© Ping Golf

The classic blade shape of the Ping S55 irons and their shiny finish makes them incredibly good looking, even striking at a first glance, and if you’re an old school golf player you’ll probably wonder if these really are Pings…Yes, they look awesome and quite different from the traditionally boring Ping finish, that’s the first impression (a good one). This beautiful design is aimed specifically at golf purists and/or better players; at least that’s what I like to think. The soft edged, clean and modern steel finish of the S55 will definitely turn heads on the golf course and yes, vanity is my favorite sin. When you’ll put the S55 behind the ball, the first thing you’ll notice is that this club is built for golfers looking to break par, due to their very, very compact size. The understated finish and minimal offset of the S55 iron makes them very appealing but that doesn’t mean that Ping sacrificed performance for beauty, au contraire!

These are cast iron with a softer feel (dixit Ping) when compared to previous generations, but when I took them for a test drive, the S55 felt pretty strong, far from soft/softer, with loads of feedback and forgiveness. Ping managed to create these features using a new Custom Tuning Port which sits at the back of the clubhead and it’s built from a special plastic. The role of the newly designed CTP is to cushion the vibrations caused by the ball hitting the clubface, thus achieving the perfect balance between feel and forgiveness. In order to further increase the levels of forgiveness and/or the moment of inertia, Ping put a tungsten weight in the iron’s toe, beautifully masked by the Ping’s label on the head. All these changes in design moved the Ping S55’s center of gravity deeper and lower than ever before and this new CG location provides you with a higher ball flight. If you never tried them, the S55 should be high on your priorities list and after that, you’ll definitely convert to Ping religion!