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PING G Series Driver Review vs. PING G30 - What's different?
15 Jun 2016
by AmateurGolf.com Equipment Panel

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by Donnie Baucom - AmateurGolf.com Equipment Panel

Ping unveiled its new G driver earlier this year at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions with the goal of increased aerodynamic efficiency leading to greater distance. The G has already been added to the bags of Ping Staffers Bubba Watson and David Lingmerth and I set out to see if it’s worth adding to yours as well. I have laid out the visual and physical changes below, along with the trackman results from testing the G versus the G30.

The biggest change visually is at the top of the driver. Ping expanded the original turbulators and added a crown design inspired by the wings of a dragonfly.

This inspiration is called Biomimicry, in which innovation emulates the patterns of nature. The dragonfly wing wasn’t solely for visual purposes, however, as the new structure allowed them to remove eight grams from the crown of the club. This allowed Ping to reposition the center of gravity lower and further back in the driver which reduces spin and increases forgiveness.


Ping also added Vortec technology which minimizes the turbulent wake behind the club during the downswing for faster club head speed with increased club head stability. According to Ping, this coupled with the crown turbulators leads to 37% less drag through the impact zone for sizeable distance gains from all swing speeds. Let’s take a look at two sample results, one from each driver. For my tests I used the stock Tour 61g stiff shaft for both drivers along with ProV1x golf balls for each shot. Each driver was set at 9 degrees with a D1 swing weight.

Launch monitor numbers for the PING G30


The G30 launched with 2300 rpm and went nearly 300 yards. 15 degree launch is a bit higher than my average but 108 mph club speed and 158 mph ball speed is pretty normal for what was slightly off center hit shown by a 1.47 smash factor.

Launch monitor numbers for the PING G

Looking at the numbers from the G, you can see right away that my spin went down dramatically to under 2000 rpm. While a spin rate less than 2000 rpm isn’t recommended, it does show the effect of the lower center of gravity.

I also noticed that with slightly less club head speed I still managed to have a faster ball speed than the G30 by just over three mph. This is likely due to the thinner face and is a theme that was common to my peers who had also demoed the G. In fact, with less launch angle (13 degrees versus 15) I still carried it 3 yards farther and had much more roll which led to the increased distance of 308 yards.

Also worth nothing is that on average, I swung the G at 107.5 mph and the G30 at 107 mph throughout the duration of my testing.

Thus, while I’m not fully convinced that the improvement in aerodynamics significantly increases swing speed, I was impressed by the added distance and lower spinner rate that the G produced. If you are someone who is looking for a lower ball flight and more roll out of their drives, upgrading from the G30 to the G is definitely worth considering.

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