Bubba Watson

[jbombardieri]

Ping Blades Protos

In this week's GORLFWORLD it said that Bubba was using Prototype Ping Blades? Does anyone have any pictures or have any information these prototypes? Thanks.

[abewley]

i am sure they are referring to the fact that they are the black nickel finish which isn't retail...

[gatorhead]

a: there is no S59 black nickel finish....just spoke to someone the other day about this.

 

b: unless it is a different article, the article was talking about a Ping "blade putter"

[abewley]

sandy disagrees with you..

 

 

http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/index.php?sh...bba's+irons

[abewley]

thank you.

[stickman]

Heres a pic .

[kblakeney35]

who called them prototypes? aren't they just black finish?

 

Because they havent been released to the public/mass produced, technically they are still prototypes.

[gatorhead]

ok....maybe he was wrong...my bad. he seemed pretty sure of it. then again, maybe he was just trying to show off

[sandy]

I talked to a friend that works at Ping and they did indeed do 1 set of Black Nickel Chrome S-59s for Bubba Watson (considered protos). I asked about the other set that was spotted and he said it was probably an original finish set (which were darker than todays tumble finished set) that had ferrules added and a white paint job added to it. He said they have seen several sets like this but they aren't black nickel chrome. I suspected that in the pictures I was sent (so I didn't post them) since the ferrules were an even worse turning job than ping does

 

They also have stopped selecting driver heads for people in Wrx. You used to be able to request a digitally measured low running loft from their 7.5 heads. Bubba's measures 6.75 (the lowest they have seen tolerance wise). Those heads are reserved for the Tour now.

[yorktownhorn]

i made my S59's rust------- :stop:

[plus1]

they definately do look sweet....if they release these to the public they will sell like hot cakes! s59s are nice clubs, but personally id rather have the pure forged feeling when i actually make a strike lol!

 

from experience in the past ping wrx offer and provide top quality service! they truely were the ones that took the custom fitting to the next level!

[sandy]

they definately do look sweet....if they release these to the public they will sell like hot cakes! s59s are nice clubs, but personally id rather have the pure forged feeling when i actually make a strike lol!

 

from experience in the past ping wrx offer and provide top quality service! they truely were the ones that took the custom fitting to the next level!

 

Part of the reason they don't do it (other than the logistics of guessing how many color codes to send to China---remember this finish doesn't like to be bent) is the S-59s have never sold well and won't (per their own research) with a different finish. I know several large dealers (sales over $18 mill a year) that have still just sold barely double digits of them since they first came out. It really isn't a club style people are looking for from Ping. They have never produced a traditional shaped club since the early days with forgings (that they didn't do, just machined the backs). Their own pros don't necessarily use a whole set of S-59s. The only ones that I can think of of any note are Jimenez and Moore (partial set).

[golfer40]

From what i know, All of there clubs do to a heat treated process cant be bent to the disired lie..Except the Black nikel Finish, which can only be bent 2*..So they are in the middle of possible making a couple different head sets... 1* up & 2* flat which should cover the basis... As for the #'s on the s59's, ITs true the comsumers are not looking for these as a TRUE blade until they hit them, but if you look at the number of sets of irons played in Collage tourneys, so on and so forth, Ping has sky rocketed...

[sandy]

From what i know, All of there clubs do to a heat treated process cant be bent to the disired lie..Except the Black nikel Finish, which can only be bent 2*..So they are in the middle of possible making a couple different head sets... 1* up & 2* flat which should cover the basis... As for the #'s on the s59's, ITs true the comsumers are not looking for these as a TRUE blade until they hit them, but if you look at the number of sets of irons played in Collage tourneys, so on and so forth, Ping has sky rocketed...

 

As I said before (from being in meetings with them) they are not willing to do that for such miniscule sales. Even just sending black dots they could probably cover 90% of their sales with + - 2 degrees possible, but the sales are so low it isn't worth the effort, time, expense only to wind up with a bunch of unused heads. Ping is very good at controlling inventory unlike many others that wind up closing out tons of unused stock (TM for instance). I haven't seen that many more S-59s at colleges versus i5s. Plus college usage has NOTHING to do with retail sales as evidenced by the sales volumes of these irons.

[klab0001]

Love my tour Ping Wedges

[klab0001]

Have a Ping Tour Black Nickel 50 degree that I can't keep bent at 48, but I still love it