Ping i25 Driver face "denting"

[SHIVAN]

I've had it now for a few months, and absolutely love it. I don't abuse my stuff, and use headcovers after every shot.

 

I noticed at the end of the round today that it seems the toe side is a little flatter, and there seems to be a small bulge on the top, right next to the racing stripe.

 

That being said, I tend to miss low on the face, but in the center. I have no damage to the top line, and have not hit any sky balls with the driver at all. No one else has hit it.

 

I swing pretty fast, and oscillate between 115-118mph, but can top it out around 120.x mph. I don't have another i25 handy, I think the face is starting to either dent, or deflect inward.

 

Is this something I have to send in to PING to review, or can the dealer tell me, or is there a good way to capture it in pictures?

 

Thanks in advance...

[Nessism]

You're an animal!

Best post up some photos. Hopefully your camera has a macro feature so you can capture a couple close ups.

[SHIVAN]

I'm not sure I captured it effectively, but here are the three attempts to show the deformation I'm talking about. Notice no top line damage, and the red circle indicates where it's raised very slightly, you can actually see the difference in bright sunlight while addressing the driver.

 

 

On the picture with the ruler, see how the radius of the bulge and roll is consistent on the heel side and on the toe side, it's not?

[SHIVAN]

[quote name='Nessism' timestamp='1401061635' post='9365881']
You're an animal! [/quote]

I can get after a ball pretty well, but not anywhere near Bubba level. I suppose if he dents his driver head, they just get him a new one.

[596]

If you are asking permission to take it back to where you bought it, then the answer is please feel free. Have them look at it.

OR

Call Ping......get a repair order number, ship the club to them, get a new club in return, IF it is indeed busted. They may even tell you the club is just fine, who knows until you ask them.

[SHIVAN]

I have been using TMAG for so long, I know their protocol just fine, but was not sure about PING's best practices, or if anyone else had seen this happening so soon. Either from the retail side, or personal side.

Some OEM's want you to go to one of their dealers first, some want you to call them first.

The biggest thing is, I don't have another i25 head handy to compare, so was hoping the pics might help someone see something that is different than theirs until I can get to a LGS.

[mws92]

[quote name='SHIVAN' timestamp='1401064057' post='9366073']I have been using TMAG for so long, I know their protocol just fine, but was not sure about PING's best practices, or if anyone else had seen this happening so soon. Either from the retail side, or personal side.

Some OEM's want you to go to one of their dealers first, some want you to call them first.

The biggest thing is, I don't have another i25 head handy to compare, so was hoping the pics might help someone see something that is different than theirs until I can get to a LGS.[/quote]

Def send that back to Ping or do it through the store where you bought it. That toe is def caved in.


Black n' Gold
City of Champions

[sniper]

That's about where my i20 cracked. Ping replaced no problem other than the loft being higher.

[SHIVAN]

Local golf store is going to send it back to PING tomorrow. Definitely dented in.

FYI...if you are playing an 8.5, the 9.5 is going launch moonballs.

[g0lfProTJ]

This has happened to me 11 times. My ss is 126-132. Some flattened within days. They always would replace it for me though.

I am a 0 hcp and am a good ballstriker...all it took was about 3 hits in the one spot on the toe to flatten.

I finally decided to get a long drive head and now I never have to worry about it.

[Mob]

Pictures are good, they show exactly what you are talking about. Definitely looks deformed. Replacement should not be a problem.

[SHIVAN]

[quote name='g0lfProTJ' timestamp='1401149791' post='9370859']
My ss is 126-132.[/quote]

That's a different zip code than my swing. I wanted to like the Xhot heads (& could then get the LDA head), but never got along with them.

[g0lfProTJ]

I definitely recommend the KZG GF Deep and the Acropolis Ares. You probably haven't heard of either but they are both very deep face drivers that look very classic from address. Both are 460cc but look smaller than the SLDR 430 from address. Can post pics if you want

[TomWishon]

[quote name='SHIVAN' timestamp='1401060302' post='9365789']
I've had it now for a few months, and absolutely love it. I don't abuse my stuff, and use headcovers after every shot.

I noticed at the end of the round today that it seems the toe side is a little flatter, and there seems to be a small bulge on the top, right next to the racing stripe.

That being said, I tend to miss low on the face, but in the center. I have no damage to the top line, and have not hit any sky balls with the driver at all. No one else has hit it.

I swing pretty fast, and oscillate between 115-118mph, but can top it out around 120.x mph. I don't have another i25 handy, I think the face is starting to either dent, or deflect inward.

Is this something I have to send in to PING to review, or can the dealer tell me, or is there a good way to capture it in pictures?

Thanks in advance...
[/quote]

Having designed and managed the production of clubheads since 1986, I can tell you that this is something that just happens occasionally. When you match up a swing speed north of 120 with the normal +/- tolerances that happen in the production of millions of clubheads per year, there will be a head here and there for EVERY company that will suffer a failure. Currently the overall production industry's average statistics say that the head failure rate for titanium driver heads is between 1/8 and 1/4 of a percent of all driver heads made. And most of that small percentage occur when the "perfect storm" of very high clubhead speed with the wrong tolerances in production match up together.

In NO WAY can you take this as any type of indication that Ping or any high quality equipment company has a problem. It just happens because 4,000 psi of stress at impact is impossible to make things so there could ever be a zero incidence of this sort of thing happening. And with all good companies if the failure is within their stated warranty time period, you just report it and they will replace it no questions asked.

TOM

[SHIVAN]

Tom:

Thanks for the content you deliver to this forum. In no way did I want to belittle PING, just putting it out there as a layman's attempt at content that might help others diagnose their equipment issues, even if this were to occur in other company's products. I can't wait to get the replacement from PING, and absolutely love the i25 driver.

Thanks again,
Ed

[quote name='TomWishon' timestamp='1401215784' post='9375259']
Having designed and managed the production of clubheads since 1986, I can tell you that this is something that just happens occasionally. When you match up a swing speed north of 120 with the normal +/- tolerances that happen in the production of millions of clubheads per year, there will be a head here and there for EVERY company that will suffer a failure. Currently the overall production industry's average statistics say that the head failure rate for titanium driver heads is between 1/8 and 1/4 of a percent of all driver heads made. And most of that small percentage occur when the "perfect storm" of very high clubhead speed with the wrong tolerances in production match up together.

In NO WAY can you take this as any type of indication that Ping or any high quality equipment company has a problem. It just happens because 4,000 psi of stress at impact is impossible to make things so there could ever be a zero incidence of this sort of thing happening. And with all good companies if the failure is within their stated warranty time period, you just report it and they will replace it no questions asked.

TOM
[/quote]

[webber]

You know what is great about adjustable heads? Now the companies cannot void the warranty on the head by saying the club was ever reshafted!

[TomWishon]

[quote name='SHIVAN' timestamp='1401216498' post='9375361']
Tom:

Thanks for the content you deliver to this forum. In no way did I want to belittle PING, just putting it out there as a layman's attempt at content that might help others diagnose their equipment issues, even if this were to occur in other company's products. I can't wait to get the replacement from PING, and absolutely love the i25 driver.

[/quote]

Totally understood. I just said that at the end because in the past I have seen many similar posts in which the poster was concerned that a failure of their clubhead meant the company was making bad products. Few golfers are aware of the statistics about head failures nor of how incredibly difficult it is to manufacture large size titanium clubheads so I just was using your post to try to get that point across to others who did not know and who might read your thread and worry about this.

As one who has to live with these statistics, I can tell you that I absolutely cringe anytime I hear of someone experiencing a failure on one of my head models. I wish like crazy that it was zero but unless people want to pay double or more for clubs so aerospace industry quality inspections can be made of every single driver head, zero isn't possible.

Thanks much!
TOM

[peanutandjelly]

I once swung so hard, nobody saw the ball....we kept looking and then I realized that there was a hole in the front of the driver and the ball was inside the head!!!
I was very worried since Jimmy and Lois might figure out that I was really superman but I told them it was a product defect and since I was wearing my glasses, they fell for it.
but after that, I teed off with a kryptonite driver so my strength would be weaker like a normal person.

[rcain1us]

A few years back I crushed the face of two Nakashima H-tec drivers (remember those, the first removal shaft driver I ever saw - what a crazy idea) both times they were replaced.

I followed that by doing the same thing to a TM tour burner.

The only reason I am mentioning this is at the time I barely cracked 100, sometimes it is just the perfect storm of bad head, in the wrong spot on the face (and in my case probably a bad swing).

[SHIVAN]

Yep, when my local guys checked it out, they were also perplexed how the top was bubbled up, but no top line damage. We guess it's just where the material had to push up after it deformed inward.

In any case, I am pretty sure PING will handle this perfectly, and having a good relationship with a local store means I have a 9.5 demo i25 head in play this week, if I need it. I highly recommend maintaining a good relationship with your local shop for the weird scenario like this where you need them to help you out.

And for the record, even though the face is deformed, it still bombed a nice uphill drive on 15 during the end of the round in which I noticed the damage. It also hit all four fairways in which I used driver, so PING makes a pretty good product that is forgiving enough it performed even when limping in.