The Ping Experience

[Asleep]

The Ping Experience

 

Ping kindly invited GolfWRX to their facilities in November for a factory tour and a sneak peek at how they're going to out-do themselves once again in a couple of their product lines. I can't express enough what a thrill it is to be able to "peek behind the curtains" and pick the brains of some of the premier club designers/builders in the world. It's the equivalent, say, of touring the Corvette or Mustang factory and going through all of the design elements/decisions with those engineers.

 

Walking through the assembly room floor you see faces lined with wisdom. The story they tell is one of experience and loyalty. These people love working for this company... and this company values its people. 15, 20, 25 year employees are a common occurrence at Ping. GolfWRX was fortunate enough to share much of our time with a 30 year Ping veteran, Director of Marketing and Communications Pete Samuels. 30 years... Pete knows every nook and cranny at Ping, and shared some great stories about Mr. and Mrs. Solheim.

 

 

It's kind of cool to note that newer design and manufacturing technologies will never obsolete the experienced club-builder's hands. There's a possibility that the same hands that built your beloved 1982 Ping Eye2s also built those 1999 i3 Blades, 2008 S57s, and maybe even those 2011 G20s you owned. This is a family business in every sense of the term... that is also very definitely one of the big boys.

 

Play Your Best

 

This is the mantra at Ping -- Play Your Best. Everything they do, their every engineering and design focus is directed at you to help you play your best. Golf clubs are designed within a pretty small box of limitations these days, so most every design decision is a balancing of trade-offs. If they move 20 grams here or there or there or wayyy over there what does that do for best hits? What about misses high or low on the face? What about curvature? What happens to repeat-ability of distance if they change X or Y? Most everything impacts something else. So are 5 yards of added carry on a center-strike hit worth it if I'm in the rough 20% more often on a slight mishit? Which maximizes you playing your best?

 

What about incorporating what I and many other people thought was a sure-fire sales strategy for demo days years ago -- jack up the lofts of your PWs and 7 & 8 irons. Why? I saw from watching so many players testing so many brands that most of the time the longest hits on a 7-iron, 8-iron, or sometimes PW were the brand that made it into their bags. This was one of the first questions I posed to Ping engineers years ago. Ping's response: How does that help you Play Your Best? How does pushing all your yardages out and bunching up the gaps in the longer clubs do anything more than create wider short yardage gaps inside the PW that need to be filled with..... more wedges?

 

Me: Yeah, but you'd sell more...

 

Ping (confused looks): Maybe, but that doesn't help you Play Your Best.

 

The finest example I can give of adopting the play your best directive comes from Ping's own Senior design engineer Marty Jertson. First you must know that Marty is a stick -- quite the impressive golfer. (Who else would you have designing your golf clubs?) Marty is a PGA Professional and competes in various local/state/national and international competitions/tournaments, including two PGA Championships. Marty earned an invitation to play in what can best be described as the Ryder Cup for PGA Pros -- the 2011 PGA Cup.

 

So of course Marty was playing Ping's S-series blades, I thought? Wrong. Marty bagged the irons that he described would help him play his best. And he led the USA team to victory that year as the top point winner. Which irons would you play if it was your money/trophy on the line... when a slight mishit on a tournament course could cost your 2 or more strokes? For Marty, in 2011 with it all on the line, his play your best irons were the G-20s.

 

Consistency from shot-to-shot helps you play your best. Proper engineering and design, rigorous testing, quality materials, attention to detail, and correct fitting all put those clubs in your hands for you to play your best. This is the mantra. This is what they sing around the campfire, this is what's engraved on the back of their watch, this is the common thread woven throughout Ping Golf from stem to stern, from their beginnings to today: play your best.

 

Itinerary - a whirlwind day

 

Our first stop after a quick early bite and coffee was a factory tour.

 

 

 

As we moved to the bag room we find "flats" ready to be customized and framed up for shipping, and lo and behold there's some sweet GolfWRX embroadery being stiched into three custom bags...

 

 

[media=]

[/media]

 

After the tour we stopped by the putting lab to do an iPing fitting. Ping's putter fitting lab has in the middle of its long and narrow room two pieces of granite that are joined on top of a granite base anchored into the ground independent of the foundation to form an ~80 foot long by ~8 foot wide putting table that is umpteen tons of the flattest putting surface you'll ever find -- flat to .001 of an inch. The surface is so flat that they'll use Ping's mechanical putting robot to roll what looks like a polished glass surfaced golf ball right down the center of its length. They put a synthetic mat over it to get the stimp they want so their tour staff and other fortunate guests can roll any selection of their favorite golf balls for fitting. In a short time with the assistance of iPing and high speed cameras, you're fitted into the best head, length, loft, lie, and grip for you to make those putts. Zak posted a tidy 0.6 iPing putting handicap.

 

 

Then we were fully filled in by Marty Jertson and Dr. Paul Wood on Ping’s upcoming product releases over a long lunch. Without letting any cats out of the bag, let me just say it'll be worth the wait.

 

We then got to see Ping’s milling room, where we saw the time and precision put into milling those Gorge groves in their Tour wedges. I was surprised at how long it took to complete the milling process on one wedge -- there's a lot of time and care put into getting these right. Stopping and measuring across multiple points during the process multiple times ensures correct groove dimensions to stay within the allowed limits while maximizing consistency and performance.

 

 

 

Next were iron and wood fittings on Ping’s always perfectly manicured, Trackman fore and aft equipped on campus driving range. Note the hitting cage on the left is typically filled with Ping employees -- every player has as part of their job scheduled range time with prototype and pre-production equipment. Ping's employees of varied handicaps contribute to the research and development of not only equipment but also the ever improving fitting experience that Ping provides. Note the provided transportation for player testing...

 

 

We were briefed on Ping’s Enso research system comprised of 10 high speed (high dollar) cameras with custom software and with a specially equipped driver. If you've ever been fit for clubs by having bunch of reflective dots placed all around your body... well, instead of your body Ping's Enso measures what every inch of the golf club head and shaft are doing throughout the swing. It's really amazing technology that can give you a Darth Vader light saber effect on the monitor in real time as you wave the club around. So they're compiling things like shaft bend/twist/torque, toe droop, head deviations, etc. through each moment of your golf swing to better understand what happens to the entire club in order to design better ones.

 

 

The last time we were here PingMan was having major surgery. Well, the swing robot has a new motor, some customized ball hoppers, and is updating to the latest Trackman system to integrate with Ping’s own software/tools. He looks to be over-swinging a bit on the backswing, no? Actually, that swing arm fully articulates on its own. It just follows what Pingman's "core" is doing.

 

 

And finally we're escorted into the WRX Department to design our own full on custom milled putters and share some time with the “mad scientist” John Souza and crew who fulfill every tour players wildest custom dreams... and your's, too. Along with excellent custom golf clubs, expect to find the unexpected in the back rooms of Ping's WRX Department... like WedgeZilla and PuttZilla!

 

 

The Gold Putter Vault

 

Long before people were paid to play putters Mr. Solheim decided to commemorate every victory with a Ping putter by building two matching gold plated putters -- one gifted to the winning player, the other placed in Ping's gold putter vault. If you won a Major, you get a solid gold putter! The vault was originally in a converted closet in Mr. Solheim's office, then it was moved downstairs and has now the finishing touches are being put on its third move to a more public-friendly location. Zak got to do the honors this year, grabbing Louis Oosthuizen's amazing double eagle gold plated 4-iron from the Masters and Tiger's U.S. Amateur winner...

 

 

At the end of our long good day we came away with even more respect for Ping the brand, Ping the company, Ping equipment, and Ping the family. I'll leave you with an image that warms my heart and may yours, as well. Pete shared that one of their better days came when Ping co-founder Mrs. Louise Solheim notified the staff that she'd like to drop by for an updated putter fitting... at the young-at-heart age of 95 years old. This image, borrowed from Ping, gave me a big smile...

 

 

In the coming weeks we will inundate you with the specifics of Ping's new equipment releases and how they perform...

 

and we'll answer the question on everyone's mind: What's going to make Marty Jertson play his best in 2014?

[Asleep]

Please [b]do not edit[/b], just add a post for corrections.

Thanks.

[easyyy]

Wow.. that is great Todd. Really good report!

[Geo]

Great job on the writeup, Todd. I'm at a loss for what could be added as you covered the bases extremely well. It was a whirlwind couple of days, but what really stood out for me were all the personal stories we got to hear. This time around, I think we definitely got a more personal look at the company through the people who make PING.

That and the fitting, for me, was telling. Much like the story with Marty, it emphasized PING's philosophy to help golfers to play their best. But that's a whole 'nother writeup.

[Asleep]

The Ping Experience

 

Ping kindly invited GolfWRX to their facilities in November for a factory tour and a sneak peek at how they're going to out-do themselves once again in a couple of their product lines. I can't express enough what a thrill it is to be able to "peek behind the curtains" and pick the brains of some of the premier club designers/builders in the world. It's the equivalent, say, of touring the Corvette or Mustang factory and going through all of the design elements/decisions with those engineers.

 

Walking through the assembly room floor you see faces lined with wisdom. The story they tell is one of experience and loyalty. These people love working for this company... and this company values its people. 15, 20, 25 year employees are a common occurrence at Ping. GolfWRX was fortunate enough to share much of our time with a 30 year Ping veteran, Director of Marketing and Communications Pete Samuels. 30 years... Pete knows every nook and cranny at Ping, and shared some great stories about Mr. and Mrs. Solheim.

 

 

It's kind of cool to note that newer design and manufacturing technologies will never obsolete the experienced club-builder's hands. There's a possibility that the same hands that built your beloved 1982 Ping Eye2s also built those 1999 i3 Blades, 2008 S57s, and maybe even those 2011 G20s you owned. This is a family business in every sense of the term... that is also very definitely one of the big boys.

 

Play Your Best

 

This is the mantra at Ping -- Play Your Best. Everything they do, their every engineering and design focus is directed at you to help you play your best. Golf clubs are designed within a pretty small box of limitations these days, so most every design decision is a balancing of trade-offs. If they move 20 grams here or there or there or wayyy over there what does that do for best hits? What about misses high or low on the face? What about curvature? What happens to repeat-ability of distance if they change X or Y? Most everything impacts something else. So are 5 yards of added carry on a center-strike hit worth it if I'm in the rough 20% more often on a slight mishit? Which maximizes you playing your best?

 

What about incorporating what I and many other people thought was a sure-fire sales strategy for demo days years ago -- jack up the lofts of your PWs and 7 & 8 irons. Why? I saw from watching so many players testing so many brands that most of the time the longest hits on a 7-iron, 8-iron, or sometimes PW were the brand that made it into their bags. This was one of the first questions I posed to Ping engineers years ago. Ping's response: How does that help you Play Your Best? How does pushing all your yardages out and bunching up the gaps in the longer clubs do anything more than create wider short yardage gaps inside the PW that need to be filled with..... more wedges?

 

Me: Yeah, but you'd sell more...

 

Ping (confused looks): Maybe, but that doesn't help you Play Your Best.

 

The finest example I can give of adopting the play your best directive comes from Ping's own Senior design engineer Marty Jertson. First you must know that Marty is a stick -- quite the impressive golfer. (Who else would you have designing your golf clubs?) Marty is a PGA Professional and competes in various local/state/national and international competitions/tournaments, including two PGA Championships. Marty earned an invitation to play in what can best be described as the Ryder Cup for PGA Pros -- the 2011 PGA Cup.

 

So of course Marty was playing Ping's S-series blades, I thought? Wrong. Marty bagged the irons that he described would help him play his best. And he led the USA team to victory that year as the top point winner. Which irons would you play if it was your money/trophy on the line... when a slight mishit on a tournament course could cost your 2 or more strokes? For Marty, in 2011 with it all on the line, his play your best irons were the G-20s.

 

Consistency from shot-to-shot helps you play your best. Proper engineering and design, rigorous testing, quality materials, attention to detail, and correct fitting all put those clubs in your hands for you to play your best. This is the mantra. This is what they sing around the campfire, this is what's engraved on the back of their watch, this is the common thread woven throughout Ping Golf from stem to stern, from their beginnings to today: play your best.

 

Itinerary - a whirlwind day

 

Our first stop after a quick early bite and coffee was a factory tour.

 

 

 

As we moved to the bag room we find "flats" ready to be customized and framed up for shipping, and lo and behold there's some sweet GolfWRX embroadery being stiched into three custom bags...

 

[media=]

[/media]

 

After the tour we stopped by the putting lab to do an iPing fitting. Ping's putter fitting lab has in the middle of its long and narrow room two pieces of granite that are joined on top of a granite base anchored into the ground independent of the foundation to form an ~80 foot long by ~8 foot wide putting table that is umpteen tons of the flattest putting surface you'll ever find -- flat to .001 of an inch. The surface is so flat that they'll use Ping's mechanical putting robot to roll what looks like a polished glass surfaced golf ball right down the center of its length. They put a synthetic mat over it to get the stimp they want so their tour staff and other fortunate guests can roll any selection of their favorite golf balls for fitting. In a short time with the assistance of iPing and high speed cameras, you're fitted into the best head, length, loft, lie, and grip for you to make those putts. Zak posted a tidy 0.6 iPing putting handicap.

 

 

Then we were fully filled in by Marty Jertson and Dr. Paul Wood on Ping’s upcoming product releases over a long lunch. Without letting any cats out of the bag, let me just say it'll be worth the wait.

 

We then got to see Ping’s milling room, where we saw the time and precision put into milling those Gorge groves in their Tour wedges. I was surprised at how long it took to complete the milling process on one wedge -- there's a lot of time and care put into getting these right. Stopping and measuring across multiple points during the process multiple times ensures correct groove dimensions to stay within the allowed limits while maximizing consistency and performance.

 

 

[insert Zach's wedge milling video]

 

Next were iron and wood fittings on Ping’s always perfectly manicured, Trackman fore and aft equipped on campus driving range. Note the hitting cage on the left is typically filled with Ping employees -- every player has as part of their job scheduled range time with prototype and pre-production equipment. Ping's employees of varied handicaps contribute to the research and development of not only equipment but also the ever improving fitting experience that Ping provides. Note the provided transportation for player testing...

 

 

We were briefed on Ping’s Enso research system comprised of 10 high speed (high dollar) cameras with custom software and with a specially equipped driver. If you've ever been fit for clubs by having bunch of reflective dots placed all around your body... well, instead of your body Ping's Enso measures what every inch of the golf club head and shaft are doing throughout the swing. It's really amazing technology that can give you a Darth Vader light saber effect on the monitor in real time as you wave the club around. So they're compiling things like shaft bend/twist/torque, toe droop, head deviations, etc. through each moment of your golf swing to better understand what happens to the entire club in order to design better ones.

 

 

The last time we were here PingMan was having major surgery. Well, the swing robot has a new motor, some customized ball hoppers, and is updating to the latest Trackman system to integrate with Ping’s own software/tools. He looks to be over-swinging a bit on the backswing, no? Actually, that swing arm fully articulates on its own. It just follows what Pingman's "core" is doing.

 

 

And finally we're escorted into the WRX Department to design our own full on custom milled putters and share some time with the “mad scientist” John Souza and crew who fulfill every tour players wildest custom dreams... and your's, too. Along with excellent custom golf clubs, expect to find the unexpected in the back rooms of Ping's WRX Department... like WedgeZilla and PuttZilla!

 

 

The Gold Putter Vault

 

Long before people were paid to play putters Mr. Solheim decided to commemorate every victory with a Ping putter by building two matching gold plated putters -- one gifted to the winning player, the other placed in Ping's gold putter vault. If you won a Major, you get a solid gold putter! The vault was originally in a converted closet in Mr. Solheim's office, then it was moved downstairs and has now the finishing touches are being put on its third move to a more public-friendly location. Zak got to do the honors this year, grabbing Louis Oosthuizen's amazing double eagle gold plated 4-iron from the Masters and Tiger's U.S. Amateur winner...

 

 

At the end of our long good day we came away with even more respect for Ping the brand, Ping the company, Ping equipment, and Ping the family.

 

In the coming weeks we will inundate you with the specifics of Ping's new equipment releases and how they perform...

 

and we'll answer the question on everyone's mind: What's going to make Marty Jertson play his best in 2014?

Backup3

[jmcdonald]

Very nice!!!

[rdmcdaid]

Thanks for sharing!

One day I would love to go there in person.

I have been to Ping Canada many times to have clubs adjusted for color code, however, the original is the "Holy Grail"

happy New Year!

[braincramp52]

Family business= Why I love Ping!

[toc]

The tour and fitting that ping offers to absolutely anyone, free of charge, is simply incredible. I miss living in Phoenix.

[jjl]

great post. the place has a mom and pop look to it that's refreshing.

[Timanator]

Makes me proud to play Ping i20's Anser Driver, and maybe soon to be Gorge Wedge and a Redwood putter?

[Agent Jim]

Great read. I'd love the opportunity to tour that place one day. And maybe a putter fitting there....

[BCULAW]

I hope to still be getting golf club fittings when I am 95. Love the family roots and can't wait to hear about the new gear. Thanks for the write-up!

[freddyottawa]

Awesome stuff right there. Thanks for sharing.

[Sean2]

Thanks for posting. Great read. I look forward what you have to say in the future. :-)

[Sean2]

Todd, do you think Ping makes the best equipment in golf?

[chickenpotpie]

The part about making clubs to play your best, versus making clubs to sell more product is refreshing. I guess it comes with the territory of not having shareholders to be accountable to. Can't wait to see the actual product.

[Night train]

Thanks so much...........Very nice read and I'm really anxious to see the "new stuff"

The bag is mostly Ping now and I'm not selling any of it.............but planning on buying some new stuff this spring. Anticipation level is [b]high[/b]

[Sean25rp]

Great report. Thanks.

[whatsthecourserecord]

I'm glad this thread has returned as I really like Ping. Thanks for the report and I look forward to more info on the new stuff as that becomes available. This coming spring is going to be very interesting!

[teeituphigh]

A great read. I am visiting for 4 days at the end of Feb for some training and product testing. I have asked for the opportunity to be fit if time allows. Reading this report and seeing these pics has made me even more pumped for what will be a trip of a lifetime!

[Pert1862]

Does Ping let the average Joe do this for a price? Do they do factory tours at all?

[RPVL]

Great read and pictures, thanks!

[trouser]

Very nice write up! I enjoy playing a full PING bag.

[MtlJeff]

"tour returns"

I see some lefty stuff in there....i mean if no one is using it.....you know...

[Circle_P]

This is why I love PING . I hope to someday make the trip to Phoenix so I can see it firsthand. Thanks for the insight.

[Charliegolf]

Great story guys!! Really looking forward to next years product now!! And that Enso technology looks awesome!!

[JaxBeachNole]

Beautiful stuff. A great insight into a great company.

Did you fellers happen to catch an "eye" for anything on camera?

[awil]

Would love one of those golfwrx bags from ping ! They should put those in the wrx store

[deck]

Excellent read and thanks you for it