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WRX Spotted: Ping G410 LST on USGA conforming list (updated with in-hand photos)

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UPDATE: In-hand photos from the Wells Fargo Championship at the end of the piece. 

Monday morning around the GolfWRX office means a couple of things: confirming WITBs from Sunday’s winners, talking about any golf we played over the weekend, Brian Knudson discussing this weeks golf shaft changes (sorry Brian), and scouring the USGA conforming list for NEW DRIVERS!!!

Well, this Monday morning didn’t disappoint: we found The Ping G410 LST in all its black and white glory.

Considering what we have seen with the previous Ping driver series, an LST (Low Spin Technology) version seemed like more of an inevitability than a big surprise. This expands on the already large number of options available to Ping fitters and tour pros alike when it comes to dialing in ideal numbers with the 410 Plus and 410 SFT.

Without having this new LST driver in hand, and with no official comment from Ping yet, we are drawing some conclusions about the design from the USGA pictures, and from the specs of previous G400 LST model.

Let’s start with the obvious and see what Ping has brought to the design:

  • Same great movable weight and custom COG controlling technology as the G410 Plus. As stated before, Ping is not the first to offer adjustable weighting in a driver, but they certainly are doing it right by pushing the mass to the absolute perimeter of the head to maximize the performance effect this driver has that.
  • Same eight-way adjustable hosel offering +/- 1.5 degrees of loft adjustment per head. This is an improvement over the original one-degree adjustability seen in previous driver series.

Onto the speculation…

  • We should see a smaller more compact appearance but same CC at the G410 PLUS . This is a tough one to try and confirm based on pictures, but Ping isn’t really known for going smaller with their lower spinning driver models. The MOI (a measurement of forgiveness) will most likely be slightly less than the Plus because of the more forward center of gravity so to keep that as high as possible; I don’t expect a smaller than the current 450cc head.
  • Lower spinning than the G410 Plus (obvious, I know ) but the real question is going to be how much? If we are using the previous G400 as the comparison, we’re probably going to see it be in the 300 rpm range, which is a substantial amount (more than 10 percent for most players not quite at ideal launch characteristics). If they are able to get below that average spin reduction while still maintaining the incredibly high level of forgiveness Ping is know for, then LOOK OUT! Many of the lowing spinning “tour” options available now from other OEMs come in smaller head sizes which sacrifices MOI…and that’s not really PING’s modus operandi.

With the G410 LST now on the USGA conforming list, we could potentially see it as early as this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, so keep an eye out for in-hand photos. And when we have more information, including retail release date and price, we will let you know.

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Ryan Barath is a club-fitter & master club builder with more than 17 years of experience working with golfers of all skill levels, including PGA Tour players. He is the former Build Shop Manager & Social Media Coordinator for Modern Golf. He now works independently from his home shop and is a member of advisory panels to a select number of golf equipment manufacturers. You can find Ryan on Twitter and Instagram where he's always willing to chat golf, and share his passion for club building, course architecture and wedge grinding.

10 Comments

10 Comments

  1. John

    Apr 30, 2019 at 3:37 am

    Why is it 9 degrees where did the 8.5 go! Also looks to have the loud G410 face, G400 LST is a tough act to follow.

  2. Ty Webb

    Apr 30, 2019 at 2:38 am

    If only they didn’t sound like hell.

  3. dat

    Apr 29, 2019 at 11:19 am

    I don’t get it. Ping is like 8 years behind in movable weight and hosel adjustment. Why pay more?

    • Johnny Penso

      Apr 29, 2019 at 11:46 am

      For performance of course. If the adjustments aren’t enough for you, then you probably have issues that go far beyond the driver and something else is probably right for you.

    • bj

      Apr 29, 2019 at 1:42 pm

      Ping is coming on strong. They are doing it right. clubs are really good

    • Joe

      Apr 29, 2019 at 3:30 pm

      How is “less unnecessary doo-dads and marketing” behind 8 yeas?

      • dat

        Apr 29, 2019 at 3:47 pm

        Joe, you just proved my point. It is all unnecessary – but everyone is doing it – therefore, being 8 years late kinda makes you seem behind the curve – even if that curve is all marketing BS. It is table stakes.

        • Joe

          Apr 30, 2019 at 7:57 am

          That’s why I play a PING G400 LST and I’ll upgrade to this if it even performs identically. Why? No other company does the “Flat lie angle” setting as well as PING – and they showcase it on the G410. I don’t need anything else. No supercomputers, no speed injected twist face, Just a nice forged face with lie angle adjustment and I’m good to go. Regarding “paying more”, this driver is cheaper than many at $499. And I’ll gladly pay it to reward PING for not being cheesy. You started your comment by saying “I don’t get it”. It’s easy to get. PING sells a ton of drivers because they do it right.

          • dat

            Apr 30, 2019 at 9:42 am

            They charged a premium for less tech for years, until the likes of TM and Cally forced their hand. They still make a nice club, but it isn’t as premium as it once was.

            Now, they are behind the curve in many tech advancements made over the last several years, and as a result they are now charging less than others for less tech. It’s like some kind of magnetic pole shift occurred with Ping’s pricing to tech ratio.

  4. joe

    Apr 29, 2019 at 10:33 am

    it’s 5cc smaller. Our rep is carrying it around.

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Equipment

Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter

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Tommy Fleetwood has been attached to his Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 putter for years now. However, this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, we did spot him testing a new putter that is very different, yet somewhat similar, to his current gamer.

This new putter is a TaylorMade Spider Tour X head but with a brand new neck we haven’t seen on a Spider before. A flow neck is attached to the Spider head and gives the putter about a 1/2 shaft offset. This style neck will usually increase the toe hang of the putter and we can guess it gets the putter close to his White Hot Pro #3.

Another interesting design is that lack of TaylorMade’s True Path alignment on the top of the putter. Instead of the large white center stripe, Tommy’s Spider just has a very short white site line milled into it. As with his Odyssey, Tommy seems to be a fan of soft inserts and this Spider prototype looks to have the TPU Pure Roll insert with 45° grooves for immediate topspin and less hopping and skidding.

The sole is interesting as well in that the rear weights don’t look to be interchangeable and are recessed deep into the ports. This setup could be used to push the CG forward in the putter for a more blade-like feel during the stroke, like TaylorMade did with the Spider X Proto Scottie Scheffler tested out.

Tommy’s putter is finished off with an older Super Stroke Mid Slim 2.0 grip in blue and white. The Mid Slim was designed to fit in between the Ultra Slim 1.0 and the Slim 3.0 that was a popular grip on tour.

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Equipment

Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

…The Jailbird craze hasn’t really slowed down in 2024, either. According to Odyssey rep Joe Toulon, there are about 18-20 Jailbird putter users on the PGA TOUR.

Most recently, Akshay Bhatia won the 2024 Valero Texas Open using a broomstick-style Odyssey Jailbird 380 putter and Webb Simpson is switching into a replica of that putter at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Now, Fowler, who essentially started the whole Jailbird craze, is making a significant change to his putter setup.

Fowler, who has had a couple weeks off since the 2024 RBC Heritage, started experimenting with a new, custom-orange Jailbird 380 head that’s equipped with a standard 35-inch putter build, rather than his previous 38-inch counter-balanced setup.

According to Fowler, while he still likes the look and forgiveness of his Jailbird putter head, he’s looking to re-incorporate more feel into his hands during the putting stroke.

He told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Championship that the 38-inch counterbalanced setup “served its purpose” by helping him to neutralize his hands during the stroke, but now it’s time to try the standard-length putter with a standard-size SuperStroke Pistol Tour grip to help with his feel and speed control.

Although Fowler was also spotted testing standard-length mallets from L.A.B. Golf and Axis1 on Tuesday, he confirmed that the custom Odyssey Jailbird 380 is the putter he’ll use this week at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

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Equipment

Details on Justin Thomas’ driver switch at the Wells Fargo Championship

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

So, with a couple of weeks off following his latest start at the 2024 RBC Heritage, Thomas sought to re-address his driver setup with the remote help of Titleist Tour fitting expert J.J. Van Wezenbeeck. About two weeks ago, Thomas and Van Wezenbeeck reviewed his recent driver stats, and discussed via phone call some possible driver and shaft combinations for him to try.

After receiving Van Wezenbeeck’s personalized shipment of product options while at home, Thomas found significant performance improvements with Titleist’s TSR2 head, equipped with Thomas’ familiar Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 60 TX shaft.

Compared to Thomas’ longtime TSR3 model, the TSR2 has a larger footprint and offers slightly higher spin and launch characteristics.

According to Van Wezenbeeck, Thomas has picked up about 2-3 mph of ball speed, to go along with 1.5 degrees higher launch and more predictable mishits.

“I’d say I’d been driving it fine, not driving it great, so I just wanted to, honestly, just test or try some stuff,” Thomas said on Tuesday in an interview with GolfWRX.com at Quail Hollow Club. “I had used that style of head a couple years ago (Thomas used a TSi2 driver around 2021); I know it’s supposed to have a little more spin. Obviously, yeah, I’d love to hit it further, but if I can get a little more spin and have my mishits be a little more consistent, I felt like obviously that’d be better for my driving…

“This (TSR2) has been great. I’ve really, really driven it well the week I’ve used it. Just hitting it more solid, I don’t know if it’s the look of it or what it is, but just a little bit more consistent with the spin numbers. Less knuckle-ball curves. It has been fast. Maybe just a little faster than what I was using. Maybe it could be something with the bigger head, maybe mentally it looks more forgiving.”

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

 

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