Redwood Story

[NicholasP]

Happy Ending

Picked up a 33" red dot Redwood about 2 months ago. Immediately fell in love with the looks, and feel. Coming from a 2 ball mid cut down weighing in at a stout 400 grams the Ping felt a little light. Well here is here things went to crap.

I get the bright idea of throwing in the t2c 200 gram putter shaft. Get the shaft and immediately go to extract the old shaft. After taking the blowtorch to the head and shaft for what I felt was adequate time, it will not budge(in the process bent the shaft).

Send a letter to Ping with the putter and tell them I would like to have them remove the shaft and simply send the clubhead back to me, simple right? WRONG!! I get a call from repairs saying that a ball bearing is pounded into the bottom of the shaft for expansion so the shaft cannot be removed, and it is against policy to send me back just the clubhead (perfect).

Obviously being less than thrilled with the answer, I go on a rant about what garbage that is. After offering my displeasure I tell them to simply reshaft it and send it back. 1/2 hr. later I get a call and they said they would send the putter back with a shaft in it with no ball bearing (just epoxied). Thanks I said since it is impossible to get the ball bearing out and change the shaft.

Finally get the putter back and remove the shaft with ease :crazy: then realize the tip size is .355 and the heavy putter shaft is .370(awesome another pain in the rear). I decide to grind the shaft down and try to get it to fit, NAILED IT!! Epoxied it and finally get what I had been looking for, a sledgehammer.

This thing feels 10 times better to me then what it had previously, I would say the new shaft added in the neighborhood of 90 grams. Just wanted to share this in case anyone else had the bright idea of reshafting their Redwood Anser. Thanks for reading

[502 to Right]

Ping has done this for years with all of their putters. It is incredibly annoying and one reason I no longer use Ping. Some methods to remove the shaft yourself include drilling through the bottom of the plumbers neck to punch the ball bearing out from the backside after heating the hosel. I've recently read of cutting the shaft down to about 10 inches, then putting the head in the freezer, taking it out, heating it red hot and then using a punch to shatter the ball bearing. It's nuts.

[NicholasP]

Hard to say if it has lost any feel, as where I live in Indiana it is too cold and nasty too putt outside. Felt good on the carpet to me, but I found it amazing how different the weight is by changing the shaft, WAAAAAYYYYY heavier. Upon further use when I go to Myrtle Beach in February I will post a better review.

[Gozz]

Thank you for the post. About 10 years ago a guy gave me a Ping B60 after he snapped the shaft. I had no idea what that round piece of crap was in the hosel. I tried every way I knew how to get that thing out and finally gave up on it & put it in my closet. So there is no way to get it out besides sending it into Ping? How much did it cost to reshaft your putter?

[NicholasP]

I have not got the bill yet but I am guessing in the $40 range. I just hope this prevents a lot of guys from snapping that ping putter across you knee :crazy: