Speaker 1: The guys from Ping. They've kind of showed me how
Speaker 1: much the equipment matters. I just love that I can
Speaker 1: hit any shot.
Speaker 2: I kind of want.
Speaker 3: We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about
Speaker 3: what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.
Speaker 2: Hey, hey, everybody, welcome back to the Ping Proven Grounds Podcast.
Speaker 2: Marty Jertsen. We have made it twenty twenty five, year
Speaker 2: three of the podcast, and with the new year comes
Speaker 2: some very new and exciting equipment.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, Shane. And we're gonna start with my favorite category,
Speaker 3: which is the driver category. It's the most you know,
Speaker 3: not quite a hot take anymore, I don't think, but
Speaker 3: it is the most important club in the bag, you know,
Speaker 3: the driver in the putter. And yeah, we're gonna have
Speaker 3: some fun with this one, Marty. The driver's been so
Speaker 3: close to you throughout your career. I know you said
Speaker 3: it's obviously one of your favorite clubs and one of
Speaker 3: your favorite clubs to talk about. But when something like
Speaker 3: this launches, where's your excitement level?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 3: Super high? Because I think consumers and you know our
Speaker 3: listeners out there are always wondering, well, what can Ping
Speaker 3: do next? What can the manufacturers do next, and we're
Speaker 3: gonna be able to kind of deep dive that here
Speaker 3: today with doctor Eric Henderson.
Speaker 1: Eric is with us. Is this your second appearance on
Speaker 1: the pod? Second time on Okay? Weel learn some from
Speaker 1: my first Go Good Go.
Speaker 2: We're gonna talk G four forty because obviously that is
Speaker 2: the new product with Ping, and before we get into
Speaker 2: some of the specifics and the excitement with the clubs,
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask both you guys, how do you
Speaker 2: come up with the name for a new product, Like,
Speaker 2: where does G four forty come from? Marty?
Speaker 3: Well, G G G kind of originally evolved from I,
Speaker 3: like the I two, and then we made the I
Speaker 3: series irons. You know, we had the I three irons,
Speaker 3: the I three plus blades.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: Then we created G out of that, right, and then
Speaker 3: you know, G two, G five, G ten. We kind
Speaker 3: of evolved it and then we had to go to
Speaker 3: uh to triple digits there for a while.
Speaker 2: And from their card you got to make sure you
Speaker 2: add enough numbers. How long is the meeting Eric about
Speaker 2: G four forty? Is this like a week long or
Speaker 2: like a month long uh?
Speaker 1: For the name for the then, yeah, that's starts pretty early.
Speaker 1: I mean, depending on uh, there's a number of different
Speaker 1: factors that go into it, so it can be a
Speaker 1: week and it can be a lot longer depending on
Speaker 1: how those meetings go.
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask Eric when when product becomes official?
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously we're launching and now people at home
Speaker 2: have seen it, obviously have a chance to hit it
Speaker 2: and buy it very very soon kind of at the
Speaker 2: end of the month. When does the product become finalized
Speaker 2: in terms of you seeing what people at home are
Speaker 2: seeing right now?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think I mean the process, I mean,
Speaker 1: some of the technologies and the insights that go into
Speaker 1: this are years in the making.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: We we have kind of this two year life cycle,
Speaker 1: and so we here have been working with this product
Speaker 1: and it's current embodiment for you know, i'd say a
Speaker 1: good year already doing a lot of testing, you know,
Speaker 1: making some you know, little tweaks, but in terms of
Speaker 1: what you see here, we've probably had it in our
Speaker 1: hands nine months to a year in its current embodiment.
Speaker 3: Eric, talk a little bit about like just some of
Speaker 3: the fundamentals of driver design. What is the foundation of
Speaker 3: what we're trying to do, you know, And I would
Speaker 3: say approach it with your golf physics hat on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, I mean it comes down to implementing the
Speaker 1: principles of conservation and momentum conservation of energy. You're trying
Speaker 1: to deliver as much energy to the ball as possible,
Speaker 1: increasing that ball speed, as well as thinking about launch
Speaker 1: conditions and so you know, we talk about being in
Speaker 1: the business of moving mass around. That was something I
Speaker 1: first heard at like my first sales meeting. John A
Speaker 1: got up and said, we've been doing this for fifty
Speaker 1: one years, moving mass around in the most efficient way possible.
Speaker 1: And we'll talk about some of the things that went
Speaker 1: into this to give us some discretionary weight and allow
Speaker 1: us to put the center of gravity in an optimal
Speaker 1: location boost MOI maintain that industry leading forgiveness that we're
Speaker 1: known for with our drivers. And then ultimately the geometry, right,
Speaker 1: how do we design the package to transfer most energy
Speaker 1: to the ball. It's face design that structure, how that bends,
Speaker 1: so where we put the mass and what we do
Speaker 1: with that structure pretty key to you know, unlocking the
Speaker 1: most performance possible with the driver.
Speaker 2: Eric, what's kind of the hot button topic words and
Speaker 2: things right now around driving? Because you know what changes.
Speaker 2: It feels like every couple of years. What we talk about.
Speaker 2: You want to launch it high, you want to watch
Speaker 2: it lower, less spin, things like that. Going into G
Speaker 2: four forty, what was like the main focus for this
Speaker 2: particular series.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think our strategies tend to remain pretty stable.
Speaker 1: You know, We've talked about moving that CG down and
Speaker 1: back for as long as I've been here, right, maxing
Speaker 1: moment of INERTI forgiveness out. And so for us it
Speaker 1: was continuing kind of down that consistent trajectory of and
Speaker 1: I think the success of our drivers just kind of
Speaker 1: shown the merit of that trajectory. And so for us,
Speaker 1: it was some small tweaks of unlocking some extra masks
Speaker 1: to move the center of gravity a little lower in
Speaker 1: order to improve energy transfer to the ball. And we
Speaker 1: did that through a number of different number of different
Speaker 1: technologies and design elements to help us get the CG
Speaker 1: in the right spot. Aerodynamics always comes into play, sound
Speaker 1: always comes into play, but the big thing here is
Speaker 1: just optimizing the weight and the mass to deliver speed
Speaker 1: and just overall performance.
Speaker 3: Eric, you brought you brought up a few topics there,
Speaker 3: but you know, I've always found it a very big
Speaker 3: challenge to take two steps forward without taking one step back. So,
Speaker 3: what's an example or a few examples in driver design
Speaker 3: of a few different characteristics or properties that naturally kind
Speaker 3: of fight each other. You know, I think you've seen some,
Speaker 3: you know, our listeners have seen some drivers on the
Speaker 3: market that have chased one thing myopically at the sacrifice
Speaker 3: of another. You know, something we pride ourselves on is
Speaker 3: trying to take this kind of holistic approach. What are
Speaker 3: a few examples of things that fight each other and
Speaker 3: how did we overcome those?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so there's two ways. So we talk a lot
Speaker 1: about trade offs, right, You're alluding to trade offs of
Speaker 1: like these things that I can maximize this, but it's
Speaker 1: gonna come at the cost of something else. So early
Speaker 1: on we worked on aerodynamics and kind of go, we
Speaker 1: can make something very very aerodynamic, but its mass properties
Speaker 1: are going to stink, right, And that's where kind of
Speaker 1: turbulators kind of came out of that. How do we
Speaker 1: break the trade off? Right? Innovation for us is identifying
Speaker 1: those things that fight against each other and figure out
Speaker 1: a way to break that relationship. And so I think
Speaker 1: aerodynamics and say forgiveness and center gravity placement are one
Speaker 1: of those that tend to work against each other.
Speaker 3: So we're about i would say, probably about ten years
Speaker 3: into two turbulators. Give the listener a little refresher on
Speaker 3: exactly what they do and how they work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So ultimately these features we first put them on
Speaker 1: the G thirty driver, one of the drivers that Marty
Speaker 1: designed in his design days, and basically we saw this
Speaker 1: identified this trade off we're like, well, came in and said, well,
Speaker 1: we could do this to the shape of the driver
Speaker 1: and improve aerodynamics. And the more we looked at it,
Speaker 1: we realized, well, we're gonna make a big trade off
Speaker 1: here and it's not worth it. And so drew some
Speaker 1: inspiration from aerospace and from some other areas a sport
Speaker 1: where we saw features being implemented, saying on the helmet
Speaker 1: of some of these sports, you know, like downhill skeleton cycling,
Speaker 1: and we felt that was a way to kind of
Speaker 1: maintain our shape. And essentially on the crown of the driver,
Speaker 1: flow comes over that leading edge, and by implementing these features,
Speaker 1: it energizes the flow. So there's this thing in aerodynamics
Speaker 1: called separation. It's bad leads to drive and so you're
Speaker 1: trying to delay the separation. So those features influence the
Speaker 1: flow as it goes over that leading edge trips the
Speaker 1: boundary layer and gives us reduced drag, which breaks that
Speaker 1: trade off layer. Yeah right.
Speaker 2: I like that you mentioned the turbulator starting out and
Speaker 2: Marty kind of being the king of the turbulators. I
Speaker 2: feel like this driver kind of touches a little bit
Speaker 2: of that driver that Eric had mentioned. Marty. I mean,
Speaker 2: you think about the colorway with the G four to forty.
Speaker 2: Also the sound, I mean the sound of this driver.
Speaker 2: I hit it a couple of days ago. I mean
Speaker 2: it is the best sounding ping driver that I've come
Speaker 2: across to date. And I know, you know it sounds
Speaker 2: so silly to talk about sound when you're talking about driver, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, we want to hit the ball far, want
Speaker 2: to hit it high, want to hit it straight. But
Speaker 2: sound is so important in terms of something new one
Speaker 2: hundred percent.
Speaker 1: And that's that's another example of one of those trade
Speaker 1: offs that we are constantly battling against. Is there's some
Speaker 1: design changes that we know will be optimal for say
Speaker 1: mass placement or launch conditions, and they might work against
Speaker 1: producing a that's pleasurable. And I think you know, on paper,
Speaker 1: sounds a hard thing to quantify in terms of performance
Speaker 1: because you're kind of like, well, Newton didn't say anything
Speaker 1: about kind of you know, sound in terms of like
Speaker 1: you could do the equations and this is what's gonna
Speaker 1: happen with energy transfer. But how that influences and how
Speaker 1: the player interacts with it, is they begin to hear
Speaker 1: that sound, it could definitely influence how they perform, right.
Speaker 1: It's one of those kind of external elements that influence
Speaker 1: the psychology of a player, can really help them. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're gonna see if it sounds better, like evidence to
Speaker 1: suggest they're going to swing it faster and with more confidence.
Speaker 3: Yep, yep. So it's one of those pieces that kind
Speaker 3: of touches your is a golfer, it kind of touches
Speaker 3: your soul, you know what I mean? Shane, Well, what's interesting, Marty?
Speaker 2: I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, But I remember
Speaker 2: years ago kind of average players wanted a little ting
Speaker 2: your sound. They liked hearing kind of that ping, if
Speaker 2: you will, And I always remember that the pros didn't
Speaker 2: want to hear it. They wanted to hear more of
Speaker 2: the thud. I remember you guys would use glue in
Speaker 2: those instances to make it a little more thirty. And
Speaker 2: it seems like we've moved more towards what the tour
Speaker 2: players want in terms of sound versus maybe what we
Speaker 2: were playing with a decade ago.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, And I think that's you know, that's one
Speaker 3: of the advantages of using more carbon fiber in the driver.
Speaker 3: I think that's a that's a good question, Eric for you,
Speaker 3: is just that the advantages of the carbon fly wrap.
Speaker 3: How have we expanded and built upon, you know, our
Speaker 3: initial entry into that with the with the G four
Speaker 3: to thirty. Now in what you see an expanded surface
Speaker 3: area and volume here in the four forty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so here's an example of that piece. So it's
Speaker 1: implemented now on all three of our models. So right,
Speaker 1: we have the SFT, LST, and MAX and each of
Speaker 1: those has their different lofts and we'll hit on that shortly.
Speaker 1: And the big thing here is this is only eleven
Speaker 1: grams and what really helped us kind of beat titanium
Speaker 1: in that trade off was extending that rap around and
Speaker 1: ultimately that's saves us, you know, about ten grams and
Speaker 1: gives us ten grams of discretionary weight to then move
Speaker 1: around and go into places like our backweight. And as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, the other element of this is it changes
Speaker 1: the acoustic right, A metallic and a piece of composite
Speaker 1: are fundamentally going to have a different sound signature to them,
Speaker 1: and so that's another tool that the designers can use
Speaker 1: to then dial in that sound. And for the four forty,
Speaker 1: players are going to notice a little bit more of
Speaker 1: that muted kind of maybe even crunchy kind kind of
Speaker 1: sound to it. And some of that's due to this
Speaker 1: carbon fly wrap and that combination of materials producing that acoustic.
Speaker 2: Eric you mentioned the models, you mind walking through the
Speaker 2: new models for the G four to forty and maybe
Speaker 2: something new in terms of MAX or LST.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think. So we have the MAX, which
Speaker 1: is yeah, kind of that just middle of the road
Speaker 1: comes in three lofts. We have our nine degree, ten
Speaker 1: and a half and twelve in the MAX. It's gonna
Speaker 1: have a slightly smaller footprint than the four thirty. Provide
Speaker 1: some differentiation there with some of the other models that
Speaker 1: we're offering. You have the LST, which is going to
Speaker 1: be a similar size, the more pair shape kind of
Speaker 1: footprint with the LST that's coming in the nine and
Speaker 1: the ten and a half. And then we're really excited
Speaker 1: about the SFT offering a nine degree loft, and we'll
Speaker 1: hit on that in a little bit of why we
Speaker 1: decided to add an extra loft skew and the s FT.
Speaker 1: But that one's you know, geared to fighting the fade, right,
Speaker 1: and we have two settings there with our CG shifter,
Speaker 1: draw and draw plus. So those are the different models
Speaker 1: and the different loft skews available in those different models.
Speaker 3: Eric, I think it's fun just to look from the
Speaker 3: fitting angle to look at, now how many options we have,
Speaker 3: and you throw in the lower lofted SFT. I think
Speaker 3: when I'm looking at the driver right now, the four
Speaker 3: to forty driver, I think the first thing people are
Speaker 3: going to know is just the enormous you know. We
Speaker 3: like to call it the CG shifter because it shifts
Speaker 3: the CG, but you know, otherwise knows the backweight. Tell
Speaker 3: us a little bit about how much heavier that has
Speaker 3: gotten over the years, you know. And also I think
Speaker 3: when people first look at the four forty, they might
Speaker 3: appear as if the CG shifter doesn't move that much, Right,
Speaker 3: is it still moving the center gravity the same? Does
Speaker 3: still change the ball flight the same amount? And why
Speaker 3: is it moving less than what it used to?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you know I talked about this discretionary weight.
Speaker 1: Some of that we put into the backway. So we've
Speaker 1: gone as a standard and our kind of stock build
Speaker 1: gone from twenty six grams to twenty nine grams. So
Speaker 1: I mean, if you have an opportunity to feel that backway,
Speaker 1: that is a that's a pantload, a weight to put
Speaker 1: back there. It comes with some engineering challenges when you
Speaker 1: have that much weight concentrated in one area. But with
Speaker 1: that added weight, we can be a little bit more
Speaker 1: efficient with the movement of that weight, so it takes
Speaker 1: a lot less movement to create the different shot shapes
Speaker 1: we're looking for and fitting environment. And so with the
Speaker 1: four to ten we had that right you work, you're
Speaker 1: the lead designer on that driver. We worked a lot
Speaker 1: on on dialing in that first CG shifter. We had
Speaker 1: quite a bit of travel with that weight to kind
Speaker 1: of get the movement we're looking for. And so now
Speaker 1: with this added weight, not only does it give us
Speaker 1: just like just net CG location that's really optimal we've
Speaker 1: minimized the amount we need to move that weight in
Speaker 1: order to toomball flight.
Speaker 2: Marty co this is the thinnest face of a driver
Speaker 2: that Ping has ever made. I'm always amazed by things
Speaker 2: like this because you feel like, you know, you get
Speaker 2: four thirty and that's the thinnest face, and obviously you
Speaker 2: get a chance to see incredible distance with that driver.
Speaker 2: How can you continue to kind of push the limits
Speaker 2: of something like a thin face of a driver without
Speaker 2: you know, finding a whole bunch of them being sit
Speaker 2: back and broken.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, it's uh, it's it's fun. I think a
Speaker 3: big part of it is Eric's teams has incredible tools
Speaker 3: to do some modeling, right, So we're getting better at
Speaker 3: better at being able to model what happens without having
Speaker 3: to make a physical prototype.
Speaker 2: Are you doing? What are you doing?
Speaker 3: That?
Speaker 2: Is that like all computer based? How does that work? Eric?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So a lot of it is uses finance element analysis.
Speaker 1: So it's a computational technique where we can break the
Speaker 1: CAD file down and virtually ram it into a ball,
Speaker 1: right and predict the ball speed and the launch conditions.
Speaker 1: And so we have a high power computer here on
Speaker 1: campus send the simulations over there. It cranks away and
Speaker 1: comes back and gives us the insights we're looking for.
Speaker 1: It helps us to optimize. So indeed, this is the
Speaker 1: thinnest face we've ever put into a driver, and part
Speaker 1: of that is we've reduced the face height a little bit.
Speaker 1: And so we found with all that research we were
Speaker 1: doing and the model and we were doing that if
Speaker 1: we reduce that face height, we can make the face
Speaker 1: a little thinner and net extra ball speed can serve
Speaker 1: more energy during the impact interval and ultimately lead to
Speaker 1: that performance that we're super excited about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, save a little weight from the face as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we ended up saving two to three grams
Speaker 1: out of the face by making it a little thinner,
Speaker 1: and then we could talk about the free hozzle. So
Speaker 1: another area that's really close to the face that we
Speaker 1: looked at and ended up removing some weight from. If
Speaker 1: you look inside where our hostle sleeve enters the head,
Speaker 1: used to be this kind of titanium tube in there
Speaker 1: that kind of held that together. In that tube is
Speaker 1: then really close it's coincident to the heel side of
Speaker 1: the face, and so we ended up doing is taking
Speaker 1: that tube and removing kind of the centerpiece of it,
Speaker 1: which did a number of things. It freed up four
Speaker 1: grams for us to then redistribute in the head, but
Speaker 1: it also kind of freed up that area of the face,
Speaker 1: so we end up with a little bit more freedom
Speaker 1: for that face to flex in the heel area. And
Speaker 1: we talk about face design. We did go thinner, but
Speaker 1: we also had to move that VFT a little bit
Speaker 1: to kind of balance out the extra kind of heat
Speaker 1: we were getting in the heel area. There's different kind
Speaker 1: of thicknesses in that face. Again, the mean the average
Speaker 1: thickness is thinner, but then we have kind of some
Speaker 1: thicker areas that we moved over to the heel region,
Speaker 1: so you'll see that on all the different models. This
Speaker 1: kind of cutout in there, and again it frees up
Speaker 1: the face, gives us some extra mass that we then
Speaker 1: put in the back weight and used to kind of
Speaker 1: lower our center of gravity.
Speaker 3: S This is this is why the driver is so fun,
Speaker 3: because you know, you think how good the four thirty was.
Speaker 3: Right here, we are right here talking about the four
Speaker 3: forty and how much weight is a designer and a
Speaker 3: driver if you can save one gram.
Speaker 2: I was going to ask that is that like, is
Speaker 2: that like losing twenty pounds? Yeah, human it is.
Speaker 3: It is one gram is is worth everything. As a designer,
Speaker 3: here we are. We saved it, you know, we way
Speaker 3: from the fazzle. So, uh, it's really really fun. We've
Speaker 3: concentrated more mass than the CG shifter. One of the
Speaker 3: other aspects of the driver design is just looking at
Speaker 3: the whole system build. Right, So Eric, talk to us
Speaker 3: a little bit about you know, what we've done to
Speaker 3: the holistic design, the standard lengths, the head weight, the
Speaker 3: system weight, how that research operates, and then how and
Speaker 3: what we've converged upon for the four to forty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so freed up all this extra discretionary weight. Some
Speaker 1: of that went back into the backweight. But we were
Speaker 1: doing a bunch of research on optimal headweight, right, and
Speaker 1: so in a very simple way, you can say, we'd
Speaker 1: go really light with a head, right, and you'd swing
Speaker 1: it a lot faster. Right if we went a lot
Speaker 1: lighter with the head, but now you're delivering less mass
Speaker 1: to the ball. We go really heavy and you deliver
Speaker 1: more mass to the ball, but you're not going to
Speaker 1: swing it as fast. And so we had done a
Speaker 1: we have a last time we chatted, we were over
Speaker 1: in Focal, our motion capture system, and so we've had
Speaker 1: everybody in the company go through mocaps, swing some drivers,
Speaker 1: a lot of people from outside tour players, and for
Speaker 1: different categories of player, we found these optimal head weights
Speaker 1: where it's this kind of Goldilock zone where it's heavy
Speaker 1: enough where you're delivering a good amount of mass to
Speaker 1: the ball, but not so heavy that you're hindering clubhead speed.
Speaker 1: And so it's just this is quirk of how conservational
Speaker 1: momentum con conservation of energy kind of work together. And
Speaker 1: so we use like a bowling ball analogy. It's like,
Speaker 1: how do you know, my mom might use a really
Speaker 1: light ball, but you give her, you know, a really
Speaker 1: heavy one, she can't get it down there with a
Speaker 1: lot of speed. You can throw the light one down
Speaker 1: there really fast, but you're gonna find you're gonna be
Speaker 1: more successful with something heavier because you can get it
Speaker 1: down there. And so through all that research, all of
Speaker 1: our headweights are about two grams lighter, two to three
Speaker 1: grams lighter, and and so not only is the headwaight
Speaker 1: a little lighter to kind of leverage, what we found
Speaker 1: was optimal for the different player categories, and so the
Speaker 1: alst's going to be a heavier head, SFT is going
Speaker 1: to be our lightest head, but all of those about
Speaker 1: three lighter. So while maintaining are really forgiving package right
Speaker 1: and getting our center of gravity in the right spot.
Speaker 1: We then took a look at the shaft and said, okay,
Speaker 1: we got a head that's three grams lighter. Can we
Speaker 1: remove some weight here in the shaft to help people
Speaker 1: swing it gain more cliphet speed. So we ended up
Speaker 1: taking three grams out of the structure of the alta
Speaker 1: structure shaft structure. We ended up lightning. There's a plug
Speaker 1: in the back end that helps caunter bounce. Took four
Speaker 1: grams out of that, and then we went a quarter
Speaker 1: of an inch longer. So those are a lot of changes, right,
Speaker 1: but in the end we got a bill that's ten
Speaker 1: grams lighter, a quarter of an inch longer, delivering a
Speaker 1: very forgiving optimized head, which then leads to that mile
Speaker 1: an hour ball speed increase we've seen in testing center
Speaker 1: gravity locations a little lower, which lowers are spin rate
Speaker 1: by one hundred and fifty rpm on average and leads
Speaker 1: to yardage gains. You know, for for our end consumer.
Speaker 2: What is tour? What has tour feedback? Then about the
Speaker 2: four to forty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were just chatting to some of our tour
Speaker 1: ups about today.
Speaker 3: First feedback chain just like when you hit it sound phenomenal,
Speaker 3: it's they're very incentivized by it, and launch conditions are amazing.
Speaker 3: I think one big piece we've seen in our testing
Speaker 3: is that compared to the four thirty, because the center
Speaker 3: gravity is lower, folks are having to fit into a
Speaker 3: little bit less loft, so on average probably about three
Speaker 3: quarters of a degree less loft than four to thirty.
Speaker 3: So it's a great chance if you haven't been fit
Speaker 3: for a driver recently, go in, get on a launch monitor,
Speaker 3: be very open minded about what loft you might end
Speaker 3: up in. But with that playing a little bit less loft,
Speaker 3: they're even experimenting with a little bit longer lengths. We've
Speaker 3: seen this with the likes of Victor and Joaquin Neman right,
Speaker 3: going a little bit longer. They're seeing higher ball speeds
Speaker 3: picking up two sticks and ball speeds are the the
Speaker 3: one to two punch from the tour feedback so far.
Speaker 2: And the tour influence in terms of that is of
Speaker 2: a new driver. I mean, are they telling you stuff
Speaker 2: about four thirty they like and maybe don't love that
Speaker 2: you guys will listen to and put into four forty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there are most discerning, kind of detail
Speaker 1: oriented of customers, and so we're constantly.
Speaker 2: Getting got a golf So yeah, yeah, I know what
Speaker 2: they're doing, and.
Speaker 1: So we get that feedback directly. We get that from
Speaker 1: our tour reps, and that's you know, every time we're
Speaker 1: looking at, you know, a driver design, we're kind of
Speaker 1: outlining those those problems, those trade offs are trying to
Speaker 1: break and take it into account, the tour feedback, the
Speaker 1: feedback of the everyday golfer, and and some of that's
Speaker 1: going to be weighted more toward the different models, right
Speaker 1: depending on who they're geared for. But obviously they're a
Speaker 1: huge influence and player in terms of their feedback and
Speaker 1: what we decide to go tackle as engineers and the
Speaker 1: trade offfs we're looking to break. On the innovation side.
Speaker 2: Well, Marty, I mean the models is so important. I
Speaker 2: mean you think about, you know, the old introduction of
Speaker 2: new drivers and here's your new driver. I mean this
Speaker 2: is the head and we'll try to fit it for you,
Speaker 2: and we'll also try to fit it for the number
Speaker 2: five player in the world. I mean, now, obviously there
Speaker 2: are options which are extremely helpful because the seven year
Speaker 2: old player that maybe hits it two twenty can fit
Speaker 2: into a model that maybe Victor Hoblin's not into.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely, And as Eric said, we put a premium
Speaker 3: specifically on the LST for the PGA tour player to
Speaker 3: kind of ent our LPGA staff because it's such a
Speaker 3: high percentage of the usage is that low spin head
Speaker 3: out on the tour, So you're gonna see the LST
Speaker 3: be a little smaller profile at address. It's got a
Speaker 3: little more domed crown to it, so it feels a
Speaker 3: little more you can say, maybe bulbous or rounded in
Speaker 3: the playing position. Really try to optimize what we call
Speaker 3: the resting face angle or the face angle that you
Speaker 3: when you set the driver down. The tour players obviously
Speaker 3: very kind of sensitive to that aspect. Obviously the acoustics
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 2: Big question for me personally, Marty, the thrivers still in play,
Speaker 2: can we still thrive for the four forty I mean,
Speaker 2: you introduced me to it.
Speaker 3: I got mine in the back, Okay, I got mine
Speaker 3: in the back.
Speaker 2: Say so, what is your set up? Which driver? Which
Speaker 2: driver head? Did you go with a big boy?
Speaker 3: The twelve with the big Boy? Yeah, twelve max?
Speaker 2: Okay, twelve max for the thriver and then your main driver?
Speaker 2: Did you go longer as well?
Speaker 3: I went longer? Yeah, so I went from forty five
Speaker 3: and three quarter to forty six inches with the shaft
Speaker 3: I use uh you pick up some speed too, yes, yeah,
Speaker 3: added ball speed. I didn't increase my swing weight, so
Speaker 3: I kept my head weight. Did get a little bit
Speaker 3: lighter because I went a little bit longer at length
Speaker 3: and then forty six inches max nine degree. I went
Speaker 3: down and loft about a degree and a half. So
Speaker 3: I'm playing it in the big minus uh at forty
Speaker 3: six inches, So I'm getting a lot of dynamic loft
Speaker 3: in a little bit more club at speed, which is
Speaker 3: good CG shifter in the fade position, and uh so
Speaker 3: far loving it. Especially the sound very incentivizing. I think
Speaker 3: that that's kind of a you know, we've talked about
Speaker 3: a little bit, but when you when you do have
Speaker 3: that really good acoustics, it does kind of free you
Speaker 3: up to swing it harder.
Speaker 2: And the acoustics are so important for players. It's so funny. Again,
Speaker 2: I just don't think it's something you would put number
Speaker 2: one on your list. Maybe tour players would put it
Speaker 2: higher on their list, but it's so important in terms
Speaker 2: of like your relationship with a golf club is, like,
Speaker 2: does it sound good? I mean even you know, I
Speaker 2: mean we've talked about putters throughout the years, Marty, I
Speaker 2: mean even putter sound. I mean so massively important for
Speaker 2: the feel of the player and really getting a feel
Speaker 2: for how that thing performs for you personally, and your
Speaker 2: sound might be off from somebody else's.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no doubt about it. A lot of different materials
Speaker 3: in this driver ic we got an aluminum trajectory tuning sleeve, right,
Speaker 3: seventy seventy five high strength aluminum. Tell us a little
Speaker 3: bit about the two Titanum alloys that are used in
Speaker 3: the in the driver head we talked about we talked
Speaker 3: about the carbon fly wrap. Let's talk a little bit
Speaker 3: about the face and body.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so body's eight one to one cast titanium, and
Speaker 1: then the face is our ten nine S plus alloy.
Speaker 1: And so that's not all that we've been using and
Speaker 1: having a lot of success with. Let's say alloy used
Speaker 1: on the four thirty and we're continuing that through on
Speaker 1: the four forty. Just gives a really good mix of
Speaker 1: weight and some called modulus which is kind of how
Speaker 1: how the material bends right, and so a good mix
Speaker 1: of strength and weight and modulus that again we've had
Speaker 1: a lot of success with and yeah, players will see
Speaker 1: the advantage of that in the four forty.
Speaker 2: You mentioned the nine degree SFT, and I know that's
Speaker 2: been a big, big point of interest in terms of
Speaker 2: the four forty. Why that introduction.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's a that's a new one for us,
Speaker 1: offering that s FT and the nine degree loft, And
Speaker 1: I think it's been really cool to see golf welcome
Speaker 1: a lot of new players and and uh, and we've
Speaker 1: actually seen a lot of people coming over, athletes from
Speaker 1: other sports coming over and taking up the game of golf.
Speaker 1: And so you know, they have clubhead speed, but they
Speaker 1: could really benefit from something that can help, you know,
Speaker 1: promote more of a draw trajectory fight to fade. And
Speaker 1: so you know with the nine degree offering for those
Speaker 1: higher clubheads, be players that need that need that type
Speaker 1: of model offering in a little bit lower loft. Can
Speaker 1: it kind of keep the spin down and I think
Speaker 1: really unlock a good fitting option in the fitting environment
Speaker 1: here at the proven grounds and out out of various
Speaker 1: accounts for that type of player you're coming into the game,
Speaker 1: have clubhead speed, but really want to, you know, help
Speaker 1: help fight the fade and promote a draw.
Speaker 3: I think one of the things I'm always excited about
Speaker 3: our our product is that you can kind of the
Speaker 3: adjustability with both the trajectory tuning sleeve and the CG shifter.
Speaker 3: You're not stuck, you know, let's say you do. You are,
Speaker 3: you know, someone just getting into the game. You fit
Speaker 3: into the nine s ft, you got the CG shifter
Speaker 3: way over there in the draw plus and you start
Speaker 3: getting better at golf, your path gets a little bit better. Uh,
Speaker 3: you can adjust it. You can turn the loft down
Speaker 3: a little bit. If you need to reduce your spin
Speaker 3: a little bit, you can move that CG shifter more
Speaker 3: more towward. And that that's an added benefit of having
Speaker 3: all the adjustability and all the different model.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Marty, I mean it's been such a point of
Speaker 2: interest throughout the history of ping, is being able to
Speaker 2: fit a golf club for you specifically, and you just
Speaker 2: think about the way that has changed over the last
Speaker 2: couple of decades in terms of actually putting that in
Speaker 2: the player's hands as well. I mean, you go get fit.
Speaker 2: You obviously have a club that makes the most sense
Speaker 2: for you, but we change I mean, we pick up speed,
Speaker 2: maybe the golf swing gets a little bit more tuned.
Speaker 2: You have an instructor that you're working with. Now all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, you're able to change that club as well.
Speaker 2: And it feels like it feels like this driver more
Speaker 2: than any that I've seen, have those options. You pick
Speaker 2: up a club and then you can change it multiple
Speaker 2: ways as your golf game changes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we've gotten more efficient in the execution. So
Speaker 3: all three of the positions of the CG shifter, so
Speaker 3: whether you have it in the fade or the draw,
Speaker 3: are all now higher inertia, so they're all more forgiving.
Speaker 3: Right we first came out with it, if you put
Speaker 3: it in the toe or you put it in the heel,
Speaker 3: your inertia would drop a little bit. Right now it
Speaker 3: still drops a teeny bit, but all those positions have
Speaker 3: been elevated. The trajectory tuning sleeve. Again, it's one of
Speaker 3: those things where when we first were looking to do it,
Speaker 3: it was it was hard to pull it off in
Speaker 3: a way that didn't add a lot of weight or
Speaker 3: wasn't really bad to the aerodynamic performance. So it's easy
Speaker 3: to take those things for granted, but those are a
Speaker 3: big benefit to the golfer to be able to make
Speaker 3: some little fine tune adjustments. And Andrew clubfitter out there.
Speaker 2: Eric, is this like a stressful week for you when
Speaker 2: clubs launch and you get to kind of introduce something
Speaker 2: to the world or has that stress already happened, you know,
Speaker 2: a month.
Speaker 1: So that stress came a while back.
Speaker 2: I now past that, your exits past.
Speaker 1: It's very exciting to then be able to kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, all that stress leading to you know, a product,
Speaker 1: being able to kind of start to talk about it
Speaker 1: and let the world see it. It's super exciting for
Speaker 1: the entire team, right everybody's itching to get it in
Speaker 1: their own bag and be able to talk to it,
Speaker 1: you know, talk to people about all the hard work
Speaker 1: they put into the product. And so this is an
Speaker 1: exciting season for everybody when we get to introduce the
Speaker 1: world to the new G line.
Speaker 2: Eric, Always appreciate your time. Always appreciate when you're a
Speaker 2: guest on the podcast and always appreciate your work on
Speaker 2: these golf clubs best drivers in the game, so thanks
Speaker 2: so much, happy to be you. This is fun. Eric
Speaker 2: Henrickson the doc. This is the Pink Proven Grounds podcast