Reviews 4.9
PING continues to evolve and adapt to today’s game with its latest irons and utility clubs that are built for the modern golfer and their needs.
The new i240 and iDi are the latest updates to what have already been a successful lineup for PING and are now bringing new technology and updated features to help your game. While both are very different offerings, PING is excited about how they can help golfers fill out their bag and up their game.
The look is different in the i240 from the i230 that PING has added a carbon design to the bottom half of the cavity in what is a true cavity back design. The cavity badge is 8.5 grams lighter and saves weight to bring 2.5 percent higher MOI than the i230.
“What guys have been talking about and saying with this is it’s not too far from the i230. The i230 has been so popular, not so much on (the PGA Tour), super popular on the LPGA and with amateurs,” PING Tour rep Kenton Oates said. “You don’t really want to change it too much, but they were able to soften up the feel, guys like that feel a little bit more.”
It comes in a 431 stainless steel cast body that is engineered for softer feel and a pleasing sound. PING also has wider-spaced tour-preferred grooves that promote more spin from the fairway and a player-preferred size and shape for distance control and maximum height.
“Seeing a little increase in height and a little increase in spin,” Oates said. “The way that the ball is going, everything is under spinning now, a little bit less spinny. That has been a very nice feature for players using this model.”
The i240 is meant to launch higher in the long and mid irons and adds a touch more forgiveness than its predecessor. PING constructed the club with an injection-molded activated elastomer that helps improve that feel and forgiveness. PING says the i240 has 11 percent tighter dispersion compared to the i230.
“If you can add a little bit of launch and a little bit of spin and your apex goes from, for an amateur, from 80 feet to 90 feet. That takes your landing angle into the mid 40s,” Oates said. “Then, your ball, when you play those harder, firmer courses, it’s going to stop a little bit and give you a little bit more control from back-to-front perspective, which is really what you want from an iron.”
iDi
The utility iron or driving iron, combined with seven woods have become a popular option for players at all levels. They bring more forgiveness and more launch at the top of the bag and that’s exactly what PING is offering with iDi.
“The club that gets the most variance on a week-to-week basis, almost every Tour player is carrying a three-wood and almost every Tour player is carrying a four-iron,” Oates said. “It’s that one club that changes every week, seven-wood, four-iron, three-iron, two-iron, what do I need it to do for that course? This was brought about because we need an iron-like option, but then, it needs to go 245 instead of a traditional three-iron is 230 to 235, just a little longer than the four-iron.”
The iDi comes in a two-iron at 17 degrees of loft, three-iron at 20 degrees and four-iron at 23 degrees. The two-iron is a traditional driving iron with lower launch and lower spin, where the three-iron is going to provide mid launch and mid spin and the four-iron will offer higher launch and higher spin with more stopping power.
The covered cavity with an i-beam structure helps reduce vibration in the 17-4 stainless steel body with forged maraging steel face.
It has a cast metalwood-like construction with inR-Air technology that improves the impact experience accompanied by a five percent thinner face for more ball speed. The iDi now has less offset and a rounded leading edge and more sole camber to improve turf interaction.
“The iDi has been a home run, it feels awesome. It’s a little bit bigger, but it looks pretty good for what it is. The offset and the sizing match well,” Oates said. “If you take a guy’s four iron, it’s been launching a degree, a degree and a half higher, like three miles per hour faster and it spins exactly the same. That gives a Tour player a bunch of confidence that the spin is super consistent and it’s the same as their current four-iron.”
The higher launch window has helped bridge the gap at the top of players’ bags and while it is hollow, Oates says the inner air bag technology has helped with sound and feel. Typically, Tour players don’t love the hollow sound, because it makes it feel like the ball was going forever because it has a different sensation.
Oates believes the technology in the iDi has helped clean that up and is making it easier for even Tour players to put it in the bag.
For the regular amateur, though, Oates says it’s a no brainer to add this club for forgiveness, launch and distance.
“The four-iron is a home run for almost every amateur. Take your four-iron out of your bag, that you hit 200 yards, put this in that goes 210,” Oates said. “You can get to your next club that’s probably a seven-wood or five-wood. It’s going to really clean up the top of your bag.”
