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PING i25 Irons - Review Thread

SuperStroke
Tahokie said:
I just ordered mine:

i25 green dot 4-UW
CFS X w/ cushin inserts
UW 1* weak

waiting begins now...
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I love the cushin inserts paired with the CFSx. Gets the shaft weight real close to my x100's and feels butter smooth. I have the stock ID8 grips +3 wraps installed and I can still feel where I hit the ball on the face but the vibration is dampened just enough.
 
c0ncept - how long are you going to be in the bellevue/seattle area? We should get together for a round and compare the i25's to my i20's
 
Tahokie said:
I just ordered mine:

i25 green dot 4-UW
CFS X w/ cushin inserts
UW 1* weak

waiting begins now...
Click to expand...

My shop called the order in while I was there today and ping said they'd ship within 5-7 days so it doesn't look like we'll have to wait too long at least. I don't know how I'm gonna sleep.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk
 
impistolpete said:
c0ncept - how long are you going to be in the bellevue/seattle area? We should get together for a round and compare the i25's to my i20's
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PM sent
 
Great stuff so far on these. Really intrigued by the sounds of how these feel. I've been really interested in these since I read about them. Really look forward to seeing them in action this weekend.
 
Great reviews guys. Ive never hit ping irons so its interesting to hear your thoughts.
 
Tahokie said:
I like the cushin inserts because of the extra weight they add as well. Do you feel like the CFS X play more like an S+ shaft? I feel like the CFS play about 1/2 flex soft. I'm usually in the middle of S and X with my irons, an I thought about soft stepping the X, but I play in a ton of wind, so I want them to play a little lower. What did yours SW at with the inserts? Thanks.
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I have an x100 ss in a demo club and the CFSx feels really similar. I configured the i25's to a D3 to match my blades. Flight wise I'm getting the trajectory I'm shooting for out of the shot. No ballooning or anything weird, just a nice penetrating ball flight. My stock shot is mid trajectory. First couple shots were higher than expected but this was from the offset. My blades are close to zero offset so I have developed a shallow AoA to get the flight my eye wants to see. Steepened my AoA a touch in the i25 and flight was back to normal.
 
CFS will launch higher and spin a bit more than the DG's, has always been the case for me in multiple different PING heads.
 
Jman said:
CFS will launch higher and spin a bit more than the DG's, has always been the case for me in multiple different PING heads.
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Agree. x100 seems to flex closer to the handle so that may help keep the ball down. I delay my release a little with the CFS and they feel smooth. I was a bit worried I wasn't going to like them but so far the experience has been positive. Have some wind blowing now so I'll find out how well I can flight the ball on the course tomorrow. Should be fun.
 
ChristopherKee said:
Agree. x100 seems to flex closer to the handle so that may help keep the ball down. I delay my release a little with the CFS and they feel smooth. I was a bit worried I wasn't going to like them but so far the experience has been positive. Have some wind blowing now so I'll find out how well I can flight the ball on the course tomorrow. Should be fun.
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Yeah I should have wind on Sunday and am curious how well I can flight the graphite shafts especially in the wedges. It sounds like the CFS shafts are great though for being Ping's own.
 
c0ncept said:
Yeah I should have wind on Sunday and am curious how well I can flight the graphite shafts especially in the wedges. It sounds like the CFS shafts are great though for being Ping's own.
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Good point. I never played graphite in a wedge shaft but have a 7 iron with a ladies flex. Boo Weekly seems to flight his graphite iron shafts down pretty well. Think he plays S400 in wedges though. Can't wait to hear how they did for you.
 
ChristopherKee said:
Good point. I never played graphite in a wedge shaft but have a 7 iron with a ladies flex. Boo Weekly seems to flight his graphite iron shafts down pretty well. Think he plays S400 in wedges though. Can't wait to hear how they did for you.
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Yeah it is a little odd to me to have the same weight shafts in the wedges but I do like the high flight without the loss of distance.
 
This is one SOLID set of irons to me. I demo'd them finally the other day. For me, the feel was MUCH improved over the i20's. I really liked them, and if I didn't game Callaway irons, these would be on the short list.

I was really surprised about the feel. Very soft. And the CFS is such a nice shaft too.
 
c0ncept said:
Yeah I should have wind on Sunday and am curious how well I can flight the graphite shafts especially in the wedges. It sounds like the CFS shafts are great though for being Ping's own.
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Not to take anything away from Ping, but having a solid company like True Temper behind them defiantly doesn't hurt.
 
I've got two full rounds in with my new set of i25's and I love them. They are very high launching for me. I have used i3+ irons since their creation and this is the first set I've tried that made me want to keep the i3's in the closet.....
 
I got in about 5 or 10 swings with the 7i on the outdoor range with Trackman. I had been swinging something pretty different which skewed the first shots. Nice iron, launches the ball easily and distances for me were normal - which probably means long because a little swing hiccup has me hitting shorter than normal right now. I would like to spend more time with them, and without a salesperson standing over me.
 
My initial thoughts on the new Ping I 25's. I'll start linking previous post after this one as there wasn't much information in them.

Today after work I hurried to the range to get some swings in. Having shiny new clubs for four days and not putting them into the dirt is very hard. The range is out doors and I was hitting off ....I guess you'd call it grass. Sandy and not very even but this made the testing more realistic as there definitely was not a perfect lie.

Initial thought at address.
The I 25's are ver simple IMO. The cavity is open and does not have very much going on. Sometimes simple just works and this seems to fit these irons for me. My only concern is the weighting strip? I'm a hundred percent positive that it will never fall off but it looks like it could.

I'm a huge fan of the face of these irons. I stated earlier and though it's minor I love the iron number footprint near the toe. The total shape is different for me compared to my previous sets. The toe is higher, but this is very similar to previous PING's of the past.
Warmup:
So my warmup is usually with my wedges. Grab the 56 degree and start swinging 1/2 swings .. At this time I realized something interesting about testing these clubs. The irons are weaker in lofts however the lofts of the wedges are stronger.. This fact should be interesting once I hit the course.

The first couple swings felt a little off. Perhaps not stretching, or maybe it was the difference in the weight of the club. After about the fourth 3/4 swing I was ready to see what these were about.

Full Swings

I grabbed the 8 iron. Set up, and took a swing... I would love to tell you that the power of all the greatest golfers in the world surged through me and I hit it 165 yards with a baby draw which stuck 2 ft from the pin. However, it was only 145 yards, faded and was about 8 ft from the flag :).

Seriously though it felt solid. The sound was crisp and loud. I know it's impossible but it I think I could feel the ball compress. Compared to my R11's the sound of the i25's win hands down. It's a deep sound and I really can't compare it to another iron I've hit. Not saying sound makes a decision on clubs, just saying it is very unique.

The feel... this is a mute topic at times. What I feel has absolutely no correlation on what another golfer feels. I will say that to me the club feel good. From take away to the finish the 5 iron through lob wedge felt great. What makes it feel good to me?

For me its weight, shaft flex, grip and the split second at impact. Impact to me hasn't ever been long enough for me to develop a sense of feel. I'm sure there are many out there that says they can tell the difference. To me, sound changes and maybe the sweet spot but I honestly couldn't tell you a huge different these days if I hit two quality clubs in the sweet spot. So the rest is what I describe in feel...

My thoughts on full swings

it's going to take a little more fine tuning on these irons. I was there to work on anything so I just swung. I hit some balls relatively high with good distance and I hid some with mid trajectory that landed at about the same distance. This could have been the swing or maybe even the lie.

Distance was confusing to me. These are not distance irons. The lofts are what some would call traditional. I've learned in my time back to this great game not to put a lot into loft. There are people a lot smarter than I
researching and designing these things. What I was seeing was just a little shorter that I hit my r11's. Being that these are "weaker" I didn't put too much into these.

From the 5 iron down I felt pretty good with these. My usual fade came in at about the 6 iron as with all irons. Ping claims that with this progressive set that each iron has its own job. I can't say to much on this yet but I can say that every iron I hit felt similar to the last. So even with the progression I couldn't tell a difference. Great thing in my opinion.

The 4i and myself had a discussion and to my embarrassment it won. I haven't had a 4i in the bag for quite some time and it shoWed. I hit it a couple times well and the rest well let's just say I know why I have hybrids. I will however keep using it as a test to myself.
Closing
So before I ramble on and put you to sleep I want to finish what I started about confusing distance. On the way back to the clubhouse I played 4 shots into the green. Two from 132 yards and two from 75.
Now as a quick reminder the lofts are all different.

I grabbed the 9i which is my 133 to 137 club. I hit both of the shots well. The first hit the back of the green and rolled off. The second I decided to swing a little easier. This one sailed the green by 5 yards. So I'm very curious as to how the distance aspect will play out.

75 yards is usually about an 80 percent lob wedge for me. Both of these shots were over the green as well. Maybe it's my swing or the work input into it as of late. All I can verify at this point is that 2 degrees in loft isn't making a huge difference to me.

i should be playing tomorrow if the rain holds off, if not it will be Tuesday. I can't wait to put some swing on the course and try to see the limits of the clubs.
 
Had my first round today with the i25's. I'm in the middle of writing up the full review but wanted to touch on a few quick points.

I normally play forged blades with X100 shafts to keep the ball low as I'm a high ball hitter. The i25's are definitely not set up to keep the ball down as the CG is lower and the progressive offset brings the CG further back as well. This adds up to increased dynamic loft off the face compared to a forged blade which is great for low ball hitters, but possibly not for everyone. This brings me to my first point ...

In today's windy conditions I was having a bit of a struggle getting the ball low enough to travel under the wind. I wasn't getting huge pop ups or any thing of that sort, I just couldn't get the ball lower than a mid trajectory. With the mix of low/back CG and CFS shafts being mid launch fligting the ball did pose a challenge for my skill level. The saving grace was the i25's produce a nice penetrating shot so the wind push back wasn't too punishing for the flight. In the end, I started going an additional club up and chocking down a bit to deal with the wind. Worked out okay.

Second point: I'm not used to the amount of bounce in the i25's. My last 2 sets I've played the most for the last 10 years were blades so they were low bounce. I'm a ball first striker so the bounce doesn't alter my shot, it just feels different interacting with the turf. It doesn't quit cut through the ground like my blades. It's not all bad though as it saved my hide. I hit a fat 8i on a downhill lie 15 feet past a 168 yard Pin basically losing no distance. Now I know why they put so much bounce in GI clubs =).

And my last quick point for this pre full review update. PING i25's are very well made clubs and the manufacturing and assembly is top notch. With that said, they will not survive a 90+ mph swing into a tree that you didn't think your would hit on your follow through. It broke my heart when it happened. (see picture below)


Broken_i25.jpg


On the positive side I will be able to post a review about how PING's customer service deals with a broken shaft =)
 
Sorry to see the broken shaft Christopher. That's a bummer. Good stuff, though. I had a really high ball flight with the CFS shafts as well.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk
 
Very interesting, I've had no issues flighting these into the OK winds so far or the i20's before them. Always fun seeing just how different we can be, I'm one who has never had a problem bringing iron shots down if need be, even the altitudes hahaha
 
Jman said:
Very interesting, I've had no issues flighting these into the OK winds so far or the i20's before them. Always fun seeing just how different we can be, I'm one who has never had a problem bringing iron shots down if need be, even the altitudes hahaha
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Im going to work on flighting the ball aggressively this week because I'm enjoying the 3i - 6i forgiveness so much. All those years with low launching clubs have lessened my need to keep the ball down, just need to work this out.

The i25's have really been spot on for me with distance control and I'm not going back to blades in the longer irons ever. They just get up in the air so effortlessly and land so soft. I hit a 6i to an elevated pin 197 yards out and the ball was less than a foot from the pitch mark. Missed the eagle putt since I'm a bad putter :)
 
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Got out today in some pretty lovely weather so I will have a write-up tomorrow hopefully. In short the irons were pretty impressive.
 
Saw these in person the other day. Good looking iron and exactly what I'd expect from Ping. Subtle tweaks to an excellent platform.
 
Great stuff GB and CK. I look forward to seeing how the flighting progresses for you.
 
drp3434 said:
Great stuff GB and CK. I look forward to seeing how the flighting progresses for you.
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Rained all day yesterday, calling for more today and a little tomorrow. However im still going out tomorrow.

Testing the irons in soggy rainy weather because sometimes you just have to suck it up for the greater good.
 
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