PING Golf Bag Forum Testing Thread

[#Cookie]

Nice updates Mikey!! You are doing a great job of showing THP'ers some details of the bag that they would otherwise not be able to see unless in person. Nice thoughts to how you are approaching the testing.


Tappin' from my iPad!

 

[ddxu]

OMikey - Great update on the zippers. Ping does have them listed as YKKs on their site, good to know they are using the very best.

 

[Hunkbud]

Thanks Omikey for pointing out the other two small pockets. Looking forward on how it rides on an electric cart.

 

[omikey]

Thanks Omikey for pointing out the other two small pockets. Looking forward on how it rides on an electric cart.

OK I'll test that out, and I'm wondering ... do you mean electric walking cart or riding cart ?

I 'plan' to do both early next week ..... Being retired I RARELY play on the weekends.



EDIT:

I do have 'STUFF' to report on the bag. More 'observations' from earlier this week and I today I had the bag on the pull cart for 18 holes.. ... I have some pictures, videos, and supporting text about my experience today. I'll get it done this evening and tomorrow.

 

[10YardDraw]

Great stuff Mikey!!! This bag is gorgeous and def makes me ponder a little bit, thought I was set on a bag but I dont know now.

 

[coolbreeze]

Mickey you are bringing it man, You are pointing out things that to be honest I've never even thought of in a bag.

 

[DawgDaddy]

OK I'll test that out, and I'm wondering ... do you mean electric walking cart or riding cart ?

I 'plan' to do both early next week ..... Being retired I RARELY play on the weekends.



EDIT:

I do have 'STUFF' to report on the bag. More 'observations' from earlier this week and I today I had the bag on the pull cart for 18 holes.. ... I have some pictures, videos, and supporting text about my experience today. I'll get it done this evening and tomorrow.

You are bringing it buddy, keep up the good work. Looking forward to the next post this evening or tomorrow.

 

[omikey]

Nice updates Mikey!! You are doing a great job of showing THP'ers some details of the bag that they would otherwise not be able to see unless in person. Nice thoughts to how you are approaching the testing.


Tappin' from my iPad!

Thanks Cookie !!

OMikey - Great update on the zippers. Ping does have them listed as YKKs on their site, good to know they are using the very best.

Ok, Thanks, good to know, Thanks DDXU !

 

[omikey]

Great stuff Mikey!!! This bag is gorgeous and def makes me ponder a little bit, thought I was set on a bag but I dont know now.

Thanks 10Y ! Hope I'm HELPING ya with your decision ! I still have a lot of testing to complete

Mickey you are bringing it man, You are pointing out things that to be honest I've never even thought of in a bag.

Thanks CB !!

 

[omikey]

You are bringing it buddy, keep up the good work. Looking forward to the next post this evening or tomorrow.

Thanks DD !!

 

[omikey]

I hate it when MULT QUOTE don't work

 

[omikey]

Testing/Review: 2012 Ping Pioneer Cart Bag
Color Scheme: Black/White/Charcoal
Pockets: 9
Dividers: 14 way full length
Putter Well: Yes
Bag type: Cart


Bag being replaced: Datrek – Circa 2003
Color Scheme: Black
Pockets: 9
Dividers: 14 way full length
Putter Well: Yes
Bag type: Cart



As I was thinking about this report a thought came to my mind (SHOCKING !!!) and I remembered that once upon a time I read something about the REVIEWS could be comprised of pictures and videos, but not to the extent so as to replace a textual report. So with that in mind tonight I’ve decided to give you just my thoughts with no pictures. Do not fear, I have pictures AND videos and will be posting them too, just not in this report.

Getting Familiar:

Since I opened the bag on Tuesday 12/6/2011 I’ve had the opportunity to thoroughly examine the bag and to have it on the course for one round of golf.

Overall:
I LIKE the bag ! It’s clear to me from the past few days and especially today on the course that I’m going through a transition/adjustment period with the bag. Having the Datrek for 8 years I’ve come to know everything about it, where everything is, where everything goes and what works and what doesn’t. I didn’t anticipate an ‘adjustment’ period, but it’s here and I’m working it. I’ll point some of these things out as we get to more of the details.

​

Color/Fabric:

This is a GREAT LOOKING bag, the colors are bright and make a nice palette. Of the various color schemes Ping offers for this bag this one is my favorite (White/Black/Charcoal). From my observations it appears the bag will be colorfast for a long time. I’ve seen some bags that fade in very short order here in the south sun.
It’s hard for me to describe the fabric and perhaps when I post up some more pictures it will show what I’m attempting to describe here. The fabric appears to have some kind of ‘shinny’ material in it. It appears to be very durable/tough. It makes an odd sound if you run your fingernail over it. It doesn’t appear that it would ‘run’ should you snag it on something.
I’ve not had it out in the rain, yet, so I don’t know how water resistant it is – will report on that when the time comes.

​

Storage:

Can you say LARGE CAPACITY!! I’m a SPACE JUNKIE and at this time of year I carry a LOT OF CLOTHES with me, hence a CART BAG !! This morning when I hit the course it was 37* with a slight breeze. By the time we finished our round it was 60* and SUNNY !! Besides the gear in the bag, a 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] pair of gloves, rain suit (top n bottom) wind shirt, fleece vest, ¾ sleeve pullover (wind/water resistant), cameras, tripods, balls, tees, and all that … I also had to have room to put in clothes that I’d be removing as it got warmer. (Video coming this weekend of ‘storage capacity --- I’m such a tease, huh :laughing: ) Now, I had all that in there and still had some room left over!! The bag has all the storage capacity I need and should be enough for 99.9% of golfers, lord help that other .1% :laughing:

​

Bag Design:

Club Organization:​

This is clearly one of the areas where I am going though an adjustment period as the arrangement that I had for today’s round was terrible!
I could not easily assess or see the club that I wanted for most of my shots today. This often caused me to be in the wrong position with respect to approaching/facing the pull cart – it even made it confusing to me to get the putter. Several times today I noticed that I had actually walked AROUND the pull cart !! And if you remember in my initial impressions I said that having the putter well in the front center of the bag would be GOOD. I’m SURE that it is, and after the round today I rearranged the clubs and can visibly see that the new arrangement is FAR BETTER. I will post pictures/video of the before/after arrangements.
The thought came to me: ‘I wonder if the designers had a specific club arrangement in mind. Did they test different arrangements in the product testing cycle? ‘
I of course answered myself: ‘OF COURSE they did !’

​

Clubs – Ease of insertion/removal from the bag:​

For the most part this is no problem. However there are a couple of places where you have to be more ‘deliberate’ in your approach to removing/replacing the club. These points are where the pockets join to the putter well. The top divider design has the pockets ‘curving’ in towards the putter well, following the outside curvature of the bag. The problem here is that it creates a NARROWING of the pocket in which the shaft and grip get pinched (best I can describe it). This may be another place where I’m just going through an ‘adjustment’ with the new bag.
I’ll post pictures of this so that you can clearly see what I’m describing here. I’ll also report on this again at some time later, let’s see if I ‘adjust’ to it in time.

Full Length Dividers:
Like the other testers found on the carry bags, the dividers are not attached to the sides of the bag and only a few points at the bottom to hold the dividers in place.

A few points here:
​

• [*=3]So far this has not interfered with the clubs in any way[*=3]I did some research in the stores, and look inside my old Datrek, I did not find any cart bag where the full length dividers all went to the floor. They all stop about 7/8’s of the way down.[*=3] After 8 years with my Datrek this has never been a problem. I have seen some recent post about others wearing out the dividers in a couple bags/year … YOWISER !! I’ll keep an eye on this and report if any problems develop.

Putter Well:
​

I like the placement of this feature. One thing that I don’t like about it is my putter goes all the way down and then rest on the head of the putter. I’d prefer that the butt end of the shaft hit bottom versus having it resting on putter head.
When the guys testing the carry bags mentioned this I made a suggestion about making something to fit into the putter well for the butt end to rest on. Small challenge, the divider doesn’t go to the bottom, so holding something in place could be difficult.
I don’t know if this is anything to be concerned about or not.

​

Pockets:
​

There are ample pockets on this bag. They are well placed and easy to get to and get into. They have GREAT zippers and pulls on them.
One thing missing, for me, and that is there are no mesh pockets on the outside of the bag. There were several mesh pockets on my old Datrek and I’ve become used to using most of them. I use one to hold my snack, one for the drink and if I’m out by myself practicing I use one to hold 3-5 balls instead of trying to put them in my pocket and I use one for the club cleaning tools.
Today I was just a bit lost with no place for my Coke and crackers – well I had a ‘place’, I just cracked open the zipper a bit on the ball pocket and sit the coke down in there. Now, remember I’m pulling a 15 year old Bag Boy behind me, if I had a Sun Mountain micro cart or a Clic Gear 3.0 (jones here !!!) this would not be an issue. Or if you were RIDING in a cart this would not be an issue. So over the longer term I don’t consider this anything more than just another adjustment that I’m dealing with until I get my new Clic Gear 3.0 Whooot!!

​

Handles:
​

As I showed in the initial impressions, the handles are well positioned on the bag. The two grasp handles in the front of the bag are getting A LOT OF USE !! They make it soooooo easy to handle the bag when it’s not on the cart, all cart bags should have these !
The handle in the back is only ¾ of the way to the bottom. This makes it VERY EASY for lifting and loading the bag because you don’t have to stoop so low as to get all the way to the ground to get ahold of it. ALSO it provides a better balance point for handling the bag than having to hold it from the bottom.
One thing that I did notice is that I don’t always load the bag in the truck the same way, I don’t know why, just the way it is. As a result one of the things that I soon found out is that there is no handle at the bottom on the FRONT of the bag. This isn’t a big deal really, just spin the bag around or ‘adjust’ your loading technique

EDIT:
There is in fact a handle on the front of the bag. It is black and is built into the lower part of the 'ball pocket'. It was nice to find it I think too that being here vs being on the very bottom of the bag makes it easier to lift the bag, better balance point.

​

Platform:
​

REALLY LIKING those lil feet that the Ping Designers put on the bottom of the bag. It makes a HUGE difference in how stable the bag is when you sit it down. OFTEN my Datrek would fall over as the clubs would shift when sitting the bag down, or just when you thought you had it settled in and turned to walk away it’d fall over !!! ARGHHHHH …. I don’t see that happening with this bag YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!
Riding Cart Experience:
Early next week – stay tuned !
​

Summary:

I think it’s a GREAT BAG !! It’s a GREAT LOOKING bag, its VERY FUNCTIONAL and loaded with features. If storage is what you’re looking for, this bag delivers! The bag is EASY to handle, to load/unload in the truck and onto the pull cart.

Is it perfect, well not 100% but the few things that I’ve found so far appear mostly to be a matter of me ‘adjusting’ to the new bag.

If you’re pondering a new cart bag … keep this one in mind and remember, I still have a lot of testing to complete on this bag.
​

 

[DawgDaddy]

Nice write up buddy, looking forward to the pictures, especially of the before and after club arrangement. Keep up the good work my friend.

 

[omikey]

Thanks DawgDaddy ..... I gonna be challenged to get pictures up early today. I forgot DUH !! that I'm off on a Toys For Tots motorcycle run this afternoon.

 

[10YardDraw]

Dang Mikey your hurting my head with all this info haha. Keep up the great work man.

 

[Dogman]

Some great reviews and info so far guys...love it.

 

[will_i_dream]

Great videos Mikey

Surely the first outfit should become compulsory golfing attire for December in all countries around the world. I'd like to see the R&A bring that in when the next amendments are made :0)

 

[d_in_la]

I've been dipping into this thread every now and then, but just caught up on the past few weeks of notes ... ya'll are killing it. I will never look at golf bags the same again, the level of detail and insight is great here. Thanks!

 

[royalwulff]

Everyone is doing an AWESOME job so far!! Omikey i really really appreciate all the detail and information you are putting into your reports. So far this bag has gone to the top of my list unless you find something glaringly wrong with it later on.

 

[Steel President]

Wow! Just some awesome stuff. I'm in the market for a new bag and this is so helpful. Great, great work!

 

[Wicked Cool Bearded Man]

Great great write up omikey!!

 

[ddxu]

Great writeup Omikey, love how much detail you included in your text review. I am on the road again this week (ABQ) and will have the 4 Series in tow for another round.

 

[omikey]

Great writeup Omikey, love how much detail you included in your text review. I am on the road again this week (ABQ) and will have the 4 Series in tow for another round.

DDXU Thanks, I'm looking forward to your next review !

where are you off to ?

 

[omikey]

Mickey you are bringing it man, You are pointing out things that to be honest I've never even thought of in a bag.

Funny huh, to me too .... most of the things that I'm reporting on are all things that we just never really put any thought into. We just 'use' the bag and complain if there's something we don't like, we accept it and just go play.

This review process has brought a lot of bag design points to the forefront of my thinking about the bag and I'm really enjoying the opportunity !!

Dang Mikey your hurting my head with all this info haha. Keep up the great work man.

HEHEHE, single malted makes my head hurt, but I like it :laughing:

Thanks for the nice words !

 

[omikey]

Great videos Mikey

Surely the first outfit should become compulsory golfing attire for December in all countries around the world. I'd like to see the R&A bring that in when the next amendments are made :0)

Thank you ! Glad ya liked the outfit :act-up: would be cool to see everyone on the course in something like that just one day

I've been dipping into this thread every now and then, but just caught up on the past few weeks of notes ... ya'll are killing it. I will never look at golf bags the same again, the level of detail and insight is great here. Thanks!

We all Thank You for your feedback and kind words, Thanks !