If your golf bag has a lot of random woods you bought off the internet or got from an uncle, perhaps you’ve wondered if playing a matched set of woods (and shafts) would actually improve your wobbly game.
Sadly, we haven’t a clue. They won’t cure that funky over-the-top move we’ve perfected, but certainly, there is some logic to having consistent design, materials, and shaft flex in your woods, right?
We set about unscientifically testing this thinking with the newish PING G440s, released in January of this year as a successor to – just guess – the 430s. We focused less on the baffling physics behind these handsome woods and more on their increased forgiveness, a more pleasing sound at impact, and a clean, non-distracting look. And, yes, it’s worth knowing that these woods are now being played by Corey Conners, Tony Finau, Sahith Theegala, and Lydia Ko, among others.
Andrew Ainsworth, who runs a golf academy in England and offers lots of online videos about club testing, noticed straight away that the 440s have a deeper face than their predecessor – perhaps helping to rescue more off-center hits – and that PING found some 11.5 grams in the hosel that were just sitting around eating nachos and repositioned them to enhance your already legendary length. That is, by the way, the weight of 11.5 dollar bills.
Interestingly, Ainsworth and I both seem to think the stars of the 440 collection (9-degree driver, 15-degree 3, 17-degree 4, 19-degree 5, 21-degree 7, 24-degree 9, and hybrids at 30 and 34, all stiff Alta CB shafts) were the 3, 4, and 7 woods.
At his lab, Ainsworth hit his 3-wood 221 yards (carry) and 242 roll-out, off artificial turf, with a clubhead speed of 95 mph, ball speed 132. I don’t get that kind of carry – maybe a regular flex would be wise for comparison – but I love the confidence-inducing sound at contact and the clean dynamic look of the black face nestling up to a ball. The folks at MYGOLFSPY add: “As expected, the G440 MAX sits in the middle of the bell curve regarding trajectory, spin, and face height. Compared to the G430 Max, ball speed is similar but with a tick more launch and less spin. The net result is eight percent tighter dispersion according to PING player testing.”
And who among us wants dispersion?
“But I love the 4-wood. It’s a great club,” Ainsworth nearly gushed. “It will further optimize the gapping in your game.”
You can’t conceive of the gaps in my game. I’ve already started using the 4-wood on long par-threes where height is more necessary than length.
But my personal favorite was the 7. My twice-weekly golf buddy goes into mock golf crowd roars when I pull it out just because it gives me the ability to do what I could never do with a 3- or 4-iron. I can finally hit a ball roughly 190-215 yards and have some hope of holding the green. It’s not hard to see why so many Tour players have humbled themselves and learned to love their sevens. My only issue is the same one I have with the PING hybrids – they seem to have a draw bias (as Ainsworth noted), so I used their handy wrench to open the adjustable face a few degrees. That helped.
Ainsworth declared the 440s to be better than the 430s, though not dramatically so. “Still, (this year) I can’t think you’ll get your hands on anything better,” he said.
Testing labs are lovely, but I wanted to see the 440s hit off real grass in real conditions, off the hard-baked fairways of Central Texas munies.
I called up a sweet-swinging golf instructor, Jimmy Willingham, a San Antonio real estate man and former St. Mary’s University/Hero Golf Tour vet, and we found a spot at the popular San Pedro Driving Range to evaluate the G440s.
“I haven’t hit a 7-wood in 20 years,” laughed Willingham, now 40. He pounded the club unlike anything I can do, lofting shot after shot about 190 yards into a stiff wind. “This is not really the shot I need for my game. It’s a bit too high in this Texas wind,” he said, as I envied the Tour-quality 90-degree parachute drop of the 440s. Hackers will love that height if it replaces a 4- or 5-iron.
The driver and the fairway woods I tested were each in PING’s “Max” family of woods – highly forgiving and designed to fit the needs of most golfers. The driver combines a titanium body and face with a lightweight composite crown. The fairway woods and hybrids are built with high-strength C300 stainless steel material for the face and 17-4 stainless steel for the body. They also have the lightweight composite crown.
The G440 Max is engineered with a 29-gram, three-position adjustable back weight for added shot control. The G440 LST (Low Spin) may appeal to players with faster swing speeds, providing lower spin and more control. Golfers in need of slice-correction technology fit best in the 460cc G440 SFT (Straight Flight), which is designed with a two-position (Draw and Draw+), adjustable 23-gram back weight.
This is where the theme of matching your woods in design and materials just seems to make sense. If you love all these design features in, say, a three-wood, isn’t it reassuring to know they’re present in the rest of your woods?
“I really love the simple, sleek look of these woods,” said Willingham, as he smashed a 3-wood 230 yards into a 12 mph wind. “PING used to have too many little markings. I can’t stand shiny things on the front. Now they’re more sleek.”
“They’re really easy to move left or right,” he said, noting that he would normally be using an extra-stiff shaft. “When I deliberately hit them off the toe, they’re still consistent. And I really like the sound – more solid, thicker, less metallic, less of that titanium sound.”
The 34-degree hybrid with a 70-gram Alta shaft got good marks as well from the 6-year professional. “It feels heavy, not overly whippy. I could see this maybe replacing a six-iron for a lot of people.”
True enough, I’m doing just that and wondering, how many classic irons do I carry that consistently outperform these woods? Ben Hogan may be aghast, but the rest of us are enjoying better shots.
Bruce Selcraig is a former staff writer for Sports Illustrated and could not hit a two-iron if his life depended on it. selcraig@swbell.net