CAA_Beat
Active member
It really has. From what I saw at the PGA Show I could easily have a 14 club bag by them and be very happy with it.
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PING G400 Max Driver - THP Review Thread
It really has. From what I saw at the PGA Show I could easily have a 14 club bag by them and be very happy with it.
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crazygolfnut
Let's have fun out there!
Very interesting thread. I was not in the market for a new driver but after reading this, I may spend some time at the golf store this weekend to test out the 400 and 400 Max against my Epic driver. Since I am a stock shaft type guy, testing them out should be easy. My only problem is that I don't hit very well inside and it is still winter outside. May have to wait until spring for a final decision.
Wicked Cool Bearded Man
4thegolf+4thefriends
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- #79
The numbers aren't bad at all, though I believe totally at this point we/I can make about any driver out there pretty optimal for me.
On a personal and non-review angle of those two, the G400 smaller size is more comfortable and confident for me (I like smaller), and the sound is a lot better, big keys for me.
Those are not high spin numbers at all dude. Not at all.
I don't think I want to broach that subject at this time, don't want to get people riled up.
Now THOSE are two totally different beast spin wise.
CAA_Beat
Active member
They really are. I did not realize the 400Max was as high spinning as it was when I jumped on it, probably should have read a few more thoughts on it than I did. But that's OK, it's so damn straight and forgiving, and with the Hazrdus yellow (5.5) in it, it's brought the spin down.
Rogue wasn't on my radar, until I had time before a recent basketball game to go into a Callaway fitting day at GolfTec. Turns out the tech rep there is someone I've known in my golf circles for several years, so he had a good idea of my swing/game. We started regular Rouge with a few different shafts, and ended up getting the best results with the SZ with a stiffer lightweight shaft. Almost the exact same profile and reasoning that the Titleist fitter put me in the 917D3 with a similar shaft.
So yes, as different as they are, I'm anxious to see how each works or doesn't for me. Early returns on 400Max with the Hzrdus are promising. I only have the SC200 to go by, so I'm not getting any spin numbers but just from watching the ball flight and seeing the distance increase a few yards, it's working pretty well.
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- #81
It'll be fun to see.
I don't consider this a high spinning head, rather, I think its the G400 version that could really fit a large portion of the golfers out there who need more launch and to get that can use a touch more spin.
I really do look forward to how it goes for you.
For me its still interesting that I was pretty spot on with my eyeball test of spin comparisons, 400-500 rather than the whole 700-900 thing, which IMO just helps it differentiate from the G400. We talk a lot about companies having lots of releases and it just being them "hitting all segments", but when PING does it its either overlooked or played off as something else, its an interesting case study.
CAA_Beat
Active member
Yep, I read your initial thoughts on the spin, and saw you were pretty much spot on.
While I haven't played a PING Driver for an entire year since the G20 or irons for a year or longer since the I5's, I've always appreciated what PING does with it's releases. They typically stick to the 18 month cycle, but if the need is there for something mid cycle that can fit a void, they will do it. I think that's exactly the case with the G400 Max. It really is a fun club to hit.
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- #83
Yeah, and I honestly think it was smart to bring it later than the rest of the line, it gives them something else to keep the G400 in peoples minds when they are prepping for a new golf season.
CAA_Beat
Active member
Yep, they got a nice bump in late summer sales last year. But I can tell you the interest in this club in our Pro Shop has been as high as any of them, and that includes the Rogue and M3/M4. But we've heard exactly ZERO complaints about them not bringing it out last summer. Seems to be that is mostly "internet" complaints..ha
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- #85
Haha, to be fair, complaining is what we do best on the interwebs.
CAA_Beat
Active member
LOL, it seems to be made for it!
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- #87
Eyeballing 200rpms of spin is freaking awesome.
As I have said all along, I like more releases. Choices are good.
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- #88
To be fair, I did this job for many years with no launch monitor, so, I got used to some things, lol. Plus, I was referring to being correct on the 400-500, mainly because I never thought I was seeing the 900 some said they saw. :angel:
:banana:Options are the best, and the more major OEM's that provide them to us, the better.
My local PGA pro was so impressed with my G400 he put it up against his M2. Bloothbath. He pulled a Tour shaft and locked it in. Then we got on the GC2 and he hit it against the M3 and the Epic and the results were 8-12 yds different and in the fairway He couldn't believe it. Then he tried the LST. The disparity got worse. Like 20yds and all fairways. He's 59 years old got a couple out to 290 with a baby draw on that LST. He's getting one. Haha
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- #90
Good lord. I think I have hit a ball that far only once or twice!
It's insulting and frustrating every time I take a lesson. He's like 5' 7" and slim and just crushes the ball.
mr.hicksta
Golf->Tacos->Gainz
Great info in this thread so far and it confirms that the G400 is the right driver for me. The comparisons of the two heads in different shafts was enlightening as well. The G400 Max definitely rounds out the latest Ping offering, which IMHO, is as strong as any other manufacturer at the moment!
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Thanks for those numbers jman. I didn't know the max was to be higher spinning. That's not what I need. I've hit both albeit on different days, and different shafts too, but I couldn't make any definitive difference between the two so I was thinking more forgiveness should be better.
But seeing your numbers, and the lack of available testing facilities close by, I decided to pull the trigger on the original 400. Going to put my whiteboard diamana in it and see if that gets the spin down where I want it vs the stock shaft.
But seeing your numbers, and the lack of available testing facilities close by, I decided to pull the trigger on the original 400. Going to put my whiteboard diamana in it and see if that gets the spin down where I want it vs the stock shaft.
Very interesting thread so far. Great job everyone. It sounds like the Max and 400 are not too disimilar to what we saw with the F7 and F7+ last year.
So I took the G400 Max to sim league tonight. This is an HDGolf unit, and it requires a reflective tape on the ball to read spin. I have been using up my stash of white Callaway Supersofts all winter, and that is what I used tonight. My last driver was a Great Big Bertha set to 10.5°/"double draw" with a Kuro Kage Black TiNi 50 in stiff flex. I tend to have an out-to in swing path of about 5° and usually a slightly open clubface at impact. That usually results in a pull fade that lands right of the target line. I have a too-steep swing, so launch angles can get up there. I don't have detailed data, but I tended to observe my stats with the GBB during the season. These are for "the good swings":
Clubhead speed - 102 mph typical
Fairways hit - 2-3 of 7
Typical launch angle - 16°-17°
Typical carry - 210-215 yds
Typical total - 221-226 (I tracked this stat most closely)
Typical spin - 2,600-2,700
So tonight with the G400 Max and the Kuro Kage Silver Dual-Core TiNi 60 in stiff flex, here is what I observed in our nine hole round.
The data:
I hit 4/7 fairways. One just missed and I blew two tee shots. The ball flight was much straighter, even though the swing path and clubface orientation numbers were virtually identical.
My first two swings were above 106 mph. I did not have a sub-100 mph swing. With the GBB I typically had 2-3 per round. The top part of the table below shows the numbers for the fairway finders, as best as I could catch them
After the round, I set up the driving range and hit about 20 drives. Unfortunately, there was no report-out on the session other than average drive on the screen, so these are eyeball averages. Those numbers are shown in the bottom part of the table with an E (for estimate) after them. I hit two drives of 190-200 yards, but I also hit four drives of 245-250 and one drive just over 260. That's very unusual distance for me. With the GBB, I might have seen a drive over 240 once/month. I proved that I can still hit a big pull or massive slice - the G400 Max is good, not miraculous.
The spin numbers blew me away. I was consistently seeing numbers in the 2100-2200 range, with one as low as 1857 and one as high as 2642 - roughly the average spin with my old driver. Edit: I did register a 4097 spin number on a mishit drive, so I think the spin numbers are reasonably accurate.
Based on the range numbers, with some familiarization with the new driver, I am seeing a little more clubhead speed, launch angles that are 2-3° lower than the old setup, and carry and total distance gains of about 12 yards - with spins in the 2,200 range. Smash factors are around 1.33, which suggest to me I have still more upside.
And when I tested the shaft options, this was the shortest of the KK, HZRDUS Yellow, Aldila X Torsion, and the Alta 55 CB stock shaft, but had the best dispersion.
I'm pretty freakin' happy right about now.
The soft stuff:
Both the head and the shaft feel great all the way through the swing, whether I focus on a smoother, easier swing, or try to step on it. ("Smooth" is relative. My backswing is not too bad, but after that it can get really aggressive.) I can immediately tell when I hit off the toe or heel, but the feedback is much more muted than what I was getting from the GBB. No surprise - it's a much higher MOI club. As I noted in an earlier post, it feels like it's been in my bag for a year or two, and that's great. It inspires confidence at address, and after a few swings, it flat out inspires confidence, period.
For me, the KK Silver Dual-Core TiNi 60 seems to have been the right choice, so much so I may look for a used one to install in my EX10 Beta. I probably would have gone with the stock shaft (and probably been happy with that choice) had someone not observed here that a $250 shaft is a $75 upgrade when buying the driver, and a new stock shaft can be had for $50 on eBay. So if you're wavering between the stock shaft and an upgrade, you may want to consider it's cheaper to change later from an upgrade to the stock rather than the other way around.
Clubhead speed - 102 mph typical
Fairways hit - 2-3 of 7
Typical launch angle - 16°-17°
Typical carry - 210-215 yds
Typical total - 221-226 (I tracked this stat most closely)
Typical spin - 2,600-2,700
So tonight with the G400 Max and the Kuro Kage Silver Dual-Core TiNi 60 in stiff flex, here is what I observed in our nine hole round.
The data:
I hit 4/7 fairways. One just missed and I blew two tee shots. The ball flight was much straighter, even though the swing path and clubface orientation numbers were virtually identical.
My first two swings were above 106 mph. I did not have a sub-100 mph swing. With the GBB I typically had 2-3 per round. The top part of the table below shows the numbers for the fairway finders, as best as I could catch them
After the round, I set up the driving range and hit about 20 drives. Unfortunately, there was no report-out on the session other than average drive on the screen, so these are eyeball averages. Those numbers are shown in the bottom part of the table with an E (for estimate) after them. I hit two drives of 190-200 yards, but I also hit four drives of 245-250 and one drive just over 260. That's very unusual distance for me. With the GBB, I might have seen a drive over 240 once/month. I proved that I can still hit a big pull or massive slice - the G400 Max is good, not miraculous.
The spin numbers blew me away. I was consistently seeing numbers in the 2100-2200 range, with one as low as 1857 and one as high as 2642 - roughly the average spin with my old driver. Edit: I did register a 4097 spin number on a mishit drive, so I think the spin numbers are reasonably accurate.
Based on the range numbers, with some familiarization with the new driver, I am seeing a little more clubhead speed, launch angles that are 2-3° lower than the old setup, and carry and total distance gains of about 12 yards - with spins in the 2,200 range. Smash factors are around 1.33, which suggest to me I have still more upside.
And when I tested the shaft options, this was the shortest of the KK, HZRDUS Yellow, Aldila X Torsion, and the Alta 55 CB stock shaft, but had the best dispersion.
I'm pretty freakin' happy right about now.
The soft stuff:
Both the head and the shaft feel great all the way through the swing, whether I focus on a smoother, easier swing, or try to step on it. ("Smooth" is relative. My backswing is not too bad, but after that it can get really aggressive.) I can immediately tell when I hit off the toe or heel, but the feedback is much more muted than what I was getting from the GBB. No surprise - it's a much higher MOI club. As I noted in an earlier post, it feels like it's been in my bag for a year or two, and that's great. It inspires confidence at address, and after a few swings, it flat out inspires confidence, period.
For me, the KK Silver Dual-Core TiNi 60 seems to have been the right choice, so much so I may look for a used one to install in my EX10 Beta. I probably would have gone with the stock shaft (and probably been happy with that choice) had someone not observed here that a $250 shaft is a $75 upgrade when buying the driver, and a new stock shaft can be had for $50 on eBay. So if you're wavering between the stock shaft and an upgrade, you may want to consider it's cheaper to change later from an upgrade to the stock rather than the other way around.
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Grand Stranded
Keep grinding… you never know
So I took the G400 Max to sim league tonight. This is an HDGolf unit, and it requires a reflective tape on the ball to read spin. I have been using up my stash of white Callaway Supersofts all winter, and that is what I used tonight. My last driver was a Great Big Bertha set to 10.5°/"double draw" with a Kuro Kage Black TiNi 50 in stiff flex. I tend to have an out-to in swing path of about 5° and usually a slightly open clubface at impact. That usually results in a pull fade that lands right of the target line. I have a too-steep swing, so launch angles can get up there. I don't have detailed data, but I tended to observe my stats with the GBB during the season. These are for "the good swings":
Clubhead speed - 102 mph typical
Fairways hit - 2-3 of 7
Typical launch angle - 16°-17°
Typical carry - 210-215 yds
Typical total - 221-226 (I tracked this stat most closely)
Typical spin - 2,600-2,700
So tonight with the G400 Max and the Kuro Kage Silver TiNi 60 in stiff flex, here is what I observed in our nine hole round.
The data:
I hit 4/7 fairways. One just missed and I blew two tee shots. The ball flight was much straighter, even though the swing path and clubface orientation numbers were virtually identical.
My first two swings were above 106 mph. I did not have a sub-100 mph swing. With the GBB I typically had 2-3 per round. The top part of the table below shows the numbers for the fairway finders, as best as I could catch them
After the round, I set up the driving range and hit about 20 drives. Unfortunately, there was no report-out on the session other than average drive on the screen, so these are eyeball averages. Those numbers are shown in the bottom part of the table with an E (for estimate) after them. I hit two drives of 190-200 yards, but I also hit four drives of 245-250 and one drive just over 260. That's very unusual distance for me. With the GBB, I might have seen a drive over 240 once/month. I proved that I can still hit a big pull or massive slice - the G400 Max is good, not miraculous.
The spin numbers blew me away. I was consistently seeing numbers in the 2100-2200 range, with one as low as 1857 and one as high as 2642 - roughly the average spin with my old driver. Edit: I did register a 4097 spin number on a mishit drive, so I think the spin numbers are reasonably accurate.
View attachment 31428
Based on the range numbers, with some familiarization with the new driver, I am seeing a little more clubhead speed, launch angles that are 2-3° lower than the old setup, and carry and total distance gains of about 12 yards - with spins in the 2,200 range. Smash factors are around 1.33, which suggest to me I have still more upside.
And when I tested the shaft options, this was the shortest of the KK, HZRDUS Yellow, Aldila X Torsion, and the Alta 55 CB stock shaft, but had the best dispersion.
I'm pretty freakin' happy right about now.
The soft stuff:
Both the head and the shaft feel great all the way through the swing, whether I focus on a smoother, easier swing, or try to step on it. ("Smooth" is relative. My backswing is not too bad, but after that it can get really aggressive.) I can immediately tell when I hit off the toe or heel, but the feedback is much more muted than what I was getting from the GBB. No surprise - it's a much higher MOI club. As I noted in an earlier post, it feels like it's been in my bag for a year or two, and that's great. It inspires confidence at address, and after a few swings, it flat out inspires confidence, period.
For me, the KK Silver TiNi 60 seems to have been the right choice, so much so I may look for a used one to install in my EX10 Beta. I probably would have gone with the stock shaft (and probably been happy with that choice) had someone not observed here that a $250 shaft is a $75 upgrade when buying the driver, and a new stock shaft can be had for $50 on eBay. So if you're wavering between the stock shaft and an upgrade, you may want to consider it's cheaper to change later from an upgrade to the stock rather than the other way around. [/QUOTE I had the same KK shaft in my GBB as you, but mine was Regular flex. My G400max has the Alta regular. I never tried the 60 gram KK you have in yours. What differences did you see between the Alta and KK? I'm assuming you are smarter then me and tried both... I almost never go above 55g in driver shafts, so I never thought about it. But what you said about a $275 shaft has me
More details in #48 in this thread, but when I tested, the Alta was a little longer and the KK had significantly better dispersion - best of all four shafts I tried. With my inconsistency, that was big, and the fitter was convinced. FWIW, this is the heaviest driver shaft I recall playing. The Silver seems to work better for me than the Black, and I liked the Black.
gatoreric
Member
Going to give the Max and standard G400 a go at demo day this weekend. Really feel like the Max checks more boxes for me, but we will see what the numbers and results bear out.
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- #99
Worked with this one some more yesterday, still seeing the same differences (added launch in the Max and added spin) when using the same shaft and loft setup next to my G400. Additionally, I put it into the hands of five very different golfers the past outings on the Foresight GC2 and have seen a spread of 200-500 RPM increase. Now, to me that really isn't that much of a jump, and could be well worth it to those seeking a little more launch.
I think the biggest thing is that I'm seeing it is incredibly playable. The G400 has underrated forgiveness, particularly the toe side of things, and this has shown that same trait. Now, I know it has higher MOI than the G400, but dispersion has been pretty spot on with eachother. To me, the biggest difference is that some are going to innately make more confident swings with the 460cc head, it just LOOKS forgiving when you set up behind the ball.
No, its not a huge revolution from the standard G400, but why does it have to be? We praise so many for options, that is exactly what PING has done here with the Max, they have expanded their options while maintaining the performance superlatives that so many have raved about with the initial G400 release. I do still think the sound leaves one a bit wanting, but as always, that will vary with the users feelings/ear.
I think the biggest thing is that I'm seeing it is incredibly playable. The G400 has underrated forgiveness, particularly the toe side of things, and this has shown that same trait. Now, I know it has higher MOI than the G400, but dispersion has been pretty spot on with eachother. To me, the biggest difference is that some are going to innately make more confident swings with the 460cc head, it just LOOKS forgiving when you set up behind the ball.
No, its not a huge revolution from the standard G400, but why does it have to be? We praise so many for options, that is exactly what PING has done here with the Max, they have expanded their options while maintaining the performance superlatives that so many have raved about with the initial G400 release. I do still think the sound leaves one a bit wanting, but as always, that will vary with the users feelings/ear.
Good information there. I like options, and it is good that Ping is providing various iterations for we consumers to try. Based on what i'm reading, I probably will not seek-out the Max to put against what I already have. Now, if I didn't already have a solid G400 model option, I would definitely give it a go.