Ping i20 Irons Review - Forum Testing Review Thread

After reading all of these replies, I am wondering if I should have ordered the I20's instead of G20's. I am 17 -23 handicapper. Either way, I will be hitting with a Ping.

I've not hit the G20's man. Local demo days aren't firing up around here yet. I don't think that a handicap should really determine your irons, rather your needs. If you need help getting the ball up in the air, then I suspect the G20's would be a better fit.
 
After reading all of these replies, I am wondering if I should have ordered the I20's instead of G20's. I am 17 -23 handicapper. Either way, I will be hitting with a Ping.

you really have to try both, I play to a 14-15ish cap, and I hit the i20 and g20, really thinking I was ready to go g20 if it helped my game, but when I demo'd them... for whatever reason the g20 just didn't work for me while the i20 kept sending shots over and over to the exact same spot on the rage.. I had trouble making good contact with the g20 for whatever reason (and the Ping guy was fitting me at the time so we'd made sure to get the lie angle right)
 
Took the i20's and the TP MC's to the course today and played two balls on every hole. No other clubs, just 4-PW in both sets and had my putter. No drivers, hybrids, or wedges.

I'm not gonna talk about the looks. Everybody knows what both sets look like and I'm sure everybody prefers one to the other although it's probably by a close margin. I love the overall looks of the i20's but prefer the look at address of the MC's by just a smidgen.

Feel is subjective. It's been discussed a thousand times and if you disagree then you're hopeless anyway. I love the way the i20's feel. A crisp thwack/click mixture that just goes down easy and feels very soft off the face. The ball feels like it really rebounds off of the face of the i20's and shoots off fast. I still prefer the "feel" of the MC's to any iron I have ever hit. A solid, all "thwack" sound and a feel that the ball just melts into the face of the iron. Soooo much better than any Mizzy irons. Yeah, I said it. If I were rating feel by numbers I'd say i20: 9 and MC: 10.

Turf interaction. MC's cut through anything softly and with ease. The i20's feel like they are getting through the turf nicely as well but really feel like they are "powering" through the turf very well and not so much cutting through it. Hard pan is a little more tricky with the i20's and their rounded/high bounce soles seem to not want to go into the dirt quite as well. They still go through, no doubt. It just feels a tad more laborious.

Forgiveness isn't what I'd call night and day between the two. But that really depends on "your miss" mine is a tad toward the heel as I really swing for right field hard and sometimes overextend. The i20's are a godsend when I comes to toe forgiveness, but I don't really need that so much. The i20's and MC's were neck and neck off the heel for me as I didn't notice the miss with either club.

Both irons are once again neck and neck in other fields as well as I saw no marked difference in workability between the two. This should come as no surprise with the i20's as PING worked with the weighting to make them easy to manipulate. MC's were a bit easier to keep flight down in the long irons as they weren't designed to be a higher launching head profile. The x100 shafts in these probably didn't hurt either.

Distances were fairly close as well with the i20's taking maybe a half a club victory here.

At the end of the round I tallied up my scores and was pleasantly surprised that they weren't too much higher than normal without the longer clubs in my bag.

PING: 88
TP MC: 86

Putting is always a factor here as well. I didn't keep track of putting like I should've but still remember it being comparable as I didn't 3 putt all day with either set's ball. I hit 7 GIR's with both sets as well. This didn't help my testing. Had numerous doubles and a lot of bogies with no birdies today as I just didn't have the distance and this is a long course.

All in all the i20's are a great club and every bit as playable as the MC's that I love as well. They are great sticks and will be staying for a while. They aren't magic though, as is evident by their higher score posted today. I'd say that if I played 10 rounds like this the i20's would walk away with the W at least 5 times.

As has been said multiple times, these are forgiving all over the face. My misses are more "directional" though as my swing is very much reliant on timing. If my miss was more based on missing the sweet spot then the i20's would definitely get the nudge over the MC's. As it stands they are fairly even for me, performance wise.

Any ???'s feel free to ask.





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Warning to non Ping fans, you might change your mind when you try this. I've never been a Ping fan before. I hated the way they looked and felt. I just jumped on the Ping bandwagon today! Last week actually was the tipping point when I got these as rentals in Hawaii. So I went to the Golfmart in S. San Francisco and got fitted today. They recommended the Ping I20s in a stiff shaft, white dot. Yeah, white dot! Like 3 degrees upright. I got fit with my previous clubs at 2 degrees upright and I thought 3* was going overboard, but more on that later. I thought I was going to wait a month for these but lucky for me, they had it in stock. The guy these got fitted and used it (the 4 iron) and returned them. I guess he knew these were really for me. Since it was used, Golfmart gave me their demo price. I looked at the clubs and no other clubs were used just the 4 iron. I don't use a 4 iron. A graceful and quick swipe of the debit card by the sales guy and I was 2 steps ahead walking out the door and headed for the range about 5 miles away.

Got the 4-U wedge but I'm just going to use the 6-U. I was using the Mizuno JPX Pro before this in purchase, TM R9 before that and TM Burners somewhere in between and so on. Yes, I'm a club ho looking for the one I can go to bed with every night (In this case go to play a round with without questioning myself -you know what I mean).

I've always change clubs every year or year and a half. I keep a second set in between if ever. On a normal basis, when I change clubs and I'm out on the range the first time, I'm usually questioning my new purchase. In the middle of the swing I'm not thinking about swing thoughts but I think about the clubs- if this was the right purchase or not. Today with the i20's, I wasn't thinking of what club I should've bought. I was thinking why I shouldn't have bought these any sooner. I was in awe of the shots I was hitting with these beauties!


First things first, get fit for the right specs that match your swing! I hate practicing and going to the range, so for a guy like me, I don't have the luxury and time to practice and revamp my swing to get the perfect angles and perfect plane and so on. I just want to go out there and swing and score to collect money at the end of the round. These sticks might just to that for me and then some. I found out that the more I fiddled around and had some swing thought, the more astray my shots would go. Just get into the right set-up position and let it go. I think that's what the proper fitting did for me. I think the 3* upright lie angle gives it the nice little draw and when I mean nice, I got the nice low piercing trajectory with a sweet sweeping right to left thing at the tail end that wanna-be pros like to call a draw. This was just to easy to hit. I think these have been categorized as better players clubs. I am not in that category. I think this should lean in between better players clubs and GI clubs. It has good feel (for me) yet you can sense it was forgiving. You need not worry about your swing. My swing is not pretty at all. I just try my best to hit it in the middle of the face and let the club do the work. In this case, the proper fit, I guess did most of the work for me. I didn't change the swing at all.


IMHO, I think these feel way better and more forgiving than the JPX pros. I think that these clubs give me confidence to play around with the shots I want to hit, and if I don't hit it the way I wanna hit it, it still goes straight and far and lands around the general vicinity I aimed at. I like that it doesn't produce shots that balloon up in the air. I love the piercing flight like I said earlier! I've played that low piercer when I was playing in high school and college and couldn't get it back when all these game-improvement clubs started coming out. GI clubs just wanted to go straight and high. I just couldn't find the right shaft-club combination without having to break the bank. Speaking of far, they go far. Longer than the R11, Mizuno JPX and AP1 and 2.


Like I said earlier, I got the 6-U wedge. I normally have a 6 hybrid (Adams V3 with V2 stiff shafts) that I use. My problem and only problem for now, is that I'm not used to hitting a 6 iron, so, my six goes as far or ever so slightly longer than my 7 iron. I don't have the slightest clue why but this one I know is operator error. Who knows? I should just try to swing faster or harder maybe and let it go without thinking I'm hitting a 6. This was the reason I switched to the 6 hybrid anyway. I had the fear of a long iron going far right. Any other suggestions would be great by the way. Non the less, I still love the 6. I love how it feels and the way it looks at address (and all the rest of the clubs). Not to mention the fact that my bag doesn't look like a flower pot anymore because of all the head covers. I like the i20's so much that I might even keep these horrendous stock grips they put! I wish that Ping would just use golf prides or Winns as their stock grips. Those I can get away with without having to replace the clubs and not having to spend a fortune on having them re-gripped.


I know this club ain't the "it" club for all but I think this is a keeper for me! How Ping or any other manufacturer can top this one off, I don't know, but until then, these are staying in my bag.
 
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I know this club ain't the "it" club for all but I think this is a keeper for me! How Ping or any other manufacturer can top this one off, I don't know, but until then, these are staying in my bag.

Completely agree here. No iron is all around perfect, but these are close. Only the second set of irons I've ever owned that I look at every day and think to myself "I don't feel the need to look elsewhere when I have y'all in my bag". The other set like this...(R.I.P. Z-Stars) were stolen.

I'm a serious club ho. I always want something new and different, even when what I have is working for me. It's an itch I can't explain. But as far as irons go at least, I don't feel that any more. It's nice.




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Took the i20's and the TP MC's to the course today and played two balls on every hole. No other clubs, just 4-PW in both sets and had my putter. No drivers, hybrids, or wedges.

Great review and very interesting Colt. I'm very interested to see the turf interaction with these myself. Hopefully i'll have that chance tomorrow afternoon and will report back.
 
Thanks Paleface for the write up. I took MP-52 out of my bag for the i20s too. I feel exactly as you said in your note. The only difference is that you have not hit them off grass yet. This is where you will really see their worth. The extra bounce will surprise you on those fat shots. I would give the i20s a 9/10 in feel but forgiveness is incredible which makes it a great stick.

140 yd PW.....wow!

No probs Crimtide. The 52's have been good sticks for me for the past couple of years, getting me from 15hc to 9, but I just felt I needed more all around forgiveness. The yardages are my short-term concern. The PW was long. 140yds+. I think the 8i was flying 165+. I'm going to have to re-adjust quickly and my wedges are going to need re-addressing. I'll really only get accurate yardages when i'm on the course and use my bushnell so we'll see what happens then.
 
Nice continued thoughts everyone! This thread is like the black hole - it just keeps drawing people in ! I love it!
 
Good question. My miss has just been a shot that goes left to right (draw), which you know is something I am just not used to. It's not massive or anything but it has been an adjustment. I honestly have no complaints about fat or thin shots at all. I just don't seem to hit them with these irons to be honest. I'm wearing the center of the club face out. As far as "punishing" well it's not awful. I probably am seeing a straight'ish ball about 90% of the time with the odd "pull/draw" thrown it. I am just taking aim at flagsticks dude. If it does draw a little, unless the pin is tucked right, I just having a longer putt. Today was just mind bottling though. I hit the ball really good and was either on it, or a full club long (even though I had the club I deemed appropriate for the yardage). Crazy stuff dude.

I hate sounding like a billboard for PING, but these could be the finest irons to date for me. The level of confidence I have with them is sick. We talked about how they just breed solid results, I think it's b/c I respect them. I concentrate, I focus, and they reward that.

Exactly how I feel. Superb confidence over the ball. It makes such a huge difference too. Funny, Ive struggled with the fats a lot in the past but for some reason I dont see that as much with these. Ive seen a few "thick" shots but none of the nasty fats that I hate and just kill a hole. Ive been missing out on the toe a bit and have seen fantastic forgiveness on those misses. Very little distance loss at all. I can feel it but I look up and amazingly see that the ball is going a lot further then I thought.

You would think that you (and I don't necessarily mean you Kmac) would struggle with these coming from a GI iron, but I just don't see anything like that at all. I will also say this, I much prefer the smaller profiled irons out of the thick stuff for some odd reason. Dude, I just feel like a damn ball striker with these things. I don't know what else to say.

Had to colonel these statements real quick like.

All the bold says SOOOOOOOO freaking much IMO, plus, its what I'm seeing as well. THere is just something about the i20's in all their glory that inspire confidence when you address them and they just WANT you to get after them. I'm alot like TC in that I really have tried to keep sounding as objective as I can since I'm testing but facts are facts and the i20's just freaking rock for me.

I'm loving this thread and the action we are getting in here!

I'll get my 15 hole pre-injury write up this afternoon, here's to hoping I just tweaked the old elbow when I got the buried root with the 5i as I have never had a golf injury before.
 
Got to the range yesterday to give the 7 and 8 iron a workout. What was nice about yesterday was the 40-50 MPH wind gusts we had, left to right. Video would have been extremely annoying sound wise. Good day to test some wind performance.

Previous test posts in spoiler.
Spoiler


7 Iron


Hit 3-4 balls to warm up. Just little half swing to get loose.

Laid out 4 balls and lasered a 150 target. Hit into a slight upslope here so it's easy to pick targets with the laser. First shot I caught a little thin. Ball came off lower than normal but still went straight and landed a touch short of my target. Next 3 I hit well. Great trajectory and accuracy. Had a big gust that almost blew me over on the last shot. Ball wasn't effected so the wind must have missed the shot.

Pretty well documented that the i20s are solid sticks. Didn't think hitting 15 normal shots would be much of a test for the i20 7 iron. Decided I would try something different and go for some knock down shots. This is a shot I use from time to time. Given the wind seemed a good chance to give it a go.

Dropped 10 balls. Put the ball back in my stance a little and did some short practice swings. My miss on this type of shot is a shank and I tried to imagine a brick wall next to the ball. Lined up, took a swing and shanked it. Bah. Next one I caught pretty well, but didn't get the lower trajectory I was looking for. Moved the ball back a little further and the third one clicked in. Very low flat shot that held a straight line toward the target. Estimate the shot was 130 yards or so. Next 3 were similar to the first. Super easy shot to duplicate once I got the hang of it. For the last few balls I waited for some of the big gusts to come around. Lost my hat so decided I should go ahead and swing away. The couple I did get away during the gusts fought the wind really well. They did move to the right, but not so much they would have wound up unplayable if I were in play. Was surprised how simple it was and I won't hesitate to use it on the course.

8 Iron

Winds were pretty steady when I moved to the 8I. Decided to try a draw to fight the wind.

I'm a pretty terrible shot shaper. I can overdo it and go way offline. I don't practice these shots at all. My routine for a draw is to setup to the right, pick 2 targets one for flight and one for end point, and strengthen my grip. Probably better ways to do it. Since I was fighting a big crosswind I lined up straight at where I wanted to land and swung at an imaginary target to the left. First shot was perfect! Ball took off straight, started to move against the wind, and wound up being a straight shot with some movement along the way.

Next couple didn't move at all and the wind took them off to the right. One caught a huge gust and made the shot look like a slice. Backed off and reset everything. Next one I could feel myself moving way too fast through and wound up with a big hook into the wind. Probably had more left movement than forward movement it was so bad.

With only a few left I really concentrated as I wanted one of them to be like the first one. Came close once, but hit it a tiny fat. Working shots with the i20 is completely doable. I simply don't practice shot shaping and it showed. Can't imagine a more capable golfer having any issues moving the i20s around.

What's weird is I wouldn't touch a draw shot in play unless I was goofing around or had no other choice. i20s are giving me enough confidence to go ahead and hit more left/right stuff in the future.

People talk about using blades to practice better ball striking. i20s do that without killing you. I see this every time I swing one. Better strikes get better results and not so good ones are still usable. It's a perfect balance that I've never seen in an iron.
 
Colt, I am so with you here. As much as I like ho'ing, it was getting a little tiring and at some point I need to own clubs for long enough to get used to them. I think these are "it" but addictions are hard to break so I'll just take one day at a time. As you say, right now it is a bit relaxing to know I can focus ont eh swing instead of the clubs.

Completely agree here. No iron is all around perfect, but these are close. Only the second set of irons I've ever owned that I look at every day and think to myself "I don't feel the need to look elsewhere when I have y'all in my bag". The other set like this...(R.I.P. Z-Stars) were stolen.

I'm a serious club ho. I always want something new and different, even when what I have is working for me. It's an itch I can't explain. But as far as irons go at least, I don't feel that any more. It's nice.




Siri does my posting for me using Tapatalk.
 
I'm counting the days till these are in the bag!
 
I'm counting the days till these are in the bag!

So am I my friend. I really hope they get here soon and perhaps make an appearance at the outing so that I can test out that Modus shaft
 
So am I my friend. I really hope they get here soon and perhaps make an appearance at the outing so that I can test out that Modus shaft
T
hey def should be here before the outing my friend!!!
 
T
hey def should be here before the outing my friend!!!

well if for some reason the J40 irons are in before the outing too(which I would guess won't happen but you never know), make sure you pack a few i20's with you.
 
well if for some reason the J40 irons are in before the outing too(which I would guess won't happen but you never know), make sure you pack a few i20's with you.

You know I would buddy haha. Ive been skimming this feedback because I didnt want to get too excited only to not get them. But now I can really soak all of it in haha.
 
TourMex i20's at the outing. I like it.
 
ddec/Yoccos – when did you guys order your i20’s?
 
ddec/Yoccos – when did you guys order your i20’s?

I haven't. I'm going to mooch off of Marcs i20's at the outing. I'm still Lee Westwooding it with the i10's
 
I haven't. I'm going to mooch off of Marcs i20's at the outing. I'm still Lee Westwooding it with the i10's

You are so 10 behind. Dude, I'm telling you, from a former i10 homer, you would love these sticks. Make it rain son! Unhoard!
 
Well I am another that has taken the plunge and purchased the I20s! They will be here April 23rd after 8 days of waiting. I ordered them with KBS Tour Stiff, (white) 3 degrees upright, 1.5 inches over standard, Ping Tour Velvet grips that will be changed in the next few months. Playing currently with Ping G5s, JZ stiff steel shafts, red dot, stamdard length. Got fit and it really showed me how far off I really was with current setup. Im a 6 handicapper with clubs that are way off for me, and am really eager to see how much these help my game!
 
Well I am another that has taken the plunge and purchased the I20s! They will be here April 23rd after 8 days of waiting. I ordered them with KBS Tour Stiff, (white) 3 degrees upright, 1.5 inches over standard, Ping Tour Velvet grips that will be changed in the next few months. Playing currently with Ping G5s, JZ stiff steel shafts, red dot, stamdard length. Got fit and it really showed me how far off I really was with current setup. Im a 6 handicapper with clubs that are way off for me, and am really eager to see how much these help my game!

very nice!
 
Well I am another that has taken the plunge and purchased the I20s! They will be here April 23rd after 8 days of waiting. I ordered them with KBS Tour Stiff, (white) 3 degrees upright, 1.5 inches over standard, Ping Tour Velvet grips that will be changed in the next few months. Playing currently with Ping G5s, JZ stiff steel shafts, red dot, stamdard length. Got fit and it really showed me how far off I really was with current setup. Im a 6 handicapper with clubs that are way off for me, and am really eager to see how much these help my game!

I'm also a white dot'er. Dude, your ball striking is going to be saweet once you get some sticks with a lie angle that fit you. Good luck waiting for them. That's going to be an agonizing few days. I know.
 
So Yoccos, you ditching the CB3's? I will be very interested in your comparison once you get those.

I'm patiently waiting until the 27th where I can demo both sets here in Nashville.
 
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