While PING tends to be a little more no-nonsense than some of its competitors, there’s still plenty to the story of the new G440 family of drivers.
In some respects, the new drivers are exactly what you’d expect from PING. It’s also fair to say there are some mostly pleasant surprises.
There’s a lot of important and interesting stuff to dig into but because I find it’s sometimes best to ease into things, let’s start with the cosmetics.
Paint (and related stuff)
The headline is that, after dabbling in oranges, reds and yellows, blue has returned to the G lineup.
I like that.
The bodies of PING G440 drivers are charcoal gray with blue accents. I’ll never not love the G400 series because of that first LST but, for my money, these are the best-looking PING drivers in a while.
Not technically paint but you’ll also notice the full lineup now offers Carbonfly Wrap crowns. Fundamentally, the crown is one piece of our weight-savings story but the paint-based part is that PING has toned down the appearance of the carbon fiber.
There’s always a bit of a balancing act with this stuff. Most companies want to give you a visual cue that they’re using carbon fiber but it can be overdone. This time around, the carbon pattern is a bit more subtle.
Less subtle are aerodynamic-enhancing Turbulators that adorn (or litter, depending on your perspective) the crown. For some of you, I know that’s a deal-breaker but I think it’s one of those things that bothers people for a few swings and then you don’t notice anymore.
Regardless, they’re part of the G440 package, though it’s entirely possible that as PING continues to evolve its driver shapes, the day could come where they’re no longer necessary.
Performance
A good bit of driver performance is the result of things that happen under the hood but, to an extent, the improved performance of the G440 driver lineup starts with updated shapes.
As PING continues to collect data from a variety of sources, it’s starting to hone in on what it calls “player archetypes.” Functionally, it’s about defining various types of golfers and then designing every element of the clubhead to meet those needs.
There’s a lot to that. It covers everything from shape to weight to face topology, center of gravity location and more.
With that marinating in the back of your brain, let’s jump into some specifics.
PING G440 Drivers – Three updated models
With the launch of the G440 driver lineup, PING is offering updates to three of its four models.
PING G440 LST
The LST (low spin tech) remains the smallest of PING’s driver models. It’s a 450cc, pear-shaped (or PING pear-shaped anyway) head. The G440 LST is slightly more compact than the previous (G430) LST.
The G440 LST is available in nine and 10.5 degrees.
PING G440 MAX
PING’s most mainstream offering is slightly more compact than the previous model. I think it’s fair to say that the existence of the MAX 10K gave PING the freedom to nudge the MAX ever so slightly away from the extreme end of the forgiveness chart.
In my estimation, the G440 MAX is more of a true middle-of-the-bell-curve offering than its predecessors.
The “big picture” plan is to create more separation between models. With that, the intent for the MAX is to have it sit comfortably between LST and MAX 10K instead of what I suppose you might call a “MAX Almost 10K.”
A footnote to this part of our story is that the G440 MAX has slightly lower MOI than its 430 counterpart. Frankly, it’s the smallest of prices to pay for the added speed, especially when the 10K still in the lineup.
The PING G440 MAX is available in nine, 10.5 and 12 degrees.
PING G440 SFT
With MAX taking on more of a midsized address profile, SFT now is the big one in the lineup (though it’s not MAX 10K big).
The most notable thing about new G440 SFT is that PING has FINALLY decided to offer its slice killer in a nine-degree head.
It’s something fitters have been asking for and PING believes it makes sense for the current generation of new golfers. Many are faster swingers who fight a slice. Frankly, this one feels like an easy decision.
The PING G440 SFT is available in nine and 10.5 degrees.
PING G430 MAX 10K lives on
For now, the G430 MAX 10K continues as PING’s highest MOI offering. The shift of the G430 MAX closer to the LST hints at a permanent place in the lineup and, while just a guess, this could be the start of a pattern where the 10K/maximum MOI offering launches in the off-year for the rest of the franchise.
Huge weight savings
Most driver stories are rooted in mass savings. This one is no different. In developing the G440, PING engineers were able to shave and save weight from three key areas.
Carbonfly Wrap Crown
Carbon crowns aren’t entirely new to PING. PING featured its Carbonfly Wrap crown on the G430 LST and again on the G430 MAX 10K.
With G440, Carbonfly Wrap now is part of the entire lineup. With the crown and everything needed to support and hold it in place, PING says it saved three grams over titanium. That doesn’t’ sound like a big number but in club design world, there isn’t anybody who wouldn’t love three grams to play with.
Free hosel design
One of G440’s biggest design update is found on the inside of the club with what PING calls a “free hosel design.” Free hosel is similar to what COBRA has done in the past and it involves removing a good bit of what I guess one could describe as the middle section of the metal that supports the hosel adapter inside the club.
I mean, it’s supported on the top and on the bottom. Do you even need a middle?
Apparently not.
Removing that material freed up four grams of weight and because the material was effectively bound to the face and heel section of driver, removing it results in faster ball speeds in that area of the clubface. Whether you want to describe that as hotter in the heel or simply more normalized across the face, it’s a win for golfers.
As with any change to shape or structure, the free hosel design created acoustic challenges. Painting with broad strokes, PING worked hard to create better sound throughout the lineup and while I can’t say it’s the best ever, I certainly didn’t notice anything off-putting when hitting G440 at the range at PING headquarters.
New adapters
With supporting material removed from the head, PING wanted to make sure its shaft adapters would hold up to the increased stresses. To that end, it redesigned its tips with a new tapered cone shape. It also made the heads on the adapter screws a bit smaller to save a little more weight.
At worst, it’s precautionary and perhaps even a bit of over-engineering but the thing I’m guessing you’ll care most about is that your existing PING adapters will work with the new drivers. Likewise, the new adapters will work in your existing PING heads.
Updated face design
I’m not sure how much a materials story matters to you but PING is sticking with its familiar T9S+. It has used the material for quite a while and despite looking for alternatives, it hasn’t found anything better.
If you stare at the G440 drivers long enough, you may notice a shallower overall face height. Reducing face height by .6 inches allowed PING to to thin the face by .005.-.006 inches.
A thinner face is a faster face. It’s also a lighter face to the tune of two grams worth of savings.
As part of the redesign, PING shifted the face-to-sole transition lower, so it shouldn’t look much if any shallower.
Under the hood, PING modified its Variable Face Thickness (VFT) topology, shifting it slightly to the toe. You’re still getting “spinsitency” (PING-speak face curvature designed to make spin as consistent as possible).
It’s an underappreciated element of the forgiveness story.
What does this get you?
Between Carbonfly Wrap crown, a lighter face and the free hosel design, PING freed up nine grams of weight. Again, it sounds like a small number (two sheets of paper weigh nine grams) but for club engineers, it’s drool-worthy.
It’s huge.
PING mostly used the weight savings to create the lowest centers of gravity in G lineup history. Depending on the model, center of gravity locations are roughly between two and 2 1/2 millimeters lower.
Again, those small numbers make a big impact: faster balls speeds and lower spin rates.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper weight-savings story if some of that extra mass wasn’t allocated to the backweight.
And so, here goes.
On the G440 Max, PING increased the mass of the backweight from 25 grams to 29.
On the G440 LST, the backweight jumps from 22 to 29 grams.
While there is an MOI benefit to adding more weight to the back of the clubhead, there’s a bit more to this part of the story.
More efficient adjustability
I’m not sure how many of you have noticed but with each release, the size of PING’s rear weight track and, with it, the travel distance between positions has decreased. By using heavier weights, PING is able to create the same amount of CG movement (and by extension, shot-shape correction) with less movement.
In an interesting twist of sorts, by leveraging heavier weights, PING was able to save weight from supporting structures without compromising performance.
Hey, what about the SFT? (You might be wondering)
On the SFT (surprise), PING did nothing. I know, it’s weird to think of club engineers saving weight and then doing nothing with it but it’s part of a fitting story that relies on the concept of Total System Weight.
Total what?
With the release of G440 driver family, PING is leaning into the idea of total system weight (the combination of head, shaft and grip). It’s a concept rooted in the notion that there’s a correlation between your swing speed and the ideal system weight of your driver. And, yeah, system weight starts with head weight.
Looking at golfer data (a good bit from The Stack System database), PING has sought to optimize each design based on the target player’s swing speed.
With what, PING believes golfers who swing 115 mph or faster perform best when driver head weights are at least 205 grams. It’s why the G400 LST has a target weight of 205 grams.
Golfers in the 105-115 mph range do best with head weights between 203-208 grams. Target head weight on the G440 MAX is 203 grams.
The SFT has a target head weight of 199 grams, ideal for golfers swinging between 90 and 105 mph.
The HL build has a target head weight of 196 grams for golfers in the 75-90 mph range.
And if you happen to swing slower than 75 mph, the G LE is just 190 grams.
To be clear, these are rough targets. Nobody expects that everybody who buys (and benefits from) a G440 LST is going to swing 115 mph. It’s a starting point but it’s worth pointing that the backweights allow PING fitters to easily tune headweight as part of the fitting process.
Putting some numbers on it
To reasonably quantify the benefits of the new G440 line, PING ran a player test where it fitted golfers into both G430 MAX and G440 MAX.
With the G440 MAX, golfers saw average gains of .8 mph in clubhead speed, one mph in ball speed, .2-degrees higher launch and 150 rpm less spin.
Looking downrange, the G440 MAX produced 31 percent less shot bend, was 17 percent less offline and ultimately provided five percent tighter dispersion.
It’s worth reiterating that these results are fitted driver versus fitted driver and it’s at least interesting that golfers were fitted into, on average, .7 degrees less loft with the new models.
Club and ball speed gains are always nice but it’s the straighter flight and tighter dispersion that I find most compelling.
PING attributes the straighter flight to improved CG locations, the new face shape and related structures and, of course, MOI.
If you take anything away from that it should be that while high MOI contributes to straight flight, it’s just one of many pieces that contribute to better accuracy (and fewer balls OB).
Other stuff worth knowing
While we’ve covered most of the important stuff, there are a few more things worth knowing.
Longer stock shaft lengths
Across the G440 driver lineup, PING has increased the stock length of its shafts. With ALTA shafts, the stock length is 46 inches. With PING Tour and aftermarket shaft options, the stock build length is 45.5.
With the new models being more forgiving directionally, PING felt it could leverage increased shaft length to create more distance.
MOI is mostly what you’d expect from PING
Even with reduced MOI in the MAX, MOI values across the lineup remain high. PING claims 9,500 combined MOI with the MAX, just shy of 9,100 with the LST and 8,500 with the SFT.
While that’s lower than some might expect, I’d suggest everyone take a more comprehensive view of forgiveness. MOI is a piece of that but if a driver can keep a guy who otherwise slices the ball off the planet in the fairway, I’d say that’s pretty forgiving.
And, again, the G430 MAX 10K and its 10,100 combined MOI will carry on.
There’s still an HL option
PING will again offer a lightweight HL version of its MAX driver. As mentioned, the HL head is seven grams lighter than the stock MAX. Additional total system weight savings come from lighter shafts and a lighter counterbalance weight within the Alta CB stock shaft.
I should also mention that, because of the reduced weight, the total MOI of the HL build is lower than the standard MAX.
Specs, Pricing, Availability
PING will again offer a wide range of stock/no-upcharge shafts for G440.
Retail price for the PING G440 driver family is $599.99. In store January 30.
For more information, visit PING.com.
Save some money
In preparation for the launch of G440, the PING G430 MAX, SFT and LST have been discounted to $399.
The post The PING G440 Drivers Surprised Me. Here’s Why. appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
