Sometimes releases are quite the surprise, other times, they’re the worst kept secret ever. File this one somewhere in between as the rumblings about PING’s newest irons has been ramping up for months now, including some rather interesting pricing discussion.
But let’s table that for now, shall we? Instead, its time to officially get our first looks at the new PING i59 irons.
A Core Story – PING i59 Irons
I’ll be honest, a new iSeries iron from PING is exciting to me. As someone who cut their teeth entering this game with the i20’s, any time something new drops with the moniker on it, my ears perk up. This time though, it’s been an interesting one to get, and keep, a pulse on. We have known these were coming for a long time now, but the details have been relatively tight lipped as far as the actual technology within them. Turns out, it might be because that tech is literally at the core of the i59.
The irons themselves are a forged body 1025 carbon steel with a 17-4 forged stainless face. Yes, you read that correctly, I used the word “forged” twice in one sentence when referring to a PING i-Series iron. The big story there though is what is in-between those two metals as internally there is an aerospace aluminum being utilized. Coming in at 1/3 of what stainless steel weighs, PING is claiming that utilizing this material at the core is letting around THIRTY grams to be saved and allowing the design team to use tungsten heel and toe weights to replace it at the perimeter of the head to increase MOI (Moment of Inertia).
Now, PING is being adamant that the feel is very real with these and that the aluminum actually adding to the solid feel at impact that golfers who tend to lean towards these smaller more compact shapes like the i59 demand. Not only that, that weight movement has apparently meant that the MOI actually matches the i59’s bigger sibling, the i210’s.
That “Alumicore Technology” is truly the main story here, and honestly, in a smaller profile like this iron if it has allowed them to maximize the perimeter weighting as the claims are telling us, then that is all they might need. That said, PING did want to also make sure they addressed spin consistency and thus the Hydropearl 2.0 finish (which is truly excellent at its intended job in wet conditions) and MicroMax grooves are part of the equation as well. Those grooves are fully machined and have steeper sidewalls and tighter gapping to allow for four more grooves on the faces. PING states that this helps reduce jumpers in the short irons and keep that spin up to maximize peak height as well as descent angle in the longer irons.
The i59’s will come standard with Project X LS shafts in steel (6.0, 6.5) as well as UST Mamiya Recoil 760 ES and 780 in graphite. As always, there is an assortment of optional stock shafts available from PING, eight options to be exact. Also, because I know many are curious, yes, “Power Spec” is an option here, as is what PING is now calling “Retro Spec” which should appeal greatly to those who have had their feelings hurt by stronger lofts. The sets standard loft will play off a 46° PW with Power Spec at 45° and Retro Spec at 48°. The i59’s will be available in 3-PW.
Last week we profiled another piece of equipment that had a price hike and it would be impossible to write this one without mentioning it. PING is about to raise the price on most of their current lineup (at the time of this writing) and this set comes in with a hefty price of $250 per iron for steel and $15 more than that for graphite. With the technology outlined and the sleek looks, does that change perception of the brand that has at least in recent history been slightly less expensive?
Do you plan on giving these a closer look? Does the story from PING move the needle for you? Let us know how you feel both below as well as on the THP Community!
Details
In Stores: 9/2
Cost: $250 per iron in steel and $265 per iron in graphite
Yeah, truly PXG level.
Which is ironic considering the connection between the 2. Lol
Don’t they normally have roughly the same turn around time as Titleist, which is 2 years. Similar to Apex?
If these are replacing the iblades, hasnt it been like 5 years.
If it a replacement, Wouldn’t it be replacing Blueprints, which are roughly right at two years?
A few of the Ping people have said in interviews that it’s an iBlade replacement. A couple kind of a replacement of both. I feel like it’s been an evolving list of statements on these for a while now.
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No swings?!?!
No go man! I’ll head back in this week. Only 1 bay was open and it was occupied with a fitting. Didn’t bother to stick around.
That’s been pretty much my entire experience with them. Feel really good, plenty of spin. I’ve actually been wondering for some time if the groove angle they were working on forever and the shaft pairing are to bring the launch package down into the window where the spin plays best. The whole setup has been interesting to me, because they keep saying lower launch in the info, but I haven’t really observed that in myself or others.
I was looking at some Hogan PTX irons until I hit the i210’s and they were incredible.
But they’re still expensive.
better than the x7s?
I haven’t actually done a true comparison between those 2. My ZX7 have been a little neglected lately. Poor things..
the i210 was my biggest judgement on these. I hit the G425 directly against the i59 and sure the numbers were true to loft but the feel in all honesty is where they lose. I’m sure people will like them. I’m turn off by these enough to know I wouldn’t reconsider them.
In most categories really, but it’s mostly through consistency differences. Might be individual. I’ve seen a couple people fight them. For me though, deviations have only trailed my TCB’s in recent sessions. They’ve been solid. Real test comes with a full set in play though.
That’s the i210’s for me! Especially being a low launch; low spin guy
It’s definitely a part of it. Only a little higher really, but more consistent about it for some reason. I don’t get the low ones with these it seems. Like I said though, I’ve seen a couple guys who’ve been more all over the map than me there. They don’t launch as low as they market for me either.
That’s part of why I’ve said a couple times that I want to see how people who move it around a little more or have a consistent but different strike pattern than I do like them.
since when has that stopped you? ? ?
just buy one less set next year and it’ll work itself out haha. The higher spin comments have my ears perked. But, I was already having a hard time stomaching spending $200 an iron. These aren’t on my radar because of the price. But who’s to say I would maybe be on the lookout for a used set in the next few years. If these go on an iblade type cycle they’ll probably be around for a while.
That’s a good theory, but I’ve been looking for a good used set of blueprints since.. forever, and have yet to find one, so I don’t know why these should be any different. I haven’t decided on them yet. Just bought fresh TCB’s and am making less changes than usual for a bit, so there’s no pressing need at that price for me.
I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on them though. I’m starting to wonder if some of the wide feel responses are compression based. There are some irons that feel pretty different at different speeds.
I think the BPs are the best looking iron ever made. I got a great deal last year on a barely used set. I play Zx7s normally, but man do I love the rounds I have the BPs in the bag. Wish I was good enough to play them daily.
It surprised me. NOT ping like in feel, IMHO.
I really enjoyed it. Nice feel and they look great. Pitty the price is so high.
If you can’t get past the ‘hollow’ (and then filled with metal) thing in your brain, apparently even if you’re a paid professional who should know better or read about 1 minute of research on them, and think they’re a PLAYERS DISTANCE iron because of it, and comparable to something like the P770…
Hitting these is NOT going to go how you think it is.
Serious brain limitations abound out there in the world, and I honestly think some of these people need to read a little more THP and start getting educated.
Zero.
It all depends on demand and supply. If they can’t keep them in stock the price will stay. I am sure they have a plan for how many sets they can build and sell and as long as that plan is met they likely won’t change price.
If it was just about any other company I might think it could be possible, but I just can’t even picture that here. Doesn’t compute at all. No.
Welcome to the future… Oh, wait, the future is now.
I am told steel prices have doubled in the last 2 yrs. As supply increases that may change, but not in the near future.
Is that just a ping thing or the fact that they will meet projections? I guess it would seem unlikely considering they likely have models for demand projections at different price points
Well I can’t know projections, so it must be a Ping thing in my mind. I don’t think they probably had high projections for them, but I don’t think they’ll probably meet them even if they’re fairly low. I also think you could be in charge of that there and go to your boss showing ample evidence that lowering it a little would sell enough to make more in the end, and get laughed off that call. Lol. They just don’t .. And they just raised everything. I don’t see them backing off that industry changing move. Just my opinion though.
Fair enough. It seems like a similar model to the blueprints. Just seems so odd of them to not really want to compete in market share for those irons. Although I guess when you consider that someone buying a blade is willing to spend $1500-1600 on a comparable set, what’s an extra $150-200 if you’re going to have them for 5+ years
I guess pricing is relative. Custom builds are getting $225-250 per club or more in some places for the not-so-exotic irons. So a good Ping fit at $200 per club? Priceless.
At that price, I would hope PING opens up the WRX Custom Catalog to offer any shaft you want.
Yep, fair enough….but that price is without the potential additions of custom options.
I think everyone may be a little guilty of looking at these irons like they are going to be players distance irons….but if you look at all the reviews, they are performing more like a typical CB iron. My guess is, some guys on the higher cap end are going to pick these up….the honey moon will wear off and we will see a fair number of them for sale.
Exactly. IMHO – what they’ve done here is simply replaced the iblade. They’ve added more tech, but that tech (in the reviews I’ve seen thus far) doesn’t appear to pan out in terms of more distance/lower spin, like you’d expect from a "players distance category" club.
I think the real story here is about spin consistency and flight consistency, likely pursued by the lower cap golfer (my guess – less than 6 cap type range).
In theory, these are more forgiving than the blueprint.
Its an interesting theory because from a purely technical sense they are…At least in terms of MOI. That is where I struggle and I have mentioned this in the past too. MOI has become a catch all buzz for all things forgiveness without really much of an explanation as to what it does. A few years back we shot this with @vgolfman talking about what MOI is with drivers, but it relates the same to irons.