Gear: Ping Glide 3.0 wedges
Price: $160 each with Ping Z-Z115 wedge shaft and Ping 360 Dyla-wedge Lite grips; $180 each with Ping Alta CB Red griphite shafts
Specs: Cast 431 stainless steel with elastomer insert
Ping’s newest wedge, the Glide 3.0, was designed to not only provide golfers at every level with more spin and greenside versatility but more forgiveness as well. To achieve that, the company borrowed technology from one of its newest irons.
In the back of the Ping i210 irons is a large Custom Tuning Port, a chamber filled with a soft elastomer. It’s so soft you can press into it with your thumb. Look behind the new Glide 3.0 wedges and you will see the same CTP. By filling that area with elastomer, Ping can achieve two important things.
The elastomer soaks up excessive vibrations created at impact to enhance feel. The more significant benefit, however, is that filling the area with elastomer, which is lighter than the 431 stainless steel used to make the rest of the head, shifts more of the overall weight to the edges. That increases the perimeter weighting and makes the Glide 3.0 more stable.
To allow players to get the ideal amount of spin, Ping designed the Glide 3.0 wedges with different grooves based on each club’s loft. The pitching wedges and gap wedges (46, 50 and 52 degrees) have narrower and deeper grooves, like an iron’s grooves, because players usually hit them from the fairway and rough on full-swing approach shots. The sand wedges and gap wedges (54, 56, 58 and 60 degrees) have broader and shallower grooves. They do a better job of moving water and debris off the face on greenside chips, pitches and bunker shots.
Each wedge also has a Hydropearl 2.0 chrome finish that repels water.
There are four sole grinds in the Glide 3.0 family to make it easier to find an option that matches a player’s swing and typical playing conditions. The Thin Sole (TS) is made for players who sweep the ball with a shallow angle of attack or golfers who play on hard turf on courses that have little sand. The Wide Sole (WS) is more ideal for golfers who have a steep angle of attack and players who tend to play in soft conditions. The Standard Sole (SS) grind splits the difference and is the most versatile.
The Eye2 grind will garner the most attention. Designed 40 years ago by Ping’s founder, Karsten Solheim, it has a high toe and wide sole with a scalloped area in the center, making it extremely versatile and ideal for players who struggle in bunkers.
