Hey guys, just thought I'd post in case anyone was thinking about getting these irons. Just picked up a set of these on golfwrx not too long ago and have one round under my belt as well as a small bucket at the range with the 7 iron as I was doing some comparison testing against my 2 gamers - ping s55s with recoil proto 125 f5 soft stepped twice and wishon 870's with project x satins 6.0. The i200s have dg x100's
Range testing:
Looks: The i200 are beautiful looking for sure. They are noticeable bigger at address vs the s55 and while I prefer the smaller look of the s55s, these are not big enough to put me off and are still quite a bit smaller than the 870's. Comparing side by side to the s55, I could see how the size could be off-putting at first but after playing a full round with them, it was easy to adjust and I got used to the size quickly and after a few holes, they looked great and forgot how big they were versus the s55. Overall, a very nice combination of being compact enough but also feeling forgiving enough at the same time - very similar looking to i25 actually in the address position from what I recall and definitely not as chunky as the ping ie1 imho.
Feel - definitely the softest feel of the three clubs, not surprising of course since none of these clubs are forged. I was impressed with how much softer these feel versus the s55 - didn't think there would be that much difference. I have never gamed a forged set so I can't discuss feel too much, but these irons are definitely the softest feeling ping irons I have ever hit.
Distance- I can't comment on actual distance at the range as the combination of cold weather and crappy range balls limits testing. Having said that, I can comment on relative distance. First impressions were that the i200s were definitely the longest of the bunch, followed by the s55 and the 870's. As I noted, they all have different shafts so I can't directly compare of course, but relatively speaking, they were longer than my gamers for sure. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say the i200 are roughly half a club longer than the s55s and about a club longer than the 870's for me. Over the summer I played a lot of rounds with the s55s and 870's and the s55's were generally about 1/2 a club to a full club longer than the 870's, especially in the short irons, so quite encouraging that the i200s could possibly be a bit longer than the s55s with similar lofts. I am guessing the difference in distance was also partly due to forgiveness as well. More time is needed but I would guess that on perfect strikes I would probably hit the s55s and i200 about the same distance but would probably gain a few yards on slight mishits. So, average distance is probably a bit more with the i200 versus the s55 but whether this is due to forgiveness or a thinner face,who knows!
Forgiveness/dispersion - I would say they 870's are the winner here but the i200's were not that far behind. The 870's just flat out perform and while they aren't the longest of the bunch, they are the most consistent for me as I am not the greatest ball striker. On slight mishits distance loss was comparable between the 870's and i200s but I would guess the 870's win out here for distance dispersion as well as with less offline dispersion left to right. When comparing to the s55, definitely a noticeable increase in forgiveness with the i200
Shot shape - I am a high ball hitter and it definitely appeared to the naked eye that I was hitting the the i200s a bit higher than the s55 (which I already hit high) as well as a little higher than the 870's. Hard to say if this will be more of a problem in windy conditions as I already have problems lol with any irons I play - time will tell. Of course this may be due to the shaft difference or they might be a higher spinning iron versus the s55 - no way for me to tell
On course thoughts... Unfortunately, I didn't have great ball striking day to comment on distance but it did give me an opportunity to comment on forgiveness as a result and the preliminary range thoughts were confirmed that the i200s are a significant upgrade in the forgiveness department. Again, probably not as forgiving as the 870's but surprisingly, not that far behind. On the few shots that I hit really well, they did seem to be a bit longer than the s55. Generally in the winter I hit my irons about 1-1.5 clubs shorter versus the summer and I probably hit the i200 about half a club shorter, so roughly 5-7 yards longer than I would expect from my s55.
Final thoughts - The i200s come as advertised - great looks and feel with forgiveness injected in them - basically an iron that sits in the middle of the spectrum that stretches in looks towards a players cb and stretches in forgiveness towards a GI iron. It all really comes down to perspective - if you love Ping stuff like I do, then you could view these irons as a design by Ping that is trying to do it all, and in my opinion, has achieved this.
Verdict: Be a good little ho and buy these!!!☺ And with the new stealth wedges coming soon, Ping is continuing to tempt me lol - it will never end !