Ping G10's

One of the most used sets of clubs in the world was the Ping G5’s. They were long, forgiving and easy on the eye as well, and that made them a hit with the swinging masses. So when Ping updated them, they needed to pull out all the stops, so we test their successors; the G10’s, to see if they’ve done it right.

The clubs themselves look very swish, decked out in silver and copper, they will certainly look good in the bags of posing 19th-holers the world over. Looking down on them at address, you can see the head seems to be larger than a lot of clubs, but they look a little less substantial than Ping’s higher end clubs, the Raptures.

Looking at the sole of the club, you can see that it is quite thin, but is a relatively heavy part of the head, moving the centre of gravity around making it more forgiving for the higher handicapper.

On the swing, the club doesn’t feel unnaturally heavy like a number of these improver irons that are on the market today, and although the head is relatively heavy, doesn’t feel unbalanced on the turn in the swing.
This can be good and bad, as being an improver myself, I’ve gotten used to the heavier heads these clubs sport, and as such would recommend getting along to the driving range or have a few practice rounds to really get your eye in with them before undertaking any proper rounds.

The longer irons (3-6) are harder to hit as with all sets, but the shorter ones were really a joy to use. The 7-9’s felt superb around the greens and from middle-distances, with specific praise for the 7-iron as it just seemed to work from all kinds of situations on the course.

Playing with the 4-wood was also a good experience on the shorter holes off the tee. It seemed very forgiving, and had a large sweet-spot for those sometimes errant (overpowered) tee-shots, allowing the ball to find the fairway, when with other clubs and recovery irons would have succumbed all too easily to unwanted in-flight movements.

Much the same sentiment with the driver as well. Although not the longest driver I’ve played with in recent times, it had a great sweet-spot and, whilst not as forgiving as the 4-wood strangely, it very rarely pushed the ball into the rough. The head looks bigger than other 460cc drivers, and I did find it hard to get tee-height consistency with it. So again, something you really do need to practice with this club, don’t expect to pick it up at the pro shop before the first and use it consistently.

So are the G10’s worthy successors to the G5’s? Well if forgiveness, ease of use in the irons, good distance and a good looking club are the factors that made up the 5’s, then definitely. A good, solid set of clubs for the money, and perhaps not as good as the Raptures, but better value for money.