Golf Monthly driver expert Joe 'The Pro' Ferguson tests the brand new Ping G430 Max 10k driver for 2024 on the launch monitor and the golf course to see how it performs and compares with the rest of the models in the range. Spoiler alert - he's a big fan and thinks it could be as close to a perfect as we've ever seen.
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00:00This is the new PING G430 Max 10K driver.
00:06Now I'm really excited about this one,
00:08so let's just get on with it.
00:15So what do PING say they've delivered here?
00:17Well, to start with, they say it's their most stable
00:20and forgiving driver ever.
00:23And that's where it's gotten its name from,
00:24the 10K part at least.
00:2610,000 is the measurement of its moment of inertia
00:28or stability within the club head.
00:31And that's pretty significant
00:32because most drivers in the modern era
00:34have plateaued around the 8,000 MOI mark.
00:40How has PING achieved this 10K measurement?
00:43Well, to start with,
00:44they've drastically changed the profile of the head.
00:46They've stretched the heel and toe
00:48and the front to back measurements
00:50as far as the rules will permit
00:52while still staying within that 460cc overall dimension.
00:56And I have to say, I love the look of it.
01:08The super rounded stretched head shape
01:11and extra real estate behind the ball
01:13really suit my eye
01:15and inspire a lot of confidence at address.
01:17Now because they've stretched this head so much,
01:20that allows them to place the internal weight
01:22even further away from the face,
01:24which is where the huge jump in MOI comes from.
01:26In the max 10K,
01:28this stability takes the form of an internal 28 gram weight
01:31which is positioned lower and deeper,
01:33not only for stability but also for spin control too.
01:37And this is something I'm keen to explore
01:39because in my experience,
01:41dragging weight back and increasing MOI
01:43usually goes hand in hand
01:45with creating more spin or excessive spin.
01:47And for a high speed player like me,
01:49quite frankly, that's not much use.
01:51So I'm really keen to see how that pans out.
01:56So before getting into the data,
01:58I just wanted to talk about
01:59some of the unquantifiable things
02:00that you don't get from a launch monitor
02:02like sound and feel.
02:04And in terms of the sound,
02:05I think they really nailed it here.
02:07Other drivers within the PING range,
02:08historically I'm thinking specifically about the G425
02:11which was a brilliant driver,
02:13but I felt it let itself down a little bit
02:15with the acoustic
02:15and a lot of people felt that sort of high pitched ting
02:18was a little bit annoying.
02:20Now PING, to their credit,
02:21addressed this in the G430 range
02:22and the LS Tech
02:23and the other models within this family
02:25are a lot more muted and duller.
02:27And this is a touch livelier.
02:28It sits somewhere between those two.
02:30And for me, it hits all the right notes.
02:37Going hand in hand with that sound
02:39is the feel from the club face.
02:45And wow, the feel.
02:46I can honestly say
02:48I don't think I've ever hit anything as stable
02:50as the Max 10K.
02:51Wherever I hit this thing on the face,
02:53it's resistance to twisting is sensational.
02:57It really took me by surprise, this element of it.
02:59I mean, I've heard the marketing,
03:01but until you see it yourself and you experience it,
03:03you can all be a little skeptical, right?
03:05But I have to say,
03:07in terms of stability and feel,
03:08this delivers in bucket loads.
03:10So what do the numbers say?
03:12Well, this is where I started to get really excited.
03:15Obviously I've mentioned during testing
03:16I could feel the stability
03:18and the really tight dispersion,
03:20but as I also mentioned,
03:21this has historically come off
03:22with a bit of a trade-off for me
03:23in terms of excessive spin.
03:25But not this time.
03:40So from an average clubbing speed
03:42of around my standard 120 miles per hour mark,
03:44I was getting a really solid 174 miles an hour of ball speed,
03:48which from a driver as safe as this thing is exceptional.
03:52I was launching exactly where I'd want to,
03:54around the 11 degree mark,
03:56and the all-important spin number
03:57that I was eagerly anticipating was,
04:00was just under 2,500 revs per minute,
04:03which from a club head with this level of MOI,
04:06is frankly astonishing.
04:08Now this all added up to an average carry for me
04:10of 293 yards and a total of 316.
04:19Another big part of this story is the dispersion.
04:23How I noticed through my testing,
04:24and I'm not known as a particularly straight driver
04:26of the golf ball if I'm honest,
04:28but my left to right and even my front to back dispersion
04:31with the Ping Max 10K was ludicrously tight.
04:34So I wanted to test it against
04:36some of the other models within the range.
04:38I've got the LST and I've got the Max Head,
04:41because I wanted to see where it stacked up
04:43from a dispersion point of view.
04:44So starting with the Max model,
04:47as you can see from the graphic,
04:48dispersion was pretty tight.
04:50I hit one where I just shut the face down
04:51and it kind of zoomed off to the left a little bit,
04:53but on the whole, dispersion was pretty tight.
04:56But I did achieve that with quite a high spin number.
04:59So I was spinning that well over 3,000 revs.
05:01So that's something to note with the Max range.
05:04It is stable and you will get a nice tight dispersion,
05:07but it will suit players who need a little bit more spin.
05:10Moving on to the LST,
05:12well you can see straight away my dispersion's gone up.
05:15Certainly my distance and my spin numbers
05:17are more in line with what I would generally want to see,
05:21but it does feel a little bit more volatile
05:23from a left to right perspective.
05:25So again, that's something to be aware of.
05:28And then finally, I've got the Max 10K.
05:31I think I've said enough good things about this drive,
05:33but I think this graphic says it all.
05:35From left to right, from front to back,
05:38that's a ludicrous dispersion pattern.
05:40And I've not cherry picked these.
05:41I've just hit five shots straight out the bat
05:44in the same place, with the same shaft
05:46and the same setup and the same balls,
05:48and this is the data that's come out.
05:50And it's what I've seen throughout testing.
05:52Now from the discussions I've had with Ping
05:54and the engineers at Ping,
05:55they're very smug about this driver
05:57and they've got every right to be.
05:59Now I think this driver will benefit
06:01just every genre of player,
06:03from the weekend warrior to the tour player.
06:05Everyone is going to benefit
06:07from this level of stability and playability.
06:10And you're just going to have to dial your spin numbers in
06:12with a really good fitting.
06:14It comes in nine, 10 and a half, and 12 degrees of loft,
06:17so there really is something for everyone here.
06:19Ping G430 Max 10K might not just be
06:22my favorite driver of 2024,
06:25this might be the best all-round driver that I've ever hit.
06:29So it won't surprise you to know
06:31it's going straight in my bag for 2024.