Speaker 1: The guys from Ping.
Speaker 2: They've kind of showed me how much the equipment matters.
Speaker 2: I just love that I can hit any shot I
Speaker 2: kind of want.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about
Speaker 1: what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.
Speaker 2: What is up, everybody? It is the Ping Proving Grounds Podcast.
Speaker 2: Shane Bacon alongside Marty Jerts and Marty We are going
Speaker 2: to dive deep into iron fitting today. We talked so
Speaker 2: much about fitting and the importance of it on this podcast,
Speaker 2: but we wanted to kind of dive a little deeper
Speaker 2: into just the ideas, the semantics, basically everything you need
Speaker 2: to know and more when you're thinking about getting fit
Speaker 2: for irons.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean irons are important, Shane. I mean this
Speaker 1: is your scoring clubs. You get that ball close to
Speaker 1: the whole, depend on your skill level. Proximity of the
Speaker 1: whole super important. How much they spin, how much stopping
Speaker 1: power they have, the turf interaction, how they look and feel,
Speaker 1: how much height, left, right, bias, shafts, I mean, lengths,
Speaker 1: color codes. Let's dive in.
Speaker 2: Well, Marty, is this the most currently the most amount
Speaker 2: of selection a golfer would have in terms of irons
Speaker 2: that Ping offers.
Speaker 1: Is this the most uh for sure, Shane. I mean
Speaker 1: I always like to do that thought experiment of back
Speaker 1: when Ping was just had I two's, like it was
Speaker 1: I two's for Calcavecia, and it was I twos for you.
Speaker 1: And now now we have h we have the entire spectrum.
Speaker 1: I mean, blueprint t's those things scare me. They're a
Speaker 1: little too small for me. But you know, if you're
Speaker 1: you know, they're uh, they're they're they're an important part
Speaker 1: of our ecosystem. And then we got all the way
Speaker 1: to the other end of the spectrum with our brand
Speaker 1: new G seven forties, very wide soul, very forgiving. So yes,
Speaker 1: this is indeed the most diverse iron offering that we've
Speaker 1: ever had in our in our ecosystem.
Speaker 2: Here I was thinking about it. I have three sets
Speaker 2: of irons in my bag currently, so I've got idi
Speaker 2: I currently are playing two iron and the four iron
Speaker 2: in my bag. I've got I five forty five iron,
Speaker 2: then I got blueprint s up until the wedge and
Speaker 2: then I go into the Ping wedge is basically forty
Speaker 2: six degree on So I mean, I guess you could
Speaker 2: in theory say that's four different options.
Speaker 1: That's four when you count.
Speaker 2: Well. I mean my bag is eclectic. I'll say that
Speaker 2: in terms of what I put it in my bag.
Speaker 2: And I like that. I like being able to kind of, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, interchange what I want to play dependent on
Speaker 2: the link and the loft and things like that.
Speaker 1: So you got the idi for Idi Fouri and is
Speaker 1: a sleeper out there. I'm hitting that too, and I
Speaker 1: absolutely love it. Has this been treating you well?
Speaker 2: Oh? I mean it's you know, I do love the
Speaker 2: fact that I can hit it off tease when I
Speaker 2: need to. You know, I like the idea that it
Speaker 2: maybe gets a little more distance there, but the fact
Speaker 2: that you could take a little loft. I don't always
Speaker 2: feel like that's been the case with the quote unquote
Speaker 2: driving Iron you know game, and I feel like it's
Speaker 2: a shot like I hit it into a par three
Speaker 2: the other day, you know, and wasn't scared that it
Speaker 2: was gonna you know, if I hit it good, it
Speaker 2: was gonna just fly everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it keeps the spin on there. So definitely, I
Speaker 1: think for players that have a have a bit of speed,
Speaker 1: but you're looking for a little more height, take a
Speaker 1: look at the idea for it. It keeps the spin
Speaker 1: on there and I think that's what you and I
Speaker 1: are liking about it.
Speaker 2: Can you take us through kind of the history of
Speaker 2: the color coding at paying, because I mean, this is
Speaker 2: not something new to this company. This has been something
Speaker 2: that's been around what for fifty sixty years?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, our company founder Carson Solheim. I mean,
Speaker 1: he wanted to democratize club fitting. He wanted to make
Speaker 1: it available to everybody. What tour players could do to
Speaker 1: tweak the lengths and shafts and grips and line goals
Speaker 1: and color codes and builds, he wanted to pass that
Speaker 1: to the everyday golfer. It's still what we're trying to
Speaker 1: do today. And so what he did something very interesting.
Speaker 1: He came up with this, which is he was trying
Speaker 1: to figure out you know, in the beginning of custom fitting,
Speaker 1: nobody knew kind of how to get started or what
Speaker 1: to do, or any correlations or patterns. So he measured folks,
Speaker 1: all kinds of different measurements of folks, their height, their
Speaker 1: arm lengths, their different biometrics, and he came up with
Speaker 1: the system where if hey, if somebody, he put the
Speaker 1: height on one axis and then the wrist a floor
Speaker 1: when he had folks kind of stand and kind of hang,
Speaker 1: relax and measure there there which is a proxy for
Speaker 1: your arm length, which is a little bit of a
Speaker 1: proxy for kind of your wingspan. And he found that
Speaker 1: folks hit the best club in their bag. He asked him,
Speaker 1: what's the best club in their bag? Then he measured it.
Speaker 1: Then he plotted folks, and he put it on a
Speaker 1: corkboard and different colors. He used different color pins on
Speaker 1: this corkboard right in terms of what the lingel was
Speaker 1: on their clubs. And sure enough, he used these different
Speaker 1: colors for different lingels in the color code chart literally
Speaker 1: emerged from his measurements on a corkboard. And that's the
Speaker 1: origin story of the color code chart, in the origin
Speaker 1: of really just being able to use that as the
Speaker 1: foundation of custom fitting. We still use it today.
Speaker 2: You think about a corkboard, and now you have something
Speaker 2: like web fit that you can use online. I know
Speaker 2: we talk so much about doing your homework before you
Speaker 2: go get fit, but what's the importance for players to
Speaker 2: maybe go online and do some homework before they go
Speaker 2: get it A full fitting for irons?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, Shane, I mean I think a lot of
Speaker 1: our customers out there, they hear you and I talk
Speaker 1: about co pilot, and that's a tool that our fitters
Speaker 1: use and where we've passed along a version of copilot
Speaker 1: to our customers through a series of tools that are
Speaker 1: right on our website. We just did redid our website
Speaker 1: looks beautiful. Go on there, click on fitting and find
Speaker 1: our webfit tools. And before you go in for your
Speaker 1: iron fitting, go through our webfit. We call our webfit
Speaker 1: full bag. It's our whole fitting process. And this helps
Speaker 1: customers in two different ways. One, it's going to educate
Speaker 1: them regardless of where you are, whether it's advanced player,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe somebody intimidated by the fitting process just getting
Speaker 1: into the game, asking yourself questions am I good enough
Speaker 1: to get fit? Go through webfit because it'll give you
Speaker 1: a little overview of what the fitting process is going
Speaker 1: to be like. It doesn't replace the fitting process on
Speaker 1: a monitor with an expert, but it will help educate you,
Speaker 1: help you, give you some questions you should ask, and
Speaker 1: it'll narrow your options down before you go in for
Speaker 1: a fitting. So, because we have six different iron models
Speaker 1: out there and all kinds of different options, this helps
Speaker 1: narrow it down into one or two main options and
Speaker 1: kind of like a playing a practice round for your fitting.
Speaker 1: That's the way I like to think about all of
Speaker 1: our webfit tools.
Speaker 2: I mean I think about ego a lot in terms
Speaker 2: of getting fit for golf clubs, because you know, you
Speaker 2: come in with a certain idea of what you want
Speaker 2: to play, right. I mean, you could go, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: be a blueprint guy. I want to be two forty guy.
Speaker 2: There is so many options. Like what's the importance of
Speaker 2: just golfers coming in, like leaving their ego at the
Speaker 2: door and just feeling like, let me, let me get
Speaker 2: fit for what's going to make the most sense to
Speaker 2: my golf game.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I'm giggling a little bit shamee because I
Speaker 1: had a friend colleague of mine come in, travel in
Speaker 1: from out of town, come to the proving grounds and
Speaker 1: he sent me like a novel before he came in.
Speaker 1: He's like, this is what I need. I need these
Speaker 1: wedges and these shafts and this swingway in this grind.
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, why do you need to come in?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So yeah, it was a great I think example,
Speaker 1: I think of somebody coming in with kind of a
Speaker 1: mindset of Okay, I'm pretty you know I want this,
Speaker 1: and he left with things totally different. A few of
Speaker 1: the things we did, indeed do he was spot on
Speaker 1: I think on his his grind, on his lob wedge
Speaker 1: and what iron model. But he ended up in a
Speaker 1: totally different shaft, different different color code than he was
Speaker 1: coming in with, even a different grip then he was
Speaker 1: coming in with. We did a split of it with
Speaker 1: his long as Iron and id I a little bit differently.
Speaker 1: So absolutely, be very open minded because we have very
Speaker 1: different offerings now then we used to. I think the
Speaker 1: IDI for is a great example. You know, some of
Speaker 1: our previous crossover type clubs, very low spin might not
Speaker 1: be able to keep the ball near and be able
Speaker 1: to hit the soft cut into the greens. Now our
Speaker 1: four IDI does that. So we're always looking at solving
Speaker 1: those problems, kind of evolving what our clubs and our
Speaker 1: offerings do. So, yeah, being open minded going to the
Speaker 1: fitting process is a beautiful thing. I had my own
Speaker 1: personal experience with this lately. I was hitting a shaft
Speaker 1: we're looking at for a stock offering, and a lot
Speaker 1: of times in our player testing will paint the shafts black,
Speaker 1: so you don't know, there's no brand, interesting model designition.
Speaker 1: I love fitting that way where you know the product
Speaker 1: is actually blind to you. So it's a great way
Speaker 1: to do shaft fitting. And I ended up kind of
Speaker 1: experimenting with that scheft because I didn't even know what
Speaker 1: it was, but I knew I hit it really good
Speaker 1: in our player testing.
Speaker 2: What about like launch monitor information? So the data you
Speaker 2: get out of a launch monitor, what are you looking at?
Speaker 2: What is a fitter looking at? What does a player
Speaker 2: need to know in terms of what's coming out of
Speaker 2: a launch monitor to maybe help them fit into the
Speaker 2: right iron?
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I think a good way for maybe consumers
Speaker 1: or fitters to think about a launch monitor is you
Speaker 1: got club delivery characteristics. Okay, these can be things like
Speaker 1: angle of attack, swing direction, path, dynamic loft. That's kind
Speaker 1: of things you're doing with your body movements to inform
Speaker 1: the delivery of the club. Then you have the impact
Speaker 1: of what's happening during the impact interval on the golf ball.
Speaker 1: That's ultimately what matters. That's ball speed, launch, spin, spin axis.
Speaker 1: Then you have the results of how that manifests itself
Speaker 1: in the trajectory. This is peak height, carry distance, land angle.
Speaker 1: All of those things also Shane very very important have
Speaker 1: a certain spread or consistency level to them. So some
Speaker 1: of these things we really want to tighten up. We
Speaker 1: want to tighten up your for example, your spin consistency
Speaker 1: and on a launch monitor that's your plus or minus
Speaker 1: of spin or your stat area or the latest track
Speaker 1: Man TPS software. In our pink co Pilot we assign
Speaker 1: a strokes gain score, which can be super valuable. So
Speaker 1: that being said, there's a lot of metrics, but you
Speaker 1: don't want to do data overload. The primary ones kind
Speaker 1: of to look at. We use our ball speed, launch
Speaker 1: spin and then spin axis or side spin depending on
Speaker 1: your launch monitor, and then we want to look at
Speaker 1: where of those do we need one to tighten the consistency. Right,
Speaker 1: So there's the average metrics, then there's the repeatability or consistency,
Speaker 1: and those are the core ones. With irons we want
Speaker 1: to get you. We really care about your carry distance
Speaker 1: but also your stopping power. So a lot of our
Speaker 1: tools that we build with pink Copilot are to help
Speaker 1: evaluate what is the right spin rate for you, And
Speaker 1: that's an unanswered question by a lot of fitters out
Speaker 1: there even is what is a good spin rate in
Speaker 1: your irons? The common thing we've talked about in the
Speaker 1: past is a lot of people are like a thousand
Speaker 1: times the club number is good, right, seven iron, seven
Speaker 1: thousand spin. That is not the case because if you
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of speed, you're not going to
Speaker 1: be able to generate that backspin. And so we have
Speaker 1: great tools in Copilot with our stopping power app and
Speaker 1: things of that nature help assess how much spin is
Speaker 1: appropriate for you and where you're playing your golf.
Speaker 2: Goes back to the IDI four iron conversation, right, the
Speaker 2: fact that now you can in theory, get more spin
Speaker 2: with a club like that we're back in the day
Speaker 2: it would just come out like a Tim Wakefield knuckleball
Speaker 2: or something. Right, just come out with no spin and
Speaker 2: just go forever. We've talked a lot about the options
Speaker 2: in terms of irons. Can you kind of walk us
Speaker 2: through the irons like all the offerings of ping has
Speaker 2: and maybe what they do for the golfer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, let's kind of maybe treat it as I
Speaker 1: like thinking about our irons in terms of where the
Speaker 1: player brings the speed, so our player's irons. This is
Speaker 1: Blueprint T Blueprint S I two forty. Primarily you want
Speaker 1: to think about, Okay, you the player are bringing the
Speaker 1: speed to the table. Then within that, within that window,
Speaker 1: we have small, medium, large, So the Blueprint T smaller
Speaker 1: heel toe length and when you when you reduce that
Speaker 1: blade length, you're gonna be able. It's more like a
Speaker 1: sports car or maybe you have a car with adjustable
Speaker 1: steering settings and one's gonna be a little tighter, right,
Speaker 1: You're gonna be able to manipulate the ballfight, control the
Speaker 1: face better. If you're a bit more of a shot maker.
Speaker 1: Your impact stat area, I like to say it, with
Speaker 1: Blueprint t's you got to earn it. You got to
Speaker 1: qualify to play those irons. Your impact stature needs to
Speaker 1: be pretty tight. Now with a shorter blade length iron,
Speaker 1: they're also going to turn over easier. And that's one
Speaker 1: other thing that's pretty interesting on irons. So if somebody
Speaker 1: likes to draw the ball a little bit more, shorter
Speaker 1: blade length is gonna help with that. Then we go
Speaker 1: to Blueprint as we'll call that kind of medium sized.
Speaker 1: That's the iron I play personally, give me a little
Speaker 1: more forgiveness, very high MOI a little wider soul in
Speaker 1: terms of the bounce to it, and then we go
Speaker 1: to I two forty a little bit longer blade length
Speaker 1: there as well generates a little bit more spin. Those
Speaker 1: irons also have different launch conditions, So the T is
Speaker 1: gonna go the lowest generally S is gonna launch and
Speaker 1: spin a little bit more. To forty is going to
Speaker 1: go a little bit higher. So we have kind of
Speaker 1: different sizes along with different trajectories. Each of those irons
Speaker 1: has a different bounce profile. I would say one thing
Speaker 1: about the blueprint, as is fun to think about, is
Speaker 1: that we pretty much modeled the soul and the turf
Speaker 1: interaction after the S fifty five iron, Right, So a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of cult following to the S
Speaker 1: fifty five, The blueprint S has the exact same turf
Speaker 1: interaction soul. If you're kind of coming from that iron
Speaker 1: or used to like that iron.
Speaker 2: Is there do you are there certain pros on staff
Speaker 2: that are playing the different iterations of those irons, Like
Speaker 2: is there somebody that's playing T, somebody's playing S, somebody
Speaker 2: that's even playing I two forty.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Harris English, Tony Fen. Now those are a classic
Speaker 1: T man ball strikers. When I think the ultimate iron
Speaker 1: ball striker, my brain goes to Harris English. I could
Speaker 1: sit on the sit on the range of watching him
Speaker 1: just absolutely flush those all day long. And then we
Speaker 1: just have a we just have a tank load of
Speaker 1: players playing the blueprint s, just tons of players playing
Speaker 1: the blueprint s. I mean, Neil Shipley, he's like you.
Speaker 1: He plays like I think if we count his wedges
Speaker 1: being different, like five different iron models, if you go
Speaker 1: through that, but the core of his set is kind
Speaker 1: of blueprint s. And then he plays I think one
Speaker 1: blueprint t in the short irons, and then I two forty.
Speaker 1: I mean we got you know, Victor's played our I
Speaker 1: two hundred series iron for quite some time, a little
Speaker 1: bit longer blade length, a little bit more bounce, and
Speaker 1: certainly that I two forty iron very popular on the
Speaker 1: LPGA tour because it generates a little more height, little
Speaker 1: little bit more spin to it as well.
Speaker 2: What about I five forty, I mean, as you kind
Speaker 2: of continue to navigate through the progressions of the ping offerings.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's say let's let's let's have the blueprint
Speaker 1: ts I two forty is where the player brings the speed.
Speaker 1: Then we're gonna have this bucket of irons that the
Speaker 1: iron itself is gonna add and supplement a bit of
Speaker 1: distance for you or a lot of distance for you. Right,
Speaker 1: and so we have I uh five forty is what
Speaker 1: we call our player's distance iron. So the iron looks pure,
Speaker 1: it's got a pretty small, nice compact packed blade length
Speaker 1: to a shane, but it's the face is moving on
Speaker 1: that iron, So it's it's you can almost think about
Speaker 1: it is the face is behaving a little bit more
Speaker 1: like a metal wood in terms of Okay, it's gonna
Speaker 1: flex a bit and it's going to return that energy
Speaker 1: to the ball. Now, the benefit is that you're going
Speaker 1: to get more ball speed, a lot of ball speed
Speaker 1: out of that iron, and that iron's gonna launch pretty
Speaker 1: high and generate a pretty relatively high peak height. So
Speaker 1: that's a great iron if you're maybe looking for a
Speaker 1: little bit more distance in your long iron, I certainly
Speaker 1: know there's a lot of players that do that. But
Speaker 1: the full set design is something that if you're a
Speaker 1: player that is maybe lost a little bit of distance,
Speaker 1: but you still find the center of the face often
Speaker 1: and you like that compact blade length. The way the
Speaker 1: turf interaction is. But you you still want to hit
Speaker 1: your eight iron from one sixty like you always have,
Speaker 1: and maybe you've been degrading a little bit and now
Speaker 1: you're hitting at one forty five, but you want to
Speaker 1: get back to one sixty. I five forty is a
Speaker 1: tremendous product.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 1: One thing we've put a lot of effort into in
Speaker 1: our player's distance iron is to make them hot without
Speaker 1: hot spots. That is a really big deal. And make
Speaker 1: them go high and land steep, and that's the secret
Speaker 1: sauce of the I five forty.
Speaker 2: And then you see on you've got G four forty
Speaker 2: and G seven forty, so you kind of go into
Speaker 2: game improvement and then super game improvement or basically those
Speaker 2: two categories for players that might need a little bit
Speaker 2: of help. Kind of going back to that, where's the
Speaker 2: speed coming from?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so G G four to forty again, face is
Speaker 1: flexing a good bit. This is our iron, Shane. If
Speaker 1: we had to throw every other iron out the window
Speaker 1: and design one iron for the entire marketplace, it'd be
Speaker 1: the four to forty, big lot of forgiveness, little wider soul.
Speaker 1: Now that being said, they still look very attractive. The
Speaker 1: four forties look very attractive in terms of the blade length,
Speaker 1: and we've kind of evolved our meat and potatoes G
Speaker 1: series iron to look better over the years. But they
Speaker 1: go high, they go really far, and they have a
Speaker 1: ton of forgiveness. So if you're an eight to ten
Speaker 1: handicapper above looking for the great all purpose workhorse iron
Speaker 1: that's going to give you a lot of forgiveness, a
Speaker 1: lot of height, plenty of distance. The four to forty
Speaker 1: is the place to look. And then Shane, I am
Speaker 1: personally very excited and candidly, I thought we had a
Speaker 1: little bit of a gap in our iron offering by
Speaker 1: not having a very very wide soul. So there's a
Speaker 1: little bit of our teams kind of influencing feedback from
Speaker 1: our fitters. We need a return of a very wide
Speaker 1: soul iron, and the wide soul iron gives turf interaction forgiveness.
Speaker 1: So one piece of iron fitting to think about is
Speaker 1: not only what do I need from launch conditions and workability,
Speaker 1: how much forgiveness do I need from the soul design
Speaker 1: and the bounce fitting. And so the G seven is
Speaker 1: a little bit longer, he'll toe length, But the big
Speaker 1: thing is the soul is very wide, very friendly being
Speaker 1: that wide of a soul. And so if your delivery
Speaker 1: is not perfect every single time, which is a big thing,
Speaker 1: if you're as your differentiator in skill levels your ability
Speaker 1: to find the bottom of the ground and that low
Speaker 1: point consistency, the seven forty is a fantastic offering and
Speaker 1: they go super high and super far that iron.
Speaker 2: What about you know something I get ask a lot
Speaker 2: about because I do the I do the wedges, like
Speaker 2: I don't do the set wedges, you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: I think there's obviously you could go set wedges, you
Speaker 2: can go specialty wedges in terms of what you have
Speaker 2: in your line up there? What do you tell people
Speaker 2: that ask you that question, like what's more important in
Speaker 2: that regard?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would love to get your feedback on it,
Speaker 1: but I'll kind of give my take on this one. First,
Speaker 1: Shane is so specialty wedges. So for example, maybe instead
Speaker 1: playing the pitching wedge, you play the forty six, or
Speaker 1: you play the fifty instead of the U wedge number one.
Speaker 1: A little bit of psychology, you want that little bit
Speaker 1: of psychology. Though, Okay, now I'm in the scoring zone,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be able to to stuff this shot in
Speaker 1: there you're in the scoring zone from a full shot perspective,
Speaker 1: So that's number one. A little bit of preference there too.
Speaker 1: The blade lengths are generally a little shorter, so you're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to turn them over or square them
Speaker 1: up a little bit easier on a full shot. And
Speaker 1: then number three, I think is the biggest consideration is
Speaker 1: how much you're gonna use those for short game shots.
Speaker 1: Are you gonna chip a little bit more with your
Speaker 1: gap wedge or your forty six? Do you got a
Speaker 1: course you maybe have powdery bunkers and you need the
Speaker 1: forty six or fifty for long thirty yard bunker shot
Speaker 1: from a powdery bunker, you're gonna open the face a
Speaker 1: little bit more. The specialty wedge is gonna give you
Speaker 1: a little bit more versatility there. Conversely, the set wedge generally,
Speaker 1: let's say take our I two forty for example, has
Speaker 1: a little wider soul, little more bounce, so it might
Speaker 1: be a little less versatile if you're gonna use them
Speaker 1: for short game shots opening the face. What has your
Speaker 1: experience been and why do you generally prefer the specialty wedge.
Speaker 2: In Yeah, I mean I think more of the third
Speaker 2: bucket for me. I mean you mentioned just shots around
Speaker 2: the green, you know, the modern tour player. I feel
Speaker 2: like Marty. They miss a green, they immediately grab their
Speaker 2: lobwedge and walk up the fairway. That is not me.
Speaker 2: I am always looking at the lie. I might have
Speaker 2: two clubs in my hand to figure out what type
Speaker 2: of shot I like to hit. I don't like just
Speaker 2: going with lob wedge. I like to hit fifty six,
Speaker 2: fifty even forty six if I'm short, with a lot
Speaker 2: of green to work with. So that's the reason I
Speaker 2: do it is I just like the versatility around the
Speaker 2: greens because I like to have a lot of options
Speaker 2: to hit certain pitch shots. I just see I see
Speaker 2: pitch shots differently, you know, I just see a lot
Speaker 2: of the ground. How much grounding to cover? How can
Speaker 2: I make this shot the easiest possible? And I feel
Speaker 2: like for me, going with less loft on certain shots
Speaker 2: makes more sense, and that's easier for me to do
Speaker 2: with a specialty wedge.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I love that. I love that, and I
Speaker 1: think that's a good framework for folks to think about. Okay,
Speaker 1: specialty wedge or stick with your set wedges. I've personally
Speaker 1: gone to Blueprint tea and my pitching wedge as okay
Speaker 1: with my blueprint as my primary reason for that, Shane
Speaker 1: has been squaring the face up. So again, blade length
Speaker 1: is just a little shorter, and I like sometimes drawing
Speaker 1: my pitching wedge in if I'm kind of between, I
Speaker 1: want to hit a hard draw yep, I can do
Speaker 1: that a little bit easier and not do it with lyingle.
Speaker 1: And again, because the blades's a little shorter, the face
Speaker 1: is going to be delivered slightly more closed the path
Speaker 1: and that's why I personally love that in the in
Speaker 1: the Blueprint te pitching watch.
Speaker 2: Marty, what about indoor and outdoor fitting? I mean, you
Speaker 2: know a couple options obviously for a lot of golfers.
Speaker 2: Sometimes there's only one option, right, You've got to get
Speaker 2: fit inside or you got to go to a range
Speaker 2: you get fit, you know, out and out with with
Speaker 2: mother nature. Is there a big difference in terms of
Speaker 2: how you could get fit or the numbers that come
Speaker 2: out of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly, certainly some pros and cons with both. It's
Speaker 1: not all negative getting fit indoors. In fact, there are
Speaker 1: some benefits, right you do you are in a more
Speaker 1: controlled environment, you're gonna have consistent friction, you don't have
Speaker 1: bias from wind and lies or sandy turf for Barker,
Speaker 1: maybe suboptimal golf balls and things of that nature. So
Speaker 1: a lot of advantages to the indoor side, I think
Speaker 1: is launch monitors and simulation software have gotten better. You
Speaker 1: can go into a nice simulated environment where maybe you
Speaker 1: can have a nice target that's a little smaller, help
Speaker 1: you focus in, and things of that nature. The advantage
Speaker 1: of getting fitting outdoor Shane though, if you can, is
Speaker 1: being able to be able to evaluate turf interaction in
Speaker 1: a little bit more real world environment. And I think
Speaker 1: that's one of the missing pieces of the indoor side
Speaker 1: that we're going to continue to try to innovate on,
Speaker 1: is that turf interaction side of things. Being able to
Speaker 1: evaluate that simulating friction. The same friction you get which
Speaker 1: was determinant. Help's going to determine launch angle and spin
Speaker 1: rate from indoors to outdoors. The good news there is
Speaker 1: that uh with with our afs fitting clubs, the get
Speaker 1: a little technically or but they live right at the
Speaker 1: peak of what's called the spin loft mountain. So if
Speaker 1: you change friction or lies from indoored outdoors or on
Speaker 1: a tee or not on a tea, generally you're going
Speaker 1: to kind of have pretty similar spin characteristics. That's that's
Speaker 1: a good news with fitting indoors and outdoors with irons.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think if if you get fit indoors
Speaker 1: on irons, there can be a lot of advantages to
Speaker 1: controlling the environment more.
Speaker 2: What about for like lady golfers or junior golfers in
Speaker 2: terms of getting fit for irons with web fit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, web our web fit tool is absolutely fantastic and
Speaker 1: one of the big pieces with our webfit tools, and
Speaker 1: we just launched webfit ladies with the launch of the
Speaker 1: g L four, which I'm very excited about. It'll give
Speaker 1: you a really good kind of gapping recommendation, Shane. So
Speaker 1: not only are we getting you fit in there for
Speaker 1: based on your static heigh, risk of floor, get your
Speaker 1: color code, We give you a length recommendation, ask you
Speaker 1: some questions if you know them about your club at
Speaker 1: speed or swing speed. All of that informs your set configuration. Right,
Speaker 1: really big deal, and we've met, we've our webfit tools
Speaker 1: do it in a way that's not intimidating, right, You
Speaker 1: just answer some questions. We give you a couple set
Speaker 1: recommendation options. You know, I think one of the big
Speaker 1: pieces is what's the longest iron you're comfortable playing well.
Speaker 1: We also can look at it from a scientific standpoint,
Speaker 1: which what is based on your inputs, what's the longest
Speaker 1: iron that we think you can be successful hitting right,
Speaker 1: getting the ball up in the air and having that
Speaker 1: right amount of stopping power for and gapping together. And
Speaker 1: so Wefit ladies fantastic tool. I really encourage any ladies
Speaker 1: that are in the market for new clubs to go
Speaker 1: through that help you fit the entire bag, not only
Speaker 1: your irons. And then Junior the same thing is what
Speaker 1: is the right mix of clubs in there? A Wefit
Speaker 1: Junior has been used hundreds of thousands of times now
Speaker 1: fantastic product, and we got our get Golf Growing program
Speaker 1: so when kiddos grow a little bit, they can send
Speaker 1: their clubs back in and get them extended. But really
Speaker 1: help you dial in the gaping component along with the
Speaker 1: length and liingle in which schaffles and our Prodigy product.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the fitting. I think the fitting world
Speaker 2: of irons can feel intimidating because of the offerings and
Speaker 2: all the different assortments of what you can and can't do.
Speaker 2: But I mean the idea is, because there's so many options,
Speaker 2: why not have a lot of fun hitting different stuff
Speaker 2: and seeing what might actually make the most sense. I
Speaker 2: love the idea of going in with a little information
Speaker 2: and knowing what your golf course plays like and maybe
Speaker 2: what are certain shots you're gonna hit. And also, I
Speaker 2: mean what I said earlier is no e. I mean,
Speaker 2: all of these things play into making sure you're getting
Speaker 2: fit to exactly exactly what you want in the bag,
Speaker 2: which is all we're trying to do is trying to
Speaker 2: make you more confident and hit the ball better and
Speaker 2: more consistent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Shane, I think one thing that we do
Speaker 1: that I'm very excited about right now in the fitting
Speaker 1: world for irons is it's we're doing almost the opposite
Speaker 1: in a driver. Like the driver, we've always had lofts
Speaker 1: and models to fit your optimal trajectory downrange right to
Speaker 1: get you perfect launch conditions. But we've just now put
Speaker 1: in trajectory tuning sleeves and CG shifters fits you for
Speaker 1: left right bias. Irons. We've always fit for left right
Speaker 1: bias through lingle but we've just now been able to
Speaker 1: through power Spec and Retrospec also fits you for your
Speaker 1: stopping power. So we're doing what I like to think about,
Speaker 1: and I really encourage our fitters and consumers to think about.
Speaker 1: We're doing three D fitting now for both drivers and
Speaker 1: irons and irons. We're executing it through our Retrospec in
Speaker 1: our power Spec and we've even added retrospec heads to
Speaker 1: our AFS fitting mix. So now you can try retrospec
Speaker 1: and go in and maybe take one of our G
Speaker 1: seven to forty G four forty irons that go pretty far,
Speaker 1: and you might be saying, hey, these are great, I
Speaker 1: just wish they win a little bit higher. Work with
Speaker 1: your fitter if you need to evaluate your stopping power,
Speaker 1: and you can try out our irons with Retrospec or
Speaker 1: conversely power Spec if you're spinning them too much. And
Speaker 1: we see a lot of fast wing speed players maybe
Speaker 1: fit into our I two forty and they want to
Speaker 1: try power Spec to get their spin rate down. So
Speaker 1: we have just fantastic tools now to fit you for
Speaker 1: your your optimal launch window.
Speaker 2: I mean just throwing pitches from all directions, Marty, I
Speaker 2: mean there's you just got to be ready. You got
Speaker 2: to be ready for all of it, all of use,
Speaker 2: and you're catching them. Do we miss anything in terms
Speaker 2: of iron fitting.
Speaker 1: Ah, I mean those are the big ones. I mean
Speaker 1: shaft fitting is a really big deal. I think a
Speaker 1: little different to think about shaft fitting and irons, which
Speaker 1: is weight. Your weight caategory is really important. And the
Speaker 1: reason why is because your low point control is a premium.
Speaker 1: It's very different than your driver driver the balls on
Speaker 1: a tee. You got a lot of inertia, you got
Speaker 1: a little wiggle room to miss a little high and
Speaker 1: low on the face. If you fat your irons, thin
Speaker 1: your irons struggle with that low point control, that can
Speaker 1: be a major problem. So you want to think about
Speaker 1: a little bit my priority of weight first because that'll
Speaker 1: help your low point consistency. And then obviously change different
Speaker 1: shaft flexes for feel, a little bit of tip stiffness
Speaker 1: for launch window. But the primary thing is just make
Speaker 1: sure you're in the right weight category for you both
Speaker 1: your swing speed and how consistent you can you can
Speaker 1: deliver the club to the ground.
Speaker 2: How many irons do you have in your bag, Marty?
Speaker 2: Do you know the number you have?
Speaker 1: Uh? Iron models? Yeah, I got I got ID, I,
Speaker 1: I got IDI three four, and then blueprint blueprint s
Speaker 1: and then a blueprint T so I'd counted three three
Speaker 1: different models.
Speaker 2: Right now we are the perfect examination of what, say,
Speaker 2: what's out there if you're interested in diving into the world.
Speaker 2: Marty always appreciate the insight. A reminder to everybody to
Speaker 2: get fit. If you're a golfer, it is silly not
Speaker 2: to go out there and get fit. This is the
Speaker 2: Ping proven Grounds podcast