Joe Ferguson analyses the performance of the new Ping G430 Max 10k driver for this year against the other models in the range.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 This is the new Ping G430 Max 10K driver.
00:06 Now I'm really excited about this one,
00:08 so let's just get on with it.
00:09 (upbeat music)
00:11 So what do Ping say they've delivered here?
00:17 Well, to start with, they say it's their most stable
00:20 and forgiving driver ever.
00:22 And that's where it's gotten its name from,
00:24 the 10K part at least.
00:26 10,000 is the measurement of its moment of inertia
00:28 or stability within the club head.
00:31 And that's pretty significant
00:32 because most drivers in the modern era
00:34 have plateaued around the 8,000 MOI mark.
00:37 How has Ping achieved this 10K measurement?
00:43 Well, to start with, they've drastically changed
00:46 the profile of the head.
00:46 They've stretched the heel and toe
00:48 and the front to back measurements
00:50 as far as the rules will permit
00:52 while still staying within that 460cc overall dimension.
00:56 And I have to say, I love the look of it.
00:59 (upbeat music)
01:01 The super rounded stretched head shape
01:11 and extra real estate behind the ball
01:13 really suit my eye and inspire a lot
01:16 of confidence at address.
01:17 Now because they've stretched this head so much,
01:20 that allows them to place the internal weight
01:22 even further away from the face,
01:24 which is where the huge jump in MOI comes from.
01:26 In the max 10K, this stability takes the form
01:29 of an internal 28 gram weight,
01:31 which is positioned lower and deeper,
01:33 not only for stability, but also for spin control too.
01:37 And this is something I'm keen to explore
01:39 because in my experience, dragging weight back
01:42 and increasing MOI usually goes hand in hand
01:44 with creating more spin or excessive spin.
01:47 And for a high speed player like me,
01:49 quite frankly, that's not much use.
01:51 So I'm really keen to see how that pans out.
01:54 So before getting into the data,
01:58 I just wanted to talk about some of the unquantifiable things
02:00 that you don't get from a launch monitor,
02:02 like sound and feel.
02:04 And in terms of the sound,
02:05 I think they really nailed it here.
02:07 Other drivers within the Ping range,
02:08 historically I'm thinking specifically about the G425,
02:11 which was a brilliant driver.
02:13 But I felt it let itself down a little bit
02:15 with the acoustic and a lot of people felt
02:16 that sort of high pitched ting was a little bit annoying.
02:20 Now Ping, to their credit, addressed this in the G430 range
02:22 and the LS Tech and the other models within this family
02:25 are a lot more muted and duller.
02:27 And this is a touch livelier,
02:28 it sits somewhere between those two.
02:30 For me, it hits all the right notes.
02:32 Going hand in hand with that sound
02:39 is the feel from the Clubface.
02:41 And wow, the feel.
02:46 I can honestly say I don't think I've ever hit anything
02:49 as stable as the Max 10K.
02:51 Wherever I hit this thing on the face,
02:53 it's resistance to twisting is sensational.
02:57 It really took me by surprise, this element of it.
02:59 I mean, I've heard the marketing,
03:01 but until you see it yourself and you experience it,
03:03 you can all be a little skeptical, right?
03:05 But I have to say, in terms of stability and feel,
03:08 this delivers in bucket loads.
03:10 So what do the numbers say?
03:12 Well, this is where I started to get really excited.
03:15 Obviously, I've mentioned during testing,
03:16 I could feel the stability and the really tight dispersion.
03:20 But as I also mentioned, this has historically come off
03:22 with a bit of a trade-off for me in terms of excessive spin.
03:25 But not this time.
03:26 So from an average club at speed
03:41 of around my standard 120 miles per hour mark,
03:44 I was getting a really solid 174 miles an hour of ball speed,
03:48 which from a driver as safe as this thing is exceptional.
03:52 I was launching exactly where I'd want to,
03:54 around the 11 degree mark,
03:56 and the all-important spin number
03:57 that I was eagerly anticipating was,
04:00 it was just under 2,500 revs per minute,
04:03 which from a club head with this level of MOI,
04:06 is frankly astonishing.
04:08 Now this all added up to an average carry for me
04:10 of 293 yards and a total of 316.
04:14 Another big part of this story is the dispersion.
04:22 Now I noticed through my testing,
04:24 and I'm not known as a particularly straight driver
04:26 of the golf ball if I'm honest,
04:28 but my left to right and even my front to back dispersion
04:31 with the Ping Max 10K was ludicrously tight.
04:34 So I wanted to test it against some of the other models
04:37 within the range, I've got the LST,
04:40 and I've got the Max Head,
04:41 'cause I wanted to see where it stacked up
04:43 from a dispersion point of view.
04:44 So starting with the Max model,
04:47 as you can see from the graphic,
04:48 dispersion was pretty tight.
04:49 Hit one where I just shut the face down
04:51 and it kind of zoomed off to the left a little bit,
04:53 but on the whole, dispersion was pretty tight.
04:56 But I did achieve that with quite a high spin number,
04:59 so I was spinning that well over 3,000 revs.
05:01 So that's something to note with the Max range.
05:04 It is stable and you will get a nice tight dispersion,
05:07 but it will suit players who need a little bit more spin.
05:10 Moving on to the LST,
05:12 well you can see straight away,
05:14 my dispersion's gone up.
05:15 Certainly my distance and my spin numbers
05:17 are more in line with what I would generally want to see,
05:21 but it does feel a little bit more volatile
05:23 from a left to right perspective.
05:25 So again, that's something to be aware of.
05:28 And then finally, I've got the Max 10K.
05:31 I think I've said enough good things about this drive,
05:33 but I think this graphic says it all.
05:35 From left to right, from front to back,
05:38 that's a ludicrous dispersion pattern.
05:40 And I've not cherry picked these,
05:41 I've just hit five shots straight out the bat
05:44 in the same place, with the same shaft
05:46 and the same setup and the same balls,
05:48 and this is the data that's come out
05:50 and it's what I've seen throughout testing.
05:52 Now from the discussions I've had with Ping
05:54 and the engineers at Ping,
05:55 they're very smug about this driver
05:57 and they've got every right to be.
05:59 Now I think this driver will benefit
06:01 just every genre of player,
06:03 from the weekend warrior to the tour player.
06:05 Everyone is going to benefit
06:07 from this level of stability and playability
06:10 and you're just going to have to dial your spin numbers in
06:12 with a really good fitting.
06:13 It comes in nine, 10 and a half, and 12 degrees of loft,
06:17 so there really is something for everyone here.
06:19 Ping G430 Max 10K might not just be
06:22 my favorite driver of 2024,
06:25 this might be the best all-round driver that I've ever hit.
06:29 So it won't surprise you to know
06:31 it's going straight in my bag for 2024.
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