Ping Glide Forged Wedge

The Ping Glide Forged wedge is the newest forged wedge from Ping, and I have to tell ya, it’s the best darn Ping wedge I’ve ever hit.  Hands down.  It throws the ball out with tons of spin, has versatility from the fringe, fairway, and rough, and flat out feels amazing.

The Looks

The Ping Glide Forged offers the traditional brushed finish that you see on most Ping clubs, with a little twist.  What’s that twist you say?  The milling on the back of the club.  It gives the wedge a sweet, distinctive look, and makes it pop a bit in the bag.  Wanna spice it up a bit more?  Ping offers four different designs that you can have etched into milling that include the Pingman, an American Flag, a desert-scape, or “boomerang shapes.”  You can throw some stamping on there (up to 3 letters) too, if you so please.

The shape itself is a traditional tear-drop wedge shape, with a rounded leading edge that varies based on loft.  The head is more compact than its Glide 2.0 counterpart, and that’s by design, as the Glide Forged is designed for better ball strikers.  It also offers a “gooseneck-tapered” hosel that is supposed to assist with moving through grass and sand much easier.

How Does it Feel?

I’m not sure if it’s a mental thing or what, but Ping irons and wedges, which are mainly cast not forged, have never been at the top of the feel department for me (save for the AMAZING S56 from back in the day, but those were forged).  These Ping Glide Forged wedges though?  Buttery soft.  Maybe it’s the forging, maybe it’s the 8620 carbon steel, but whatever it is, I dig it.

From the first ball I struck, I didn’t think it was a Ping wedge.  It has amazingly soft feel on the hands for well-struck shots, but gives ample feedback on mishits as well.  I felt like I always knew where the ball made contact on the face and the necessary feedback I needed to control my shot.

How Does it Sound?

As a golf nerd, I love when the sound of a club “matches” the feel, and the Ping Glide Forged wedge delivers in that department.  Just like the soft feel on the hands, the Glide Forged gives off a softer “click” noise.  Call me crazy, but that just makes the club feel that much softer in the hands.

On-Course Performance

Similar to putters, wedges are finicky clubs for me, and I’m really picky.  Ultimately performance is where it matters, and boy do the Ping Glide Forged wedges deliver.  Compared to my (old) gamers, my accuracy saw a nice improvement.  The other thing I loved was more consistency in distances.  It’s like I knew exactly how far every shot was going to go, without any bad surprises.  Again, huge for the short game.  Forgiveness was there on mishits due to the tungsten weighting you can see in the toe, but just remember, it’s still a forged player’s wedge.  You’ll get some good forgiveness compared to others in its class, but nothing too extreme.  You need to hit good shots with this wedge to really benefit.

The “wheel-cut grooves” in the Glide Forged delivered great spin numbers for even more control.  Pitches and chips rolled out consistent distances, similar to full swing shots.  The best part, though, for me?  The turf interaction. While I tend to get chunky with my wedges, I felt I could do anything with the Glide Forged from any lie.  Tight lie chips? No problem.  Full swings from the fairway or rough?  Absolute money.  Just remember, there’s only one grind, which is built for versatility, so it may not fit everyone’s game.

Final Thoughts

My 100-yard-and-in wedge game was by far the worst part of my game last season, hands down.  This year I will look to change that with the help of the Ping Glide Forged wedges in my bag.  They offer great, compact looks, amazingly soft feel, and distance/spin performance in a small package.  Sound like something for you?  Make sure you give ’em a swing when testing out new wedges for the upcoming season.

Stock Ping Glide Forged Specs

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