So it's the start of a brand new year and it's the start of driver release season this month you're going to see many of the major manufacturers bringing out new drivers that claim to be faster longer straighter than ever before well to get your most independent honest reviews stay tuned to my channel make sure you subscribe. So you don't miss anything now to kick things off and we're reviewing the ping drivers now these drivers no surprise are called the g drivers. But it's the g4 25 and there's three new drivers in the lineup the max is aimed at most golfers the one that's going to offer the most forgiveness then.
There's the ls tech which is the low spin driver more suited to better players with faster club head speeds you want to spin it a little bit lower. And then.
There's the sf tech this is straight flight technology this drive is suited to the golfer who slices the ball. And wants a little bit of help now in this video i'm mainly going to be focusing on the max driver. And the ls tech out on the driving range also on the golf course and here in the home simulator hitting him on my launch monitor on the gc quad now first off let's talk about looks and what ping have done with these drivers well first off they look superb i love the coloring of these drivers this year it's very subtle classic but also modern love the black finish the little chrome features it's kind of black gray silver i feel like it's a very timeless driver i think this would still look fairly modern in three. Or four years down down the line it's much more sleek than previous models and matching with the head cover as well it's kind of it would pretty much go with everything it's with the black the gray the white very very classic now technology wise with the ping g425 drivers we see technology we've seen in ping drivers for a number of years it's what i also quite like about ping they really just refine things they don't make massive changes so you still see turbulators on the top that's to help with more aerodynamics to help you swing the golf club faster and also to help with alignment when you're setting up behind the ball there's also reduced weight in the crown which is to help move the weight more down into the bottom of the driver to give more forgiveness. And like last year's model for the first well this now the second time ping have also brought in an adjustable weight here at the back i'm going to come on to that adjustable weight because it doesn't move that far you can have it in neutral you can just shift it a tiny bit to heal which would be helping more. For golfers who slice it you can stick it a little bit more in the toe to help golf as you hook it it's a 26 gram weight. But it doesn't move very far we'll come on starting the testing and alongside the adjustable weight at the back you've also got an adjustable loft sleeve where you can increase. Or decrease the loft by one and a half degrees and also put it in more flat setting and this year also ping are bringing in archos into their driver lineup as well it's a smart grip that connects with your phone. And the more you play golf the more stats you get to help you identify if there's any flaws or issues in your performance on the golf course overall i think it's a very very good looking driver. And again it's something that i really like about ping it's subtle little tweaks they're not as outlandish as other brands you might see me releasing those drivers this month where it's not as if they're saying we're gonna hit it this far much further we're gonna be really ramming it down your throat about the performance they're just saying we're making it a little bit better we're making a little bit more forgiveness and so be it if we're to compare this to like almost like a card like a a volkswagen it's reliable you know what you're getting and if we rewind time even going back what's pinker probably making ping g drivers. For 10 odd years now each year you just know what you're getting i don't believe they've ever made a real bad one in that time frame now in this video i'm also going to be testing this driver against the ping g driver which was released five years ago. So stay tuned for the results of that without further ado i want to get to the driving range first to give my initial hits with the ping g425 drivers so the first thing i did was nipped over to formby hall to test these drivers now the golf course was busy when i first got there. So i jumped on the driving range to loosen up and get my initial thoughts of these drivers after hitting them with the max and the ls tech i noticed the max definitely was giving me forgiveness straight off the bat. And it was very loud like it's a loud driver the ls tech didn't give me as much forgiveness. But i did notice it was a little bit more muted in the sound. And also head shape wise was absolutely gorgeous i did prefer that slightly smaller head shape. So then.
Straight to the golf course team up with pro v1s teed up on the 18th hole and started off with the match driver first [Music] now considering it's a tough hole it's a tough fairway to find i felt like i could stand there with the max driver and almost every time i striped it down the middle of the fairway and that is no exaggeration i felt like it offered massive amounts of forgiveness i felt like it was very very easy to hit again i wasn't getting any numbers. Yet so i couldn't really judge how far it was going. But when i set that club behind the ball the max driver and teed it up and just felt like i was getting lots of confidence like i'm not a machine i'm not a robot i'm going to miss the middle. But i felt like each time it was fine in the fairway which was a massive positive the ls tech on the other hand was a little bit more the bad boy a little bit more erratic [Music] i felt like when i crushed it yes it looked like i was getting performance. But it was nowhere near forgiving if i missed the middle i was getting punished more than i was with the max which is probably more likely what you're gonna see. So so far what i've seen was pretty impressive certainly with the match driver i felt like that was ultra forgiving. So then.
The time would come back here in the home simulator testing it with pro-v ones on my launch monitor now you might have seen last time i was hitting drivers in here i had a little accident with my cobra driver rest assured things have been mended. And i will not make that mistake again thankfully. So i started off hitting some driver shots with the max driver then.
Moved into ls tech i also moved the weight around i also hit the sf tech and i'll dive into all that information now let's start with the max first now don't say this lightly what i was seeing at the driving range on the golf course i've seen ultra forgiveness i really was. And i felt like i was hitting unbelievably straight on the launch monitor on the software i have never hit a driver straighter in my life unbelievable results time. And time again that max driver was going straight down the line. And this last shot that i hit i don't think i've ever actually done this which is a bit embarrassing the ball literally finished on the line. And the other thing i was finding when i wasn't even hitting the middle the ball was still finding fairway like it was ultra forgiving all across the face too unbelievably impressed now i'll come into the numbers a little bit more in a minute the ls tech again what i saw on the golf course it's a lower spin driver the distance when i hit it good was really good. But again if i just missed the middle if i didn't quite catch it i definitely saw more punishing ball flights more more drop off in performance balls going more left more right etcetera. And that's kind of what you might get with a slight smaller head and also a slightly lower spin model then.
Let's dive into the numbers let's look at the averages that i was getting from the max. And the ls tech now if you want to screenshot the numbers you can do. So you can dive into a little bit more. But what i found is both drivers carried exactly 282 yards ball speed just under 160 miles per hour spin rates very similar around about 2000 rpm spin. And i was swinging these drivers at 110 miles per hour i'd expect to see those numbers that's exactly where i'd like to see a driver being hit. But that doesn't really tell the full story because the max driver even though it averaged at 282 almost all the shots were landing in. And around that number on my good hits or my bad hits i think my best ones were getting closer to 285. And my worst ones were dropping in closer to just under 280. that's what i was really impressed the drop off in performance was not bad at all now if i switch that to the ls tech even though the averages are the same at 282 doesn't really again tell the story because my longer ones would get much closer to 290 yards of carry which is great however. my bad ones were dropping much closer to 270 yards to carry if not a tiny bit less. So that's even though the averages were the same the performance drop off. And peaks would very very different something to definitely bear in mind so the next.
Thing i wanted to test was the weight track at the back. And did it actually make much of a difference now ping haven't been known to bring out adjustable weights much at all in fact the last model the 410 was the first adjustable weight they brought out. But what i noticed this year the g425 is the track is. So small how can that make much of a difference. But the big thing is it's got a 26 gram weight which is pretty heavy. And did it make a difference yeah it did i stuck it in the heel. And the ball went more left i stuck it in the toe and the ball had more right bias it did actually work. And that surprised me considering the length of the track but the extra weight definitely made a big difference so now i wanted to hit some shots with the third driver in the lineup the sf tech sf tech means straight flight technology where the weight's more in the heel the face is more closed to help golfers who effectively slice it. For me i hit it way left i really did. And even when i tried to slice it i couldn't massively slice it the big thing this year is it gonna be a big difference between the max with the weight in the heel. Or the sf tech it's one maybe to try and consider if you have got a big slice and one a little bit of help so then.
There was one more driver that i brought out the archives this was released five years ago. And it's the ping g driver unbelievably popular driver now i wanted to test it and see how much of a difference there was compared to this year's model the g425 max now in five years there has been a grand total of three yards difference that's it compared to the g in the g425 hardly any difference the one thing i did notice though as i mentioned earlier in the video the g425 max was unbelievably straighter. So give props to some degree because ping of managed to maintain and probably slightly grow the distance just but what they have done is massively increase the forgiveness level. And straightness of the drivers which is a big positive. For the g425 so in summary the new ping g425 lineup is really good this year i think there's a driver there that caters. For pretty much all golfers is it much longer than previous models no it's not really i'm going to make a bold statement i honestly think the ping g425 max driver this year is the straightest. And most forgiving driver i have ever tested see you next.
Time [Music] you.
