Nessism

17-4 is harder, stronger than 431, but both are way stronger and tougher than carbon forging steel. It sounds like you are typical, in that you are judging the surface finish, not the ultimate durability of the club. Look at S55, and the older Ping's, made from 17-4 and chrome plated. People were whining about how bad they were, when in truth, no iron ever made was more durable than those.

Thanks for your time putting this thread together. If I'm ever in the market for colorful grips, I'll consider these. And sorry for this comment, but one of my golf club pet peeves are unfinished ferrules, and yours need some work! Again, sorry.

Those heads are stainless steel. The "browning" that some people reference, is really the yellow shade of the nickel layer showing after the outer skin of chrome has worn through in places. When forged carbon steel heads wear through the chrome, the "brown" is RUST. These heads will never rust. People applaud the old Ping irons as being "indestructible", because the stainless base metal is so durable. Those heads had no chrome, unlike these. The chrome & nickel provide an added layer of protection, not to mention more "gleam", for showroom appeal. These heads, even if the chrome is beginning to wear through, on one head, are miles more durable than the older unplated "indestructible" Ping's. And even further ahead of any forged club, made from carbon steel.

Tip 3/8". They will insert fine. Not a full hard step, but close enough. BTW, you can still get new sets of those 125 Recoil Proto's for a great price. Don't pay a whole bunch for used. Search ebay if in doubt.

Sounds like the X100 was bringing out swing problems, because ballooning means too much spin. Try DG120 in X100 and see if that fixes that problem. It's not the shaft, it's how you swing them.

Time to learn for yourself, how to build clubs.

Shaft fitting won't do a "High" handicapper a whole lot of good. Wait until you are at least breaking 90 with regularity, and preferably, breaking 80. At that point, small differences in shafts may help you.

I recently bought one of these Harbor Freight Doyle's, and it's a beast. 68 lbs. Another good option is a Yost. Amazon has these. A good sturdy vice will be an heirloom. Gift it to your grand children in your will.

One of these on a bench grinder will transform those heads. Before starting, use sandpaper cloth with a wood paint mixing stick to sand out the scratches. Start with 100 and finish with 220 before using the wheel. Final touch, mask the face, and bead blast. There should be someone there that could do that for you. Just do all the masking for them, it only takes 2 minutes per head to blast the face, and maybe the cavity. The Ping's shown below looked worse than your head's before the work started.

Selling these irons... Built with True Temper Dynalite 100 shafts, trimmed half way between S and R. Recently cleaned up the grips, and they feel great. $50 + shipping. Great clubs for a new golfer, or someone that appreciates their history.

Showing my bias...but if you have a nice sturdy workbench, and matching sturdy vice, you can clamp that bending machine in the vice, and save having another monument in your garage taking up space. I've bent 17-4 Ping's in my similar setup many times, and it works just fine.

Sorry for your loss... I'm still playing my 400 Max. My new favorite shot, since I'm aging and losing distance, is driver off the deck. I've used a bunch of different drivers over the years with success, but none that worked like the Max off the fairway. I's going to be a SAD day when mine dies.

Seems perfectly fine to post about this. If people started coming out of the woodwork sharing stories about cracked '25 ProV1X balls, then the discussion would spike interest. That's what happened with the Titleist irons, where the backplates were falling off. Good on Titleist for wanting the ball back, for analysis. It's curious that the inner core busted as well as the outer; you can see a chunk of purple (inner) core trying to get through that crack.

Did you pull the shaft already and measure .370"? If so, why don't you think a .370 shaft will fit? And regarding that .382 shaft, for the money, it's a low risk trial. Going back to .370, you could always sand down the head a smig, assuming just a slight bit needs to be removed. That head is 17-4 stainless, which is hard metal. Not easy to sand away more than a couple thousands without power tools.

Ordering +1.5" should automatically put you into the lightest possible head. I agree with others regarding exploring further regarding available shafts. Only the most common shafts are listed on the Ping website, they have many more available.