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PING G SF TEC Driver - THP Review Thread

SuperStroke
Quick update on this. I swapped out the Ping Tour 65 for the Fujikura Six I was fitted into for my M1 driver. First observations was my dispersion tightened up and I was seeing more balls ending up left side of the range. I also had a lesson booked Saturday morning and solely concentrated on driver for the hour. Played a round this morning the front nine I am familiar with however the second nine I am not and as it is called the Lakes there are a fair few water hazards or at least there will be should we ever get any rain.

The results this morning, 2 slices right, 3 pulls to the left, the other 8 drives middle to left of middle fairway. Total average distance was 250 yards (Game Golf). Saturdays lesson, the shaft change and the confidence to just trust my swing and hit the ball combined with the continued forgiveness of this head is really boosting my confidence off the tee. I caught one drive very low on the heel, which sent the ball out left then it curved back onto the fairway and ended up pretty close to where I'd have landed with the M1 on a reasonable strike. Low on the face I do not seem to be losing to much distance, in fact I think this is probably the most forgiving driver on mis-hits I have owned. On good centred strikes or slightly out to the toe is where I am seeing the distance increases and the tightening up of dispersion. Its a good feeling, hearing and knowing you've hit it well and just picking the tee up knowing the ball is on the fairway.

The Lakes 9 this morning on a few holes teeing off with this is going to be to much club due to the way the holes and their hazards are laid out.
 
I hit this today at the range and to say I am in love would be an understatement. The course I frequent is great in the fact that all you have to do is give them your license and you can try out the demo clubs. This is also the driver I was fit into when I did my iron fittings. The thing I really noticed is even when I put a horrible swing on it it didn't slice horrible. I was hitting some pretty decent baby draws that for me were fairly long. In the 230-250 depending on how hard the wind was blowing. There is a demo day with Taylormade and Ping the 18th that I am going to put the G Sf Tec against the M2. I was also getting some role which I am not used too.
 
Does the the sf technology just promote the face closing a bit during the swing or does it close it a bit at impact? What is the end result on the course?
 
Karl said:
Does the the sf technology just promote the face closing a bit during the swing or does it close it a bit at impact? What is the end result on the course?
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It helps close the face at impact. On course results depend on our swing. I tend to stay in the fairway more with the SF TEC but can certainly still lose it right if my swing is bad enough.
 
Karl said:
Does the the sf technology just promote the face closing a bit during the swing or does it close it a bit at impact? What is the end result on the course?
Click to expand...

Check out the link in the first post as its explained really well in the THP review.
 
I was able to get to the range yesterday and hit the SF Tec for about an hour. My initial thoughts are that for a shaft lighter than I'm used to, it felt very balanced and easy to feel throughout the swing. Looks-wise, the dragon fly thing really doesn't bother me at all. After playing the R1 and Bridgestone J815, whatever is on the crown has no impact on me. I kind of like different designs and this one is a pretty bold one that works. On the sound, it's loud, but nothing that I felt was obnoxious or agitating. I like a loud driver, as I like the think it scares urge bejesus out of whoever it is I am playing.

It is extremely forgiving, but laterally and vertically off the face. That really stood out to me. I even had some pull hooks that wouldn't have ben terrible to play if I was on the course. That in turn instilled confidence in me, which led to a nice level of swinging, etc. Distance wise, it's very similar to my J815. And as I was tinkering with the lofts, it may be slightly longer at 11*.

I'm interested to put this alongside the J815 out on the course and see what happens. This driver definitely felt much better outside than it did a few months ago on the LM, and i like the similarities it has with the G30.
 
Got this out to the range again, strictly against my J815. The wind was into me, but wasn't all that bad. Comparing this to my gamer, the Ping's head is longer and wider, but not deeper than the J815. The 815 may have a tad more heft to it, but not much.

Hitting them, the Ping was a little higher than I wanted it, so I turned it down from 11* to the next lowest, 10.6 or whatever. That seemed to do the trick and really liked the height I was getting. I lost a few shots out right on slices, which doesn't happen with my J815, but most shots were solid, just straight cannons. With the 815, I was pulling a good amount of shots, but well hit shots were getting out there close to the Ping shots. But consistency was with the Ping.

These are initial impressions and I hate hitting driver off mats and those big rubber tees. But the initial impressions are good and I'll be putting this in play next round to get some real round thoughts on this. But I'm expecting forgiving and long.
 
I took this driver out for my round today. I haven't played in a few weeks, but have been to the range so had a decent amount of expectations on how the driver would perform. I was on a course I was familiar with and knew where my drives typically end up if struck well.

With all that said, generally I was happy with this driver. 6/11 fairways hit, the other 5 were right, none OB, all playable in the rough. The first 3 drives were right, after no warming up and speeding to the course to make the tee time. So that's fine, I had a consistent miss and after a few holes, got in a groove and the drives were straight after that for the most part. Distance is where the driver shined for me, as the straight drives were pretty far out there and even the misses right did not see a lot of distance loss; they were just off to the right. So that was a big difference for me, in that mis hits did not result in longer second shots.

Sound-wise, this driver is loud. Like an aluminum bat. It doesn't bother me and after a couple hits, I kinda liked it.

I saw a lot of consistency out of the driver in terms of distance. It went far pretty much every time it was hit. I'd like more course time with it to find out if I can get that fairways hit number up a little. But the J815 has been a little squirrely of late and I enjoyed knowing where this driver would miss, then getting in terrific position regardless of the miss or if hit well. The ball flight was mid-high with nice roll after landing and nice carry distance.

At this point, I'd say this driver is a very solid option for a large segment of golfers. The ball marks showed I was hitting it all over the face and still saw great results. It was rather easy to get comfortable with this driver and with getting closer to the hole on all drives with no penalties, is a great combination to improve on scoring.
 
I had a good day with this driver. I probably averaged 250 which is really good for me. If I get my aim down with this driver it will be great. I didn't hit any banana slices.


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I highly recommend going with the G400 Max. Less spin than the G. Best Ping driver I ever hit. And I’ve hit them all.
 
jubess said:
I highly recommend going with the G400 Max. Less spin than the G. Best Ping driver I ever hit. And I’ve hit them all.
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and even if you go with the regular G400 heads, they all sound substantially better than the G series did.
 
ddec said:
and even if you go with the regular G400 heads, they all sound substantially better than the G series did.
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If money wasn't an issue I would consider it, but the g is about $200 less than the 400. I'm not concerned about the sound. It can't be any louder than the Cobra L4v I had been playing.
 
packerfan said:
If money wasn't an issue I would consider it, but the g is about $200 less than the 400. I'm not concerned about the sound. It can't be any louder than the Cobra L4v I had been playing.
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I am still playing mine and love it. The sound doesn’t bother me, but I do want to try the G400 that is in the club house at my club to compare.


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