Ping Eye2 Copper Beryllium | Retro Review - video Dailymotion

Golf Monthly

Next up for the Retro Review treatment is arguably the most iconic wedge of all time, the Ping Eye2 copper beryllium. It was first introduced in 1982, just as part of the Ping Eye2 iron set, but little did Ping know, it would soon become one of its most successful ever creations as a standalone product. In this video, Joe Ferguson finds out if this classic wedge can still save him shots around the green by comparing it with the modern day S159 E Sole wedge from Ping.

Transcript

00:00I've got an absolute monster for you today. I want to take you back to 1982 and relative

00:06newcomers and upstarts in the equipment industry Ping have just released their first set of

00:11beryllium copper irons the i2 and little do they know within that set they've actually developed

00:17one of the most iconic wedges of all time the Ping i2 copper beryllium wedge. So I've come down

00:26to the Berkshire golf club probably my favorite golf course in the whole of the uk and we've teamed

00:31up with golf clubs for cash one of the leading retailers of pre they provided us with some

00:37absolute gems to test so please check them out in the description below and i've picked this up for

00:42the bargain price of 79.99 this golf club is over 40 years old so i can't wait to put it through its

00:49paces and see how it stacks up against the modern day equivalent so as i said this was first introduced

00:54in 1982 and the design was pretty revolutionary as you can see it had a cavity back so that

00:59perimeter weighting helped with the forgiveness but the really interesting bit for me was this

01:04particularly thin sole area so they thinned out this sole which saved weight which allowed them

01:08to move it further up the club to give you a higher toe so arguably this is the original high toe wedge

01:14another really interesting design feature which made it exceptional out of the bunkers was the sole

01:20geometry if i bend the club back here and you begin to see the sole you'll see how there's very very

01:25little bounce on the heel side of the club now when you open the face the heel is generally the first

01:30bit that gets into the sand so this made the entrance to the sand really really smooth then as you move

01:35along the sole of the club and you get to the middle and the toe there's loads of bounce and that

01:40would kick in and help the exit of the club so the club itself just traveled really smoothly through

01:46the bunkers and as i said made it one of the best bunk clubs of all time so there's only really one

01:50place to start this test in the sand and i've got a bunker just here now i've tested an awful lot of

01:56wedges in my time so i'm really keen to see how this legend gets on so let's hit a couple away and see how

02:00it feels oh i have to say i mean we've got some really high quality sand here at the berkshire and

02:10it's beautifully raked which does help but that really did slip through with very very little

02:15resistance let's go again then if you can hear that lovely sort of nippy slappy sound as it hits

02:27the sand that that feels fantastic and i'm quite relieved it stands up to the hype there so i wonder

02:33how this sole would stand up if i give myself a slightly trickier lie so that's pretty unpleasant let's

02:38see if it can dig this out that's come out pretty well as well so the versatility of the sole

02:49that stacks up as well okay well that was really good out of the sand but i did kind of expect that

02:54because of this club's reputation but we need it to do more than just be a one-trick pony out the

02:59bunker so i've got kind of a bread and butter pitch shot here 25 yards i'm going to go to this short

03:04right pin here off some quite tight heathland turf so let's see if this sole can do anything with

03:09this shot the answer i think is yes that stiffed it that felt great it was a little bit of resistance

03:23from the turf there didn't slide through quite as easy as it did through the sand but the result was

03:27really really good so i don't think i need to hit anymore so that was some really nice performance from

03:32the bunker and i really enjoyed that nippy little pitch shot but as a man who's prone to the odd

03:37wonky approach shot i need to know whether it can get me out of some trouble some long stuff so i've

03:42dropped one here in this kind of heathery gorsy rough area it's buried a bit and i want to see if this

03:46clubhead still got it what it takes to cut through this grass and i'm pretty short-sided as well so

03:51let's see what it can do it's come out nicely again cut through really nicely i think that

04:02minimal bounce on the heel is something really interesting that was some really good short game

04:07performance but one concern i do have about buying a wedge that's over 40 years old is has the spin

04:12rate diminished so i'm going to head to the practice ground i want to use my foresight gc quad launch

04:17monitor to take some spin rates and see where it stands but i want to see how it stacks up against

04:21potentially a modern day equivalent so i've got with me ping's brand new s159 e-grind wedge which

04:28is based on the i2 so let's get to the practice ground let's get some numbers and see how it stacks

04:33up we're down at the practice ground now because i wanted to hit some mid-length pitch shots now

04:39we're going to use real balls so i've got tightless pro v1 x's and we're going to measure the data on the

04:45foresight gc quad launch monitor now we're off mats here it's really nice artificial surface which is

04:51probably a good thing it means i'm not going to get any grass caught between the club and the ball

04:55and give us any misreading so i've got three shots in my arsenal really my pitching game i tend to play

05:00what feels like a half a three-quarter and a full so i'm going to do that with both clubs and i want

05:05to see the launch and the spin numbers to see how they compare so i'm going to start with the i2 and hit

05:09my half shot oh hang on before i forget if you're enjoying this content please hit the like button

05:20comment down below if you play the old ping i2 copper beryllium wedge and if you haven't already

05:24subscribe to the channel

05:25okay so that's interesting so launch angle there just under 30 degrees at 29.4 backspin feels relatively

05:39high at 8498 revs so it'd be interesting for that to compare that to the s159 so the s159 i'm going to

05:48give it that same sort of half feel that position i'm pretty familiar with let's see how it compares in

05:53launch and spin yeah touch more spin actually popped up a little bit more slightly higher launch

06:03angle 30.7 and the spin number is coming in at just under 8600 so i'm getting a little more grip

06:10off the face of that very similar carry so it's interesting let's hit some three-quarter ones now

06:15and see if that carries through okay 30.6 launch has come up a little bit and 9489

06:28in the spin that feels like quite a good healthy number again so let's find out what the s159 will do

06:33okay launch a little bit lower there 29.4 so coming out a little flatter window and 9484 revs of spin

06:46so some interestingly similar spin numbers so far so let's hit my full shot and see if it continues

06:51and that was under 30 degrees of launch again 29 and a half and then 11 837 revs of backspin again

07:05which seems a lot so let's see how the modern day equivalent compares with a full swing

07:10okay popped up in launch a little bit 31.1 again comparable but a bit less so 11 615 revs on that one

07:25very very interesting you'll have seen through that the spin numbers are actually pretty comparable

07:31and on the full shot this was actually generating a little bit more the older wedge it's 42 years old

07:36and it's taken me back a bit because this new s159 wedge is literally fresh out of the wrapper

07:41it's never hit any more any shots before so the grooves are as fresh and as new and as sharp as

07:46possible but there is potentially another story to be told here because back in the day when they

07:52were making these i2s and the irons as well as the wedges some of them were built with what we

07:57called box grooves u-shaped grooves which ultimately the usga and rna deemed to create too much spin

08:04and they made them illegal for competition now we've spoken to ping we've given them the serial

08:09number it's actually really difficult to tell whether your club has box grooves or legal grooves

08:17for competition but from the spin numbers i'm looking at there i would suggest that this is probably one

08:23of the old box grooves now i want to do a further test here because those were dry and we've got a new

08:29finish with the ping wedges which ping are very proud of and i know a lot of the other manufacturers are

08:34quite jealous of the hydra pearl finish which claims to produce exceptional spin when wet so let's

08:40spray these faces up i brought a little spray bottle along hit the same sort of shots and figure out

08:45where the spin is now so i've got with me a handy little bottle of water i'm going to absolutely

08:49drench the face we're going to start with the older i2 first i'm even going to drench up that ball

08:56and let's see what that does to the spin number i'm going to go in my half shot again

09:04okay so spin came off quite significantly there that was only just over 5000 revs

09:11so 5079 launch popped right up so when you get less friction launch generally pops up spin comes

09:17down that's exactly what's happened there 36.9 launch 5079 spin let's try the s159 and let's

09:24do the same thing that similar half shot feel and see where we go wow that is a big old difference so

09:36the launch has only just gone up it's not even 31 degrees but the backspin is over 3000 revs more

09:43but 8155 revolutions per minute out of this which would suggest to me that ping's hydra pearl finish

09:51is working very very well here well i found that fascinating around the greens this old copper

09:57beryllium ping i2 still did a really great job for me the entrance and exit through the sand how little

10:03resistance it created let me play some really really good bunker shots even the little nippy

10:08shot off the tight turf the pitch shot and hacking it out of that longer rough still performed really

10:13really well and then when we came here to the practice ground and started hitting those three

10:17quarter half and full shots the spin number was super comparable with even a brand new fresh s159

10:24which got me even suspicious about the grooves however then we introduced the moisture and i think

10:30as you can see the s159 and the hydra pearl technology there from ping elevated it to a completely different

10:37level of spin so if you're someone who plays in the desert and never sees any moisture whatsoever you

10:42can probably get some really similar performance for a little bit less money but if you play an early

10:47morning dew rain or any type of moisture then you're going to really sacrifice some spin numbers from a

10:53newer model

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Ping Eye2 Copper Beryllium | Retro Review

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