 One of the most popular reviews I have done this year came from a club will to say I least expected it would be an understatement. Ping were releasing a chipper. Well I was quite surprised. And then when I first saw it I was quite confused. You see the first thing that is very odd about the Ping chipper is the fact that it looks nothing like a chipper. And the fact is it didn't look like a chipper. Well that was quite a genius move by Ping. And it's genius because quite simply most of us don't like the idea of having a chipper in the bag. And you see with the Ping chipper well it doesn't look like we have. You see the thing is with the Ping chipper visibly it just looks like another iron in your bag. So the question quite a lot of you have posed and hopefully we're going to answer in today's video is if this thing looks like an iron. If it's lofted the same as an iron then why not just play an iron. So the question in today's video is quite a simple one. Is the Ping chipper overrated? So today I have brought out a nine iron. It's got exactly the same loft as that of the chipper. And what I want to know is the question that many of you have asked is do you really need a chipper or are you just as well just playing the nine iron. Right we're going to start this head to head from what is a very simple and straightforward position that I will be reaching for the chipper in this kind of situation. You've got a little bit of fringe to carry. We've got whatever that is sort of 20 yards from ball to flag. And I don't need any loft. All I'm looking to do is very much a putter style stroke, which has been really good with this chipper for me this summer. I just want to get that ball aiming at the flag and rolling out. And although I pulled it a little bit I'd probably be happy with that. It wasn't the greatest of shot maybe a little bit overheat. Quite surprised at just how well the greens have run to be honest with you. I thought they'd be a little bit slower than that. So exactly the same situation. Studdle up a little bit more upright. Definitely the triangle is different with the nine iron. Than it is with the chipper. But the same stroke really. And that seems far better. I was able to learn from the first one. Take quite a bit off in terms of the chip. There's a bit of a swing there to say the least. The one thing I noticed there was if anything, even though the lofts are identical, the nine iron seems to just pop the ball up just a little bit more. And if you have taken a bit of a closer look and slow that one down again, maybe I've got that one wrong. But it seems to just pop the ball up just a little bit easier than the chipper did. That's probably surprised me a little bit. Right, next up is every golfer's worst nightmare. That's because we've got bunker between us and the flag. We've got a lot of green to work with though. So it would be the type of situation that I'd be looking to play. The ping chipper because I think we've got enough loft on it to carry what we need to and then run out on the green towards the flag. And that's what we'll be trying to do first of all with the ping chipper. So no different, same old putting style and see if we can get it running towards the hole. Again, I just love how easy it picks that ball up. That's a pretty decent effort to be fair. You'd take that all day long. And again, not a great deal of height, like I said in terms of the loft, the launch rather. You go nine iron. So interesting enough, and I mentioned this in a lot of the videos that we've done with the ping chipper, is it's very much upright line angle is very different than that of your nine iron. So there's an adjustment to be made. It's very much different at address. Now, I'm not saying that's a real negative, but it is noticeable. I'm not sure when I'm aiming, just a little bit wider than expected. But that's finished good as well. Distance control was good. The one thing noticed will be different for me again was that the nine iron with exactly the same loft as the chipper, the nine iron pops the ball up just a little bit higher. And hopefully you can see that if we overrun that again, visibly to me, one launch is significantly higher than the other. I'm not saying that's a positive or a negative at this stage, but it's definitely noticeable. Right. Next up is a real interesting scenario and where the chipper or the nine iron, well, I'm not sure you'd choose either, but you're certainly now this is where a 50 yard shot to the flag. Two bunkers to cover. We're certainly going to need some loft. And for me, somehow this favours the nine iron. The chipper, that low ball fly, is it going to get the ball up an airborne enough? I don't know. But this is where the nine iron perhaps has a little bit more flexibility. We shall see. That's right on line. It's picked it up quite nice. Can't quite see the bottom of the flag, but I reckon that's quite close. The nine iron certainly up against it and it's interesting now with that sort of, well it's a bit of a half swing, wasn't it, that the loft is sufficiently enough to pop that ball up on the chipper. And again, quite surprisingly so. That's a real, I think that's a tough ask to beat. Well with that shot, it ain't going to be nothing because I've completely collapsed on it and we've hit it about 20 yards or I've got a ball. Right, let's try that again. I think the pressure was on there in terms of what the ping chipper did. Right, try again and right. Okay, that's a better action. Probably not as good as the chipper again. It's chasing up on there and again, I don't think it's too far away. But what is really weird is from that situation, I found it easier with the chipper to hit a more relaxed swing. I also found it again, that flatter and steeper triangle, whatever you want, more upright triangle rather, and the wider sole helped me out greatly. And again, this thing throws me, it's a complete confusion because from that situation, I'd have been expecting the nine iron to be the one that performs better and be easier to execute that type of shot when in fact it turned out it was the chipper. Now the one thing that the nine iron has undoubtedly in terms of performance over the chipper is in a full swing surely. So I'm playing 152 on a par 3. First shot you hear me see me play rather is with the nine iron. It's at the flag, did okay and it finished. Well it was one of them two balls there and you know what surprise is coming next because the second ball is played with the chipper. You shouldn't be able to do this if it says it's not for full swings. We just played 152 yards into the flag and it's nearest to the pin. Yet the ball on the green is the ping chipper. I'm a bit surprised to say the least. Arguably maybe one swing was better than the other but not why I ever expected in this test when it began that at a full distance that ping chipper would perform as well as it did. And there is one noticeable difference throughout every swing that I've played throughout this video and I'm going to tell you what that is right now. That difference is the weight of these heads and how it feels through the swing. Not only that full swing where it was more noticeable but through those shorter shots as well. The ping chipper has a much heavier head weight and to me that keeps everything just that a little bit more consistent. I love the feel of that. Not necessarily in that long shot like I said I don't know if that's just a freak situation but certainly through the short game even though the nine is performed particularly well the weight of the head just lets you swing it like a bit of a pendulum type feel. It stays very much low to the ground. It suits my chipping style at least anyway and that is very much a noticeable difference between these two clubs. Right the question in this video was is the ping chipper overrated. My answer to that question is no, no it isn't. I think it's a really really good club. The second part of this video was to find out whether or not you can use a nine to execute many of the shots that you can with the ping chipper. And the answer to that is also yes you can. So why carry a ping chipper in the bag? Well for me the way these clubs differ is in terms of the way they sit at a dress being a real major difference, a major separator and it being a positive in the sense of the ping is because you're almost put yourself in a position a set up at a dress that is you've got no argument or debate with it. You can, you, I have to manipulate the nine and to get in the same position as that I find myself naturally in at address with the ping chipper. And I don't like having to do that. And yes I can do it and yes we can execute the shots the same but ultimately the ping chipper is very much a straightforward club where the triangle is very much upright. It's almost like as I've said in many of the videos that we've done you're standing addressing a put and it's very easy to execute the same type of shot over and over again. And I don't think there are quite the variables that you're finding in consistencies that you find trying to execute the same shots with the nine iron. That's very much debatable, don't get me wrong and I can understand why people can say they can execute these shots with the nine iron but again that wide width of sole couple with that upright position make it almost foolproof and don't get me wrong you can make mistakes with it but almost foolproof because it makes that shot type very very easy. We've already seen that it is one-dimensional in many ways just in the same as a nine iron is one-dimensional they do the same things at the loft that they've got on them. I think again it boils down to the individual and the confidence you've got at addressing your short game but the ping chipper is a unique style of club. It's very much a different type of chipper it's one that I said earlier doesn't look like a chipper so therefore it takes away a lot of the stigma in having one in your bag and after a period of time and three four months that I've actually been playing this club I've got to say I've put the ball closer to the hole and hold out on more occasions than I have done in several seasons playing with whichever wedge I've had in terms of choice of option to play. I've just gone to this on almost every occasion I've got unless I need to really pop on up in the air then I have opted to play the ping chipper and like I said I've done extremely well with it and got really consistent with it and therefore for me it's not overrated it's a really really good club to have in the bag not for everybody but for a lot of golfers this will certainly help. Right I hope you enjoyed today's video I certainly did because it's a question that's been in my mind for many months and the idea is my scenario is I've got nine nine and I've got the ping chipper in the bag the question is which wedge or whatever club it is that you've got to drop out to include the chipper that's something you'd have to weigh up on a personal level. Right I'm done as ever thank you for watching and I'll see you all soon.