Club face question for the pros

[rp001]

I have a new set of Ping Clubs and I love them..Are the faces of the Irons supposed to be perfectly flat when they were cast? Of course I know they need the grooves but I've found " high spots" on my irons and draw filed them flat to a certain degree..Seems that the tolerances are so fine this would ensure better impact with the sweet spot..Any club fabricators or machinists out there?

[Golfer in Sanibel]

I am not a pro. But, I think the face should be flat w/o the high spots. They used to regroove the club face. Don't know if they do it anymore in this disposable world.

[rhood]

Do I understand correctly that you took a file to a set of new Ping clubs ? ?

[rp001]

Absolutely...Now they really are flat

[Mikeod]

Did you buy them new from an authorized Ping dealer or online?

If from an authorized dealer, I would have taken them back for an explanation and/or exchange.

If online, remember there are a lot of counterfeit clubs sold online. Most are from China.

[rp001]

These clubs were purchased from Palmer...And fitted by them..They are custom made by Ping..I don't fault Ping, as they are cast and not really that precise. Ping does not make the clubs in the US as I found out later, they just assemble them...I love the clubs and would buy them again..The Highspots are very small and look like ball marks after the filing..I'm just a little carefree about modyfing anything I get and thought it couldn't hurt and actually the clubs have helped my game immensely..I would not badmouth Ping Or Palmer's pro shop..I like the irons so much I bought a set of g15 woods,including a driver during Golfest.I know the woods have a convex face so I won't be modifying (shaving)them,because that would make them "illegal"..Then went back and got a matching Ping bag...It's good to be single,a boy and his toys...LOL

[BarryRX]

Do I understand correctly that you took a file to a set of new Ping clubs ? ?

"Yes" he rasped!

[PaPaLarry]

"Yes" he rasped! I Yi Yi!!!!!!:shrug:

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

These clubs were purchased from Palmer...And fitted by them..They are custom made by Ping..I don't fault Ping, as they are cast and not really that precise. Ping does not make the clubs in the US as I found out later, they just assemble them...I love the clubs and would buy them again..The Highspots are very small and look like ball marks after the filing..I'm just a little carefree about modyfing anything I get and thought it couldn't hurt and actually the clubs have helped my game immensely..I would not badmouth Ping Or Palmer's pro shop..I like the irons so much I bought a set of g15 woods,including a driver during Golfest.I know the woods have a convex face so I won't be modifying (shaving)them,because that would make them "illegal"..Then went back and got a matching Ping bag...It's good to be single,a boy and his toys...LOL

I don't know where you heard that, but it is completely wrong. Ping, in fact, is the only company that makes their clubs from start to finish. They own their own foundry and heat treating plant in Phoenix. They don't make their own shafts or grips. Also they have another Arizona company cast their titanium heads because casting titanium is a very highly specialized field. But they do cast all of their own steel heads in their foundry.
Investment casting, as a matter of fact is an extremely precise method of manufacturing steel products. In fact, Ping's foundry produces work for NASA. The parts that they make for our space craft require extremely low tolerance.
If you got a set of irons that had high spots on the face you should have called Ping immediately or had your dealer call them. They are very good about taking care of things like that.
All"woods" have a convex face, by the way. Filing them flat would not make them illegal as far as I know, but it would make them perform worse. Bulge and roll, as it is known in the industry is a necessary specification for making the ball go further and straighter.

[Golfer in Sanibel]

Could the irons be Chinese fakes?

[Russ_Boston]

Let me get this straight:

You bought a NEW set of Ping irons from Palmer?

You think there is something wrong with them?

You tried to 'correct' them by filing them down?

You didn't first go back to Palmer and say "Hey is this normal?".

Those couldn't have been cheap. I would have gone right back to them and asked.

[Mikeod]

Let me get this straight:

You bought a NEW set of Ping irons from Palmer?

You think there is something wrong with them?

You tried to 'correct' them by filing them down?

You didn't first go back to Palmer and say "Hey is this normal?".

Those couldn't have been cheap. I would have gone right back to them and asked.
:agree:Plus, Ping customer service is about the best in the industry.

[rp001]

I considered all of this..the fact is that this is such a small problem, I'm not willing to be without my clubs while Palmer sends the clubs to Ping and they make determination as to whether they are in spec? Like I said before the filing resulted in a couple of shiney spots the size of a dime, and that trued them up...The purpose of the question to the pros was, is this normal and did I overthink the issue and maybe mess up the club by taking a necessary and engineered high spot off the clubs..Especially when all of them had a deviance that was very slight and at different spots..Regardless,what is done is done, and I love them..I also had a problem with paint wearing off the shaft at the top of the bag, and would have to send them to Ping, through Palmer, to "assess " as to whether it was a "defect" or caused by me putting pvc liners in the bag slots..If they were not Ping's issue it woud cost me about 50 bucks a club for new shafts and I'm not doing that for a small paint wear spot,instead I justified buying a new Ping bag..LOL

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

How did you measure to determine that the clubs had these high spots? What equipment did you use?

[rp001]

Bought these directly from Palmer and delivered by Ping..They are registered and have matching serial numbers too..I love them, and that's why I;m not complaining to Ping..I don't want to be without them..

[Golfer in Sanibel]

As long as you are happy, there is no problem.

[hoseman]

Reminds me of my late father in law, he'd buy a new Caddy every three years. He was old school as he hated the shoulder harness so he would cut the shoulder belt the first day of ownership. Funny listening to that retractor deal winding up when he let go of the cut belt. (the seat belt still worked fine)

Whatever made him happy...a rule we should all live by.

[rp001]

I just used an old school method of lightly "draw filing"..That is a technique where a file is layed flat on an object and drawn sideways across the surface..This revealed shiney spots,round, that were high from the surrounding surface..I know about the woods being convex and if you remove material I think it violates minimum PGA standards as to thickness as it adds considerable bounce/spring..There is a firm on line that will do this for you and they admitted it was illegal according to the PGA..

[batman911]

Have you considered that your file may not be perfectly flat?

[rp001]

If the file wasn't true, the shiney spots worn off would have been grooves, not spots that were circular..That's the beauty of drawfiling..Learned the technique in metal shop in 8th grade..Too bad these things aren't taught in the schools today..It's a dying art..