I500 Questions and reviews...

[Taylormadegack]

I went to the local PGA Superstore and the 7 iron they had for demo had a faint blemish that was in the same spot I’ve seen the pictures in this thread.

[matchavez]

My 4-iron has a "faint blemish". Just remember there is a very big difference between metals, and how they project colour. I'm not a metallurgist, but I know that on this site you get told that if you dip your raw wedge in oil and torch it, you get a small house fire a cool look. There is going to be a manufacturing mark, just the same as when you see inserted tungsten and other things like that.

 

Don't give a pass to a crack, but don't mislabel it.

[bladehunter]

cleaned my set today and nothing..not even the PW which has seem alot of balls ...

[Rippin6Gears]

Well i hit some bad shots today off the toe of my 7 iron, got home and noticed I now have the outline. Hard to get a quality picture but the outline is there. Ughhhh

[WarEagleGolf]

Still nothing on mine. Sorry to see you go the "line of death."

 

All I know is, I hit the flag from 190 up a hill with my 7i (wind aided). I hit a 3i off the tee 235 to hit lay up for a nice wedge in. I got up to 5.1 GHIN with some poor summer play, but down to 3.2 since getting these.

 

I hope they don't have issues quality wise, but I'd just keep replacing them. Could just be me I suppose.

[Andrewkpk]

Well i hit some bad shots today off the toe of my 7 iron, got home and noticed I now have the outline. Hard to get a quality picture but the outline is there. Ughhhh

Take my advice. I went through two returns with Ping (they were great at handling everything) and this is how all my eventual cracks/failures started..... and yes face defects I could definitely feel with my fingers. The third time I spoke with Ping they told me straight up and I quote “this is a known defect and if we send you replacements it will eventually happen again”. I choose a refund and just kept a backup set of the new Mizunos I had bought while my Ping issues were being worked out. Now, everyone is going to tell you to not worry and that’s up to you, but ask yourself “you willing to spend $1200 on something with quality issues?

People are going to say “irons are tools not jewels. Who cares what they look like” I agree, but if I bought a tool for $1200 and it had issues, I wouldn’t find that acceptable. My 2 cents.

[bladehunter]

I agree with your logic ^

 

But I am flustered at why I haven’t seen this in my set. I’m abusing my set. And nothing. Is it a certain strike that causes it ? My soles look like you’ve took 80grit sandpaper to them. But the faces outside the wear from the bAll hitting them is mint.

[Andrewkpk]

I agree with your logic ^

 

But I am flustered at why I haven’t seen this in my set. I’m abusing my set. And nothing. Is it a certain strike that causes it ? My soles look like you’ve took 80grit sandpaper to them. But the faces outside the wear from the bAll hitting them is mint.

That’s a good question..... I’m getting the impression that toes mishits are worse than heel? Your guess is as good as mine.

[animalgolfs]

Should we not being seeing failures on G700 as well?

 

It's a welded face w/hollow body

[Andrewkpk]

Should we not being seeing failures on G700 as well?

 

It's a welded face w/hollow body

Good question. Here’s the thing....If we follow that logic though the G400 driver face is forged and face welded too. Shouldn’t there be issues too? My guess is different clubs, diff manufacturing techniques and tolerances, g700 thicker face plate and body? Lots of unknowns for sure.....

[Rippin6Gears]

Yeah I got a reply back from ping, so I will have to call them on lunch tomorrow. Defiantly not happy with spending the money on irons to these show signs of future cracking. I been using chrome soft on the courses.

 

Dear Matthew,

Please give us a call at PING to discuss the issue, it sounds like it is something that we have run into with the new i500's, however not common, we can bring the defective club back and get replaced if indeed defective. our contact is 1-800-474-6434

[russian7]

Well i hit some bad shots today off the toe of my 7 iron, got home and noticed I now have the outline. Hard to get a quality picture but the outline is there. Ughhhh

Take my advice. I went through two returns with Ping (they were great at handling everything) and this is how all my eventual cracks/failures started..... and yes face defects I could definitely feel with my fingers. The third time I spoke with Ping they told me straight up and I quote “this is a known defect and if we send you replacements it will eventually happen again”. I choose a refund and just kept a backup set of the new Mizunos I had bought while my Ping issues were being worked out. Now, everyone is going to tell you to not worry and that’s up to you, but ask yourself “you willing to spend $1200 on something with quality issues?

People are going to say “irons are tools not jewels. Who cares what they look like” I agree, but if I bought a tool for $1200 and it had issues, I wouldn’t find that acceptable. My 2 cents.

 

I hit mine 2x and the outlines showed just returned them for full redund from pro shop...i didnt want to have that on my mind constantly

[torbill]

Well i hit some bad shots today off the toe of my 7 iron, got home and noticed I now have the outline. Hard to get a quality picture but the outline is there. Ughhhh

Take my advice. I went through two returns with Ping (they were great at handling everything) and this is how all my eventual cracks/failures started..... and yes face defects I could definitely feel with my fingers. The third time I spoke with Ping they told me straight up and I quote “this is a known defect and if we send you replacements it will eventually happen again”. I choose a refund and just kept a backup set of the new Mizunos I had bought while my Ping issues were being worked out. Now, everyone is going to tell you to not worry and that’s up to you, but ask yourself “you willing to spend $1200 on something with quality issues?

People are going to say “irons are tools not jewels. Who cares what they look like” I agree, but if I bought a tool for $1200 and it had issues, I wouldn’t find that acceptable. My 2 cents.

 

Andrew, people have been posting a picture of a club that appears to have a crack at the seam, out at the toe. I have been wondering whose club this is. Is this your club?

[Andrewkpk]

Well i hit some bad shots today off the toe of my 7 iron, got home and noticed I now have the outline. Hard to get a quality picture but the outline is there. Ughhhh

Take my advice. I went through two returns with Ping (they were great at handling everything) and this is how all my eventual cracks/failures started..... and yes face defects I could definitely feel with my fingers. The third time I spoke with Ping they told me straight up and I quote “this is a known defect and if we send you replacements it will eventually happen again”. I choose a refund and just kept a backup set of the new Mizunos I had bought while my Ping issues were being worked out. Now, everyone is going to tell you to not worry and that’s up to you, but ask yourself “you willing to spend $1200 on something with quality issues?

People are going to say “irons are tools not jewels. Who cares what they look like” I agree, but if I bought a tool for $1200 and it had issues, I wouldn’t find that acceptable. My 2 cents.

 

Andrew, people have been posting a picture of a club that appears to have a crack at the seam, out at the toe. I have been wondering whose club this is. Is this your club?

Probably not I’m guessing. My pics weren’t very good.

[torbill]

Well i hit some bad shots today off the toe of my 7 iron, got home and noticed I now have the outline. Hard to get a quality picture but the outline is there. Ughhhh

Take my advice. I went through two returns with Ping (they were great at handling everything) and this is how all my eventual cracks/failures started..... and yes face defects I could definitely feel with my fingers. The third time I spoke with Ping they told me straight up and I quote “this is a known defect and if we send you replacements it will eventually happen again”. I choose a refund and just kept a backup set of the new Mizunos I had bought while my Ping issues were being worked out. Now, everyone is going to tell you to not worry and that’s up to you, but ask yourself “you willing to spend $1200 on something with quality issues?

People are going to say “irons are tools not jewels. Who cares what they look like” I agree, but if I bought a tool for $1200 and it had issues, I wouldn’t find that acceptable. My 2 cents.

 

Andrew, people have been posting a picture of a club that appears to have a crack at the seam, out at the toe. I have been wondering whose club this is. Is this your club?

Probably not I’m guessing. My pics weren’t very good.

 

How many clubs had failures that you could feel with your fingers?

 

Was there a change in the performance of the failed clubs once you noticed a crack?

 

[ProjectX_Mizuno]

This really stinks to hear about. I was seriously contemplating picking up a set of i500’s, but do not want to deal with any issues. Has PING released a statement about this?

[Andrewkpk]

Well i hit some bad shots today off the toe of my 7 iron, got home and noticed I now have the outline. Hard to get a quality picture but the outline is there. Ughhhh

Take my advice. I went through two returns with Ping (they were great at handling everything) and this is how all my eventual cracks/failures started..... and yes face defects I could definitely feel with my fingers. The third time I spoke with Ping they told me straight up and I quote “this is a known defect and if we send you replacements it will eventually happen again”. I choose a refund and just kept a backup set of the new Mizunos I had bought while my Ping issues were being worked out. Now, everyone is going to tell you to not worry and that’s up to you, but ask yourself “you willing to spend $1200 on something with quality issues?

People are going to say “irons are tools not jewels. Who cares what they look like” I agree, but if I bought a tool for $1200 and it had issues, I wouldn’t find that acceptable. My 2 cents.

 

Andrew, people have been posting a picture of a club that appears to have a crack at the seam, out at the toe. I have been wondering whose club this is. Is this your club?

Probably not I’m guessing. My pics weren’t very good.

 

How many clubs had failures that you could feel with your fingers?

 

Was there a change in the performance of the failed clubs once you noticed a crack?

2 progressed to the point where I could feel it. A 6i and the 8i. I noticed center hits with range balls were getting strangely soft which was oddly changed. I play Chrome softs so hard to feel it on the course but started to notice a drop off in yardages with my 8i the most.

[torbill]

Thanks Andrew. The reason that I asked is that a week ago I was at Van’s Pro Shop, a golf shop in Phoenix. I need a golf bag and was looking at Titleist, Ping, Sun Mountain, etc. I got into a conversation with the clerk. He liked the quality of the Ping bag and told me that if I had any questions it just happened that their Ping rep was in the store now. So I went over and talked to the rep, not about the bag but rather about my i500s, which I love.

 

I wanted to talk about my experience with the performance of the club and all, and I wasn’t focused on this crack problem. But I happened to think of it and I asked him how prevalent it was - and what it was. He told me that he has heard of two cracked welds, and that if there is a crack (and not just some sort of failure in the finish) there will be a noticable loss in performance. On this basis I would say that your two problems must have been actual weld cracks.

 

The photo that has been repeatedy posted, showing a crack of some sort out at the toe, is one possible weld failure. You have two weld failures. I don’t know if your two failures are the same two failures that the Ping rep heard about. And I don’t know if the Ping rep has the big picture on the situation, or has a limited perspective.

 

What I am trying to do is to get a sense of whether or not the sky is falling, so that people who come here and see the discussion over failures can get a sense of it and make up their own minds based on facts and figures as best we can sort things out.

 

The thing about your situation that doesn’t add up, is what they told you. Makes no sense to me. No company in its right mind - least of all Ping, a company with a reputation to protect and a company that is going to have to replace every failing club at it own expense - is going to leave such a product on the market. I don’t get it.

 

I have a couple of clubs that have the outline of the weld on the toe. I’m not concerned, since it doesn’t seem to get worse. I get near the Ping factory from time to time when I am doing errands. The next time I am in the neighborhood I will drop by the repair center and show them my clubs. I will try to find out if visible weld lines are a predictor of failure, or if they are just a thing. I will pass along what I learn.

[Andrewkpk]

Yeah I sure didn’t expect my experience. I don’t own them anymore so I’m not too worried. Their customer service was very easy to work with. I wouldn’t expect them to say too much. The people I spoke to there first said “oh this has only happened once. The second time I spoke with someone regarding my initial return it was “well it’s a known issue but a batch issue”. The third time I spoke with someone regarding the second failure they straight up told me it’s a known “defect” (not my word) and that replacing would end the same way eventually. Replacement was a no brainer for me then. Never want to see a product have problems, but companies do bring doomed products to market sometimes. I feel like it’s our jobs as consumers to hold them accountable especially at these price points. TM with their face slots come to mind which perpetually were caving in. It does happen unfortunately.

[torbill]

Update: As I indicated, I wanted to get to the repair center at the Phoenix Ping factory. I did that this morning.

 

I have seven i500s. I don't have any cracks, but four of the clubs have the outline at the toe. I took those four clubs in and asked what is going on. Ping employee took a look and told me that Ping will replace the entire set, that there was a weld problem with the early builds, and that the problem is now resolved. He told me that they have the correct parts in inventory, that the order will be expedited, and my new clubs will be available in two days - this Thursday.

 

That clears up my confusion. There is definitely a problem, in that these outlines are likely the beginning of an eventual weld crack - it is not a benign appearance thing or a failure just in the finish, as I have been wondering. Clearly Ping wants these clubs retired, as they didn't even ask me what I wanted - they just told me that they were going to replace them, period.

 

That's the bad news. If you have these outlines out at the toe you are likely to encounter a weld failure at some point. So you might want to get in touch with Ping or your dealer and come up with a plan to get this taken care of in a way that doesn't impact your golf activities. I am lucky. I am right here in Phoenix over the winter, so there is zero impact to my golf activities, and only a minor inconvenience driving to the factory.

 

The good news is that the problem is resolved. I pushed the Ping employee on this, asking three times, "are you *positive* that this problem is understood and is resolved?" "Yes." This is very different from what Andrew was told. I presume that the difference in what we were told is that, when Andrew was going through this, Ping had not resolved the problem and could not tell him that they had resolved it, so they could only tell him at that point that it would happen again.

 

Today, while I was at the repair center, a fellow came in with a problem with his golf bag that he thought wasn't right. I have to say that this bag looked to me like he had dragged it behind his car, grin. As I was leaving Ping was in the process of getting him a new bag, free of charge. I have been looking for a new golf bag, either a Ping, Sun Mountain or Titleist. I decided this morning that it will be a Ping.

 

I never checked my clubs to see if they had hot glue in them. I want the lightest club possible. I have 1/2" longer shafts, graphite. I asked Ping what the standard SW would be for a 1/2" long club and he said D1, but that at 1/2" long they can build them to C8. This is what I want. I have no idea how they do what they do re. SW, but I am happy that they can build them light, even in the longer length. No doubt this is due in part to graphite. The lighter the better, for me.

 

[Andrewkpk]

Update: As I indicated, I wanted to get to the repair center at the Phoenix Ping factory. I did that this morning.

 

I have seven i500s. I don't have any cracks, but four of the clubs have the outline at the toe. I took those four clubs in and asked what is going on. Ping employee took a look and told me that Ping will replace the entire set, that there was a weld problem with the early builds, and that the problem is now resolved. He told me that they have the correct parts in inventory, that the order will be expedited, and my new clubs will be available in two days - this Thursday.

 

That clears up my confusion. There is definitely a problem, in that these outlines are likely the beginning of an eventual weld crack - it is not a benign appearance thing or a failure just in the finish, as I have been wondering. Clearly Ping wants these clubs retired, as they didn't even ask me what I wanted - they just told me that they were going to replace them, period.

 

That's the bad news. If you have these outlines out at the toe you are likely to encounter a weld failure at some point. So you might want to get in touch with Ping or your dealer and come up with a plan to get this taken care of in a way that doesn't impact your golf activities. I am lucky. I am right here in Phoenix over the winter, so there is zero impact to my golf activities, and only a minor inconvenience driving to the factory.

 

The good news is that the problem is resolved. I pushed the Ping employee on this, asking three times, "are you *positive* that this problem is understood and is resolved?" "Yes." This is very different from what Andrew was told. I presume that the difference in what we were told is that, when Andrew was going through this, Ping had not resolved the problem and could not tell him that they had resolved it, so they could only tell him at that point that it would happen again.

 

Today, while I was at the repair center, a fellow came in with a problem with his golf bag that he thought wasn't right. I have to say that this bag looked to me like he had dragged it behind his car, grin. As I was leaving Ping was in the process of getting him a new bag, free of charge. I have been looking for a new golf bag, either a Ping, Sun Mountain or Titleist. I decided this morning that it will be a Ping.

 

I never checked my clubs to see if they had hot glue in them. I want the lightest club possible. I have 1/2" longer shafts, graphite. I asked Ping what the standard SW would be for a 1/2" long club and he said D1, but that at 1/2" long they can build them to C8. This is what I want. I have no idea how they do what they do re. SW, but I am happy that they can build them light, even in the longer length. No doubt this is due in part to graphite. The lighter the better, for me.

Interesting indeed. I’m sure there’s a lot of folks who appreciate you taking the time to visit and press the issue some.

[GolfTurkey]

I'm glad to hear that they have identified and (allegedly) resolved the issues. These irons could not suit me any better. On Saturday I was 2 under on the holes I hit fairways with all greens hit on those holes and 4 over on the holes I missed fairways (mostly in the trees). Now my missions is to find a shaft in the G400 Max that helps me hit more fairways.

[kcsf]

Thanks for the update Torbill. I feel like I was an early adopter, and luckily no issues so far. Good on Ping for their honesty to you and no hassle regarding the replacement. I wouldn't expect anything from Ping but excellent customer service.

[ThreeBoxers]

I’m a quality engineer and have to handle issues like this at work (not in the golf industry so take this with a very big grain of salt). I don’t know what kind of fatigue/failure testing Ping does, but it’s tough to say if impact of toe strikes was investigated, and if so, were manufacturing processes changed AT ALL between product validation and release. It’s not uncommon for there to be manufacturing process changes either for improved efficiency or cost reduction. Maybe the transition between pilot builds and mass production was a little shaky resulting in a bad batch.

 

From my experience, failure rates do not have to be high to start taking your medicine and doing no questions asked/proactive replacements. Even with a 5% failure rate you have 95% good product, but 5% of a big number is still A LOT of unhappy customers, and it becomes a brand reputation issue. This kind of thing moves fast so communication can be a bit vague at first while root cause/scope of impact is determined to avoid any sort of misinformation. Once you have definitive answers, it’s more beneficial to be a bit more transparent. Sucks to hear there looks to be a quality issue with these since they are beautiful irons and seemed to be a big step for Ping.

[animalgolfs]

The i500s were super low spin for me.

 

So they corrected their past failures, by moving the VOG higher, too lesson the spin!

 

Any S series spun off the charts for me{and my putrid swing speed even}.

 

 

 

[Tiptx1122]

I've always been a PING fan boy had some 7 different sets of irons. Best set was my s55's. Moved on as I moved on to Callaway then now a very happy owner of the TM P790's. Always though maybe I should have waited as I like the looks of the i500's as the only negative thing when I demo'ed them was the sound. Now with the QC issue all I can say I'm still a very happy owner of the P790's as they give me everything I want and more than I expected.

[bladehunter]

No quality control issue. Much less so than any slotted TM iron. When they fail the head caves in. And I’ve hit both plenty. I500 with hotmelt is butter if you hit them middle.

 

Plus you don’t have the 30 yard gap from 7/8 iron. Lol.

[Golfingfanatic]

How are you guys handling the transistion to the wedges? I currently use PM Grinds with 53° and 60° of loft. What would you recommend between I500 PW at 45° and the 53°? Is the U wedge any good or will it be too "hot" compared to the PM-Grind?

[GolfCsty]

Went through a fitting about two weeks ago. As a scratch with plenty of distance i500s weren’t even on my radar but boy were they consistent. At least in the hitting bay. Using the same shaft they were the longest and most consistent. With the compact look it wasn’t a tough hurdle to get over the idea of playing a “distance” iron. I am a bit hesitant about distance gaps (ordering standard loft) but my fitter has stated he wants me to return after several weeks of play and adjust lofts, if necessary, to address any gapping issues.

 

He also suggested I purchase the U wedge and run a two wedge setup instead of my old setup of PW and 3 wedges.

 

I’m running with his suggestions and hope it works out. Can’t wait for delivery. Haven’t played much in the last few months but new clubs always get the golf bug going again!

[bladehunter]

How are you guys handling the transistion to the wedges? I currently use PM Grinds with 53° and 60° of loft. What would you recommend between I500 PW at 45° and the 53°? Is the U wedge any good or will it be too "hot" compared to the PM-Grind?

 

Honestly I go pw at 48 directly to 53. So hard to say. I wouldn’t think the U wedge is hot. The pw isn’t. I can hit the pw 135 or 105. Depending on full swing draw or choke down fade. It’s shockingly consistent for me. And with the 105 shot. It spins plenty. I hit one yesterday that I wanted to release 2 yards. And I backed it up 3ft. So plenty of spin if you strike it clean.