Ping G440 irons
Gear: Ping G440 irons
Price: $170 per club with Ping AWT 3.0 steel shafts and Golf Pride Tour Velvet grips. $185 per club with Ping Alta GB Blue graphite shafts
Specs: Cast 17-4 stainless steel chassis and face with multi-material back badge
Available: Jan. 30
Who They're For: Golfers with a handicap ranging from 10 to 20 who want to hit higher iron shots that stop faster on the greens.
What You Should Know: Ping designed this game-improvement iron with a shorter face height, shorter blade length and lower center of gravity to encourage a higher flight and steeper angle of descent. The company also made the G440 appear more premium with a chrome finish.
The Deep Dive: With the release of the Ping G440 irons, the Phoenix-based equipment maker has updated and refined the game-improvement G430 irons, giving the new clubs a more premium look. But don’t let the shiny chrome finish and cosmetic details fool you. The G440 is still packed with technologies designed to help mid- and higher-handicap golfers hit longer, higher shots that stop faster on the greens.
Golfers who shoot scores ranging from around 85 to 100 often struggle with consistency, not producing shots from the fairway that stop quickly on the greens.
In addition to making the 17-4 stainless steel faces thinner so they flex more efficiently and help golfers generate more ball speed, Ping designers reduced the blade length and made the hitting area on the G440 irons shorter from top to bottom. This helps lower the center of gravity and promotes a higher launch.
Ping also made the 4-, 5- and 6-irons an eighth of an inch longer than standard. It’s a small change and some players might not notice it, but longer clubs can help players generate faster swings.
The result should be long-iron shots that fly farther and higher then come down more vertically, allowing them to stop faster on the greens.
On the back of the heads, Ping added an upgraded PureFlex badge. The first version was introduced in the G430 irons and used seven pieces; the badge on the G440 has four pieces but still absorbs excessive vibrations to enhance sound and feel while not inhibiting the face from flexing or reducing ball speed.
The lofts of the G440 irons are strong with a standard 5-iron at 22 degrees, a 9-iron at 37 degrees and the pitching wedge at 42 degrees. There is also a 47-degree U wedge available, along with a 52-degree gap wedge and a 56-degree sand wedge shaped like an Eye 2 wedge.
The G440 irons are also available in Ping’s Power Spec, which strengthens the lofts in the 4-iron through pitching wedge by 1 degree, and a Retro Spec, which weakens the lofts in the 4-iron through 8-iron by 1 degree and the pitching wedge and U wedge by 0.5 degrees.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Ping releases G440 game-improvement irons
