Whether you’re a competitive player or a weekend hacker, hitting the ball higher is usually something that will help you get your next shot closer to the hole.
Ping’s latest irons accomplish exactly that task—but in two different ways.
The company has announced the addition of the i540 (player distance) and G740 (super game improvement) irons to their lineup, two irons that help players in two different ways: more speed for distance players and ultra-forgiveness and release for super game improvement players.
“The i540 is the iron that has the look of that i240, that Blueprint-inspired shaping at address, but we try to pack it with all the distance that our game-enhancing construction can give us,” Travis Milleman, Ping’s senior manager of design engineering, told GOLF. “The G740 is our longest iron and our highest launch iron. The goal was to improve the super game – how do we help the player who needs the most help getting the ball in the air?”
Continue reading below for more about Ping i540 AND G740including my stance on release.
What’s really new with the Ping i540 and G740 — and why you should care
The lightest and heaviest materials you can put in a club
The design of the i540 relies on both the lightest and heaviest material you can put in a golf club.
The iron retains the hollow-body design that golfers have come to know for the distance golfer category, but to aid sound and feel, Ping used its InR-Air insert. Insertion of the inflated air pocket was used for the first time in iDi steering wheel last summer, and Ping prefers it over a foam or ceramic insert because of the lack of weight.
“Air is one of the easiest things you can put in anything,” Milleman said. “It allows us to dampen vibration without limiting the face curvature we designed into the club. It’s not there to help make the face thinner, and it’s not there to change the flex. It’s there to soften the feel and sound.”
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Jack Hirsh/GOLF
The inR-Air insert frees up mass that is then redistributed down into the sole of the club, especially in the 4-7 irons, which is done by tungsten weighting.
Ping wanted the i540 to be a distance first iron, but with that came the need for height, because distance isn’t much use if your ball bounds through the green. By lowering the CG with tungsten, one of the densest materials used in a club, Ping can reach higher peaks for greater stopping power.
“The way you get more height in an iron, if you don’t want to change the loft, is to lower the CG,” Millleman said. “The lower you can go in the CG, the more efficient the impact will be. You get more ball speed, higher launch angle, and that increases tip height.”
An iron with MANY soles
A lower CG was also the focus of the G740 to help players launch the ball into the air.
Players using the G740 usually need all the help they can get, so the iron is the lowest CG in the Ping group.
Instead of using tungsten, Ping engineers achieved this through the shape of the iron by shortening the face height and dramatically widening the toe.
“If we’re trying to get a low CG iron, we have to take the mass out of the top rail, we have to take the mass out of the club, and we have to put it in the area that’s lowest on the club, which is the sole,” Milleman said.
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Jack Hirsh/GOLF
While game-enhancing irons typically have wider soles for extra forgiveness through the terrain, Ping made the sole of the G740 even wider to further reduce bulk.
Had Ping designed a traditional sole, it likely would have been too heavy for many players and would have stuck on the ground.
To combat this, Ping created a double cam where a large portion of the trail edge is beveled, reducing the effective width of the club’s sole.
“The extra mass we’ve added you see in that rear end,” Milleman said. “We tried to space it out so that the club gets on and off the court the same way. On the toe side we tried to add a little more relief, but on the heel side, we actually flattened it out to get even more CG landing features.”
New Ping Iron Lineup
i540
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Jack Hirsh/GOLF
What is it: A distance player’s iron of similar shape and size to 240, but with a hollow body design, stronger lofts and ultra-low CG for greater launch and distance.
Who is it for: Players who want to prioritize speed and distance with their irons, or golfers who want to regain lost distance.
G740
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Jack Hirsh/GOLF
What is it: A super game-improving iron with the longest blade length, thickest topline and widest sole of any Ping iron for maximum forgiveness.
Who is it for: Players who need help getting the ball in the air or who lose across the face.
My take: Helping golfers get higher is becoming a topic
You could argue that the i540 and G740 achieve the same thing for different types of gamers.
The i540 is for the more accomplished ball striker who wants to hit it further; The G740 is for beginners who need to hit it farther.
Both of these irons help their target golfer by lowering the CG and causing them to hit the ball higher. It seems like a trend more and more companies are following to help players hit the ball higher, which will help them be more accurate on the greens.
