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In his perennial search for equipment to help his game, Dan Murphy was introduced to the concept of a prototype club by the Ping engineers. He gleefully accepted their offer to build it for him. And here is the result
Meet the Thriver – a fantastic option for those who struggle with driver consistency off the tee and are happy to hit a 3-wood, but want something a bit more. Producing direction and carry consistency this club offers confidence off the tee and will keep you in play. Intrigued? Read on to discover all in the Ping G440 Thriver review….
This is a fantastic option if you overwhelmingly use your 3-wood off the tee rather than the fairway. It can help you build confidence and get the ball in play on a much more consistent basis.
Expect the results of your best 3-wood shot – but much more often.
This club is a 3-wood replacement but you might also find that you don’t need to hit your driver very often – if at all.
PROS
Greater consistency
Huge confidence-booster
Versatile in terms of the flight
Easy to hit and launch
CONS
Could leave a gap to your hybrid/lofted fairway wood
First Impressions
Meet the Thriver – my phenomenally reliable new driving weapon.
It’s at its very best – for anyone like me who can produce the strangest of results from their first meaningful swing of the day – on the 1st tee, where you get the reassurance of the big driver head with the additional control of a fairway wood.
This is, in truth, a Frankenstein’s monster of a club, created from existing Ping components rather than something you can find on their website. Although, who knows, that could change in the future.
It came about when I visited Ping’s European HQ at Gainsborough and was being fitted into some new woods. My fitter, Nick Boulton, asked me what I was looking for in my 3-wood. I explained that I play all my golf on fast-running courses and rarely venture to the back tees these days. For me, it’s all about getting the ball in play off the tee and I have always found a fairway wood the most reliable way of doing that.
I rarely use a 3-wood off the deck, and if I do then the requirement is for a low, running shot. There are very few lakes to carry on the courses I typically play. When I said all this, something rang a bell and Nick was reminded of something he had recently seen that was posted by Ping’s VP of Fitting & Performance, Marty Jertson:
NCG Review
Thriver Excitement
The idea is that longer hitters use their 3-wood disproportionately more off the tee. In my case, it’s more because I play shorter courses and ones where there is a premium on getting the ball running and keeping it in play.
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Jertson has started calling this club a Thriver – a mixture of a 3-wood and a driver. It is similar but slightly different to a mini driver. This is simply a 12˚ driver head with a 3-wood length shaft and a little bit of work to ensure the right swingweight.
I tried – and failed – to hide my excitement at this new product that nobody else had got. Nick’s colleague, Paul Rymer, an expert fitter, saw straight through me. He knew I loved the idea of having something different.
Once Nick and Paul had consulted on how to build one up for me to try, it took me perhaps half a dozen swings to trust that I could just swing it normally and let the way it was built produce the shot characteristics we were looking for.
Thriver Consistency
I was pretty amazed. It went exactly as far as my best 3-wood. But it went almost the same distance – with a consistency across the Trackman data that I didn’t think I was capable of – from one shot to the next.
By contrast, my 3-wood shots would vary by a good 25 to 30 yards in terms of total distance as the quality of strike varied. Nor were they as consistently accurate, for the same reason.
Thriver on the course
Of course, it’s one thing seeing a club perform on the launch monitor and another thing taking it out on to the course.
Well, one month in and several rounds of links golf later, I have categorically been hitting more fairways and spending less time searching for errant tee shots. I have typically been using the Thriver eight times a round, and hitting maybe four drivers.
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Certainly, if I am going downwind then it feels like it will go as far as my driver just by being in the air a little longer.
If I peg it down, I find I can get a nice flat trajectory. I can also tee it higher if I want to ride the wind or get more of a flight. And all of this without any fear of the occasional roof that can result from a mis-struck 3-wood.
For the type of golf I play, it’s absolutely ideal. I have much more confidence when I am over the ball and I am getting my tee shots out there to a respectable distance time after time.
I should say that I have not yet had much success hitting it off the deck – it would be accurate to say I am 0 for 2 – but then again that is not what it is designed for. Also, from tight links fairways, it feels inevitable it will come out of the bottom to an extent. Or it does when I hit it, at any rate.
From the tee, I have enjoyed exceptional results and found myself in play way more often with a ball flight I feel I have genuine control over.
Thriver and Driver
In case you were wondering, my set make-up now comprises: Driver, Thriver, 17˚ hybrid, 4 Crossover, 5-P, three wedges and a putter.
If any of the above sounds like you, I can only recommend you get yourself to a Ping demo day and ask the fitter nicely if they can build one for you to have a hit with.
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