WRX Review of the PING G20 irons

GatorNate11 · October 29, 2011

Thanks to both WRX and PING.

PING G20 irons; check your ego at the door and watch the scores drop.

Pros: The G20's will launch it high, long, and straight all day long. If you hate this type of thing and would prefer low short cuts, these aren't for you. The feel of the G20's is undoubtedly the best of their G series line of clubs, not the same feel as a forged iron, but for a cast iron, certainly acceptable.

Cons: The wider soles do make it a bit easier to miss it. The great thing though, is that everything else about this club is designed to still make the ball fly high and go right at the pin like you just flushed it. I purposely hit a few balls two inches or more fat, and still only lost 5-8 yards. Remarkable. There is a slight loss of workability but nothing a decent ball striker can't over come with a little bit of effort.

Bottom line: For the golfer looking for forgiveness and a larger head at address, these are dead perfect. I was pleasantly surprised with these clubs, and though they may not find a permanent spot in my bag (nothing ever will however haha) I would take these out to the course any day.

Looks: Of the G series clubs, these certainly have the most pleasing look to me. The graphics in the cavity continue to get better with each line, and the G20 is no different. Some will think the look is too "busy" but I found it to give the club a nice modern look, with classic PING taste and styling. The topline is fairly thick, as to be assumed with this type of club. The offset for the 4 iron, 7 iron, and PW are as follows: .30, .24, and .18. Clearly, this is a decent amount of offset, and will turn off some players with its look. The beauty of PING is that they have an i and S series of clubs (along with the Anser's) to fit the eye of pretty much every type of player.

Something that is simply pleasing to the eye, a more seamless look from shaft to hosel. PING is well known for not using ferrules, and before this made for an odd look at the hosel blend. The first thing I noticed looking down at these is that the blend is a far more seamless transition, and far less distracting. This for me, was a huge bonus.

Playability: Long, straight, high. These are the first three things that come to mind when using the G20's. As mentioned, the wider soles do cause a slight lack of workability at first, obviously coming from a blade this will be more evident than coming from something more similar to the G20's. This isn't a deal breaker though, with some time on the range and a little practice, you can still move the ball around quite well. We always hear of the elusive knock down shot with an SGI. This one was the hardest for me to get consistent with. Again however, with some range time this shot was also possible. One great thing was knowing that even if I didn't hit that fade/draw/knock down well, the shot would still turn out fine due to the design of the clubs, again pleasantly surprised here.

Feel: The G20's have the best feel of any G line club I've hit. I have a G10 and G15 7 iron sitting in my house, and was able to get a good comparison on the three. The G20's gave a nice solid feel when hit, and I found myself coming back to this one again and again. The feel certainly isn't that of a forged iron, however it is by no means bad. Of the cast clubs I've hit these were some of the best feeling. It was a mix of feeling like the ball was "on" the face, followed by a feel of the ball exploding off of the face. I was afraid distance control would be a little touch and go with this, but did not notice any flyers that seemed to go an extra 5 yards. This was a nice touch and gave you the confidence in your irons to hit to a number and feel like you were going to get that and only that.

Overall bottom line: These clubs are just solid. You really have a confident feel when using these. Looking side by side at these and my favorite PING irons (i10's) I'm not sure I would give the nod to the G20, a lot of this due to the look of the topline and sole. If you can get past this though, there is nothing easier to hit.

Now for those interested, here are my specs ordered: 4-PW, DG X100 (+1/4), Red dot, NDMC Red grips, D2 SW. Everything came in right on spec. I went with X100's partly for being fit into them, and partly to bring the ball flight down some. I'm a naturally high ball hitter, and the G20's were still able to get the ball up nice and high with X100's without losing any distance.

Onto the pics:
First a couple of pics of them in the bag

Topline of the 4 iron

Topline of the 7 iron

Topline of the PW

The new cavity graphics/back of the PW

6 iron at address

Finally, I would like to thank PING and WRX for letting me test and review these. Due to a few outside circumstances the review was late being posted, I PM'd Hipcheck about it and the response was very kind and certainly made me feel good about being a part of the WRX community. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them for you.

CarloGolfer · October 30, 2011

Great review. Can I ask where you got the Gator head cover? I have an orange and blue Rocket Tour, but yours is sweet!

GatorNate11 · October 30, 2011

Thanks man. I actually picked it up on ebay haha. I have an Oklahoma State cover on my 3 wood, exact same style, I just pulled the "1" off of it haha. Search for "florida headcover" on ebay and you should find one.

golftejas · November 5, 2011

Nice review Nate!

Do you have any comments on off-center hits, particularly a bit to the toe? This seems to be my miss and I'm hoping to get it cleaned up a bit with a proper length and lie fitting in my new clubs. My older Pings (G2) are pretty good in this regard, and I'm hoping the G20s are even better due to more aggressive toe weighting. My only dislike with the G20s is the black material on the back of the cavity - - I'd prefer a metal look instead, but if the material helps feel and playability I'll get over it quickly.

Johnny T · November 5, 2011

Nice review! How was the distance compared to your i10's?

stonecutter908 · November 5, 2011

Useful review, ty

GatorNate11 · November 5, 2011

[quote name='golftejas' timestamp='1320495045' post='3762293']
Nice review Nate!

Do you have any comments on off-center hits, particularly a bit to the toe? This seems to be my miss and I'm hoping to get it cleaned up a bit with a proper length and lie fitting in my new clubs. My older Pings (G2) are pretty good in this regard, and I'm hoping the G20s are even better due to more aggressive toe weighting. My only dislike with the G20s is the black material on the back of the cavity - - I'd prefer a metal look instead, but if the material helps feel and playability I'll get over it quickly.

[/quote]

Toe hits should still fly pretty well with these. I hit a few out on the toe to see what would happen and lost something like 5-8 yards. If I would have hit that with my blades I'd be looking at something like 15 yards. I'm not sure on all of the exact tech built into the cavity, but I do think the G20's feel better than the rest of the G line clubs I've hit, and I'm sure PING found a way to put something in there to improve feel.

GatorNate11 · November 5, 2011

[quote name='Johnny T' timestamp='1320496116' post='3762323']
Nice review! How was the distance compared to your i10's?
[/quote]

These were a little longer, but I believe the lofts are a bit stronger. With my i10's my 8 iron is roughly 165-170, with these it was closer to 170-175.