Ping G400 Drivers

[Kale_m]

I hit the g400 today with the stock Alta Cb stiff shaft.

 

My driver swing is 120mph and I currently play the g30 lst With a graphite design bb7x.

 

Even the stock stiff shaft felt great and I was hitting high bombs and that held the line and neve ballooned.

 

I have a fitting scheduled to find a new driver and this one is in the top 3 for sure.

 

With my driver I am not launching it enough. Lower flight but it runs forever.

 

We will see when I get it on the trackman. If there is no big gains then I will stick with it

 

Loved the sound and feel of the g400 though.

 

Stuck my bb7x in he g400 and hit some long knuckleballs

 

Also I didn't notice the smaller club head on the g400. Looked the same size as the g30

[JerryTBall]

Technically speaking Ping has said not to display till July 27 and if you order one it won't be until August. It was by mistake I was allowed to take the standard 400 out with a stiff shaft 10.5 I set to +1. The sound is amazing it's almost like you're getting your hands together sort of a slap sound and I know on one hole into the wind where I would carry at about 230 the Carry was about 262, because I play regular studio G driver I never took mine out of the bag in the 445 size head did not seem really any smaller looking at it. what I liked I seem to hit the center of the clubface more with it. First couple of drives because possibly the counter balance shaft it seemed lighter than my G but the head is the same weight as the G so couple of swings or needed to get used to it. I seem to leave it out to the right but once I got used to it I was pretty much able to do anything I wanted with it I'm actually going to get one and have Ping build it so it has the same specs as the standard driving but I'm 44 1/2 inches which is about an inch and a quarter shorter anything less than 44 they may not be able to match the weight and I've already gone down that route where I've taken a G 25 just had the shaft cut and it went from D3 to C7 and I could not get anything to go left .

[JerryTBall]

Has anyone done a serious head to head with vs the Callaway Epic driver yet?

I had the epic with the hazardous green stiff shaft with about 105 to 110 mile an hour swing speed the ball just seem too I don't know the face seemed alittle hot for me I tended to hit more balls to the right I seem to have a hard time drawing the ball so I went back to my ping G that's just how it worked out for me I'm going to tell you it's hard to beat the latest G not the 400 but the latest G but I think I'm really going to like the newer one too I'm not getting rid of my current driver

[Dpavs]

Has anyone done a serious head to head with vs the Callaway Epic driver yet?

I had the epic with the hazardous green stiff shaft with about 105 to 110 mile an hour swing speed the ball just seem too I don't know the face seemed alittle hot for me I tended to hit more balls to the right I seem to have a hard time drawing the ball so I went back to my ping G that's just how it worked out for me I'm going to tell you it's hard to beat the latest G not the 400 but the latest G but I think I'm really going to like the newer one too I'm not getting rid of my current driver

 

You are probably the fourth or more person (including myself) that has indicated that for them the Epic likes to drift to the right. With my LTD straight shots were common but with the EPIC the common shot is a power fade and I do have to stay more conscious of pushes to the right too. When they combine with a fade, it's hold your breath time on tree lined fairways for sure. I do love the sound, feel and distance from it. The one dead spot for me is if I catch it bit low on the face... that will almost always result in the more distance lost vs a bit high on the face. I haven't liked a single G series driver since the G15.. but I really don't know why.. they just have suited me well I guess. That said, I love the look and what I am hearing about the G400, so for grins I am sure anxious to give it a demo.

[BrianWalnuts]

Will give this club a try for sure. Thanks for the early reviews

[OLD_BONES]

I wonder what the back weighting is for the counter balance? I'm going to put together another shaft if I don't like the stock offering .

[JerryTBall]

I wonder what the back weighting is for the counter balance? I'm going to put together another shaft if I don't like the stock offering .

As I was saying it felt really balanced and when you look down at it you don't see the copper color you see more of a black same color as the club but it feels lighter but I'm not sure what they used for the counterbalance, The club is not lighter than the standard G but as I said because of the balancing it seems lighter but it definitely puts the ball along ways and it really seems to have pretty good control

[mrhicksta]

I took a few swings with the standard and LST at Roger Dunn and once my Epic sells I'll be preordering mine from DDG. I'm pretty sure I'm going with the Kuro Kage Silver TiNi 60 S, but the stock Alta sounds good, too. Like other have said, you don't notice the size difference and it really is a good looking driver. I'll be adding a G400 hybrid as well :).

[Foreleft]

Just got my delivery date of August 23rd. LST kk tini stiff @45" d3 digital loft 10.5. I would highly recommend Discount Dan's. Great people to deal with.

 

Rumor has it that Ping will not offer digital lofting on LST heads, because of already tight tolerances. You have found out differently?

 

Just got my delivery date of August 23rd. LST kk tini stiff @45" d3 digital loft 10.5. I would highly recommend Discount Dan's. Great people to deal with.

 

Rumor has it that Ping will not offer digital lofting on LST heads, because of already tight tolerances. You have found out differently?

[Stetson]

Just got my delivery date of August 23rd. LST kk tini stiff @45" d3 digital loft 10.5. I would highly recommend Discount Dan's. Great people to deal with.

 

Rumor has it that Ping will not offer digital lofting on LST heads, because of already tight tolerances. You have found out differently?

 

Just got my delivery date of August 23rd. LST kk tini stiff @45" d3 digital loft 10.5. I would highly recommend Discount Dan's. Great people to deal with.

 

Rumor has it that Ping will not offer digital lofting on LST heads, because of already tight tolerances. You have found out differently?

 

I spoke to the WRX department. Digital loft can be specified (mine is .8 above stated loft), but face angle (open v closed) cannot because they are all within .5* of square

[gambit]

Just got my delivery date of August 23rd. LST kk tini stiff @45" d3 digital loft 10.5. I would highly recommend Discount Dan's. Great people to deal with.

 

Rumor has it that Ping will not offer digital lofting on LST heads, because of already tight tolerances. You have found out differently?

 

Just got my delivery date of August 23rd. LST kk tini stiff @45" d3 digital loft 10.5. I would highly recommend Discount Dan's. Great people to deal with.

 

Rumor has it that Ping will not offer digital lofting on LST heads, because of already tight tolerances. You have found out differently?

 

I spoke to the WRX department. Digital loft can be specified (mine is .8 above stated loft), but face angle (open v closed) cannot because they are all within .5* of square

 

Does digital lofting cost more?

 

Finally hit it today at a GG but the dam monitors were all down. The first LST head I tried had the Alta shaft. Hated it with a passion. Just a limp noodle. Tried it with the Tour shaft and it was much better. They didn't have it with the Xtorsion or the Hzrdus. The sound and feel are much improved. Really liked what I was able to see.

[Stetson]

$15 extra

[FullOfBrushMan]

I have a second fitting at Cool Clubs in 2-4 weeks as I had food poisoning this morning thus leaving early and they don't have the G400 in stock yet and am willing to wait for that to come in.

 

At the moment the driver to beat is the Callaway Epic Sub Zero 9* with a Speeder 757 Evo I in X-Stiff. The M1 felt like crap to me ... and it stuns me as it was "the club I wanted to try the most besides the G400". That being said does anyone have any good shaft recommendations with the G400 that has a 110+ swing speed and got fitted already?

 

Also here is proof that I fall under the "normal" WRXer. :cheesy: :cheesy:

 

 

Will update when I put it head to head vs the G400 in a few weeks. Thanks again :wave:

[Kale_m]

I have a second fitting at Cool Clubs in 2-4 weeks as I had food poisoning this morning thus leaving early and they don't have the G400 in stock yet and am willing to wait for that to come in.

 

At the moment the driver to beat is the Callaway Epic Sub Zero 9* with a Speeder 757 Evo I in X-Stiff. The M1 felt like crap to me ... and it stuns me as it was "the club I wanted to try the most besides the G400". That being said does anyone have any good shaft recommendations with the G400 that has a 110+ swing speed and got fitted already?

 

Also here is proof that I fall under the "normal" WRXer. :cheesy: :cheesy:

 

 

Will update when I put it head to head vs the G400 in a few weeks. Thanks again :wave:

 

I swing at 120mph with the driver and I hit the stiff Alta CB and it held up fine for me. Launched high with no ballooning.

 

Also plugged in my bb7x with into it and hit some mid flight bombs. Could definelty tell they were low spin knuckle balls by the flight.

 

I have a fitting for a driver (any driver, will be trying ping, calaway, TM and Titleist) to see if i can optimize my numbers and be done

[Holy Moses]

Great to hear that Ping has a driver that is not only the most forgiving, but is finally longer than the competition - at least for the time being. Nice work, Ping. St Andrews by me is having a demo week soon and I'm looking forward to stopping by.

 

Is there a headcover photo yet?

[Unteachable]

I'm going for a fitting on trackman for the g400 later this week. I hit several a few weeks ago but nothing, including the epics, could beat out my 16 m2 with rogue silver. I really liked the g30 lst when i had it, so I'm hoping the g400 lst will be the winner

[toad37]

Great to hear that Ping has a driver that is not only the most forgiving, but is finally longer than the competition - at least for the time being. Nice work, Ping. St Andrews by me is having a demo week soon and I'm looking forward to stopping by.

 

Is there a headcover photo yet?

[^m9]

WRXers: some more feedback for you:

 

Just hit the standard and SFT heads this afternoon at GolfTown. Wanted to try the LST, but they either misplaced it or didn't have one.

 

The whole range was not on display, rather they were in the fitting rack. Only drivers and fairways, no hybrids. Really wish the entire range was available for fitting/pre-order/purchase. I want these now!

 

Appeared at first to only have the Alta and Tour shafts in stiff flex, but I later found a KK in stiff. I hit the Tour in stiff and then the KK in stiff (unfortunately it was in a SFTec head). Also hit the 3 FW with the Alta (more on this later).

 

Run down:

 

Looks:

 

Amazing. Perfect shape. Noticeably smaller to me front to back than my G30. Mean, aggressive, modern crown. Still love the flat black, and the dots near the back add nice detail.

 

Sound = Feel:

 

Massive improvement. No hollow, high pitched, ear ringing sound anymore. Really solid metallic thwack that reminded me of the old TM R500 series. Not muted like the Epic, and I thought that's what I wanted before hitting this, but I was pleasantly surprised. I actually like this sound vs. the carbon sound of the Epic (but that is also very nice). I think it's just that the G400 sounds a bit more powerful even though both drivers probably go around the same distance for me. I also felt I could tell where on the face I made contact and could also tell if I hit a really bad hook.

 

Performance:

 

Excellent. Deceptively forgiving. Head looks smaller but still incredibly easy to hit. I was stupid and hit 4 buckets (with bonus balls) last night at range and when I got home I fell asleep on the couch. So I wasn't as fresh as I should be when testing. That being said, the head is a monster. I found it easier to hit than my G30. Today I was swinging anywhere from 106 to 111, but when I'm fresh, it jumps a bit to around 113 or 115. With the standard head I was getting carries in the 250s and 260s, but I really felt like I should have gotten more distance, especially on my faster swings.

 

I think the loss of distance boiled down to two reasons:

1. Too much curvature to the left (therefore less straight shots and less distance). Mostly my fault as I'm the one who's controlling the face and path, but maybe I've gotten used to the X tour shaft in my G30 and how that loads and kicks? Really loved the feel of the shaft, but I saw consistent patterns to the left. This was on their GC2 monitor (thank god they got rid of their crappy screen detecting monitors). Can anyone confirm if the Tour shafts in the G400 range are the same as the ones in the G30? I found it easy to turn these over.
   
2. Spin. By no means did the standard head spin a lot, just more than I like to see. On most strikes, I would see 2300-2500 rpms. On higher face strikes (my typical strike), the spin would drop a bit. That's not bad, but I've grown accustomed to those low spin bombs with my G30 LSTec. I was really hoping to try out the G400 LST, but they didn't have it (or it was sitting somewhere else).
   

I feel I have power and strength to load X flex but I was hoping to fit into the Tour stiff because I liked how it loaded and felt. Maybe the Tour stiff in the G400 LST will work?

 

The KK was awesome too, but I didn't get a chance to try it in the standard head, only the SFT. And I got lots of left shots with it too.

 

I'm itching to buy this thing, but I may have to wait to get fit for the correct shaft. Unless a different store has the LST and other shafts in X. I'll have to phone around tomorrow.

 

Oh, and about that fairway demo: the young kid set me up with a senior flex Alta! I'm 6'1" 207 lbs (not fat, k?), and I had ZERO idea where the head was and where I'd contact the mat! Horrible dispersion! You could hold the club in one hand and wobble it around like a dog wagging its tail. It was funny though, and this kid was in training (said so on his tag), so I didn't make a big deal out of it. Super nice kid, and I'll get more chances to hit the whole range soon enough anyway.

 

I can see myself with a driver, FW, and one or two hybrids. As soon as I figure out the proper shaft in the driver, I should be able to figure out the flex of the Tour shaft for the FW and hybrids.

 

I feel PING made some big improvements in this series. Oh, btw, I don't know if I saw my swing speed increase due to the 445cc, but you never know, I was dead tired today and was still swinging what I felt was fairly fast.

 

Cheers.

[Vinny Nguyen]

Here are some numbers I got hitting at my local GG today. 10.5 degree head in the stiff alta shaft.

[keyglobal]

Ping demo day at the local club today. I was able to take my Ping G LST 10.5* with 65g Tour shaft head to head with the G400. LST with the new tour 65G shaft. Hit the 10 and the 8.5 degree on Trackman. The temp was around 95* so few braved to come out. I had both the Ping guys to myself for an hour. Loved it. The 10* spun too much for me with 14* launch. Eventually we got launch to 12* and 2200 spin rate with the 8.5* head set to the small + or essentially 9.1*. Taking the 8.5 to 9.1 also closed the face a bit and help with a high/draw ball flight. When it was all said and done I picked up 11 more yards carry than with the G, and 10 more yards roll (I hit a high slight fade with the G 10*) I also saw slightly better dispersion, but not much difference there. The sound and feel at impact was a big difference and the G sound never really bothered me outdoors. The G400 felt and sounded so solid, in a weird way it caused me to feel more confident after a few swings. Going back to my G to play after was not easy. The G400 head didn't look smaller to my naked eye. I ordered one on the spot.

 

I also got to hit the fairway woods, hybrids and crossovers. The most shocking was the 4 crossover. It took me 3-4 swigs to figure it out, but once I did I really liked it. High, long, and a seriously tight dispersion. It was hard to get my head around it. It's not fun to look at, but geez, I've never seen anything like it. I tried last year's crossover and really, really hated it. Ordered the crossover too.

 

Anyway, it was a really fun day. The Ping guys were great, really professional and knowledgeable. I learned a ton and my respect for Ping as a group grew immensely. I just like how they do things. These guys just let the numbers and my experience do the talking, they didn't have to push me into anything.

[JerryTBall]

Ping demo day at the local club today. I was able to take my Ping G LST 10.5* with 65g Tour shaft head to head with the G400. LST with the new tour 65G shaft. Hit the 10 and the 8.5 degree on Trackman. The temp was around 95* so few braved to come out. I had both the Ping guys to myself for an hour. Loved it. The 10* spun too much for me with 14* launch. Eventually we got launch to 12* and 2200 spin rate with the 8.5* head set to the small + or essentially 9.1*. Taking the 8.5 to 9.1 also closed the face a bit and help with a high/draw ball flight. When it was all said and done I picked up 11 more yards carry than with the G, and 10 more yards roll (I hit a high slight fade with the G 10*) I also saw slightly better dispersion, but not much difference there. The sound and feel at impact was a big difference and the G sound never really bothered me outdoors. The G400 felt and sounded so solid, in a weird way it caused me to feel more confident after a few swings. Going back to my G to play after was not easy. The G400 head didn't look smaller to my naked eye. I ordered one on the spot.

 

I also got to hit the fairway woods, hybrids and crossovers. The most shocking was the 4 crossover. It took me 3-4 swigs to figure it out, but once I did I really liked it. High, long, and a seriously tight dispersion. It was hard to get my head around it. It's not fun to look at, but geez, I've never seen anything like it. I tried last year's crossover and really, really hated it. Ordered the crossover too.

 

Anyway, it was a really fun day. The Ping guys were great, really professional and knowledgeable. I learned a ton and my respect for Ping as a group grew immensely. I just like how they do things. These guys just let the numbers and my experience do the talking, they didn't have to push me into anything.

It's good to hear so many here with same results which means it's not a fluke, confidence, appeal, sound we all have same reaction, I'm having the stock shaft in stiff left in but as I mentioned ping said they can keep all same specs if I keep shaft length at 44 to standard so 44.5, and hoping allows slight more accuracy as with many tour guys with shorter shafts. I know there will be no loss distance, matter of fact when I had the 400 out for 9 holes playing back 30 to 40 yards further than where I normally play with seniors and choked down about 1.5 " I still hit it past where I hit my G from forward tees, I'm not dumping the G as I love it too, my playing partner commented though after gave back 400 to shop why do I need the 400 you crushed the G on back 9, I had to agree but I feel I hit the center of club face more with smaller head, just got to give it i few swings to get used to the counter balanced effect, I feel it seems lighter but it's not, just balanced, so before playing hitting a few at range might be good idea, which I never do! I usually only chip & putt. So I'm not going to feel buyers remorse, still got my G, oh before I forget don't just go for the 3w try the stretch fairway wood, even the pros in you tube reviews will say not best from tight lie but from a tee or 1 to 2" lie OMG 262 past the flag after a topped drive, I don't kid here the 400 in the stretch may go further than 400 driver.

[dplasters]

Anyone dare to unscrew the piece on the bottom yet? enough room to stuff some cotton balls/hot melt if you wanted to play with SW?

[GolfMonster09]

Anyone dare to unscrew the piece on the bottom yet? enough room to stuff some cotton balls/hot melt if you wanted to play with SW?

 

Just did -- no way you're getting cotton balls down there. Maybe some string or hot melt, but absolutely zero chance of getting a whole cotton ball in there...

[Doucer]

Longer sentences than Hemingway.

 

Nice input into the discussion.

[BEND OF THE RIVER GC]

Love the smaller 445 cc profile. This could be my first venture into Ping woods...

 

Ditto!

[JerryTBall]

Oh sorry professor. There shorter?

[Noke]

Oh sorry professor. There shorter?

 

Sorry. Was making a (poor) joke. My apologies.

[Big Ben]

I'm a huge Ping guy and I know it's unfairly picky but I just don't like the copper color way. Doesn't matter much I will not own this guy until the Bubba appears anyway...BB

[JerryTBall]

I'm a huge Ping guy and I know it's unfairly picky but I just don't like the copper color way. Doesn't matter much I will not own this guy until the Bubba appears anyway...BB

 

Apology accepted LOL . Sorry I don't want to make two posts. the upside to the copper color is that when you do set up to the ball the shaft actually looks black, so you only see it when you're not teeing off, for what it's worth.

[Sniperman]

I'm a huge Ping guy and I know it's unfairly picky but I just don't like the copper color way. Doesn't matter much I will not own this guy until the Bubba appears anyway...BB

 

I hope you're referring to the shaft, BB! If not, I'd like to see you tee it up with the sole facing you. ?

 

At least it's not as bad as the color way of the G10 lineup! Was that orange or copper-esque?

 

?