Every time I visited Japan, I saw flashy golf clubs that were big on eye appeal and equally big on price. These clubs often looked like sculptures, not something designed for hitting a ball in the dirt, mud and muck.
As Japanese players began appearing more frequently on the PGA Tour, Japanese golf equipment was more heavily influenced by the West. When Titleist, TaylorMade and Callaway committed themselves to Far Eastern expansion, the courtship of West and East took a giant step forward.
The forged, multi-metal design, of the ping anser irons combines an 8620 steel body, a dense tungsten sole, and machined grooves for unequaled forged-iron feel and forgiveness. Its hollow-sole cavity softens feel and positions the CG for higher-launching shots. The progressive set design offers long-iron forgiveness and short-iron control.
In 1967, Ping received a patent for its breakthrough Anser putter. It's also the last time that the company sold forged irons (100 Anser sets). The new Anser, a forged multi-material iron, is designed to raise Ping's profile among avid single-digit handicappers in Japan, Korea and other Asian markets.
The forgiveness bit ties into a hollow cavity (behind the lower portion of the face) that redistributes 30 grams away from the face. The Anser has forgiveness qualities that are similar to the i15's, but the Anser looks cleaner, feels noticeably smoother, produces more spin on short irons and flies slightly lower in the long irons.
The Anser carries the same name as one of the early models Karsten Solheim produced before he transitioned to the popular investment casting process. The newest version pushes the forging process to create performance benefits not previously associated with a forged club.
We've been talking about golf clubs on sale for while," Rollins said. "But for our guys, it's kind of funny. Once we put chrome on a cast club, people thought it was forged.
"They are only available in Japan right now," Rollins said. "They might release it in the United States later, but I don't know." He explained that in the Japanese market, irons need to be forged in order to be perceived as high quality. Irons that are not forged simply don't sell well.
While not a super game-improvement iron, the Anser irons feature plenty of perimeter weighting and tungsten in the sole to help players get the ball into the air more easily. The PING badge on the back of the club is a weight that can be changed as part of the fitting process.
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I purchased these to have something more forgiving since I was playing Ping I3 blades. Since I don't play as often I decided to buy something that would dampen mishit. I have a personal driving range and I found that my swing fault followed me, go figure :) Anyway, my 1st round was a disaster, but it wasn't the clubs. After the disaster I practiced all week with them, along with a major revision in my setup and shot 73 in my second round with them. So, they were redeemed. One thing I've noticed is that the offset is hidden well in the design of the club. I have never cared for offset, but it's almost invisible in this club. They feel really good in my hands and the thicker sole from the Ping's now seem normal.