Ping for Beginners and High Handicappers: What to Buy First

Buy fewer clubs, better fitted

The most common beginner mistake is buying fourteen clubs at once. Half of them go unused for a year, and that money is better spent on fewer, properly fitted clubs plus some lessons. A genuinely effective starter setup runs to around eight or ten clubs.

A sensible first Ping bag

Driver. A G440 Max, or G440 SFT if you already know you slice. Take plenty of loft — 10.5° or higher suits most new golfers, whatever anyone tells you about loft being a weakness.

Fairway wood or hybrid. A higher-lofted fairway wood is far more useful early on than a low-lofted 3-wood, and a G440 hybrid around 22–25° replaces long irons that beginners almost never strike well.

Irons from 6-iron down. G740 is built exactly for this stage — wide soles help enormously with the fat and thin contact that defines the early years.

Two wedges. A pitching wedge from the set, plus an s259 around 54–56°, in the S or W grind. Skip a lob wedge for now — it’s the hardest club in the bag to use well.

Putter. A standard Anser 2 or a mid-mallet from the Anser range. Forgiveness on off-centre putts directly reduces three-putts.

What to skip

• Blueprint irons. They punish rather than help while your technique develops.
• G440 LST or K drivers. Both assume a consistency you’re still building.
• A 60° lob wedge. Great in the right hands, a liability in the wrong ones.
• Long irons. A 4-iron is a wasted slot for most high handicappers.
• Four-wedge setups. You need long-club help far more than a fourth wedge.

Forgiveness features that genuinely help

1. Sole width. Wider soles skid rather than dig, rescuing plenty of poor strikes on their own.
2. Offset. Helps square the face and fights a slice.
3. Total weight. Lighter builds are easier to control while technique develops.

Should beginners bother with the colour code?

Yes — but a simplified version. You don’t need a two-hour dynamic session yet. You need someone to confirm length, lie angle and grip size, which takes about twenty minutes and prevents most equipment-related bad habits from ever forming.

Buying used is smart here

Because your swing will change substantially in the first two seasons, previous-generation Ping equipment makes real sense. A one-generation-old G440 driver performs very close to the current one and costs a fraction. Put the savings into lessons.

Coach’s tip: The single most valuable early purchase is a putter fitted to your height and stroke. Nothing else you buy affects your score as directly, and Ping’s Anser range makes it an affordable place to start.

Model names current as of September 2026.