Disillusioned.....a la suckerpunched with my beginning game

[GordonRamsay]

I'll start off and say that Golf, the game IS a sport and it is likely one of the most difficult sports I have ever played.

At the start of my young golf career a few months back, I couldn't miss the ball if I tried.  I could hit the long drive, follow up with decent iron shots and my putting for me....was easy.

Fast forward a few months.  I've played 15-20 rounds of golf on various courses.  My handicap is still 16, according to the USGS calculator, but then again I don't really keep score.  I just want to at least make 2 or 3 over par on most holes, which is doable most days.  I look forward to par 3's since that's primarily where I makeup my scores(a few birdies here and there).

I play with Taylormade Equipment.  Why I chose that I have no idea.  I had an informal fitting session in the local golf store and $1200 later I have a set.

So, my "work" offers giftcard promotions from performance incentives.  I had enough to go buy myself a PING G30 LS tech that I had my eye on.  I mean I had taken hours in the simulator/launch monitor MAKING damn sure this was the club for me.  It narrowly beat out the Taylormade R15 and Titleist 915D3....just on gross numbers before.

415 bucks later I have my new driver.  Good god I can't wait to hit a boomer.  As said in another thread and looking at my swing profile...my swing is fairly steep, but I don't top the driver as much as a used to when I started.  First shot with the G30 and I crush a 200+ yard blast(the range signs stop there).  I do it again and again.  When I'm satisfied, I look at my driver and the top bottom of the club where it say's PING, is crumpled in.  No ballmarks....just crushed in.

After some negotiaons back at the store, they give me a new head and I go about my buisness.

Enter today.   I warm up with my wedeges and short irons.  Good god, I'm aiming at the tiny greens on the range and am hitting my marks.

Time to pull out the woods and driver.  3 wood from the deck goes about 175 and then rolls out, 5 hybrid out of the tall grass is dead on straight.

My brain is now locked on that driver.  Ok, lets grip this and rip it.   I tee up(I use height control tees)....and swing.  Instead of that nice sound I hear a crunch.  The same damn thing that happened to the old head just happened to the new one.   I mean literally it just crumpled like tin foil.  Yeah the ball did land beyond 200 with a draw, but again it was damaged beyond repair.

I'm at a loss for words.  You wanna see a John Daly club toss....I was on the range alone and just let off the biggest and loudest string of F-bombs.  The driver landed about 40 ft in away in the woods(the throw didn't manage to break it!)

I seriously don't know where I'm at.  That's literally 800 bucks spend on a driver that has failed twice.  Yeah, it's the companies money and it didn't come out of my pocket, but still.....way to shake my confidence.  I finished up the bucket of balls with my irons and limped back to my truck in a "F-me" daze.  I don't know if it's just me, the club, the shaft or a combination of all three things at once, but I've hit my fathers driver and my previous ones and that never happens.

I love watching and playing this game, but I'm lost right now.  I know I don't have a right to be pissed at myself for making bad shots, but I mean, if you manage to top a ball once, your club shouldn't just cave at your first bad shot.

Pics of the head are incoming.  I'm typing this while waiting for some food at the local Italian joint.

[amoline]

Well firstly let me say sorry about your club! But I have to say that I too am at a loss for words. I don't understand how a drive can go over 200 yards with a draw AND have the club head crumple in as you say. (And I don't say that like I'm calling you a liar or don't believe you -- I really don't get it!) Also, I have to say, my university's golf teams are sponsored by and use all PING. Let me throw in the most massive caveat ever here and say that I'm on the *club* golf team, and the actual good guys are of course playing on the actual team! :D but anyway, I just have to say I am honestly surprised because with as much PING stuff in clubs, bags, clothes, literally everything at my university is ping, I have seen enough ping gear get beat so far to hell its not even funny. And I don't think I've ever seen anyone manage to do that to a driver! The worst I see maybe some scratches and a dent here and there but no crumpling like foil. And believe you me it gets put through everything. Just wondering what kind of angle of attack you have to go after a golf ball at to draw it 200 yards and crumple the driver, LOL. Maybe you hit the wrong sort of sweet spot! Keep us updated.

[GordonRamsay]

The golf store calls me a liar.  But to have it happen twice, with booming drives doesn't make sense.  I mean I've got buddies that work with me who have strong backgrounds in physics and can't understand why my Taylormade driver structural integrity remains solid, yet the PING product just gets hammered.

In the end, my "employer" technically paid for it.  I didn't.

[gregsandiego]

I've noticed some drivers at the Golf store I frequent seem more flimsy than others. I'd ask for a refund on your 2nd $400 and an exchange for say a Cobra Fly Z.  I beat the hell out of that driver and it doesn't show any damage. And believe me I've mishit it every way possible.

Maybe you got a defective batch or even counterfeit where you buy.

[amoline]

Maybe you got a defective batch or even counterfeit where you buy.

I was just thinking that. If you can find any information on how to tell a counterfeit of that particular driver, and it doesn't match up, call the store out on it. Not that I intend to say that stores have counterfeits abound, but something doesn't seem right.

[gregsandiego]

I was just thinking that. If you can find any information on how to tell a counterfeit of that particular driver, and it doesn't match up, call the store out on it.

Not that I intend to say that stores have counterfeits abound, but something doesn't seem right.

Looks like the Ping people know about some.Same driver family

http://golfclubbrokers.com/blog/220/

[GordonRamsay]

One of my buddies who teaches Materials Science at the local University thinks that it is a bad batch on the basis that I own several different drivers, am consistent with my swing(took him out to the range) and still manage to drive the ball far.  All the variables that he could account for lead him to come to a conclusion that there was a factory defect...which is a pretty common thing considering he worked for NASA and Lockheed.

He also laughed when I showed him the "turbluators."

[GordonRamsay]

Looks like the Ping people know about some.Same driver family

http://golfclubbrokers.com/blog/220/

BTW, yeah...totally not a counterfeit club.  Unless a really well known store is pulling a fast one on people.

[Ernest Jones]

There is now way you "topped" it AND got 200 yards of carry.

[iacas]

Pictures, please.

[Lihu]

415 bucks later I have my new driver.  Good god I can't wait to hit a boomer.  As said in another thread and looking at my swing profile...my swing is fairly steep, but I don't top the driver as much as a used to when I started.  First shot with the G30 and I crush a 200+ yard blast(the range signs stop there).  I do it again and again.  When I'm satisfied, I look at my driver and the top bottom of the club where it say's PING, is crumpled in.  No ballmarks....just crushed in.

My brain is now locked on that driver.  Ok, lets grip this and rip it.   I tee up(I use height control tees)....and swing.  Instead of that nice sound I hear a crunch.  The same damn thing that happened to the old head just happened to the new one.   I mean literally it just crumpled like tin foil.  Yeah the ball did land beyond 200 with a draw, but again it was damaged beyond repair.

If you could do this the way you are describing, you'd probably be carrying 600+ yards on good drives. . .I've met a couple golfers who have cracked the heads, but they are ranked in LDA. Even they can't crush the head as you describe.

You must have topped it or something, and not actually gotten 200 yards? You don't necessarily see ball marks, BTW.

[Mac62]

Pictures, please.

Seconded.  Something's not right here.

[ETA:] As a n=1 counterpoint, I've been hitting a G30 driver for several months, have topped and skyed my share of shots with it and had no problems whatsoever.  I have, however, in the past, somehow managed to crack the head of a Taylormade R11s driver.

[GordonRamsay]

I'm on the phone with PING....so I'll let you guys know what happened.

[iacas]

I'm on the phone with PING....so I'll let you guys know what happened.

Please post a picture.

[inthehole]

its just bad luck - metal that drivers are made from is so thin today, they are fragile.    It happens.     My advice is to get a used cheap name brand driver at this stage of your game - no need to drop big dime on a new driver now.

[Mr. Desmond]

Do not buy another Ping, or get one that is "Tour Issue."

You must be a beast.

[amoline]

Yeah... Might help to see what exactly happened with it? What did Ping tell you?

[Mac62]

I'll start off and say that Golf, the game IS a sport and it is likely one of the most difficult sports I have ever played.

At the start of my young golf career a few months back, I couldn't miss the ball if I tried.  I could hit the long drive, follow up with decent iron shots and my putting for me....was easy.

Golf is difficult, but when you started out you couldn't miss the ball if you tried?  That's not the experience of most new golfers, you must be blessed with tons of natural ability.

Fast forward a few months.  I've played 15-20 rounds of golf on various courses.  My handicap is still 16, according to the USGS calculator, but then again I don't really keep score.  I just want to at least make 2 or 3 over par on most holes, which is doable most days.  I look forward to par 3's since that's primarily where I makeup my scores(a few birdies here and there).

You've played 15-20 rounds of golf, don't really keep score, try to make double or triple bogey on most holes, but have a 16 handicap?  I'm an 18 and with anything more than 2 or 3 double/triple bogeys, the chances of breaking 90 are circling the drain unless I have an otherwise pretty solid round (lots of pars and a few birdies mixed in).  And if I'm not breaking 90 fairly regularly, that 18 handicap is headed right back up into the 20s.

415 bucks later I have my new driver.  Good god I can't wait to hit a boomer.  As said in another thread and looking at my swing profile...my swing is fairly steep, but I don't top the driver as much as a used to when I started.  First shot with the G30 and I crush a 200+ yard blast(the range signs stop there).  I do it again and again.  When I'm satisfied, I look at my driver and the top bottom of the club where it say's PING, is crumpled in.  No ballmarks....just crushed in.

So you "crushed" a bunch of 200+ yard "blasts" again and again using a driver with a caved-in face, and never noticed anything wrong with it until you were done?  Hitting the ball 200+ (assuming that means 210-220 yards and includes rollout) probably equates to a high 70s/low 80s swing speed - Bubba Watson, who plays a G30, has a swing speed somewhere around or upward of 115 mph and can't manage to cave his driver face in.  And you say you don't top the driver as much as you used to when you started , but above you said that at the start of your young golf career, you couldn't miss the ball if you tried ?

I'll gladly apologize if I'm wrong, but at this point my troll meter is pegged.  The OP either defied astronomical odds and somehow got two defective drivers in a row, or we're being trolled by somebody with an anti-Ping agenda.  Maybe one of the mods could run an IP check and see if the OP's address returns to taylormade.com.