Gear: Ping G710 irons
Price: $175 per club with Ping AWT 2.0 steel shafts and Golf Pride 360 Tour Velvet Arccos Caddie grips; $190 with Ping Alta CB Red graphite shafts
Specs: Hollow-body 17-4 stainless steel head, plasma-welded maraging steel C300 face, tungsten toe and hosel weights
Available: Jan. 20
Two years ago Ping released its first hollow-bodied iron set, the G700, for mid- and higher-handicap golfers who want to hit the ball higher and farther. The company has now released the update to that club, the G710, promising it will help golfers get more distance and be more forgiving.
While the body of each G710 iron is cast from 17-4 stainless steel, the hitting areas are made from hardened maraging steel. Its strength allowed engineers to make it thin, and because the clubs are hollow, the hitting area can flex more efficiently at impact. Ping said the G710 creates the most face deflection of any Ping iron to help golfers generate more ball speed and more distance.
Ping also added pieces of tungsten in the heel and toe areas to increase the perimeter weighting and boost the moment of inertia. Ping said the G710 has a moment of inertia that is 5 percent higher than the G700, which means it should perform better on off-center hits.
What might surprise golfers the most is how the G710 sounds at impact. Typically, hollow-bodied irons have a higher-pitched sound, not the deep, resounding tone that comes from many solid, better-player’s clubs. After studying the sound waves clubs produce at impact, Ping’s designers added an Ethylene-vinyl acetate polymer piece to an area inside the head to absorb excessive vibrations and enhance the sound. As a result, the G710 has a similar sound profile to Ping’s Blueprint irons, the clubs used by some tour players such as Louis Oosthuizen.
While the G700 irons had a chrome finish, the G710 irons are darker. The hydropearl stealth chrome finish reduces glare and repels water to help players get more consistent results and avoid fliers created by water on the face. The darker finish also makes the G710 appear smaller than the G700, even though the two irons are identical in size.
Ping is making Arccos Caddie Golf Pride 360 Tour Velvet Smart grips standard on the G710 irons. Each grip’s embedded sensor can link with a free Arccos smartphone app and provide valuable data such as how far players typically hit each club and where they tend to miss. Golfers receive a 90-day free trial of the Arccos Caddie app and eight additional screw-in sensors at no charge after the purchase of six or more G710 irons. If players like the added Caddie feature, which uses analytics to make club suggestions and provide strategic feedback, they will need to buy a $99.99 annual subscription after the 90-day trial is complete.