little bit on his driver I think the last time I checked is he was maybe down two on his

Attack angle um and then third piece that I think why Cameron really likes the max 10K driver is he tends to tee it a little lower and and maybe hits the ball a little bit lower on the face than other uh other PJ tour pros and the

Lower CG lower spin um characteristic of the max 10K driver really gives him Optimal Performance for where he hits it his attack angle and his speed um so I I think that that’s that’s kind of a a tour level success but but maybe taking it to the consumer level of you know why

Why should you choose the max 10K driver I would really focus on you know if you need lower spin or if you really use all of the face right if you have inconsistent impacts around the face this driver will maximize your ball speed on on Miss hits and really help

Your Strokes gain driving Cory let’s talk about those thin hits a little bit more that’s the biggest thing I think I noticed going into the 10K is when I thinned it I’m playing at longer length uh still so because it’s so forgiving and the head’s bigger it doesn’t feel

That much longer Marty what do you what are you playing it at right now it’s 45 and S8 okay you know but we I’m I’m all in on this this is really fun I still when you thin it or mishit it you it’s not like the feedback goes away like you

As the golfer you still get incentivized to he it hit the center of the face but when I thin it Corey and I’m on I’m hitting it on trackman I get as high or sometimes even higher ball speeds when I hit it low on the face it might be

Because when I hit it low on the face my angle of attack gets a little steeper too my delivery might be a little bit different but talk about that Inplay of the the shots low on the face and then spin sistency we’ve talked a lot about

That uh over the podcast how the inertia the 10K impacts high low on the face all kind of play together yeah I I think what you’re experiencing is what a lot of golfers will experience where um the the max 10K driver is exceptional on on shots hit everywhere around the face but

Especially low on the face and I think it’s the marriage of a lot of Technologies kind of what you were talking about before right compound interest returns and This Is Us stacking Technologies on top of each other and really improving the performance uh where we see a lot of pain points with

Golfers right so typically on a thin hit with a driver you’ll get a really low launching low ball Speed high spin trajectory that may come up you know 15 20 yards short of where you’re expecting and I think that a combination of the low CG of the max 10K driver with the

With the carbon fly wrap um spin sistency so modifying the roll profile where you get a little bit less Loft low on the face um which that lower loft is going to deliver more speed and lower Spin and then on top of that you get the really highi like industry-leading top

Bottom Moi so that’s going to be thei that helps you on M hits up and down the face so you know stacking all these things one on top of the other is why you know some people may even see higher ball speeds from a 02 inch low hit or a

Quarter inch low hit compared to a center hit right um I would say that it’s still not gonna go as far as a center hit to your point about we still want to incentivize the the center hit but it’s going to be way better than you know drivers that that we may have

Launched uh you know previously yeah I just saw Andrew our friend Andrew rice a post about you know Rec he he I love how he makes very complicated topics simple for the everyday golfer he said you should play with two te Heights have a low tea height and a high te height and

I think in practice I do that I hit my kind of chip I but I don’t want it to go short I Tee It Low for control take the left side out there’s some factors with that some some biomechanical things but I love that I can Tee It Low and have

Super high ball speed I’m actually love that freedom of the of the 10K um Corey talk about just the fitting of the 10K relative to the other models I mean one way I like to think about driver fitting is you fit the vertical uh direction we use our optimal launch and spin our

Tools and co-pilot for that to dial in your like perfect launch conditions based on your angle of attack and then the hor izontal the left right so kind of paint the picture of how the 10K Falls in in in both of those uh directions from a 3D fitting standpoint

Yeah absolutely um so the like we like we talked about a little bit before the max 10K is is a nice blend of uh low spin with really high forgiveness so vertically this is going to fit probably between the low spin driver the LST which is our lowest flighted driver and

A little bit uh so it’ll be a little bit higher than the LST but a little bit lower than the g430 max um and then our sft driver will be the highest flighted driver and you know we did make one small fitting and design sacrifice on

This driver and it was a trade-off of you know maximizing Moi at the sacrifice of a fitting lever and I think that fitting lever that is everyone will notice is missing in the max 10K is the uh C G adjustability or you know being able to move the the the highdensity

Tungsten weight into the heel or toe position and promote more draw or more fate so all of the other drivers in our g430 family the max the LST and the sft have CG adjustability but the max 10K is a single position weight and really the design Choice was you know we’re going

To go all out for lower CG and highi at the at the tradeoff of adjustability um so I think for golfers who uh have a Miss in a predominant Miss in One Direction whether that’s left or right um you’ll find that the three drivers with CG adjustability will be easier to

Fit into um if you if you generally hit it pretty straight then you know I would definitely rope in the max 10K so I think maybe that’s one of the common questions that we’ll get is you know how is this driver different than the g430 max and I think that’s a very

Distinctive difference Cory I’ve got a question for you so you finish design I don’t know what happens when you’re like finalize the project if you submit it to somebody or Marty takes papers from you or whatever the case may be but how hard is it to finalize a design and then wait

To put it in the bag as a good golfer I mean what’s that is that like is that like December 18th for a seven-year-old where you’re just like get me to Christmas for goodness sakes like get me to the day where I get to open these presents absolutely yeah it it and I

Think that um you know we you know we we see the the first sample run of the driver uh you know a year ahead of consumer launch right right right right so like we’re we’re seeing the future really of like what everyone will get to experience and and we’re trying to

Evaluate you know how the driver performs um you know is it is it meeting our durability requirements and stuff like that and I think with really good products it it becomes kind of this common knowledge of just like after you go out to do a player test and you come

Back in and you’re like wow this product’s going to be really good I can’t wait to put it in my bag and it just kind of spreads through the engineering group of like and everyone gets real excited and the you know everyone’s waiting for the date it goes

Out on tour and you know the first images get put up on the internet and you know we get to see the the world’s first reaction to the driver um and I I think like like Marty and you I have this Max 10K driver in my bag as well

I’ve played a couple rounds with it already and it for for me it’s I knew it was going to be the driver for me because I love large profile drivers and I really value the consistency of M hits and keeping balls in play and kind of like like Marty mentioned that’s one of

The strengths in my game and and so pairing that like the highest Moi driver in the family for me was a clear win and I don’t see it leaving my bag for a while cor Corey one thing I think that is super important to Golfers that we

Tend to not talk about maybe enough is like sound and Acoustics I mean for g425 driver was amazing obviously I think we had you know some golfers out there yearning for a little different acoustic uh and we made that a very big priority of ours from The Innovation design side talk about what

Makes the what how how is the max 10K going to sound relative to the other models in the fourth 30 family and then just talk a little bit about how we improve the Acoustics uh what tools techniques uh that we use to improve the Acoustics because the 430 driver family

Uh I think all of them sound amazing uh the LST has a little different signature so kind of compare and contrast all the different models and talk a little bit about what we’ve done on the acoustic side yeah so the max the max 10K driver from a sound perspective will be uh a

Little bit louder than the rest of the g430 family but still I would say in the good range of sound like a majority of consumers will will will will hit the driver and be like yeah this driver sounds pretty good um and I think you know we’re we’re holding ourselves to a

Very high standard given the acoustic improvements that we made on the rest of the g430 family um and I I think this is another good uh kind of example technology of adding layers and stacking technology for compound gains right is you know throughout the entire g430 family we made a pretty significant jump

In um the satisfaction in the sound that the driver produces and so yeah the W Without Really sacrificing any other performance characteristics and the way we did that was really taking a fresh look at you know what parts of the club are vibrating and pressurizing the air

And creating the sound that we hear and how do we attack those areas of the club and stiffen them and and and and make the driver you know really solid sounding and feeling uh at at impact and so some of those tools that you know that we use with Innovation team and the

Simulation team are you know modal and even uh we run you know through an a full acoustic simulation where we can get you know a sound file out the out on on the back end after we run the the driver through a a sound simulation

And I think that the you know just like the adjustability uh the CG adjustability piece on the max 10K the the sound is a small tradeoff in in in M you know going for a very low CG High Moi head and stretching the footprint out is you just have a little bit less

Mass to play with so the the the two big um ribs that go across the sole are just a little bit shorter so they’re not quite they don’t stiffen the sole quite as much as the g430 max or the g430 LST head um but like I said this is not uh

We’re holding ourselves to a very high standard here I think overwhelmingly people will say well this driver sounds pretty good Marty I don’t know who came up with the tagline for uh the max 10K but uh I think it sells itself straighter flies farther I mean it’s

Like can I hit it straighter yes does it go as long if not longer yes sorry right I’m sign me up I’m in absolutely absolutely I think another fun thing about the 10K as Cory just mentioned was that it’s it’s it’s pretty much up it’s approaching the limit on the the USGA

Size like you know right there’s one of the rules we need to play Within is this you know 5 inch by five inch box 10K is pushed right up to that that limit uh and it still sounds amazing and Spins low like there’s been other drivers that

Have pushed pushed that but they haven’t sounded very good and they haven’t uh been very forgiving on the top bottom inertia standpoint so that’s really fun Corey one other area I wanted to ask you about was um the HL builds like we we have a you know and talking about our

Holistic design we have a build called the HL stands for high launch um talk a little bit about who that’s for what goes into it from a shaft grip total weight standpoint um and who might be a good uh customer or or who would be somebody that might be a good Target for

That HL build yeah our so our HL build is taking our four g430 heads in our driver family but customizing the build uh to specifically Target slower swing speed golfers so through our research we found that um you know 205 gram head weight isn’t necessarily optimal for

Every golfer it’s kind of a middle of the bell curve uh where you know most people will find success with that head weight but we’ve seen is is that the the slower you swing it the lighter you want your head Mass the lighter you want your

Total weight of the golf club and so the HL build um you know reduces the the the head Mass Target from 205 206 down to the mid 190s you know anywhere from like 193 to 196 um and then we combine that with a uh 45 gr HL shaft and then a 40 gram

Grip so both of those are are in the ballpark of 10 grams lighter than the standard components so when you put that all together you get a light head and a light total weight that slow swing speed golfers can swing faster and actually get more ball speed and I think one of

That’s another cool aspect of this Max 10K driver is in the HL build uh you will be getting the heaviest back weight that we can offer in the entire g430 family um and so it’s it’s really like if if you’re an HL golfer I would still strongly consider this Max 10K driver

It’s not just for people who hit down or higher spin um because it it it’s the most forgiving driver on the market built at lighter head weights and that’s the trade-off that that we always struggle with yeah so Corey a couple things on the HL one is there’s there

There’s that different optimal head weight for different swing speeds right and that’s uh comes into that momentum op optimization uh which is mass times velocity uh and then also squaring the club right you make the head weight lighter total weight lighter you’re going to get B in in general you’re

Going to get a more close uh face to path would that be kind of correct in in the research we’ve done yeah exactly yeah so faster Club head speed more ball speed optimizing the momentum for slow swing speed golfers and then yeah the lighter you make your head the easier it

Will be to square the face so if you have a right Miss tendency the lighter head weight will really help you out and and that’s why we build our sft drivers uh a little bit lighter as well yeah that’s a good tip and trick for the the Fitters listening out there is consider

The HL build that are looking for a lower lofted sft sfts our our most kind of by default CG in the heel goes the most left for the right right-handed golfer uh but the max 10K with the HL or take the max put the CG shifter in the

Drop position and go lighter on the swing weight couple great options there to get a lower lofted head that still has a lot that you can fit for the the Left Right standpoint exactly Corey I uh I did an interview one time where it was me and Rex hogard so bacon and hogard

Interviewing Mia ham and I thought that that would be maybe the most kind of curated meat you know interview I ever did but this might surpass it two bacons involved uh is something I’ve been excited about for a long time so uh appreciate the Insight appreciate all

The hard work on this because like I said I mean this is in the bag and you said it Corey I’m gonna say the same thing it’s not coming out anytime soon I mean this driver is is exceptional and I’m so excited for people to get a

Chance to see it yeah I appreciate the time Shannon Marty uh enjoyed the conversation and uh yeah happy New Year and let’s have a good 2024 G to be an excellent 2024 Marty uh we’re gonna have to get together soon and play a little New Year’s golf at

Some point I need we need to see the the max 10K in person I’m I’m looking forward to it yeah to me I like the uh Elon Musk has this simple quote like engineering is Magic and when you experience the max 10K like every all the tech that Corey just went into it

Literally is Magic on the golf course so let’s let’s go out there Shane make make a little trip da get a little magic in your life get involved with Max 10K Cory appreciate the time this is the Ping Proving Grounds podcast [Applause]