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Ping K15 Driver Review

SuperStroke
Nice review. I played a demo for a couple of weeks last fall and ended up buying one to replace my G15. The head is slightly larger but I had no problem getting use to the look quickly. I found it to be very straight, extremley forgiving and workable in either direction. For me, the shaft length may be a issue as I normally play a 45 inch driver, but I did not get enough rounds in before winter to know for sure.
I agree on the headcover being a issue as it is pretty much the same one that was used on the G15 and the larger head makes it tough to pull off and on, but I'n sure it will stretch a little with use. Great driver and I look forward to having it in the bag this spring.
 
great review hanks! you know my thoughts on the k15, i think it's a very good driver. i like the alignment aid, i liked the sound, and i liked how easy it was to hit. that being said, i didn't care for the headcover and it wasn't the best driver for me with the stock shaft, as i did see too high of a ball flight, and paired with that florida wind, it caused some issues for me.
 
Great write up. One thing I HATE about this driver and it was pointed out....the head cover. I simply will not use it. Ping is losing free advertising from me.

Other than that, the driver delivers the goods even though it lacks some of the bling most of the 2011 drivers offer.
 
HoosierGolfer said:
Nice review. I played a demo for a couple of weeks last fall and ended up buying one to replace my G15. The head is slightly larger but I had no problem getting use to the look quickly. I found it to be very straight, extremley forgiving and workable in either direction. For me, the shaft length may be a issue as I normally play a 45 inch driver, but I did not get enough rounds in before winter to know for sure.
I agree on the headcover being a issue as it is pretty much the same one that was used on the G15 and the larger head makes it tough to pull off and on, but I'n sure it will stretch a little with use. Great driver and I look forward to having it in the bag this spring.
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Just thought I would follow up a little now that I have had the chance to play this driver a little more. On the headcover, as I'm using it now, I have found it to really not be a issue after it has stretched a little from use. Still a little tight but not as bad as I thought when it was brand new.

I'm really liking this driver now that I have a ball better fit to me. Between the driver and the ball, my distance has increased at least ten to fifteen yards, but I know some of this is the new ball. The driver sits closed at address which makes it a good choice for those that miss right. My natural ball flight is a fade and from time to time my big miss will be right. So far, I'm finding the driver to be very straight and I have not had any big misses with it to date.

The head given its size, the footprint is large at address but I don't find it at all distracting. Sound is important to me and this one scores well with me in that area. If anything it is a little loud but still has the sound most of us are use to with 460cc titanium drivers today. For my swing, style and handicap index I feel that this is one of Pings best drivers in the GI line.

Pings innovation in this driver is called Straight Flight Technology (SF Tec). This visible technology concentrates approximately 10% of head mass toward the heel, which helps square the club face for consistently straight tee shots. I feel like they are on to something with this driver as it is very straight, even on mis-hits. It can however, be worked in either direction by changing my grip, stance, ball position and swing path, but it is not as easy as say the G15.

Over all, I would rate this driver very high on its ablilty to help mid to high handicappers hit a straighter tee shot. The price point is fair in todays market as well. For those looking for a no frills, no flash solid driver that is very straight, this could be the one.
 
I picked up this driver last fall. Didn't get a chance to play it much, but what little I did use it I liked. I just returned for a week long golf vacation at Dove Mountain in Arizona and have NEVER hit the ball so straight. I hit 31 of 36 fairways the first two days. Two balls managed to leak into the desert and three barely into the rough. I have never had this much confidence in a driver, in fact I usually stuggle a bit with accurancy off the tee. Look forward to giving this thing a work out at TPC Sawgrass in a couple of weeks. Ping may have created the perfect driver "for me"...
 
Thought I would share my experiences with my K15 driver now that I have had it for a bit. First off, mine is not a stock K15. The one I fitted for myself, with as much support data I could gather, is a digitally lofted 11.5 head, Project X 5.5 shaft, 45.25" length, standard grip. I won't go into how I arrived at these numbers as that's an entire story unto itself.

The head says 10.5 (no such thing as 11.5 stamped head) with the numbers darkened a bit. Not sure if this was done on purpose by Ping, probably was. The PX shaft is quite generic looking. It's an attractive blue with subtle graphics. No distractions at all when looking down at address. All in all it's a pretty ugly club in a sea of sexy drivers. My K15 is CONSIDERABLY louder than a stock model. Not sure why. I requested the standard swing weight so maybe whatever they did to maintain SW made my driver louder.

I am lucky enough to have hit a stock K15 in a 10.5 regular shaft. When I hit it late last year the ball went very high and very straight. The ball flight was nothing spectacular and distances were around 250 yards. With the PX shaft I am experiencing very different results. Instead of taking off straight up in the air, my drives get up quickly but flatten out and have a piercing flight. It's quite satisfying actually. The ball flight is much more active as opposed to rainbow shots I hit with the stock shaft. My setup over a 10.5 reg is easily 25-30 yards farther. Yet another reason to get fit.

Distance wise the K15 is taking me to new places on the golf course. My old Nike driver is a very distant memory now. In some cases I am seeing 50 yard gains. I am consistently 1-3 clubs less into the greens. Much of this has to do with accuracy as well. Last round I missed twice with the K15, one was a bad hook and another drew a few yards off the fairway. My misses with driver have always been right so having misses left is a nice change. I may play with some lead tape to counter the heel weighting just a little.

About that heel weighting. Having a club that sets square instead of closed is very nice. I have hit some horrors to the right on the range, but that is entirely me overswinging late in the bucket of balls. In play and when I am taking my time I have yet to lose one right. The technology works if you need help with errors right.

All and all I am very satisfied with the K15. I think the point of me posting this is to encourage all of ya to GET FIT. The difference between this K15 and stock is shocking and I am glad I put in the extra effort. And yes, the supplied headcover is absolute garbage. It simply doesn't fit the club.

Good luck in your driver searches all! I will post a pic or 2 when I get a chance.
 
Thanks for the input griff! Awesome to see those results after getting fit. I agree in that the stock shaft is ok but nothing spectacular, the head cover is doo doo, and while a little loud the 'PING' sound is addictive to hear
griff said:
Thought I would share my experiences with my K15 driver now that I have had it for a bit. First off, mine is not a stock K15. The one I fitted for myself, with as much support data I could gather, is a digitally lofted 11.5 head, Project X 5.5 shaft, 45.25" length, standard grip. I won't go into how I arrived at these numbers as that's an entire story unto itself.

The head says 10.5 (no such thing as 11.5 stamped head) with the numbers darkened a bit. Not sure if this was done on purpose by Ping, probably was. The PX shaft is quite generic looking. It's an attractive blue with subtle graphics. No distractions at all when looking down at address. All in all it's a pretty ugly club in a sea of sexy drivers. My K15 is CONSIDERABLY louder than a stock model. Not sure why. I requested the standard swing weight so maybe whatever they did to maintain SW made my driver louder.

I am lucky enough to have hit a stock K15 in a 10.5 regular shaft. When I hit it late last year the ball went very high and very straight. The ball flight was nothing spectacular and distances were around 250 yards. With the PX shaft I am experiencing very different results. Instead of taking off straight up in the air, my drives get up quickly but flatten out and have a piercing flight. It's quite satisfying actually. The ball flight is much more active as opposed to rainbow shots I hit with the stock shaft. My setup over a 10.5 reg is easily 25-30 yards farther. Yet another reason to get fit.

Distance wise the K15 is taking me to new places on the golf course. My old Nike driver is a very distant memory now. In some cases I am seeing 50 yard gains. I am consistently 1-3 clubs less into the greens. Much of this has to do with accuracy as well. Last round I missed twice with the K15, one was a bad hook and another drew a few yards off the fairway. My misses with driver have always been right so having misses left is a nice change. I may play with some lead tape to counter the heel weighting just a little.

About that heel weighting. Having a club that sets square instead of closed is very nice. I have hit some horrors to the right on the range, but that is entirely me overswinging late in the bucket of balls. In play and when I am taking my time I have yet to lose one right. The technology works if you need help with errors right.

All and all I am very satisfied with the K15. I think the point of me posting this is to encourage all of ya to GET FIT. The difference between this K15 and stock is shocking and I am glad I put in the extra effort. And yes, the supplied headcover is absolute garbage. It simply doesn't fit the club.

Good luck in your driver searches all! I will post a pic or 2 when I get a chance.
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Hanks said:
Thanks for the input griff! Awesome to see those results after getting fit. I agree in that the stock shaft is ok but nothing spectacular, the head cover is doo doo, and while a little loud the 'PING' sound is addictive to hear
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Thank ya, Hanks. I agree, you know when you catch one based off the sound. Pics soon.
 
Just wanted to throw my thoughts on this club up as I put it in play for the first time yesterday - without any range time at all. So right off the bat, I was kind of challenging the club to perform hahahah (or challenging myself to perform with the club). My model is NOT a stock model. The head is 9.5 * with an Aldila RIP 60 alpha shaft in stiff, - 1 inch in length (stock PING length is 45.75 inches - so mine is 44.75). Based on swing speed, I could have gone with x-stiff but I like the shorter shaft and didn't think I could handle the RIP at xx stiff. Results were actually pretty astounding. First hole, without proper warm-up time, enough practice swings or coffee in me, I proceeded to duck hook my ball across the first fairway, across the 9th fairway, and into the rough on the 9th hole. Great start. So after I miraculously saved par with a 5 iron over water, bunkers, bombs, and whatever else you want to throw in there, I was questioning my decision to put the club into play without any range time, especially since I had been hitting my old driver pretty well the day before.
On the walk from the first green to the second tee, I seriously considered teeing off the 2nd with my 3 wood. The second hole at my home course is a short par 4, roughly 325 yards with an elevated green, so 3 wood wouldn't have been a horrible option - leaving only a pw or sw in. But then I figured, one swing with the club isn't really a fair shot regardless of practice time. Boy am I glad I gave it another shot. With the wind behind me, and somewhat warmed up at this point, I managed to drive the green. Now I have done this before a few times with 2 different drivers, but it doesn't happen all the time. Not only that, but the ball flight was on a string. I used to play a fade (slice when things went bad) even on well struck tee shots. This had zero movement left to right - or right to left for that matter. It was just a bomb. We measured it at around 312 yards. Please remember this was my SECOND SWING WITH THE CLUB.... EVER. The rest of the day was more of the same. Tons of distance and point and shoot accuracy (which is something I have NEVER had off the tee). My distance was about the same as my old driver (PING G15) maybe slightly longer. The distance increase however slight is probably due to the lack of left to right movement in ball flight. The only remotely negative thing I can even think of about this club is that it doesn't feel quite as solid on mishits as the G15 did; however, it felt just as good on well struck shots. I have to say, I am a serious believer in the Straight Flight Technology. If you want straighter drives you seriously need to look at this club.
 
This was and still is my all time favorite driver. Just wish I still had it. I always keep an eye open for this in mint on ebay in my specs. Never should've parted with it.
 
Wilson Staffer said:
This was and still is my all time favorite driver. Just wish I still had it. I always keep an eye open for this in mint on ebay in my specs. Never should've parted with it.
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Check your brick and mortar stores. Ping seemingly released some more stock this past season and the prices really came down. A lot of stores I've been in lately have mint ones that you can probably make a deal on.

I would agree that the K15 was a great driver. For me it wasn't the longest, but it was pretty much point and shoot.
 
Last time I looked, Dicks had new ones for like $71.

Wilson Staffer said:
This was and still is my all time favorite driver. Just wish I still had it. I always keep an eye open for this in mint on ebay in my specs. Never should've parted with it.
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kuyaariel said:
Last time I looked, Dicks had new ones for like $71.
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Really?? I'll have to swing into Dicks in the valley after work. I wonder if it's available from Dicks online. Coolness. Thanks bro
 
Wilson Staffer said:
This was and still is my all time favorite driver. Just wish I still had it. I always keep an eye open for this in mint on ebay in my specs. Never should've parted with it.
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This is a really good driver. I played well with mine. I would still recommend the K15 to anyone.
 
Picked one up at Dicks yesterday for $71.89 . Going to put a blueboard in it and game it in 2015. I also wish I never got rid of mine 3 years ago. I wont make that mistake again.
 
bobbyvjets said:
Picked one up at Dicks yesterday for $71.89 . Going to put a blueboard in it and game it in 2015. I also wish I never got rid of mine 3 years ago. I wont make that mistake again.
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It really is a quality driver. I never should have sold it. I always have to have the latest and greatest from Ping though and the ho in me came out. I will have one in the bag for 2015 as well. I can hit this bad boy off the deck.
 
Wilson Staffer said:
This was and still is my all time favorite driver. Just wish I still had it. I always keep an eye open for this in mint on ebay in my specs. Never should've parted with it.
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Just this week I was considering getting rid of mine. But you've mentioned in two threads how great it is and when I think about it I have to agree. Perfect head shape, great sound goes the same distance as they all do and just goes straight.... Think I'll be keeping hold of it.

Tried the G30 SF TECH (Successor?) and could not get on with it at all. I was better with the SLDR than I was with that thing.

BTW I picked mine up in perfect condition in a local American Golf store used for £75 18months ago so they are about.

Only thing that worries me is my SS has increased and I wonder if 12* and regular flex is right for me...
 
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bobbyvjets said:
Picked one up at Dicks yesterday for $71.89 . Going to put a blueboard in it and game it in 2015. I also wish I never got rid of mine 3 years ago. I wont make that mistake again.
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So much love for this one. I did the same thing. I miss it. I want to try the g30 as a replacement
 
Jman said:
You need to hit the SF tec.
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Agreed. I meant to last weekend and I kind of sort of feel in love with the 915 hybrid and it took my attention away....
 
Would I be correct to assume that SF tech will not fit me well if my miss is a hook?
 
Trevor68 said:
Would I be correct to assume that SF tech will not fit me well if my miss is a hook?
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Offset does not necessarily lead to a hook. It depends on the reason the hook is happening. To give yo uan example, the K15 is definitely weighted towards draw bias, but did so with a neutral face angle.
 
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