My new Wedges have arrived

Just had a phone call from the Pro - my new Anser wedges have arrived (50 / 54 / 58) Woo Woo

I now feel like a little boy that can't wait, unfortunately I'm stuck in London today and can't pick them up until tomorrow at the earliest

Just hope these are as good as the rest of my Anser set, which I luv, when I tried the demo wedge it felt great too... so keeping my fingers crossed (must admit I will hold on to my current wedges until I have tried them in anger on the course).

Will now need to tell the wife that I will be having my Xmas present early - as I will not be able to wait until then.

I assume these (and your other irons) are the new Anser forged? How do they pan out for you? Seem to be quite expensive. Are they worth it?

Don't these wedges retail for something £150 each? I've just bought a cracking pair of MD wedges for only £49 each

navyblueshorts wrote:I assume these (and your other irons) are the new Anser forged? How do they pan out for you? Seem to be quite expensive. Are they worth it?

Yes they are the Anser forged. I love them, they have a really good feel about them, softer than other pings . I got the irons in March this year so have had a while to get used to them. I'm a confirmed Ping man..... in the past I have had K2, Eye2, i15 but I have to say these are the best they have made.

I went down and collected the wedges this morning and then went and hit a bucket of balls with them straight away. Very good feel.. again softer than the Tour-S ones I currently have.

Can't wait of the weekend now to try them in anger

regarding cost - yes the Anser's (both irons & wedges) are expensive but for me thay are worth it - I keep irons for years (anything between 6 12 years a set) so I am looking at these as a long term investment in my golf

Now that ping have started making forged wedges will they be doing a full set of forged irons?

I like ping drivers, woods, rescues's and kit like the bags so would be interested in a set of slim forged irons from them.

The Anser irons are forged, not all that slim though.

McLaren wrote:Now that ping have started making forged wedges will they be doing a full set of forged irons?

I like ping drivers, woods, rescues's and kit like the bags so would be interested in a set of slim forged irons from them.

The irons have been out since March this year - which was when i got mine .... I was one of the 1st to get them I went to the factory and got fitted. Mine have Project X Rifle shafts 6.0 (stiff)

As JPX says they are not as slim as eg. Mizuno, however they are worth trying - any Pro that stocks Ping will have a demo one.

well I tend not to be that clued up on new equipment. Just had a look at them and sadly they are not to my liking. Ping just dont seem able to do a good looking iron.

ALthough I wonder if the fitting could make up for the less than bonny club. Have ping ever produced a slim blade club?

Ping do make staggeringly ugly clubs, though the S56 are quite handsome as an exception.
However if they help your game does it really matter?

Not a Ping fan as I had a set of S57 but was let dow by poor build quality.
Nice clubs, but prefer a forged blade.

It would appear that Ping clubs (particularly irons) are something of a "marmite" love or hate type of club.

I think the G5 and G10 woods were good looking as they had a nice simple design compared to the likes of TM and Callaway.

I'm considering the S56 at the moment, smaller more compact head than the Anser irons, almost blade looking at address

super_realist wrote:Ping do make staggeringly ugly clubs, though the S56 are quite handsome as an exception.
However if they help your game does it really matter?

Not a Ping fan as I had a set of S57 but was let dow by poor build quality.
Nice clubs, but prefer a forged blade.

A mate of mine had problems with his S57's, the plastic plug fell out in a few of them and they all started to rust in the cavity with 3 weeks of purchase, even though he kept them clean.

Still, he plays Mizuno now so of course no problems with quality now.

didn't lj's miura wedge work out around £150ish?

not sure i like the look of the ansers but often seeing clubs in the flesh can be quite different.

i'm happy with the performance of the vokeys i purchased last season - in hindsight i wish i'd only bought 2 though as i rarely need the 60 - the 52 and 56 are adequate for 99% of situations and the 60 has now been substituted for a 3wood (ping as it happens).

Super - i wouldn't go so far as to say they were "staggeringly" ugly. but I would agree they do not look like Mizuno's

I guess I don't find them an issue to look at since i have had so many

Bam Bam - the wedges do look good, at least I think so

Quite like the wedges, drivers, fairways and hybrids.

The G and K ranges of irons though are ghastly. Far too much meat on them.

I-15 etc are a lot nicer.

good stuff gwr - its always good to be fond of one's own equipment...

i have a funny feeling the name "mirka federer" might feature in one or two of the future posts on this thread

Pings new model Ban it's called the G-Mirka, same as before just a bit fatter.

personally i've always associated ping with 3 primary products: putters, stand bags, drivers / woods (in that order). in the same way i associate tm with drivers, mizuno with irons, callaway with drivers / woods. titleist for me are the only mainline brand that makes me think driver, woods, irons, wedges, putters, balls.

deserves a thread on its own that: which primary products do you associate each of the main brands with?

super_realist wrote:Pings new model Ban it's called the G-Mirka, same as before just a bit fatter.

and there it is

i know a guy who has bought g15, k15 and g20 drivers in the last 8 months

actually - i tested the g10 and g15 when i bought my last driver and there was a noticeable difference in the two in terms of set up and feel. can't say i see the same between g15, k15 and g20 drivers - they all look identically shaped. the fairway woods have developed a bit, but the 20 driver looks exactly like the 15 with a new paint job and italasized logo.

Laziest design studio this side of Porsche Ban, .

I have an i15 driver, 3-wood, and 20* Rescue

All ping of course.

Ban Bam - how can you not consider Ping as an iron company - I think they sell more irons than any other manufacturer

ban_bam wrote:good stuff gwr - its always good to be fond of one's own equipment...

i have a funny feeling the name "mirka federer" might feature in one or two of the future posts on this thread

Muira/Mizuno blades = Bella

Pings = Mirka Federer

Have I got that right?

Spot on D4S,

GWR-Golfer wrote:Ban Bam - how can you not consider Ping as an iron company - I think they sell more irons than any other manufacturer

I am relatively young, and when I was a junior not so long ago, the other kids were always quite snobby when it came to equipment - as for some reason their parents saw fit to spend vast amounts equipping them with 'the very best'.

Titleist and Mizuno were the respectable irons to carry (my ancient £25 set of Wilson cavities were scorned!), and Pings were highly thought of when it came to putters and hoofer stand bags.

Drivers would generally be Titleist (again) or Callaway (my choice, the only thing in my bag that gave me any credability...), TM or Ping.

Fairway woods would be Titleist or Callaway.

Wedges: Vokey or Cleveland (crappy £30 Progens for me), and Putters: Scotty, Pings or Odysseys (Cleveland for me).

An unimaginative bunch, but these things tend to stick in your mind, even if you are as open minded an individual as myself.

Hmmm Interesting comments about Ping's. They are used by the worlds no.3 (formerly no. 1) Lee Westwood... he hits them ok, as does

Tom Lewis, Bubba Watson, Cabrera, Jimenez, Oosthizan (spelling not right)

so they can't be that bad

its all very well being snobby about clubs but I know some guys who use blades and believe me they couldn't hit a barn door from 5 paces ..... but they love their blades.

It's better to have the right equipment and hit them well than something that doesn't work.

Oh I should add that our + handicap at my club uses Ping irons (currently i15's but he was using G2's) and he's a fabulous ball striker

Are there any brands that people shun?

I won't play Nike for lots of reasons, and I won't play Wilson due to my pro trying to sell them at every opportunity.

I won't touch anything Nike - overpriced (cheap) rubbish in my opinion

GWR - its totally down to personal perception and that can be swayed by many factors whether it be propaganda mustering youths or personal preference.

My general perception is that Ping are great when it comes to Woods, Putters and Stand bags - but I dislike the look of the irons they produce when compared to a more classic design. In the same way i dislike the look of the Titleist AP range but think the CB and MBs look better. Ping generally seem to carry the same 'look' of the AP range throughout their ranges.

For me, Nike are potentally a little too 'Ned' for me when it comes to Golf - same applies to TM.

GWR-Golfer wrote:I have an i15 driver, 3-wood, and 20* Rescue

All ping of course.

Snap GWR...I have exactly the same

GWR-Golfer wrote:I won't touch anything Nike - overpriced (cheap) rubbish in my opinion

I disagree, the VR Pro combo irons are gorgeous and about £150-200 cheaper in American Golf than all the other premium irons. Plus the set includes a 3 iron which a lot of sets don't these days

http://www.no1golfshop.co.uk/store/product.php?id=482

GWR-Golfer wrote:Hmmm Interesting comments about Ping's. They are used by the worlds no.3 (formerly no. 1) Lee Westwood... he hits them ok, as does

Tom Lewis, Bubba Watson, Cabrera, Jimenez, Oosthizan (spelling not right)

so they can't be that bad

I don't think anyone has said they aren't any good, for me it's just their build quality I've had problems with. I don't mind the looks of the S series irons, I would prefer them if they were forged. I think Ping as missing a trick without having a forged 'players' iron. I think there are a lot of golfers who would play Ping but don't because they are cast.

I actually think Nike as a brand are quite impressive with their range. The SQ Black driver and the VR pro driver are really good products and rate them above any of the other main OEM drivers, in fact I was using the SQ black until yesterday when I bought the new Adams Speedline.

Brands I steer clear of:

TM overhyped pile of garbage with poor build quality IMO.
Titleist - think their over rated, used to play the DCI black and Starship driver in late 90's but don't feel they've ever replaced those with a suitably quality product since.
Callaway - decent enough but do nothing for me
Ping - just don't like the look of the irons, norhing against Woods or putters though

interesting thought to add to this debate on ping equipment from my recent fitting for new clubs. The fitter (a top of the range crew who have all sent some time out on tour and still have some of the top european (in particular Irish pros) coming to them to build equpment so I trust they know their stuff) told me that my Ping G5 driver was still, in his opinion of course, the best driver that ping have ever made and the the 3/4 iterations since don't stack up to it!!! Interesting thought, we automatically assume that the next generation should be better (partly because they all market it that way) but gives some fod for thought.

jeff

I played two weeks ago with a young lad that used a Titleist 983 driver (not sure which one). He'd been fitted for it so had the right shaft for him and he was hitting it a country mile. Sounded good, he said it felt great and he was long and pretty straight with it. So yes, new model doesn't necessarily mean better model.

If you look at bladed irons, they are basically just a lump of metal that have barely changed in design in 50 years, yet still perform brilliantly in the right hands.

super_realist wrote:If you look at bladed irons, they are basically just a lump of metal that have barely changed in design in 50 years, yet still perform brilliantly in the right hands.

I think you are correct that blades haven't really changed, but I would add that cavity backs are more forgiving, which is why most of the Pro's on tour use them now.

I like the feel of blades (which are forged) but i also like the forgiveness of cavity backs which is why I went with the Ansers which gives me the best of both worlds

Well, I played with the new wedges yesterday in anger--

They were fantastic, I really liked the soft feel and I seemed to be getting more spin - but, as the greens are a bit softer (they are still not what I would call soft tho') it's a bit harder to tell.

Looking forward to getting some practice in over the coming weeks

I went for a fitting at the weekend and found some brilliant looking forged irons by Yonex

http://www.golftoimpress.com/yonex-golf-ezone-muscle-backs/

I would have bought them but could only hit 56% correctly, which means I'm still not good enough for blades I did however opt for the Miura CB 501's but chose Yonex wedges as according to the fitter they're as good as Miura's but a fraction of the cost.

Doc

That really is a seriously good looking blade, beautiful clean lines and no tacky rubbish on the back. I like them. I want them.

Wow, they look amazing. Would really like to have a go with them.

nice and exclusive too.

drive4show wrote:

GWR-Golfer wrote:I won't touch anything Nike - overpriced (cheap) rubbish in my opinion

I disagree, the VR Pro combo irons are gorgeous and about £150-200 cheaper in American Golf than all the other premium irons. Plus the set includes a 3 iron which a lot of sets don't these days

http://www.no1golfshop.co.uk/store/product.php?id=482

I have these, and can vouch for them as being as good if not better than any set of irons I've ever owned. I tried various clubs when buying them, including most of the Mizuno range and the Nikes felt and performed better.

drive4show wrote:Doc

That really is a seriously good looking blade, beautiful clean lines and no tacky rubbish on the back. I like them. I want them.

The picture doesn't do them justice and they' actually seem smaller than a normal blade. Stood over it and looking down you see a thin top edge which has the toe cut away at an angle, brilliant, just wish I could do them justice, because they were cheaper than the clubs I picked up

DOc, out of interest how much were those Yonex?

super_realist wrote:DOc, out of interest how much were those Yonex?

Sorry SR I didn't ask but the bloke had me hitting them on 'Trackman' and he just said 'its a pity that they're not for you because the price is brilliant, and cheaper than the top end Bridgestones etc I had been hitting'. I got the impression that they were the best value for money top end forging out there. They had a nice cavity back ezone as well but it didn't look as good, although I could hit it well. He reckons that this EZone is the best forging on the market and beats Miura, the soon to be released Bridgestone, Adams and Epon.

nice looking clubs - would go well with my badminton gear too