Ping S159 Wedges: Getting Fit For More Spin and Control

Ping ‘s new s159 wedges come in lofts from 46-62 degrees and in six different sole grinds, so I went to Ping’s world headquarters in Phoenix for an s159 wedge fitting. With the help of the new WebFit Wedge App and some very smart fitters, I learned which s159 wedges match my style and playing conditions.

Hi this is David duk and I’m here with my buddies Justin and James and we are here at the world headquarters for Ping golf in Phoenix Arizona and it is wedge fitting Time Justin what have you got new for 2024 yeah so we’ve got some new wedges here David it’s our s159 and

We’ve got a couple of different grind options here in both our Chrome and midnight finishes cool so let’s find out which grind options might be right for me so first thing we’re going to ask with the wedge grind app is what’s your average score okay uh so between 75 and

85 okay we’ll continue uh next we’re looking at your pitching wedge carry distance pitching wedge carry probably about 130 okay we’ll go 130 and then do you know what Loft your current pitching wedge is 46 highest lofted wedge you play today and then if you could answer a couple questions about your typical

Turf conditions and then typical divot dep how about on your typical sand conditions and on Pitch shots do you have a preferred technique do you typically hit everything squared you like to open the face a little bit and then as far as ball position goes on

Pitch shot so now we’re going to spit out a gap uh kind of Loft and grind recommendation for you okay so Justin the app said that I’m a prime candidate for a tea grind in a 60° wedge what were the criteria what were the things that

Made the app decide 60t might be the right fit for me yeah so a couple things are going to recommend the te grind for you it’s our thinnest sole um number one the turf conditions that you recom that you said that you played in y number two

The ball position being a little bit further forward in your stance and then number three being that you like to hit some more open face shots on your pitch shots right okay yeah so for me pieing up in New England I get thick rough it

Tends to be soft it tends to be wet those are the kind of things that I’m going to be feeling with I like to see the ball get up in the air and try and stop it quickly because the greens tend to be a little bit firm and kind of

Slopey so that sounds like te grind for you guys and to the out absolutely yeah perfect okay let’s hit some shots and see how it goes let’s do it let’s do it okay it’s spinning I mean that ball hit and it checked and the ball popped

Up y so it didn’t hit in scoot so I know that it has to be applying some spin there’s not much Club head speed on a shot that I’m trying to hit what 20 yards hitch the ball 10 yards at this point roll it out so but it clearly

Generates you know some pretty ample spin to be able to have a lower trajectory but then that first top goes up so that that’s not me spin right for sure yeah okay how do you feel about the trajectory on those couple shots I would personally love to see it go up just a

Little bit more I mean it’s it’s something that uh I’m opening the face that one’s a little bit better but it’s an intimidating shot this one’s hard yeah it’s kind of what we like to do is is put players a little bit more of yeah more difficult shot scenario so

You put a different wedge in my hand here what’s the difference in the in the sole configuration between this one a w and the T that you had me starting with sure so this is our wide Soul our W Soul here this is going to have kind of your

Maximum forgiveness so okay um it’s going to allow you to you know on some of these off-center more uh poor contact shots um get a little bit of a better result with it but you were recommended the tea based on some of the turf conditions so this is something that I

Would say would probably not benefit you in kind of the softer Turf conditions would you say so James right and especially with your ball position you having it that much for you know forward that could hinder it as well yeah I can feel it actually ground

No there it’s one of those things where as soon as the the the club made contact with the turf I knew I was done gotcha I’m also going to give you the H grind here which is kind of our half moon grind um so a little bit different than

The t it’s got a little bit less bounce 8° instead of 10° okay um so but it’s it was the second alternate option as recommended by The Wedge app so and just a little bit more on the H grind that’s after the half moon MH grind so there’s

Relief on the heel and the toe so you can do two things you can lay it open if you need to mhm have it forward in your stance or you can kind of if you were doing a putting stroke to get closer so that lead Ed just not up in the air yeah

That’s the nice thing about the H grind really good there yeah really good yeah really good that looked like it matched kind of that trajectory that you were talking about that’s that’s the kind that I would love to see yeah now coming out of that tight lie into pretty

Matted gnarly rough especially for Arizona uh this is down in the bird’s nest got it up in there nice yeah a little further than I wanted to carry it but the ball certainly pops straight up um let me give you the W grind now okay now where’s the W grind on that

Tight Li was going to be really challenging the W should probably excel in something like this I would imagine right yeah cuz the ball is actually sitting up a little higher yeah so that bounce really doesn’t come into play as much as if you were on a tight

Line there you go that’s your Landing zone right there yeah no that’s exactly what I was trying to do good shot I like that that’s perfect felt like the bounce yeah bounce came into play a little bit on that one it seemed like I mean I hit further behind

Right but it kept working its way through that ground and I could feel the club still trying to get me forward to get through the ball right and it came out perfectly okay so now we’ve got a slightly uphill line we’re back into the rough we’re going to that back Black

Flag so we’re downhill maybe about 25 yards or so and te grind te grind okay started with it that’s exactly what I was drawing up in my y awesome that’s nice right there much higher it worked actually through the ground more than I thought it would I was anticipating that I would

Get some resistance and maybe I tried to subconsciously swing a little bit harder that was like a knife I mean I never felt any resistance whatsoever and the ball just popped straight up in the air there and it worked got out really good yeah that that was deep nice and it ends

Up look at that a foot from the cup okay Justin James you guys have seen me go around this short game course I can see why you guys don’t have very many friends those are some tough shots out there some of them came off actually really really well you had a

Recommendation from the app you had your eyes and your experience what do you think in terms of like fitting for me for wedges what should I be thinking about in the Ping lineup well I like the H grind for you the best okay a little bit more versatile and again you can

Open it up you can get up close if you needed to do a little bump and run which is I know is not your go-to but it’s an option so and if it’s a little wet for conditions that allows you to get through the turf a little easier playing

With that H grind versus the the T grind gotcha any other feedback or anything that I should be aware from your end yeah I agree I think with both the T and the H we saw kind of how much better they did for you especially out of that

First shot with the tight lie or the W just all that balance was really punishing on some of those shots so I agree with James especially on the H we saw it kind of perform really well out of more of the rough conditions for you and based on Turf conditions and kind of

Your ball position and wanting that maximum versatility definitely going to be the H some really really cool Innovations the idea that wedge fitting is really difficult under the best of circumstances but to be able to have an innovation like that app to be able to give people a good recommendation but at

The same time it just go goes to prove that you need to get out and hit shots you need to put put that stuff into real world situations and what we learned is that we were probably on the right track with what the app told us but then your

Experience in in real world situations showed that something the second choice was actually the first one in this case so it just goes through once again you need to get yourself custom fit for every Club in your bag especially your wedges