PING i530 IRONS | The Swing Report

The PING i530 irons are designed with a superb combination of clean aesthetics and powerful performance, featuring new technologies that enhance face flexing capabilities while maintaining a compact shape. The PING i530 irons are set to be one of the best players-distance irons available in 2024 and beyond.

0:00 Tech Review w/ Travis Milleman
5:43 Testing
15:06 Final Thoughts

In this episode of The Swing Report, 2nd Swing’s Drew Mahowald is joined by PING Design Engineer Travis Milleman to review the key tech powering the PING i530 irons. Then, master club fitter Jackie Johnson joins in the 2nd Swing Tour Van to test and review the irons.

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Hey golfers I’m Drew molder second Swing Golf here at the PJ show in Orlando and I’m joined here by Travis millerman to talk about the New Ping i530 irons um sir it’s a big year for Ping with some of the irons coming out we got the

Blueprint rles we got the g730 and now we’ve got i530 as well that we’re going to discuss today adding into the lineup so um Travis really exciting here exactly gear the iron you’re covering all the bases here too you know of course g430 stays in as well so but i530

This is uh can sort of talk in my language here I think uh because as someone who kind of likes the you know at especially the top of the bag that players distance type of iron it’s right on my alley so uh Travis going to start

Here I 530 what do you got to know i530 I think what uh i530 that just boil it down to the basics this is a players distance iron this is an iron that is going to be great for a consumer that wants to be playing blue press i230 they

Want that like players look but they need more help with distance right so we’re giving them the technology to help deliver that extra distance but in the package that looks appealing like you mentioned it I think it’s a fan favorite will be a fan favorite for um that

Player who needs that look with that performance so yeah um a lot of it’s geared around how do we create more bending more deflection in design so fun fun fact we actually designed this and manufactured similar to how we make our metal wood so the uh face material is a

Very strong maraging steel it’s the same material we use in our Ferry woods and hybrids the body material same thing both of those are welded together to create very thin transitions such what we want there within transitions is just more deflection we want the face to move

Right yeah uh whereas our blueprint T blueprint s irons are very much geared towards Precision giving consumers accuracy and precision these are geared towards giving people distance right we need people with these irons to get more uh more yards out of it so those coupled together with our premium machine

Feature on the back surface yeah it looks nice right it does it does it’s there for a very specific see it too and feel it you know there’s part of that right there yeah so being an engineer yeah this is an engineering feature for us so we take this iron we

3D scan it our supplier machine very precisely to the correct thickness to save Mass when we can save Mass high on the face and redistribute it lower we lower CG so it’s kind of the double play of we have really um a lot of deflection from the construction but the CG is

Drastically lower on this design which gives more ball speed it’s more in line with impact so um those two things coupled together give a really nice High Flight with a lot of distance those are kind of the some of the differences there between say the i525 from a couple

Years ago that you’re going to get just a little bit extra performance out of and then one thing I want to ask about too uh these the microx grooves on there correct yeah so I remember that introduction the last couple years uh and I personally in the testing that

I’ve done have noticed how consistent the spin is from these things that’s kind of the goal with that design right yeah great question good I too they are small right mic there’s more of them and there more of them yeah so uh microx Groove that is our technology where we

Basically looked at how do we create the most friction from our face yeah uh did a giant study on okay how many grooves do we need how tight do they need to be the radius values on the grooves a lot of nitty-gritties but basically B down to is making them a little tighter

Together uh which enabl to get a couple more grooves on the ball at impact really what that does is help to normalize how much friction you’ll get out of the Fairway out of the Fairway and out of the rough we’re trying to prevent Flyers sure consumers that play

I530 or i525 we have a ton of Aros data that shows the consumers that play these clubs hit from the rough a lot right yeah PJ tour players hit iron you’re that no you’re not that guy yeah I I am that guy I hit from the rough quite

Often and I yeah so I I can totally test that so uh when we’re looking at technology on how do we improve performance for that player it’s the turf condition they playing has an impact on that right so microx is here we believe in it as a technology to help normalize spin

Lastly before we let you go Travis I wanted to ask about um The Loft and because there’s such a heavy conversation Nows about the Loft on some of the IR so um in terms of the what is the kind of let’s say seven iron standard Loft and then I guess what are

You guys doing to make sure obviously we talked about it already but making sure that ball is providing enough trajectory and and a steeper Landing angle for golf it is it is a tough one in the industry right we want to be distance competitive when you go over to the hitting Bay over

Here we want to make sure we’re in the ballpark uh it’s a 29° 7 iron it’s a little bit stronger than i525 but uh the metric we want to look at and how we design our clubs is how high does the ball go right when we looking at the

Loft that only tells part of the story right stopping power the ability to actually Gap these clubs appropriately is actually what you’ll see on the course so um the lower CG some of our uh how the iron actually deforms it impact helps to launch the ball as high as

Possible so we’re seeing equal playability from i525 where we went a little bit stronger in Loft still getting in the air um had a lot of really good remarks about that and it’s a great time to plug co-pilot into that right when we’re looking at how do we incorporate Loft progressions

Of these irons into actual playability gaps uh it’s it’s a great tool to use if you’re comboing this with other sets or just looking at how is my set going to Gap right we want to make sure we’re not just servicing you in the hitting Bay where you’re going to have long distance

But on the course being a stop it on the green right right exactly that’s that’s what our Fitters are always paying attention to not just the distance carry distance it’s spin rate it’s Landing angle all those things so um ping i530 iron is going to be awesome options for

Golfers in 2024 and Beyond really so uh Travis thank you for the time today we’re going to go do some testing on these now really excited about it but um thank you for your time again Travis this was aesome appreciate it all right golfers we are now back in

The bay here at second swing in the tour van at motanka with Jackie Johnson Jackie if you have been following the channel for a while Jackie’s been on the YouTube channel several times in the past and today back um at second swing here with the i530 irons um Jackie first

Of all I know you’ve been fitting this one already so yeah I guess your first impressions through fitting the last couple of weeks here what you’ve liked most out of the i530 uh super good yeah um been you know obviously with the i525 that was pretty popular too but this is

I530 has been Dynamite um big big reason for it I think when you’re talking about um forgiveness obviously everyone wants a little bit of packed forgiveness in there uh but on top of that I think for a lot of golfers they fall into this category of more of a players distance

Type iron yeah uh especially with ping you know you got um i230 that has you know maybe a little less forgiveness but it’s going to launch the ball uh pretty high and get that and get that uh height and spin for you where the i530 is you

Know obviously has a little bit less Loft but um is going to have that tungsten weight to really help with the Forgiveness but also launch the ball y still in the air so it’s it’s a really good uh combo you know obviously a little less forgiving than the g430 or

Even um the 730 so um good combination we’ll see what kind of result we get here today and hit away yeah I like that I like that it’s been that’s kind of the feedback that we’ve gotten on those irons and I will also add too there’s

The Loft uh you know the standard Lofts are not super applicable for a combo set but we’ve talked to you know ping and they’ve said they can you know retrospect irons or you can blend them together so if you wanted say i530 at the top and i230 at the bottom of your

Set you know that’s an option as well for maybe players that might be on the towards the lower handicap yeah I would say and like you know the look of it is really clean um just like the the iron shape itself is I mean the Top Line is

Looks awesome um compared to like the g430 or g730 definitely smaller right so for me I already like confidence-wise I have a little bit more confidence with this because this is like looks-wise more similar to what I hit yeah um versus the more forgiving irons just a

Little bit more it sounds crazy but just not as confidence building no there’s 100% a confidence aspect to yeah if you I mean the last thing want as a golfers look down at your your club and this is ugly you know and yeah or and May and

Maybe more just like it it it’s more just familiarity know for a lot of players so um yeah I’m excited to hit this kind of see what result we get and yeah yeah swing away let’s do it like that one uh just left it open a

Little bit I mean a little bit but that’s still fine yeah a like that’s if anything think it’s on the right side of the green yeah Little Miss hit there just like just kind of a behind the ball action there yeah I hit the ground well still scooted to 154 total I

Know that’s kind of knock in the spin down but there was a good one I like how high this ball is launching yep we’re at 22 degrees of launch over 70 feet on that one in the air what do you think about the feel I

Mean um a lot of these shots are coming off the toe for me still right now I would say even then it still feels pretty dang good but I can feel it yeah whereas like there’s some feedback that you get yeah the feedback is good whereas like with the g730 or g430 like

You don’t get as much feedback you know obviously a little bit more forgiving so I like that I can feel it yeah okay yeah little open Club face but so that’s honestly I didn’t hit that great and I know it’s crazy but like where was it on the face or at Le

Definitely definitely the toe really yeah I was trying to um close the face a little bit more here yeah try to fix but I mean that’s a pretty darn good result if you’re not yeah I mean you’re saying you kind of missed it yeah no yeah that’s I mean

That’s kind of I mean out of this club that’s what you’re trying to get on your M hits like I’d take that that was good yeah that sounded really good sounded towards the middle yep yeah little more distance little more efficient but I like that a lot of

These shots even if you maybe slightly Miss are still launching and going as high yeah like that that part’s saying relatively consistent that was pretty good too yeah those last three were really really consistent yeah they’re pretty much right next to each other yeah there we go a good one to end on

That’s the highest ball speed so far it looks like yeah that I was gonna say that was wow okay so let’s see what do we got one two eight shots we’re going to look at here we get the dispersion up here here’s what that looks like um what do

You think so far what what what do you see here both either dispersion or or numbers we can talk about that kind of jumps out at you um yeah I mean with the exception of maybe one that was a little bit Yeah low on the face maybe I I would say that overall

Like pretty dang good you know yeah this one was just maybe a slight Miss there you’re down to 133 smash yeah I mean the dispersion Circle you take that one out is like yeah pretty dang good that’s good so and and even that’s even like with me again I think obviously I’m a

Little hard on myself when it comes to yeah how well I want to make impact but like even not hitting it great I’m still getting super you know a little bit more forgiveness out of it obviously um getting consistency out of it with the numbers I

Mean you take a look at our consistency numbers on the bottom there I mean you want those to be relatively low and like yep I mean honestly with all of them really dang good I mean plus minus in height yeah three you know feet is like really good um when you’re talking about

Fitting um and then you’re talking about the consistency with yardage uh plusus 2 3 plus- 2.9 like yeah and you said you weren’t hitting all of them perfect um towards the end you kind of heat it up and and hit some good ones but there’s I

Think the the part that I like the best is how it’s launching on average Dees pretty high really that’s that’s really really good and then to see the height get over 70 feet on all these shots your Landing angle is just under 404 I guess

Um which is maybe it’s kind of right at that threshold of being kind of the the right number and obviously if we talk about a soft green these balls are going to stop right um I like that a lot I like that a lot now well again and I

Think too you know obviously we’re just hitting One stock shaft so when you’re talking about this club head the club head’s just performing off of what you know this is Ping’s standard Ulta CB regular so that’s when when you’re talking about fitting like you could really dial this sucker in and get maybe

A little bit better um results with the shaft um which obviously is part of the fitting process so uh yeah take a look at it yeah so I brought these up and you were right about it being off the toe I think there’s I think there was probably

Something that as a fitter you probably would do in this scenario um to maybe adjust because you see all pretty much all of these were towards the toe not quite in the center right this last one up here you got one kind of right in the middle but um well and I’ve ingrained

Myself to never hit it off the heel so I’m actually the same way my Miss is always toast always toe so um part of this could be you know a little bit of length a little bit of L angle maybe a combination of both you would probably adjust some

Things for yourself if this was a fitting session yeah but we kind of went with some standard options here yep just for the sake of the testing but I think there’s a lot of positives here uh for someone like you with your Club speed today you know just over 70 to still hit

Your seven iron you know we’re talking about 140 to 150 yards um pretty consistently we had plenty of launch on almost all these shots um I think there’s a lot to look forward to for a player that would fit into these right so so Jackie with the final thoughts

We’ll kind of again have you explain maybe the golfer that will fit into i530 the most or maybe benefit most from them so we’ve talked about that already you’ve hinted at it a few times but when you’re you’ve already fit these clubs several times so what players have you

Seen that are going to get the most out of i530 so typically um you know when you’re talking about the type of player I think it’s a wide range to be honest with you I think between you know even a higher single digit handicap all the way

To a high digit handicap okay I think I mean I’ve fit various people in this and and a lot of it comes down to how you attack the ball um I mentioned it off uh camera but like with the g430 and even the G 7:30 um a little bit wider so so

For a lot of players that hit down on the ball um you start to see that the friction of that um wider Soul be potentially an an issue to get through it so like this i530 has been awesome um for a lot of players that I’m getting in

In the bay that I’m fitting is when they’re hitting down on it this club has just been better you know and and it’s just because of how they hit it the the nice part about it is you know you’re not giving up a lot of forgiveness now I

Would say like obviously the club head is a little bit smaller so some people get it in their hand they like oh like intimidated by it but I would say after they’re hitting it and realize that there’s still forgiveness in there it’s just it Glides through the ball a little

Bit better for the player that um needs it to right so and again it doesn’t it depends on how you how you swing at it right yeah I mean that that’s that’s how it is with every fitting it’s it’s player dependent swing dependent but I think to your point there is something

There about the you know the way the the club Glides through the turf now again this is in on a mat so you know it’ll depend a little bit on the course that you’re playing um and the conditions but there’s less surface area on the sole

That has to connect with the ground on the i530 you know so there’s that piece that I know you’re definitely feeling when you’re swinging um yeah and I think that’s a comment I made too is just with the g730 I felt like there was so much friction I couldn’t really control it a

Whole lot and that was just that’s just like a me right so like you know I I felt like I hit the i530 better and again it could just be familiarity with what I’m used to hitting you know and just simply the club makeup too right so um I think I

Think when you’re talking about the range that this fits it’s it’s all it’s all over the board um I even think like a single digigit handicapper can benefit from this you know you think about different brands and stuff you know p790s for example um good comparison with this um you know

T200 you know they’re all relatively aimed to do the same thing right so I like the look at this one a lot though compared I do yeah I do like the look of the i530 compared to um various other brands it’s It’s a good-looking club and

Uh Top Line is good and clean so um yeah overall good at good hitting and yeah really good testing good results I think we ALS again I’ll I’ll I’ll we showed the impact locations you know I think this was probably not the proper fit for Jackie being that the common my for her

Was little toeside and so these are really just a bunch of kind of strikes on the toe side and you’re seeing how consistent it was even then so um in a fitting obviously should get dialed in probably gain a little bit more distance a little bit more accuracy move that

Dispersion a little bit left and you have a really good iron fora so um ping i530 irons scers go get fit schedule that fitting online um swing by one of our store locations uh talk to an expert like Jackie and get your game dialed in with pinging II 30 irons really good

Stuff here I think it’s going to be a great year for Ping um in their irons great stuff so Jackie thank you for swinging by and and hitting the shots today thank You