Gear: Ping s159 wedges
Price: $197 each with Z-Z115 steel shafts and Dylawedge grips. $212 each with Alta CB Black graphite shaft.
Specs: Cast 8620 carbon stainless steel with water-repellant coating and vibration-absorbing polymer. Available in even lofts from 46 to 62 degrees in Chrome and Midnight finishes.
Available: February 22
Who It’s For: Golfers who want variety around the green and spin retention in wet conditions.
The Skinny: Taking feedback from PGA Tour players, Ping adjusted the look of its wedges while updating their spin-producing qualities, especially in wet conditions, to help golfers maintain control and feel around the greens.
The Deep Dive: From 100 yards and in, the name of the game is control and consistency. Practicing the proper technique is critical, but so is having wedges in your bag that can help you from various locations, whether that means a tight lie in the fairway or an awkward shot in a bunker.
With the release of the new s159 wedge family, Ping is attacking shortgame challenges on two fronts: spin retention and sole grinds.
Looking down at the s159 wedges in the address position, golfers will see they have a more square leading edge and an updated hosel transition area, so they look straighter than Ping’s recent Glide 4.0 wedges.
The s159 wedges have a soft feel at impact thanks to the use of 8620 carbon steel and an elastomer piece on the back of each head that rests against the face. It soaks up excess vibrations.
The 46 to 52-degree wedges have iron-style grooves because golfers use those clubs approximately 70 percent of the time from the fairway as an extension of their iron set. However, to enhance spin in the sand and lob wedges (54 to 62 degrees), Ping designed the clubs with its Micromax grooves. They are wider and shallower to help remove water, sand and debris from the hitting surface more efficiently. Ping designers also bunched the grooves more tightly together, allowing for the addition of three more grooves to each face to help increase grabbing power and spin.
In addition to machining the faces to make them absolutely flat before the main grooves are cut into the hitting area, Ping adds a face-blast treatment that increases the roughness of the face.
Finally, a Hydropearl 2.0 finish has been applied to the Chrome version of the s159 wedges. It is hydrophobic, which means that water tends to bead up on the metal and fall away easily, leading to increased spin retention on wet turf and in the rain.
So, while most wedges tend to lose a few hundred rpm of spin and launch the ball on a higher angle in wet conditions, the s159 wedges do something interesting. The combination of the grooves, surface-roughening treatment and the Hydropearl 2.0 finish in the Chrome wedges works so well that Ping’s internal studies showed that on 50-yard pitch shots, the Chrome s159 wedge created about 200 rpm more spin and launched on a slightly-lower lower angle in wet conditions than dry conditions.
The glare-reducing Midnight finish does not have the water-repelling Hydropeal 2.0 finish, so golfers will see it does not maintain spin in wet conditions as the Chrome-finished s159 wedges. However, Ping is confident that among the dark-finished wedges on the market, the Midnight version of the s159 retains spin in wet conditions as well or better than other offerings.
With spin retention address, Ping set its sights on offering more sole grinds to allow golfers and fitters more options based on a golfer’s game and the conditions they face.
S Grind – With a straight sole and available in lofts from 46-60 degrees, the S grind is designed to work in a wide variety of situations in the fairway and around the green.
B Grind – A new offering at retail, the B grind is designed for golfers to tend to sweep the ball off the turf and keep the face square at impact. It has a wide sole, low bounce and is offered in 58 and 60-degree versions.
H Grind – The “Half Moon” grind is another new offering and comes in lofts from 54-60 degrees. It is ideally suited to players with a steep angle of attack or who play in soft conditions.
T Grind – Touted as Ping’s most versatile option, the T grind is available as a 58, 60 and 62-degree lob wedge and has significant heel and toe relief.
W Grind – Available in lofts from 54-60 degrees, the W grind has a wide sole, 14 degrees of bounce and is meant for golfers who play in soft conditions and have a steep attack angle. Most players will find it more forgiving than the low-bounce B grind.
E Grind – An homage to the classic Eye2 wedge, the E grind has a signature hight-toe design and a scallop in the wide sole that makes it appealing to golfers who struggle in greenside bunkers. It comes in lofts from 54-60 degrees.
Below are several close-up images of the new Ping s159 wedges.