For PGA Tour professionals, a greenside bunker shot is commonly preferable to hitting from the tough. For the remainder of us mere mortals? That thump of a ball touchdown in sand may as nicely be the sound of strokes being added to the scorecard.
To the expert participant, a bunker represents an inexpensive probability at an up-and-down. To the common golfer, it’s golf’s model of quicksand—the extra you wrestle, the deeper you sink, watching your scorecard inflate with every determined swing.
Whereas PING can’t eradicate the gulf between Tour professionals forking out to tap-in vary and a weekend warrior’s excavation mission, they’re launching the BunkR; a brand new membership designed to make the common golfer’s escape from a sandy hell considerably extra probably.
ChipR’s sanding sibling
In case you’ve been taking note of PING’s previous specialty membership choices, the BunkR will make good sense.
“Coming off the wild success of the chipper, we really have looked at are there certain club types that can do one job really well,” defined Ryan Stokke, PING’s Director of Product Design.
With that, PING is making use of the identical specialised design philosophy to bunker play.
After all, anytime you add a single-function membership (just like the BunkR or ChipR) to the bag, you need to take one thing out (assuming you play by USGA guidelines – and I don’t care for those who don’t), however for those who wrestle bigly with one a part of the sport or one other, sacrificing a membership to unravel a persistent downside could make a variety of sense.
Sq. face, fewer issues
As you’ve in all probability surmised, the BunkR is designed solely for sand photographs though it could possibly be argued that PING has truly rethought how novice golfers ought to method bunker play.
Relatively than instructing the standard open-face method that requires close to good execution and sometimes results in bladed photographs that rocket throughout the inexperienced, the BunkR is designed for use with a sq. face. This implies the golfer can method the shot with a extra acquainted setup and swing, specializing in pace and make contact with slightly than manipulating the clubface and taking simply the correct amount of sand.
You’ll have dabbled in making an attempt to hit bunker photographs with the correct method (or no matter method was suggested within the final YouTube video you watched) however after just a few skinny or heavy photographs most will revert again to making an attempt to get the ball out by any means mandatory and with various levels of success.
The BunkR caters on to this intuition.
PING BunkR design
Not like different wedges, the PING BunkR is obtainable in a single loft. For the report, it’s 64 levels and whereas PING doesn’t print the bounce quantity on the membership, the corporate lists the efficient bounce at 14.5 levels.
The 64-degree loft ensures sufficient top to clear most bunker lips whereas the substantial 14.5-degree bounce prevents the membership from digging too deeply into the sand.
It borrows its normal form from PING’s iconic Eye 2 (E Grind) which, along with a bunker-friendly sole, offers you a thinner hosel for extra pace via the sand.
Some fast information
As with all specialty membership, the million-dollar query is: “Does it actually work better than what I already have?”
PING’s testing suggests it does. In a managed research with gamers carrying 10-plus handicaps, contributors hit photographs from a 20-yard bunker to a inexperienced with a 20-foot goal circle across the gap. When evaluating the BunkR to PING’s S159 60-degree E-grind wedge:
Considerably fewer photographs remained within the bunker
A considerably increased share of photographs landed contained in the goal circle
A smart commerce?
For a lot of leisure golfers who may hit just a few bunker photographs per spherical with abysmal outcomes (PING cites on-course information exhibiting 20-handicappers get the ball inside six ft from a bunker eight p.c of the time), the choice could possibly be easy.
Would you swap out your not often used fairway wooden or certainly one of your wedges if it meant reworking near-automatic bogeys or doubles into potential pars? The success of the ChipR suggests loads of golfers are prepared to make that commerce. I think it gained’t be any totally different with the BunkR.
The massive image
For purists, the BunkR may symbolize one other step away from the talent improvement that some consider is central to golf’s problem. For the common weekend participant who simply desires to flee the seaside with out the accompanying embarrassment and frustration, it could possibly be the distinction between dreading bunker photographs and truly embracing them.
As Stokke places it, “If we can help them get on the putting surface consistently, it changes their life and it helps them play the game in a different way. I think we’ve all played with that person where they get in a bunker, they have this lie. And they’re already mentally imploding that this is what they think their shot is really gonna look like.”
The BunkR goals to rework that psychological implosion into a sensible expectation of success.
Stokke says that when utilizing the PING BunkR, it’s “literally being able to pick the ball up and throw it on the green.” And there’s nothing within the rulebook towards that, so long as you’re utilizing a conforming membership to do the “throwing.”
Pricing and availability
Retail worth for the PING BunkR wedge is $179. Inventory shafts embrace the PING Z-115 (metal) and PING Alta CB (graphite)
The PING BunkR is obtainable for pre-sale now. Full retail availability beings March 27.
For extra info, go to PING.com.
Test Worth
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