Ping i540 Review

Hollow body irons go fast and sound wrong, and every maker has tried to fix the second problem with foam. Ping has tried air. The inR-Air bladder sits in the cavity behind the face and filters the frequencies that make a thin hollow face ring, without the damping material that also kills how far the face can flex. It works well enough that the i540 reads as a crisp tick rather than a click, though it is still loud for the category and no forged cavity back is in danger.

The speed is not in doubt. The forged maraging steel face is around a tenth thinner than the i530 carried, thin enough that it bends at the sole and top rail the way a fairway wood does, and the weight saved goes into tungsten low in the sole of the 4 through 7 irons. Launch is high, spin is low and consistent, and the seven iron at 29 degrees standard carries a long way. Forgiveness on low and toe strikes is excellent.

What it will not do is move. The flight is one shape, which suits the mid handicapper it is aimed at. Fourteen hundred and ninety nine dollars for seven in steel is three to four hundred dollars above the game improvement field, and the gap is not earned.