Ping Faith Driver Review

Well, ladies, it's time to pay attention, because this PING Faith driver review is exclusively for you.

There's a new beast on the block, and PING designed it specifically for lady golfers who want to increase their driver distance while hitting off the tee more accurately. There probably aren't many women who would deny wanting to accomplish those goals.

I'm tall and pretty athletic, so I normally play men's clubs. But several of my girlfriends out on the golf course are sporting new PING Faith drivers, so I tried one of theirs. I also watched how my friends hit their drivers and paid attention to what they said when they teed off.

New for 2010/2011, this driver is getting a lot of buzz. But is it worth the money and all the attention? PING has set this driver's price at $249 to $280 (admittedly much less than many name-brand drivers), and it doesn't offer discounts on its clubs, at least not until they've been out for several years.

I have to admit that PING has always done a fine job of making ladies golf clubs. Take the ladies PING Rhapsody series, for example. It's been popular, and for a lot of good reasons. But now, PING has introduced the Faith series of clubs for women. It's a full line of clubs, including drivers, fairway woods, hybrids, irons, wedges, putters and even a special golf bag in three stylish colors.

The whole point of the driver is to produce shots that launch higher and carry farther for players with slower swing speeds. That includes most women, including me.

I'll give you my personal impressions about the PING Faith driver in a minute, but first, here's some of the technical stuff you might want to know:

This 460cc titanium model, uses internal heel weighting and a forward-positioned hosel to help players square the face at impact and hit the ball longer and straighter off the tee. A large, forgiving face helps to minimize the negative impact of off-center hits. The combination of the large head and an external weight pad on the sole increases the PING Faith driver's moment of inertia (improving club head stability) and lowers and moves its center of gravity back to optimize the spin rate (for greater distance) and launch the ball on a nice, high trajectory.

The driver comes in two lofts, 12 or 14 degrees, with a shaft that's 44.5 inches long. The standard shaft for the PING Faith driver is PING's own ULT 200 graphite shaft, a premium ultra-lightweight shaft (ladies flex, of course) with a low kickpoint that can help increase overall distance by boosting club head speed and optimizing the launch angle. Add in PING's industry-leading club-fitting process and you'll be able to have a driver that's designed to meet the specific needs of women golfers and custom-fit to your individual specifications.

And here's what I personally think about the PING Faith driver:

Appearance is important. You need to like the way a club looks in order to hit it confidently. And PING has got this one right. The head is the perfect shape to make you feel like you're going to smash the ball right down the middle of the fairway. Even its colors are right - feminine but not too much so.

Some of my friends use a 12 degree PING Faith driver, while a few others use the 14 degree version. I borrowed a 12 degree, because I'm used to a 10.5 degree driver and the 14 degree might have been too big of a difference. Normally, with my own driver, I hit my drives about 200 or 210 yards with a fairly low, boring trajectory. I hit this driver significantly higher, so I guess the combination of PING's design elements and the additional loft did exactly what they're supposed to do - help slower-swinging women hit a higher ball. I'd say the carry distance was about the same as I get with my TaylorMade Burner SuperFast driver (a more expensive club to buy brand-new), but the PING produced much "prettier," higher drives. I don't have a real problem with accuracy off the tee, so I can't comment on how the PING Faith driver affected my accuracy, but my friends seem to think it helps with that as well.

The Bottom Line:

PING claims this driver is the most forgiving ladies driver the company has ever made. I think it's easy to hit, long and produces a nice trajectory. The price is lower than a lot of name-brand drivers. So what's not to like?

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