Another point of going to the golf show was to follow up with some of the vendors about my previous posts.
I had the chance to speak with Ping about their new G15 driver. As you may recall I really liked this driver and thought it felt simply amazing at impact. The thing about Ping is that I feel that there are considerable differences from the G10 to the G15. I find that it is rare to find such a different feel in a club that is just a generation apart. For those interested, my original brief review can be found here. What I found out from the Ping representative was that Ping worked very hard on something that I don’t hear much about, the balancing of the club. The new G15 has a larger face to assist the focus group of game- improvement customers with an additional five grams in the face area that was removed from the shaft. Perhaps my ignorance as I had not heard of this previously but they then placed additional weight in the butt end of the shaft. This was said to improve the downswing motion, provide more whip at the transition and balance the impact. I was impressed, if you have a chance to hit the club I highly recommend trying it out. If I had the chance right now, it would be the driver in my bag.
The Black Markings
I received some feedback about the Srixon ball review I posted. I was interested in finding out more about the markings on the ball and additional information about how Srixon planned on making their ball better than what is already on the market. As some may know, the new Srixon Trispeed balls are going after the intermediate market in competition with the Titleist NXT, Bridgestone E, Callaway HX HOT to name a few. I asked the representative directly about it and he responded about the cover of the Srixon balls. They are made of a material called Rabalon, which is essentially a rubber impregnated ionomer (surlyn) cover. Makes sense since Srixon is in fact a rubber manufacturer just like Bridgestone. Never heard of them before? How’s about Goodyear, Dunlop and Falken tires? All owned and manufactured by the Sumitomo rubber group. So what makes a rubber impregnated ball any better than a “straight” Surlyn ball like so many others? The rep had told me that the cover was meant to grip more to the surface of the club without having to rely as much to the grooves. It was to be a resilient, durable and consistent cover for the intermediate golfer. In addition to these points the manufacturer also wanted to remain conscious of the cost and price point of the ball to the general market. After speaking to him for a while I addressed some of my findings and he had suggested to stick with the Trispeed. Apparently I was not compressing the ball enough in order to really take advantage of what the Trispeed Tour had to offer.
