Anyone Else Liking Their Ping S58 Irons?

[Al Bundy]

I bought a set of z58's black dots earlier this year in good condition (3-pw). It took quite a few practice sessions and rounds to get accustomed to them, but now they're flying straight enough for me.

I was playing with cobra cavity backs before these and was a little apprehensive due the much smaller head size, but I think these z58 irons are actually forcing me to become a more consistent ball striker. 

They don't go as far as my previous irons. But I like that these blades are a bit more challenging to master and look better IMO. 

Anyone else play these irons, and do you like them?

[Liko81]

19 hours ago, Al Bundy said:

I bought a set of z58's black dots earlier this year in good condition (3-pw). It took quite a few practice sessions and rounds to get accustomed to them, but now they're flying straight enough for me.

I was playing with cobra cavity backs before these and was a little apprehensive due the much smaller head size, but I think these z58 irons are actually forcing me to become a more consistent ball striker. 

They don't go as far as my previous irons. But I like that these blades are a bit more challenging to master and look better IMO. 

Anyone else play these irons, and do you like them?

I don't play S58s, but I did A/B an S55 set against my own G10s and against some other GIs (Callaway, Mizuno etc). One thing I noticed, that I should have paid more attention to, is that the S55s were actually the more consistent iron for me. With a stiff steel shaft and less weight in the head, the club has a "higher" swingweight (COM further from the clubhead) than virtually any GI you'll hit, and with a consistent swing that I had that day (I don't always), it really tightened up the dispersion pattern compared to reg-flex. I also was trying blue dots when I'm really closer to black (I always measure out on the border between the two), and on that day the S55s gave me a weak draw while all the other irons I tried pushed. Before my last fitting, I'd always been told to stick with regular-flex on everything, but at my Titleist fitting last weekend I took one swing with the demo club in an R300 shaft, and they took it back and put an S300 on.

Distance-wise, yeah, not as much from the S55s as the Callaway XR or Mizuno JPX cast, about the same as my Ping G10s all told. I think the difference is all in the loft; the S55 and G10 are within a degree of each other through the set (the 3-5 are the same loft, the 6 is a half-degree stronger on the S55 and the 7-9 a full degree stronger, then the PW snaps back to 46* identical to the G10's). Meanwhile, the current GIs like the XR and JPX are *seriously* delofted (as low as a 43* PW) even compared to mid-2000 irons like my G10s. The clubfitter at the last demo day for Titleist irons (not bad btw) said the additional delofting is to lower the launch angle given the natural higher launch of extreme-cavity GIs, but given that I currently play a 3-PW set and I was recommended for a 4-GW during the fitting, I really think it's more about adding distance, so high-cappers hit the same iron number as the mid-cappers they tag along with (and so that players hitting older irons see a reason to upgrade).

Overall I think I'd really like an S-series set on the course, if I ever got up the scratch and the courage to move up to what's marketed as a single-cap iron. The S55 is retaining fairly high used values (they are only 2 years old after all) but the feel is excellent for a cast club, and with what turned out to be a closer fit to my swing, I felt the S55s were the more consistent, accurate iron despite the smaller head size and lesser forgiveness. In short, play the S-series if they work for you and don't listen to people who say you need an iron set to match your handicap; your handicap may well have nothing to do with your iron game.