What can Ping's WRX department actually do?

eric61 · June 10

I've seen talk here about people going through Ping's WRX department to make specific requests that couldn't be accomplished through a standard order -- specific lofts and face angles, stuff like that.

Is it possible to put together a list of what, specifically, they can and cannot do?

And/or which Ping accounts can make special requests?

I ask because I called Ping this morning to ask about hybrids. I'm a low delivered loft guy and I like my 5 hybrid so much that I'm thinking about putting a 6 hybrid in the bag. But my miss is a hook, and the G440s come with a draw bias in the higher-lofted hybrids. For gapping purposes, I really don't want to deloft it, even though I realize that opens the face and flattens the lie. So I called Ping, hoping they might be able to tell me that I could order through a Ping account that could ask the WRX department to find a 6 hybrid head that actually had 30.5 or 31 degrees of loft on it or something like that -- basically, enough to put it in the small-minus or flat-minus setting and still have it be closer to 30 degrees than 29. They said that's not possible, and the WRX department can't do specific lofts like that.

That's contrary to what I've seen others talking about on GolfWRX ... and it made me wonder whether Ping has changed what it offers, or whether I misunderstood others' experiences, or whether the customer service rep I talked to didn't have the right info.

Anybody that has experience with Ping's WRX department, please chime in!

WristySwing · June 10

Unless it has changed, you used to be able to pay for digital lofted heads. I tried to download the catalogue but I can't find it for this year through a search engine. It used to list all of the wedge and iron grinds you could get, a full list of upgraded shafts, etc. I am sure someone on here has a fairly recent one they could upload.

thematttk · June 10

I'm wondering if you got a service rep who misunderstood what you were asking.

Just preferring a head that errs on the side of higher loft tolerance is one thing -- and something I know Ping has done for me before with a lower-lofted driver head 5 or 6 years ago -- but if the rep thought you were asking them to bend or modify the head in some way, then no.

My understanding is that the WRX process is more about building to custom or specific specs on paper, not so much tour van-style custom modifications.

I will say that if you're worried about a yardage gap in a 6H, you're possibly going to have a hard time seeing a difference in 0.5-1* loft difference. The shaft profile is likely going to have more affect.

For me at least, I've seen minimal differences with any adjustable hosel in a club over say 21* standard loft or so. That's not to say there isn't a difference, just that my normal variance in strike and/or use-case overshadows any actual differences in the setting. When we get up to 16* and under to drivers, obviously... there's much more significant differences in the settings.

ScooterMcTavish · June 11

16 hours ago, thematttk said:

My understanding is that the WRX process is more about building to custom or specific specs on paper, not so much tour van-style custom modifications.

Did there not used to be Ping-sponsored fitting days where you could effectively "buy off the van"? Or was this in the "good old pre-Covid days"?

18 hours ago, eric61 said:

But my miss is a hook, and the G440s come with a draw bias in the higher-lofted hybrids. For gapping purposes, I really don't want to deloft it, even though I realize that opens the face and flattens the lie.

Draw bias will be draw bias, likely set by the way they move mass around the head, and will have nothing to do with if you adjust the loft up or down.

It is unfortunate how poorly the manufacturers explain the effect of face/loft adjustments. Only if the face is brought back to square does the specified loft adjustment actually happen. Otherwise, if you allow the club to be as open or closed as the adjustment makes it, you're actually at the nominal loft on the club. I struggled with the concept until I watched the following video.

And if you want a 6h that is not draw biased, I'd recommend looking for something in an model with options to move weights around to help control the rate of face closure (Elyte X for example). Unfortunate that you cannot get this in a Ping, as the draw bias will be in the guts of the club.

Edited June 11 by ScooterMcTavish