SholaAmeobi22

I was struggling a bit with distance with my old irons (mizuno jpx irons) so decided to get fit for the Ping G430 irons, ending up with 5-PW in reg ping 2.0 awt blue dot +1/4 inch. Here are my thoughts on these irons after about 30 rounds (mid handicapper): Positives: -The clubs are definitely significantly longer and when struck fairly centrally produce nice high ball flights. -I have not noticed a lack of spin and have been holding greens no problem when the iron is struck well. -When struck out the toe (which is usually my miss) I am not noticing a falloff in distance. -The long irons, my 5 iron in particular, is absolutely fantastic off the tee. I use it as a driving iron for placement mainly. -The irons look and sound very nice, ping have done a great job with hiding the cavity on address. They do not look like super game improvement irons while standing over the ball. Negatives: -When I looked up the lofts on these new irons they are all just a club longer as far as I can tell, the pitching wedge has 41 degrees of loft which has led to some considerable gapping issues lower down in my bag. Ping do offer a range of wedges in the G430 to combat this but obviously means considerable additional cost. -I have found the clubs lower than 7 iron (8,9,W) to be extremely 'jumpy'. What I mean by this is depending on the lie/strike I am getting really unpredictable results, sometimes the wedge will go 110 yards sometimes it will go 135 yards (left or right). What I am trying to say is the faces are very hot so if you sometimes get a bit quick or jabby with your swing, it causes real problems. I often think I would rather have just fatted it 50 yards and had another shot from the fairway. -To add to this: I have found that I have very little greenside feel with these irons. Previously I would regularly use my 8,9,PW for short game as I found it more reliable than always pulling out a sand wedge, I like a nice controllable lower ball flight which can run towards the pin. I have found that I was not able to get any feel around the green with these as the faces are just too hot. -The cavity inserts (pur tech thingy) on my lower clubs 9,W have been scratched and I think this was from being in the same pocket in my carry bag. I would consider head covers if you buy these. General thoughts / conclusion: To be honest I am having some serious doubts about game improvement irons, I suspect they just do not work for my particular game. I do not really struggle to get the ball in the air usually so do not really need that – I have seen a much tighter dispersion using irons regarded as less ‘friendly’. I recently purchased from ebay the 8,9,W of the ping i200 in the exact same spec I was fit into in the G430, I combo this set with the 5 and 7 from the G430s before the woods. The i200s are more traditional lofts and a smaller head, I have found the smaller head forces me to focus on strike over just picking the yardage and swinging. I have hit the i200s so much better even though they are supposed to be less forgiving. I find that the distance is predictable and I can also manufacture shorter shots like I used to with the PW/9i. So overall I would say that these irons are probably not for me. Disappointed but the experiment has given me renewed confidence in my game, I will likely sell on the irons at a loss at some point and purchase the full set of i200s instead.