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The i500 irons from PING have made quite an impression since they were unveiled last month so we decided to catch up with PING’s Director of Product Development, Marty Jertson, to find out more about them.
Cool fact about Marty: as well as being the brains behind PING’s latest and club releases, Marty is also a PGA pro and teed it up in his third US PGA Championship at Bellerive last week after previously qualifying in 2011 and 2012.
Unfortunately he missed the cut but, unlike most of the pros competing in the year’s final major, he has a pretty demanding day job to focus on as well as his golf game…
Some light reading, should be able to 1-putt every green this week 👌 pic.twitter.com/LKBSGWhGFO
— Marty Jertson (@jertybird) August 7, 2018
What was the inspiration behind the i500 irons?
We have had so many golfers test our products and love the distance and trajectory our G400 and G700 irons offer. The only problem was the bigger clubhead, wider soles and increased offset would put them off. Our challenge, therefore, was to deliver that same incredible distance and trajectory, but in a blade like package.
• WATCH – We put the PING i500 and i200 irons to the test… how did they perform?
How long have they been in the pipeline?
We have been working on this type of technology for quite a while, even before the G700 irons came to market. Some of the initial research around how this technology would work really started with our first Crossover design. We really want to give the club golfers the ability to hit their mid to long irons up in the air and as far as a tour player. We knew it would be fun to try and pack that much distance into an iron with a more compact shape.
• Check out the stunning new, tour-inspired PING Glide Forged wedge
• PING unveils new Prodi G range… exclusively for kids
Was it a challenge putting this kind of technology into such a small head?
That was the biggest challenge of the whole i500 project. Anytime that you are trying to get a lot of movement out of a clubhead as small as this one, it is exponentially more difficult to achieve. The way we’ve managed to accomplish what we wanted from this project is something we are all very proud of at PING and we are excited to let golfers experience the power these irons have to offer. It isn’t all about power though. We are also very proud of the way this set delivers consistent gappings through the bag and the fact they will allow golfers to hold the greens easily thanks to the towering, soft landing ball flight.
Marty Jertson – What’s in the bag
Driver: Ping G400 Max (9˚)
Fairway Wood: Ping G400 (14.5˚)
Irons: Ping i500 (3-5) Ping iBlade (6-PW)
Wedges: Ping Glide 2.0 (50˚, 56˚, 60˚)
Putter: Ping Cadence TR Ketsch
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