Hybrids Explained

Ping G400 Hybrid Review
©Ping Golf

The Ping G400 Hybrid is built and designed to produce consistent results, shot after shot, and it's incredibly easy to hit, making for an incremental upgrade over the previous generation of Ping hybrids. As you know, upgrading an already good hybrid can be tricky. The thing is, most players demand (and need) more forgiveness from their hybrids, yet distance is the feature that really sells. However, Ping's G400 hybrid managed to take care of both aspects: the new G400 now has a thinner face (11 percent thinner), which means it's longer than the previous gen, and also more forgiving via 14 percent tighter dispersion. At address, the Ping G400 hybrid looks perfect, being best described as more square than square.

The face which boasts the latest generation Turbulators combines beautifully with the scoring lines, framing the ball nicely, while the sober black crown doesn't have alignment aides, except from the aforementioned Turbulators. When it comes to sound and feel, the Ping G400 hybrid is the ideal missing link between an iron and a fairway wood, bridging the gap between the explosive feel of the latter and the solid crack of the former. Also, feedback is excellent, and just like the G400 fairway woods, the hybrids are fairly easy to launch, yet they provide a piercing ball flight (as expected from a hybrid). Forgiveness is there too, with small mishits always ending up on the green. Keep in mind that Ping added extra weight to the toe of the G400, which translates into a less draw biased hybrid. Bottom line, the new Ping G400 hybrid makes for a successful upgrade over the previous generation, being more forgiving and longer, thus checking all the boxes, including for better players. I only wonder how they'll manage to make the next hybrid better.