WEBVTT - Episode 63: G440 Driver (Feat. Dr. Erik Henrikson) 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.320 The guys from Ping. They've kind of showed me how 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:05.040 much the equipment matters. I just love that I can 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:06.040 hit any shot. 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:06.560 I kind of want. 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:08.440 We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:10.600 what goes on here to help golfers play better golf. 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:14.240 Hey, hey, everybody, welcome back to the Ping Proven Grounds Podcast. 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.320 Marty Jertsen. We have made it twenty twenty five, year 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:19.640 three of the podcast, and with the new year comes 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:21.480 some very new and exciting equipment. 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.880 Uh yeah, Shane. And we're gonna start with my favorite category, 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.880 which is the driver category. It's the most you know, 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:32.000 not quite a hot take anymore, I don't think, but 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.720 it is the most important club in the bag, you know, 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.159 the driver in the putter. And yeah, we're gonna have 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:40.000 some fun with this one, Marty. The driver's been so 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:42.159 close to you throughout your career. I know you said 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:43.800 it's obviously one of your favorite clubs and one of 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.720 your favorite clubs to talk about. But when something like 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:49.320 this launches, where's your excitement level? 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:49.920 Uh? 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:53.400 Super high? Because I think consumers and you know our 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:55.560 listeners out there are always wondering, well, what can Ping 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:58.319 do next? What can the manufacturers do next, and we're 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:00.160 gonna be able to kind of deep dive that here 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:02.200 today with doctor Eric Henderson. 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:04.880 Eric is with us. Is this your second appearance on 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:09.959 the pod? Second time on Okay? Weel learn some from 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:11.039 my first Go Good Go. 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:13.600 We're gonna talk G four forty because obviously that is 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:15.880 the new product with Ping, and before we get into 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.360 some of the specifics and the excitement with the clubs, 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:20.800 I wanted to ask both you guys, how do you 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:22.600 come up with the name for a new product, Like, 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:24.520 where does G four forty come from? Marty? 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:28.280 Well, G G G kind of originally evolved from I, 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:30.520 like the I two, and then we made the I 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.120 series irons. You know, we had the I three irons, 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:35.040 the I three plus blades. 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:36.039 Uh. 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.040 Then we created G out of that, right, and then 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:42.280 you know, G two, G five, G ten. We kind 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:43.760 of evolved it and then we had to go to 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:46.960 uh to triple digits there for a while. 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.160 And from their card you got to make sure you 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.279 add enough numbers. How long is the meeting Eric about 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:55.360 G four forty? Is this like a week long or 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:56.760 like a month long uh? 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:00.920 For the name for the then, yeah, that's starts pretty early. 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:05.120 I mean, depending on uh, there's a number of different 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:06.960 factors that go into it, so it can be a 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:09.760 week and it can be a lot longer depending on 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:10.799 how those meetings go. 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:14.480 I wanted to ask Eric when when product becomes official? 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:16.600 I mean, obviously we're launching and now people at home 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:18.440 have seen it, obviously have a chance to hit it 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:20.639 and buy it very very soon kind of at the 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:24.040 end of the month. When does the product become finalized 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:26.480 in terms of you seeing what people at home are 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:27.280 seeing right now? 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.720 Yeah, so I think I mean the process, I mean, 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:32.760 some of the technologies and the insights that go into 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:34.440 this are years in the making. 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:35.840 You know. 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:38.160 We we have kind of this two year life cycle, 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.720 and so we here have been working with this product 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.640 and it's current embodiment for you know, i'd say a 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:49.000 good year already doing a lot of testing, you know, 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:51.640 making some you know, little tweaks, but in terms of 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:54.040 what you see here, we've probably had it in our 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:56.959 hands nine months to a year in its current embodiment. 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.200 Eric, talk a little bit about like just some of 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:04.160 the fundamentals of driver design. What is the foundation of 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:06.360 what we're trying to do, you know, And I would 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:08.440 say approach it with your golf physics hat on. 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:12.800 Yeah, So, I mean it comes down to implementing the 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:17.080 principles of conservation and momentum conservation of energy. You're trying 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:19.720 to deliver as much energy to the ball as possible, 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.200 increasing that ball speed, as well as thinking about launch 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:28.200 conditions and so you know, we talk about being in 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:30.320 the business of moving mass around. That was something I 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:32.359 first heard at like my first sales meeting. John A 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:34.200 got up and said, we've been doing this for fifty 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:37.680 one years, moving mass around in the most efficient way possible. 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:39.600 And we'll talk about some of the things that went 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:44.840 into this to give us some discretionary weight and allow 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.000 us to put the center of gravity in an optimal 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:53.680 location boost MOI maintain that industry leading forgiveness that we're 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:57.360 known for with our drivers. And then ultimately the geometry, right, 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:03.680 how do we design the package to transfer most energy 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:07.160 to the ball. It's face design that structure, how that bends, 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:10.440 so where we put the mass and what we do 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.240 with that structure pretty key to you know, unlocking the 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:15.840 most performance possible with the driver. 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.680 Eric, what's kind of the hot button topic words and 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:22.159 things right now around driving? Because you know what changes. 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.599 It feels like every couple of years. What we talk about. 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:25.920 You want to launch it high, you want to watch 0:04:25.920 --> 0:04:28.880 it lower, less spin, things like that. Going into G 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:32.320 four forty, what was like the main focus for this 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:33.280 particular series. 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:38.640 Yeah, so I think our strategies tend to remain pretty stable. 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:41.760 You know, We've talked about moving that CG down and 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:45.080 back for as long as I've been here, right, maxing 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.039 moment of INERTI forgiveness out. And so for us it 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:53.760 was continuing kind of down that consistent trajectory of and 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:56.440 I think the success of our drivers just kind of 0:04:56.440 --> 0:05:02.320 shown the merit of that trajectory. And so for us, 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:04.880 it was some small tweaks of unlocking some extra masks 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:08.120 to move the center of gravity a little lower in 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.760 order to improve energy transfer to the ball. And we 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.760 did that through a number of different number of different 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:18.680 technologies and design elements to help us get the CG 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.920 in the right spot. Aerodynamics always comes into play, sound 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:25.120 always comes into play, but the big thing here is 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:29.040 just optimizing the weight and the mass to deliver speed 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:31.479 and just overall performance. 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:34.000 Eric, you brought you brought up a few topics there, 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:37.599 but you know, I've always found it a very big 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:43.440 challenge to take two steps forward without taking one step back. So, 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.040 what's an example or a few examples in driver design 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:51.360 of a few different characteristics or properties that naturally kind 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:53.400 of fight each other. You know, I think you've seen some, 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:55.960 you know, our listeners have seen some drivers on the 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:59.360 market that have chased one thing myopically at the sacrifice 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.000 of another. You know, something we pride ourselves on is 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:04.200 trying to take this kind of holistic approach. What are 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:06.400 a few examples of things that fight each other and 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:07.640 how did we overcome those? 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.440 Yeah, so there's two ways. So we talk a lot 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:13.840 about trade offs, right, You're alluding to trade offs of 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:17.360 like these things that I can maximize this, but it's 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.920 gonna come at the cost of something else. So early 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.359 on we worked on aerodynamics and kind of go, we 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.839 can make something very very aerodynamic, but its mass properties 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:30.600 are going to stink, right, And that's where kind of 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.440 turbulators kind of came out of that. How do we 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:37.440 break the trade off? Right? Innovation for us is identifying 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.280 those things that fight against each other and figure out 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.719 a way to break that relationship. And so I think 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:48.160 aerodynamics and say forgiveness and center gravity placement are one 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:50.800 of those that tend to work against each other. 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:53.720 So we're about i would say, probably about ten years 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:57.479 into two turbulators. Give the listener a little refresher on 0:06:57.600 --> 0:06:59.000 exactly what they do and how they work. 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:04.159 Yeah, So ultimately these features we first put them on 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:07.760 the G thirty driver, one of the drivers that Marty 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:13.840 designed in his design days, and basically we saw this 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:19.160 identified this trade off we're like, well, came in and said, well, 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:21.080 we could do this to the shape of the driver 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.160 and improve aerodynamics. And the more we looked at it, 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:27.160 we realized, well, we're gonna make a big trade off 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.160 here and it's not worth it. And so drew some 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:35.040 inspiration from aerospace and from some other areas a sport 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.400 where we saw features being implemented, saying on the helmet 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:43.960 of some of these sports, you know, like downhill skeleton cycling, 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:46.840 and we felt that was a way to kind of 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.960 maintain our shape. And essentially on the crown of the driver, 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:54.400 flow comes over that leading edge, and by implementing these features, 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.240 it energizes the flow. So there's this thing in aerodynamics 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.840 called separation. It's bad leads to drive and so you're 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.400 trying to delay the separation. So those features influence the 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:08.000 flow as it goes over that leading edge trips the 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:11.240 boundary layer and gives us reduced drag, which breaks that 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:13.680 trade off layer. Yeah right. 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:16.800 I like that you mentioned the turbulator starting out and 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:18.760 Marty kind of being the king of the turbulators. I 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.800 feel like this driver kind of touches a little bit 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:23.760 of that driver that Eric had mentioned. Marty. I mean, 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:26.200 you think about the colorway with the G four to forty. 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:28.440 Also the sound, I mean the sound of this driver. 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:30.240 I hit it a couple of days ago. I mean 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:32.600 it is the best sounding ping driver that I've come 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:34.720 across to date. And I know, you know it sounds 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:37.280 so silly to talk about sound when you're talking about driver, right, 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:38.439 I mean, we want to hit the ball far, want 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:40.040 to hit it high, want to hit it straight. But 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.280 sound is so important in terms of something new one 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:43.960 hundred percent. 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.400 And that's that's another example of one of those trade 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:49.560 offs that we are constantly battling against. Is there's some 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:53.280 design changes that we know will be optimal for say 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:58.960 mass placement or launch conditions, and they might work against 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:03.360 producing a that's pleasurable. And I think you know, on paper, 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:06.000 sounds a hard thing to quantify in terms of performance 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:09.800 because you're kind of like, well, Newton didn't say anything 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:12.560 about kind of you know, sound in terms of like 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:14.720 you could do the equations and this is what's gonna 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:18.000 happen with energy transfer. But how that influences and how 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:21.400 the player interacts with it, is they begin to hear 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:25.520 that sound, it could definitely influence how they perform, right. 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.800 It's one of those kind of external elements that influence 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:31.760 the psychology of a player, can really help them. I mean, 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:35.040 you're gonna see if it sounds better, like evidence to 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.400 suggest they're going to swing it faster and with more confidence. 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:40.319 Yep, yep. So it's one of those pieces that kind 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.600 of touches your is a golfer, it kind of touches 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:45.440 your soul, you know what I mean? Shane, Well, what's interesting, Marty? 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:47.040 I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, But I remember 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:51.640 years ago kind of average players wanted a little ting 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:54.240 your sound. They liked hearing kind of that ping, if 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.080 you will, And I always remember that the pros didn't 0:09:57.080 --> 0:09:58.440 want to hear it. They wanted to hear more of 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:00.800 the thud. I remember you guys would use glue in 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:02.760 those instances to make it a little more thirty. And 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:05.079 it seems like we've moved more towards what the tour 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:07.880 players want in terms of sound versus maybe what we 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:09.000 were playing with a decade ago. 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:11.439 Yeah, definitely, And I think that's you know, that's one 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:14.760 of the advantages of using more carbon fiber in the driver. 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:18.120 I think that's a that's a good question, Eric for you, 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.080 is just that the advantages of the carbon fly wrap. 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:25.120 How have we expanded and built upon, you know, our 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:27.200 initial entry into that with the with the G four 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:30.720 to thirty. Now in what you see an expanded surface 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:32.280 area and volume here in the four forty. 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:36.640 Yeah, so here's an example of that piece. So it's 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:39.840 implemented now on all three of our models. So right, 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:44.160 we have the SFT, LST, and MAX and each of 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.679 those has their different lofts and we'll hit on that shortly. 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:50.040 And the big thing here is this is only eleven 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:54.320 grams and what really helped us kind of beat titanium 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:58.840 in that trade off was extending that rap around and 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:02.240 ultimately that's saves us, you know, about ten grams and 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:04.559 gives us ten grams of discretionary weight to then move 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:09.959 around and go into places like our backweight. And as 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:12.160 you mentioned, the other element of this is it changes 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:17.400 the acoustic right, A metallic and a piece of composite 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:20.240 are fundamentally going to have a different sound signature to them, 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.480 and so that's another tool that the designers can use 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:27.080 to then dial in that sound. And for the four forty, 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:28.720 players are going to notice a little bit more of 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:32.640 that muted kind of maybe even crunchy kind kind of 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:35.000 sound to it. And some of that's due to this 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:40.480 carbon fly wrap and that combination of materials producing that acoustic. 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:42.679 Eric you mentioned the models, you mind walking through the 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:45.080 new models for the G four to forty and maybe 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:47.160 something new in terms of MAX or LST. 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:51.400 Yeah, so I think. So we have the MAX, which 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:53.880 is yeah, kind of that just middle of the road 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.439 comes in three lofts. We have our nine degree, ten 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:59.560 and a half and twelve in the MAX. It's gonna 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:03.320 have a slightly smaller footprint than the four thirty. Provide 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:06.240 some differentiation there with some of the other models that 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:08.640 we're offering. You have the LST, which is going to 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:12.400 be a similar size, the more pair shape kind of 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.120 footprint with the LST that's coming in the nine and 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:18.320 the ten and a half. And then we're really excited 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:20.760 about the SFT offering a nine degree loft, and we'll 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:22.560 hit on that in a little bit of why we 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:26.239 decided to add an extra loft skew and the s FT. 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:29.880 But that one's you know, geared to fighting the fade, right, 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.040 and we have two settings there with our CG shifter, 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:36.080 draw and draw plus. So those are the different models 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:38.760 and the different loft skews available in those different models. 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:41.160 Eric, I think it's fun just to look from the 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.880 fitting angle to look at, now how many options we have, 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.880 and you throw in the lower lofted SFT. I think 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:49.760 when I'm looking at the driver right now, the four 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:51.640 to forty driver, I think the first thing people are 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.120 going to know is just the enormous you know. We 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:56.960 like to call it the CG shifter because it shifts 0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:00.400 the CG, but you know, otherwise knows the backweight. Tell 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:02.679 us a little bit about how much heavier that has 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.240 gotten over the years, you know. And also I think 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.640 when people first look at the four forty, they might 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:12.920 appear as if the CG shifter doesn't move that much, Right, 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:15.800 is it still moving the center gravity the same? Does 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:18.000 still change the ball flight the same amount? And why 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:20.520 is it moving less than what it used to? 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:25.400 Yeah, So you know I talked about this discretionary weight. 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:27.240 Some of that we put into the backway. So we've 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:30.640 gone as a standard and our kind of stock build 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:33.640 gone from twenty six grams to twenty nine grams. So 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.280 I mean, if you have an opportunity to feel that backway, 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:38.960 that is a that's a pantload, a weight to put 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:41.560 back there. It comes with some engineering challenges when you 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:45.240 have that much weight concentrated in one area. But with 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:47.040 that added weight, we can be a little bit more 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.600 efficient with the movement of that weight, so it takes 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:54.760 a lot less movement to create the different shot shapes 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.520 we're looking for and fitting environment. And so with the 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.360 four to ten we had that right you work, you're 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:02.480 the lead designer on that driver. We worked a lot 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.880 on on dialing in that first CG shifter. We had 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.079 quite a bit of travel with that weight to kind 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:11.679 of get the movement we're looking for. And so now 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:13.480 with this added weight, not only does it give us 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:20.480 just like just net CG location that's really optimal we've 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:22.640 minimized the amount we need to move that weight in 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:23.840 order to toomball flight. 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.320 Marty co this is the thinnest face of a driver 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:29.720 that Ping has ever made. I'm always amazed by things 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:31.160 like this because you feel like, you know, you get 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:33.800 four thirty and that's the thinnest face, and obviously you 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:36.520 get a chance to see incredible distance with that driver. 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.160 How can you continue to kind of push the limits 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:41.920 of something like a thin face of a driver without 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:43.560 you know, finding a whole bunch of them being sit 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:44.200 back and broken. 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:47.080 Yeah, No, it's uh, it's it's fun. I think a 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:49.720 big part of it is Eric's teams has incredible tools 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:52.400 to do some modeling, right, So we're getting better at 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:55.240 better at being able to model what happens without having 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:56.600 to make a physical prototype. 0:14:57.080 --> 0:14:58.120 Are you doing? What are you doing? 0:14:58.120 --> 0:14:58.280 That? 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:01.520 Is that like all computer based? How does that work? Eric? 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:06.960 Yeah? So a lot of it is uses finance element analysis. 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:11.440 So it's a computational technique where we can break the 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:15.400 CAD file down and virtually ram it into a ball, 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:19.960 right and predict the ball speed and the launch conditions. 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:22.800 And so we have a high power computer here on 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:26.360 campus send the simulations over there. It cranks away and 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:28.960 comes back and gives us the insights we're looking for. 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:32.160 It helps us to optimize. So indeed, this is the 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.000 thinnest face we've ever put into a driver, and part 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.080 of that is we've reduced the face height a little bit. 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:40.160 And so we found with all that research we were 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:41.880 doing and the model and we were doing that if 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:44.360 we reduce that face height, we can make the face 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:48.520 a little thinner and net extra ball speed can serve 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:52.720 more energy during the impact interval and ultimately lead to 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:54.920 that performance that we're super excited about. 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:57.040 Yeah, save a little weight from the face as well. 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.520 Yeah, so we ended up saving two to three grams 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:01.520 out of the face by making it a little thinner, 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:06.480 and then we could talk about the free hozzle. So 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:12.600 another area that's really close to the face that we 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:15.400 looked at and ended up removing some weight from. If 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:19.720 you look inside where our hostle sleeve enters the head, 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:22.520 used to be this kind of titanium tube in there 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:25.440 that kind of held that together. In that tube is 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:27.960 then really close it's coincident to the heel side of 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.680 the face, and so we ended up doing is taking 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:32.840 that tube and removing kind of the centerpiece of it, 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:35.320 which did a number of things. It freed up four 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:38.960 grams for us to then redistribute in the head, but 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:41.800 it also kind of freed up that area of the face, 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.000 so we end up with a little bit more freedom 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:49.040 for that face to flex in the heel area. And 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.080 we talk about face design. We did go thinner, but 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:52.840 we also had to move that VFT a little bit 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:56.440 to kind of balance out the extra kind of heat 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:58.920 we were getting in the heel area. There's different kind 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:02.960 of thicknesses in that face. Again, the mean the average 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:04.760 thickness is thinner, but then we have kind of some 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:06.879 thicker areas that we moved over to the heel region, 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:09.680 so you'll see that on all the different models. This 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:12.639 kind of cutout in there, and again it frees up 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:15.680 the face, gives us some extra mass that we then 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:17.439 put in the back weight and used to kind of 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:18.680 lower our center of gravity. 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:21.760 S This is this is why the driver is so fun, 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:24.240 because you know, you think how good the four thirty was. 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:26.480 Right here, we are right here talking about the four 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:29.280 forty and how much weight is a designer and a 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:30.840 driver if you can save one gram. 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:32.480 I was going to ask that is that like, is 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:34.760 that like losing twenty pounds? Yeah, human it is. 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:38.800 It is one gram is is worth everything. As a designer, 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:41.560 here we are. We saved it, you know, we way 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:45.000 from the fazzle. So, uh, it's really really fun. We've 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.560 concentrated more mass than the CG shifter. One of the 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.800 other aspects of the driver design is just looking at 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:55.040 the whole system build. Right, So Eric, talk to us 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:57.639 a little bit about you know, what we've done to 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:02.960 the holistic design, the standard lengths, the head weight, the 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:06.919 system weight, how that research operates, and then how and 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:08.960 what we've converged upon for the four to forty. 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:14.159 Yeah, so freed up all this extra discretionary weight. Some 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:17.120 of that went back into the backweight. But we were 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:21.040 doing a bunch of research on optimal headweight, right, and 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:24.480 so in a very simple way, you can say, we'd 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:28.080 go really light with a head, right, and you'd swing 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:30.479 it a lot faster. Right if we went a lot 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:32.480 lighter with the head, but now you're delivering less mass 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:36.080 to the ball. We go really heavy and you deliver 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:38.159 more mass to the ball, but you're not going to 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:41.399 swing it as fast. And so we had done a 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:44.320 we have a last time we chatted, we were over 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:48.159 in Focal, our motion capture system, and so we've had 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:52.240 everybody in the company go through mocaps, swing some drivers, 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:56.600 a lot of people from outside tour players, and for 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:59.639 different categories of player, we found these optimal head weights 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:03.440 where it's this kind of Goldilock zone where it's heavy 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:05.440 enough where you're delivering a good amount of mass to 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:08.800 the ball, but not so heavy that you're hindering clubhead speed. 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:11.760 And so it's just this is quirk of how conservational 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:16.359 momentum con conservation of energy kind of work together. And 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:19.040 so we use like a bowling ball analogy. It's like, 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:21.720 how do you know, my mom might use a really 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:24.760 light ball, but you give her, you know, a really 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:27.320 heavy one, she can't get it down there with a 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:29.360 lot of speed. You can throw the light one down 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:31.040 there really fast, but you're gonna find you're gonna be 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:33.000 more successful with something heavier because you can get it 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:37.119 down there. And so through all that research, all of 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:39.600 our headweights are about two grams lighter, two to three 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:46.080 grams lighter, and and so not only is the headwaight 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.600