Head weight in driver ... help me understand

Ok don't laugh but i just recently upgraded my old relic Ping G2 driver to the G400 and wow how things have improved.

My dumb question is about the weight pictured above, what exactly is it's purpose (adjust swing weight?, improve launch?) And also why/when would it be swapped out for a different weight? Am i in the ballpark by guessing if you were to shorten the stock shaft you would want to adjust the weight in the head?

Thanks in advance for explaining exactly what it does and why they make different gram weights for the head etc, my dinosaur driver didn't have all these bells and whistles like the weight, the tungsten weight, adjustable adapter .... makes one wonder what clubs will be like in another 20-years

Yes, you're in the ballpark. Ping's driver heads are on the heavier side because they design their stock shafts to be counterbalanced. So if you go with a non-stock shaft you can often see the swingweight jump by 3-4 points pretty easily. They sell different weights to easily adjust swingweight to different build preferences. It's easier and quicker than doing something like hotmelting (which can also affect the sound/feel).

So ....if i were to shorten my stock shaft by 1" and just say the weight was 5g then in order to keep the same swing weight i would just replace the 5g weight with a 13g weight (if i am thinking right at 8g/inch)

... So the weight is there to adjust swing weight easily, thanks for clarifying that

> @TaddNOhio said:

> So ....if i were to shorten my stock shaft by 1" and just say the weight was 5g then in order to keep the same swing weight i would just replace the 5g weight with a 13g weight (if i am thinking right at 8g/inch)

> ... So the weight is there to adjust swing weight easily, thanks for clarifying that

Almost, but probably close enough. 1" = 6 swing weight points at about 1.6g per point at driver length, so a 15g weight would be closer. This is just get back to the stock swingweight though which may or may not actually be what is best for your swing. If you can pick up an array of weights to experiment then that would be best. Many people find that different swingweights suit them better, myself included.