S59 vs. I5

bo2484 · Mar 1, 2006

what to do

I currently play x-tour callies, and have been pondering on buying pings I was wondering if the s59 is as forgiving as the X-tour, and has which feels better out of the 2 ping models the reason for the switch is that i bought the ping tour wedges and they are awesome so i thought i would give the ping a shot

pingshack22 · Mar 1, 2006

I went from X-tour's to i5's and could not be happier. I picked the i5's over the S59's because of durability. I live in Florida and play many sand-based courses, therefore the i5's won hands down. Also, I have heard a couple of people say they had rust problems with the S59's.

jcosjrgolf · Mar 2, 2006

Pingshack22, if durability was a concern, you could of purchased the S59's. There are two options for the S59:

1.) S59 Tour is the Polished and Brushed finish with the ferrule. This polished finish will wear over time, scuff and has had rust problems in the past.

2.) S59 is the Blasted finish. Similar appearance to the i3 and i3+ that is indestructible. There is no rust concerns with these. These will not only wear very closely to the i5, but it is my opinion the S59 will wear better than the i5 due to the fact the i5 has a different coating prior to heat treatment that will scratch and wear over time as compared to previous Pings. This can be witnessed by the light color finish as compared to Pings in the past that are grayish in color.

pingshack22 · Mar 2, 2006

Thanks for the input. I was aware of the different finishes on the S59's. I wanted the extra forgiveness of the i5's anyway. As long as I do not have rust problems, I can live with scratches and wear.

pingguy · Mar 2, 2006

The I5 is the way to go. I was hooked on the S59 until my father got the I5's and I hit them. It is a great club and it is stainless so no rust. I watched the ping guys at the FBR open and very few of the had the S59 in the bag. The players I saw had the I5 or the old I3 blade.

Clemson656 · Mar 2, 2006

Nothing against the i5's. I've heard good things about them. But I'd just like to say that the S59's are not difficult to hit. I've played with them and love them.

Anyway, I just got a set of i3+ Blade's. I'm gonna go and try them out. But the S59's are gonna be tough to beat as I hit 14 greens on my last round with them.

sandy · Mar 2, 2006

There is indeed a rust problem with the S-59 Tours. I had three seperate sets that all had several irons that rusted from significant to ridiculous. Rust was coming from the grooves, on the hosel, and from most of the painted letters. On the hosels there were even pits starting to form. Ping after trying to refinish a couple of the sets would send me a replacement set. While none were as bad as the first set a few still exhibited the rust problems. I am not that unlucky to have gotten three sets that rusted (I know of four others that had the same problem)--so it is a problem. Ping never questions just refinishes or replaces with no explanation. No I do not use them by the ocean. I do have a set of old eye2s that stay in San Diego in my beach house and have never shown any signs of rust. The thing that concerned me was these three sets spanned 2+ years so it can't be assigned to a bad batch of raw material. They did send the first set to the metalurgist but I never heard anything back, they just replaced the set. I do know of several people that haven't had any problems but I wasn't one of those lucky ones.

I finally gave up and went to i5s figuring that these had the tumbled finish and guyson coating all over them with no polish job. Sad to report you can get some rust on the i5s in the deepest part of the cavity that is recessed. Not an issue with the wedges as the cavity isn't as deep. It is no where near the problem that the S-59s exhibit. It seems that the finish and tumbling that ping now uses (probably due to EPA requirements) is not what it once was. If you look at many of the pictures posted of ping irons in pros bags you can see rust in the cavities of i5s and S-59s but to date I have not seen any in the cavity of the i3+s like DiMarcos for example.

The i5s are very forgiving on off center strikes (which the S-59s are not) and the i5 wedges are the best wedges ping has made since the eye2s (not the Tour wedges by the way). The i5 wedges are the best kept secret in golf.

x100 · Mar 2, 2006

I've had my s-59 tours for over 60 rounds and haven't seen any signs of rust.

herkyjerk · Mar 2, 2006

I have never heard of s59's rusting, but I did have a PING rep tell me not to bother with them if I'm over a 6 index which I am (11). I got the i5's in November & could not be happier with them. PING makes the best irons by far IMO. The i5's are such a great feeling iron. A buddy of mine has a mixed set, with s59 in 8-PW, and i5 in 5-7, and a g5 4 iron. A little quirky for me but he swears by it. Go to thegolfchannel.com & check out "what's in the bag". Ping had a great week last week. PGA, Euro PGA, & LPGA wins last week. Triplett won in Tuscon with i5's & the LPGA girl won with g5's. HOT CLUBS

PING* · Mar 2, 2006

I5's all the way. Huge forgiveness in a medium sized clubhead...

Husky18 · Mar 2, 2006

**** it.....

If my Eye2+'s don't come around, I'm getting a combo set.

It could be the shafts though, but I'm not very happy right now.

littlepoison · Mar 3, 2006

I hate to hear of those rust problems with the S59 Tours... good looking clubs... I hope that Ping solves that problem or I imagine that could turn into a bit of a PR/quality control snafu...

/fool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':kewlpics:' />

sandy · Mar 3, 2006

littlepoison wrote on Mar 3 2006, 07:55 AM:

I hate to hear of those rust problems with the S59 Tours... good looking clubs... I hope that Ping solves that problem or I imagine that could turn into a bit of a PR/quality control snafu... /fool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':kewlpics:' />

That is why I was hoping for a black nickel chrome finished version. (It is a great looking iron except for the offset in the 2 and 3 iron). That would have certainly solved the problem but they have decided not to do it. Interestingly enough with all the problems I have had with the S-59s I've never had a hint of a problem with any of the polished tour wedges (have had 4 of those) so go figure.

BudhaNl · Mar 5, 2006

No rust problems here! And, I live in the Netherlands, a rather

/biggrin.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':kewlpics:' /> moist country...

I find forgiveness on off-centre hits to be excellent with the S59 Tours. I probably shouldn't play them, at my high handicap, but compared to the i3+s I had before, I don't think there's much difference.

Tsukasa36 · Mar 5, 2006

Callies are generally easier to hit and get the ball up in the air and S59 are muscle backs, which would not be very forgiving. so I think X-tour would be an easier and more fogiving club than S59. Besides, its forged.

sandy · Mar 5, 2006

Tsukasa36 wrote on Mar 5 2006, 10:07 AM:

Callies are generally easier to hit and get the ball up in the air and S59 are muscle backs, which would not be very forgiving. so I think X-tour would be an easier and more fogiving club than S59. Besides, its forged.

Totally agree

littlepoison · Mar 5, 2006

Sandy, I'm hoping that PING put 2 and 2 together and applied the same finishing process to the 59's as they did to the Tour wedges... I LOVE the look of the 59's at addy...

At the Boston Golf Expo, the PING rep I spoke with hand't heard of any issues with the finish (hmmm... not sure if I totally believe him on that

/fool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':aggressive:' /> ) but then again for as many people here say there's an issue there seems to be plenty of people that don't

/russian_roulette.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':kewlpics:' />

All I know is that if the trajectory suits me and I can get as much out of the irons as I can get out of the I5's I might be diving in head first with the Tours

jbombardieri · Mar 5, 2006

Clemson656 wrote on Mar 2 2006, 01:04 PM:

Nothing against the i5's. I've heard good things about them. But I'd just like to say that the S59's are not difficult to hit. I've played with them and love them.

Anyway, I just got a set of i3+ Blade's. I'm gonna go and try them out. But the S59's are gonna be tough to beat as I hit 14 greens on my last round with them.

I found my S59 Tours more forgiving then my I3+ Blades. I also have not encountered the rust problem

sandy · Mar 5, 2006

littlepoison wrote on Mar 5 2006, 01:29 PM:

Sandy, I'm hoping that PING put 2 and 2 together and applied the same finishing process to the 59's as they did to the Tour wedges... I LOVE the look of the 59's at addy...

At the Boston Golf Expo, the PING rep I spoke with hand't heard of any issues with the finish (hmmm... not sure if I totally believe him on that /fool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':aggressive:' /> ) but then again for as many people here say there's an issue there seems to be plenty of people that don't /russian_roulette.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':kewlpics:' />

All I know is that if the trajectory suits me and I can get as much out of the irons as I can get out of the I5's I might be diving in head first with the Tours

They never acknowledged they have a problem with any of mine----never any feedback, they would just replace or refinish the clubs no questions asked. I sure wouldn't expect a rep. to say there was a problem even if there was a problem--he's trying to sell you clubs. They have definitively said NO black chrome finish on the S-59s. Too many logistics problems involving how many color codes to have chromed since they do not bend well beyond 2 degrees. The chrome wrinkles on the hosel. Since they are chromed in China they weren't about to try and guess how many heads in what color code region to have chromed. Wedges only.

Clemson656 · Mar 6, 2006

jbombardieri wrote on Mar 5 2006, 02:53 PM:

Clemson656 wrote on Mar 2 2006, 01:04 PM:

Nothing against the i5's. I've heard good things about them. But I'd just like to say that the S59's are not difficult to hit. I've played with them and love them.

Anyway, I just got a set of i3+ Blade's. I'm gonna go and try them out. But the S59's are gonna be tough to beat as I hit 14 greens on my last round with them.

I found my S59 Tours more forgiving then my I3+ Blades. I also have not encountered the rust problem

Are you saying my experiment is a waste?

/fool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':kewlpics:' /> I play S59, but I just bought a set of Ping i3+ Blade to try out.

Last few rounds with S59 w/ Rifle 5.5 (score & putts):

- 84 (38) w/ 53% FW Hit, 50% Green Hit

- 81 (35) w/ 92% FW Hit, 33% Green Hit

- 78 (39) w/ 76% FW Hit, 77% Green Hit (Last round with the S59 before I tried the i3+ Blade.)

I just got the i3+ Blade last week and have played two rounds with them. i3+ Blade w/ DG-R300:

- 82 (38) w/ 69% FW Hit, 61% Green Hit

(I consider this as a well-played round as it's quite windy--20-25mph--and wind is not a good friend of mine as I'm a high ball hitter. Also, the clubs were 1/2" longer for me with jumbo grips.)

- 84 (38) w/ 46% FW Hit, 44% Green Hit

(I don't blame the clubs as I played with someone who really turned off my tempo.)

Oh, well, maybe I better off pratice putting or get a new putter instead.

/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':aggressive:' />

sandy · Mar 6, 2006

By the way I have every set of irons ping has ever built (including the forgings) and none has ever exhibited any signs of rust. That is probably 500+ irons with no signs of rust (including sets at my San Diego beach house by the salty ocean

/beee.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':kewlpics:' /> ). The only problems I have ever encountered was 3 sets of S-59s and 1 set of i5s (very minimal). Never had any problems with ansers, 69, 68s, KI, KII, KIII rail, KIV, eye, eye2, ISI, zing, zing2, i3, i3+---only recent models.

S59 vs. I5

Comments