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In the third episode of Retro Review, Joe Ferguson is throwing it way back to when one of the original Ping Anser putters was created - it went on to become one of the most iconic and successful golf club designs in history, but can it still compete with its modern day equivalent? We took an original Ping Anser and tested it against Ping's latest PLD Anser to find out...
Transcript
00:00Welcome back to another retro review from Golf Monthly and this time we've
00:04gone back we've gone way back and I've got an absolute titan of the putting
00:10game I have got the ping answer now this thing has won over 500 tour events so
00:18I'm really looking forward to seeing if it's still got the magic on the greens
00:22now we've teamed up with golf clubs for cash one of the leading retailers of
00:26pre-loved equipment and they provided us with some absolute gems to test so
00:30please go and check them out in the description below now this is one of the
00:33most iconic golf clubs of all time and we picked it up for the bargain price of
00:3867.99 now with some putters touching the 400 pound mark and beyond that don't have
00:43the major heritage that this thing does we could have a bargain on our hands now
00:47the answer was designed by ping founder Karstom Solheim in 1966 and just about
00:53every putter that's been designed since features some elements that come from
00:57the ping answer it was the first of its kind it had an offset hosel which give
01:02you a really clean clear view look of the face that hadn't been seen before and
01:06it's cavity back design produced a lot of forgiveness again hadn't been seen
01:10before in putters now this thing went on to win multiple multiple tour events
01:15over 500 tour events 19 major victories recorded and even the great Tiger Woods
01:21has won all 15 of his majors with an answer style putter albeit wrapped up in
01:25a Scotty Cameron bow so in terms of the looks of this putter it's actually really
01:29hard for me to create a discussion on it because it's just so familiar it's like an
01:34old friend it's the really is the blueprint that all of the other modern putters
01:38have been designed around whether it's the Scotty Cameron Newport line whether
01:42it's the Odyssey numbers one and two they all come back to this putter so in
01:47terms of testing and seeing if it still stands up over time I brought this
01:51modern-day equivalent the answer PLD and now we're gonna hit a few putts and
01:55find out if it still has the magic right so I really do want to see how this
01:59performance stacks up against its modern-day equivalent it's actually
02:02really difficult to find a fair test for putting so I'm gonna do a couple of
02:06things I found out here at the beautiful Paliero golf course in Madeira here on
02:10the 17th green and I found a really difficult 80-foot putt really long narrow green
02:15here up and over it's here so I'm gonna do is I'm gonna hit six putts with each to
02:20find out how they perform from long range see if there's any more forgiveness
02:22or stability in the newer model for example and then I'm gonna add each putt
02:27up and get a total distance away from the hole for those six putts and we'll
02:31compare afterwards so let's get going I'm gonna start with the PLD first felt
02:41really solid nice and soft actually it's on a great line that's a promising start
02:48it is milling on the face of this PLD whereas the original answer doesn't have
02:52that milling so that actually felt really soft so it'll be interesting to see how
02:55that compares
03:00that bobbled a bit and a little bit under here I think it's doing okay
03:05probably about six feet that which isn't horrendous that's a little bit more like it
03:15again on a decent line it's jumping around a little bit but that's pretty tight I'm
03:19happy about I'm gonna get those and go again
03:32okay that was a decent first effort with the PLD my first three totaled 13 feet and
03:37my second bunch was 11 feet so I got a bit better so the overall total to beat
03:42for the answer is 24 feet let's see if I can do it
03:49so looking down behind the ball it's a really really almost identical profile
03:52it's just the color that's different
03:58noticeably different feel
04:01so the soft milling of the face it's a bit harsher off the face of this
04:05there's a little slot in the bottom as well makes it a little bit tingier which
04:07is actually quite nice that was really well on line that was
04:15another decent putt there if it rolls out a bit okay happy with those
04:26and that's got every chance if it misses that ball miss it
04:31oh just shy I'll see how far those are and I'll come back and hit three more
04:47well that was very interesting so that was actually a dead tie so it's 24 feet on
04:53the first one and then on my first go with the original answer I was 11 and a
04:57half feet was my total distance and my second effort there was 12 and a half
05:01feet so that comes to precisely 24 feet so it's a dead tie from long range so we're
05:06gonna have to split these somehow so let's go and hit some short putts
05:10right sorry to interrupt but if you're enjoying this retro review
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05:24so I've come here to eight feet away and that is the PGA Tour average point
05:30where it becomes 50-50 pros on the PGA Tour hold 50% of the eight foot putts
05:35so anything above that with this would be really really successful
05:38so I'm going to hit 10 with this 10 with that and we're going to see the
05:41difference let's go
05:46it's just outside the right
05:51and just like that all right we're going to speed it up and I'm going to hit all
05:5410 let's see what we get
06:07so
06:24So that was 9 out of 10 from that 50-50 range. I have to say I'm
06:28very very pleased with that. Let's see what the PLD can do.
07:02Let's see what the PLD can do.
07:08So that is for the PLD, 7 out of 10. So on the short range putts, the original answer can
07:16still very very much cut the mustard.
07:19Well I really enjoyed that, like all of these retro reviews, that was actually a really nice trip down memory
07:24lane and actually quite nostalgic.
07:26I felt like Seve at points there hitting those putts which is really really cool.
07:30But the point of this video was actually to see whether this could stack up against a modern day equivalent.
07:36And the answer, forgive the pun, is a resounding yes.
07:41On the longer putts that I hit, and I know it was kind of a crude test, but it's kind
07:44of the best you can do with a putter.
07:46On the longer putts, it was identical. They were both 24 feet in total.
07:51The feel was very different. This was a little harsher, a little tingier, but I actually quite liked that feel
07:56to be perfectly honest.
07:58And then as you saw from the shorter putts, I was an absolute machine with this.
08:019 out of 10 from 8 foot, I was chuffed to bits with.
08:05The PLD performed well as well, but unbelievably, the original answer took it.
08:09So for 67.99, you can get a piece of history, and a piece of history that still really performs.
08:16.
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