Equipment

WRX Spotlight: Ping G410 hybrid

Published

7 years ago

Mar 26, 2019

Ryan Barath

Product: Ping G410 hybrid

Pitch: Per Ping: “Our first-ever adjustable hybrid allows you to customize your ball flight eight different ways through more loft (+/- 1.5 degrees) and lie combinations for consistently better results. Thinner and more flexible, the maraging-steel face generates faster ball speeds and higher launch so you carry trouble while hitting (and holding) more greens. A larger profile provides added stability and helps elevate MOI heel to toe.”

Our take on the Ping G410 hybrid

We all want the same thing from a hybrid — forgiveness, green stopping power, extra ball speed, adjustability (fitting options), and consistency. For the longest time, it seemed that for any particular hybrid, you could you pick four of the five but with the Ping G410, there is no sacrifice to be made: you get all five.

When designing the G410 hybrid, the team at Ping pulled out all the stops and finally included the option of adjustability on the consumer level for dialing in both loft and lie angle — something the company famously popularized with the color coding system. It should be noted in BIG BOLD LETTERS that Ping has ALWAYS given accounts the option of ordering hybrids either digitally lofted and bent for lie within a couple of degrees through the WRX Department (hey that has a nice ring to it) for a few extra bucks, but it was never really advertised, and I would guess, underused.

With the new adjustable hosel, the ability to fine tune and dial in has never been easier. Just like with the entire G410 metals lineup, it’s all about increasing the ability to fit better, decrease dispersion, and help golfers score better.

Ping Canada HQ fitting studio.

SO… about this hybrid. I was recently given the opportunity to go through a long game fitting at Ping (Canada), which included getting me dialed into a G410 17-degree hybrid to gap in between my longest iron and my 3-wood. I have played a 5-wood in the past but recently have been much keener on a hybrid because of the versatility and shorter length to help with dispersion.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the fitting

The Ping G410 hybrid is FAST — compared to my current hybrid, which has 16 degrees of loft and is a full inch longer than the 17-degree G410 (tested at 17 degrees), I was getting faster balls speed (2-3 MPH) even though I was swinging my own club faster on average 1.5 mph. That’s a noticeable gain in ball speed, and it’s all thanks to the maraging-steel face that, along with other design aspects of the head, produces consistently faster ball speeds across a larger area of the face.
The shape at address, for me, is another reason this hybrid sets up so well to the eye. It’s deep enough to give you confidence from a lie in the rough yet shallow enough that from a tight lie, it’s easy to elevate. Sure the “ease to elevate” might not apply to someone fitting into a 17 degree, but for the slower speed players that will fit into the higher lofts (up to 30 degrees in the standard setting), it’s a huge factor for players and fitters alike. I can’t count the number of combo sets I built in a previous life that involved Ping hybrids down to the 6-iron for players with less speed.
The “wood-like” rounded shape, compared to a compact driving iron style hybrid (think Crossover), did wonders to help get my launch window up, even though spin was in a very controllable range. This increased carry distance and decent angle — more parameters that measurably help hold greens. Distance was comparable to my 5-wood, but with a tighter dispersion and at a shorter length.

Now to that adjustability. Oh, how I (along with many fitters and builders) have longed for an adjustable Ping hybrid. Getting the distance and launch window dialed in exactly to the player helps deliver confidence that you aren’t making any sacrifices during a fitting or in your bag as a player. As I mentioned off the top, Ping has offered bending hybrids in the past, but since it was never an actual option to test, there was a lot of guesswork for the fitters. The adjustable hosel puts an end to that with lie angle adjustments totaling three degrees to help golfers are both ends of the lie angle spectrum & those looking to help prevent misses one way or the other.

At the end of the day (or start to your season), when it comes down to finding the right clubs to properly gap the higher end of your set, there will always be a lot of options depending on a number of factors including clubhead speed, impact dynamics, usual course conditions, and personal preference. If you play in dry, windy Texas, for example, the hybrid or even Crossover, might be the better option than the 5-wood, and vice versa if you play anywhere in the North East. No matter how you end up gapping the clubs through your set, make sure to get fit to play your best (you knew it would be in there somewhere), and give the G410 a shot.

More discussion about the Ping G410 hybrid in the forums

Equipment

Then and now: Comparing Rory McIlroy’s current setup to his record-breaking 2019 Canadian Open victory

Published

2 hours ago

Jun 11, 2026

Alistair Cameron

In Rory McIlroy’s first appearance at the 2019 RBC Canadian Open, he crushed the record books to earn his 16th PGA Tour title in dominating fashion, winning by seven shots over Shane Lowry and Webb Simpson.

McIlroy’s score of 22-under-par 258 is the lowest 72-hole score to date at the Canadian Open, and his closing 61 is also the best final-round score in the history of one of golf’s oldest tournaments. Finally, with his win in 2019, McIlroy became only the sixth player to win the career Triple Crown, adding to his victories at the U.S. Open in 2011 and The Open Championship in 2014, joining Tommy Armour, Walter Hagen, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Tiger Woods in a coveted list.

So, with that, why not compare his current setup to the clubs he used to break all the records?

Driver

2019: TaylorMade M5 (9 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70 TX
2026: TaylorMade Qi4D (9 degrees @8), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7X (45 5/8 inches)

McIroy led the Tour in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee in 2019; he’s doing the same in 2026. Between now and then, McIlroy has switched from the Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 70 TX (a shaft with slightly more feeling in the tip) to the original Fujikura Ventus Black 7X, having just made the change to the heavier version from playing the 60X.

What’s interesting about McIlroy’s 2019 setup is that the weighting on his driver is actually set in the high-draw setting, using the T-Track weighting system, whereas in the Qi4D, he’s currently using a heavily rear-weighted setup. (Two 13-gram weights in the rear and only two 4-gram front weights.)

The TaylorMade M5 driver he played in during his Canadian Open win was the company’s first head that they claimed to design to initially exceed the USGA’s COR limit, and then injected with tuning resin to bring it back in bounds.

Fairway woods

2019: TaylorMade M6 3-wood (15 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 80 TX; TaylorMade M5 5-wood (19 degrees), Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 90 TX
2026: TaylorMade Qi4D 3-wood (15 degrees), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8X; TaylorMade Qi4D 5-wood (18 degrees), Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9X

The TaylorMade M6 fairway wood that McIlroy was using during the 2019 season is still in the bag of some of the best golfers on Tour in 2026. Just check out Justin Rose’s winning setup from the Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year. This year, though, McIlroy has still been searching for his top-end-of-the-bag setup, having played both the new Qi4D and the Qi10, which he won the Masters with.

The same shaft swap can be seen in the fairway woods as the driver, along with slightly less loft on the 5-wood.

Irons

2019: TaylorMade P750 (4) Buy here, TaylorMade P730 (5-9), Shafts: Project X 7.0
2026: TaylorMade P760 (4), TaylorMade Rors Proto (5-9), Shafts: Project X 7.0

The biggest difference between McIlroy’s custom set and the stock P730s is the groove design. While the P730s were constructed with 14 MX-9 grooves on their milled faces, McIlroy’s proto heads instead use the higher-spinning, 16-groove layout of the TW2 grooves. Other big differences between the sets are that McIlroy’s 7- and 8-irons have thinner toplines, are 1 degree stronger in loft, and are 1/4 inch longer than the original P730 builds.

With McIlroy’s 4-iron, the switch from P750 to P760 sees a transition to a two-piece construction with Speed Foam in it, which allows McIlroy to launch the ball slightly higher, with more workability.

Wedges

2019: TaylorMade Milled Grind (48-09SB), TaylorMade MG Hi-Toe (52-09SB, 56-09SB, 60-LB09), Shafts: Project X Rifle 6.5
2026: TaylorMade MG5 (46-09SB, 50-09SB, 54-11SB, 60-08LB @61), Shafts: Project X 6.5 (46-54), Project X 6.5 Wedge (60)

Between 2019 and 2026, McIlroy’s focus on his short game has been much more apparent. It was the reason why he switched back to the TP5 golf ball, to help with launch, spin and control with his wedges leading up to his career Grand Slam victory in 2025. The most apparent changes to McIlroy’s wedge setup are his lofts and bounce. He’s slowly delofted his pitching to a sand wedge, but has increased the loft on the lob wedge, bending his current 60-degree to 61. With that, adding more loft to his lob wedge also slightly increases the bounce and leading-edge sit point, so, as a result, he plays a lower-bounce lob wedge compared to 2019. The MG5 wedges are also softer than the first Milled Grind option from 2019. McIlroy also no longer plays the full-face grooves found on the Hi-Toe.

Putter

2019: TaylorMade Spider X
2026: TaylorMade Spider Tour X

Notice anything similar. Yes, the copper finish on Rory McIlroy’s Spider X putter in 2019 is a slightly more reflective finish than the recently released torched PVD finish. McIlroy was using the True Path alignment system, but now uses only a single white sightline.

Ball

2019: 2019 TaylorMade TP5 (#22)
2026: 2025 TaylorMade TP5 (RORS)

As mentioned above, McIlroy had transitioned from the TP5 to TP5x golf ball since his victory in Canada in 2019, but now is black with the same style of golf ball as his victory at Hamilton Golf & Country Club.

Grips

2019: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
2026: Golf Pride MCC

Interesting, McIlroy actually used Golf Pride’s Tour Velvet Cord grips during his victory in 2019 (it was during a 2+ year switch to the corded TV) as opposed to his usual MCC grips, which he has played for most of his career.

Equipment

From the GolfWRX Classifieds: Titleist Vokey Proto Wedges 54M, 60T

Published

5 hours ago

Jun 11, 2026

Will Schube

At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals who all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.

It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.

Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, @Putt4Dough is selling some prototype wedges from Vokey Wedgeworks. These include a 54 degree wedge with the M grind and a 60 degree wedge with a T grind.

From the listing:

(1) Titleist Vokey Proto Wedge 54M with a Tour Issue DGS400 shaft and Golf Pride Tour Velvet (logo down). Standard length, lie, and loft. BB&F ferrule. Raw wedge in good condition. No initials. Price is $200 shipped. Buy both wedges for $380 shipped.

(2) Titleist Vokey Proto Wedge 60T with a KBS Tour 130X shaft and Golf Pride Tour Velvet. Standard length, lie, and loft. Raw wedge in good condition. No initials. Price is $200 shipped. Buy both wedges for $380 shipped.

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link. If you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum, you can learn more here: GolfWRX BST Rules.