 Okay good morning and the first thing we need to clear up is I know you are thinking Andy is out there sunning it and the Costa del Sol again but no I'm in the UK I'm at Cardin Park I'm in the heart of Cheshire and yet the sun is still shining in the UK and I'm making the most of it I'm out on the course and I'm testing the new Ping Glyde forged wedge yes forged wedge that is the big deal about this wedge first wedge for a long time from Ping that is forged and it's quite a few things we need to discuss about this and we'll start off with how it looks so some images up on screen now first thing that strikes you is from the backside of the club which is this crisscross pattern that's been cut grooves nice piece of engineering it's purely for aesthetic purposes I don't see that as any impact on performance but it looks absolutely stunning minimalistic in its markings just a glide forged text across the back and the loft and bounce on the bottom of the club for me personally aesthetics is always very much a personal thing like I always say but I think this will have very much a general appeal in terms of on the shelf it looks pretty stunning it's got this chrome finish the one thing that has been very very popular is in recent years a lot of the clubs and Ping did it themselves is this sort of black stealth finish which was very very popular whether or not this club evolves into that finish as well I do not know but for the time being it is in this hydropole chrome finish now I said there's a few things we need to discuss because we've got to talk about the price of this thing and we've got to then work out why Ping are justifying such a high price tag so it's going to be 200 pound $200 that's high end that is top-end in terms of a mainstream market you may well say why we're discussing price on this one Andy when a few videos ago we were avoiding price well I'll tell you why it's because for me Ping is aimed at a mainstream audience a mainstream consumer and they've really stretched the barrier in terms of the pricing of wedges so they're going to have to come up with something special in this I think to sell some volume it's a tour inspired design I'm going to relay some information first of all some technical spec offers the Ping website as to what is packed into this club in terms of technology and then we'll start to hit some golf balls and see how it performs first image I'm going to throw up on screen is these these cut grooves painted precision milled wheel cut grooves sharper edge radius which increases interaction with ball and impact creating more friction and improve spin and trajectory control again something you'd expect from a wedge anyway but these grooves are supposed to be cutting such a way that like I said there's that greater interaction greater traction between golf ball and club therefore creating greater control we shall soon see it's a carbon 8620 carbon steel they're claiming to be incredibly soft it is a blade like style head it is very compact I said earlier about it being tour inspired in terms of the design it's very much a small club profile a very compact club profile thin top line it's classic in its looks is how I would describe it classic wedge looking and again once again with the sole and with the hosel there's been a lot of introduction of changes in camber and the weight that the hosel is shaped into the into the base of the club head just to allow you to hit those different shots open the club face up and also close that club face down just give you that versatility to which you're looking for from a wedge to hit a variety of shots and that's what we're going to do enough of the waffle in terms of technical spec the idea of this is I'm an average golfer can I understand when I hit this club why it's got the premium price tag can I see greater interaction with ball and club head which they're claiming can I hit the variety of shots with these changes to the canvas in the sole only one way to find out let's go in some golf balls right before we get out there in a course and I pitch shots and the test is completed as such but I started a week or so ago often for golf Chester I recorded some dry ball data and like I said I think more important is what happens out on the course but for the purposes of those people that like to see it here's what I hit out there on the on the dry ball data in the range as you can see great performance in this controlled environment 100-yard pitch shots are very much a full shot for me with this is a 50-60 degree wedged I'm hitting so this is a full shot in and around like I said 95 to 100 yards spin was incredible I'm going to discuss feel now rather than what I felt in the range but that's the dry ball data very very consistent performer and nothing we can really pick in there that tells a Taylor so it's out onto the course and the first thing I did was got in and around that 100 yard mark we were slightly short on that actually out there and of course bit of breeze up there and partly my performance wasn't great on these wedged shots but we got enough shots in there to have a look how the ball interacted on the into the greens greens are low very dry conditions over in the UK at the moment I've got to say that the greens were relatively softer would almost say there's been plenty of water thrown on these greens at Cardin Park so there's no excuses in terms of performance these weren't hard greens I was expecting to play this morning they were plenty soft enough plenty responsive enough I didn't have this stage notice any great feel differences if I'm honest with you yes good feel I wouldn't criticize there's no critical point here nothing really I'm not talking but three soft feel at this stage to be perfectly honest and then bearing in mind that I'm expecting massive things here in terms of this forward set and on the full shots I don't know yes it was good performer but nothing fantastic the way they moved into a shot maybe 20 yards short of the green 30 40 yards chip shot and this is where it got interesting for me the feel all of a sudden became very the club became very responsive and I really got a great feel out of the club head and I was able to hit a variety of shots I was able to change and open the club face which again the sort of camber in the soul and allowed me to do that quite comfortably there was nothing sitting awkward at a dress and I felt very very confident in being able to do that so we hit a variety of shots from there and then went into the bunker and again it performed really really well in the bunker I hit one with standard sort of add a dress with a 50 60 degree sort of loft on it then open the club face up a little bit and was able to just pop that ball up a little bit higher and I've got to say confidence in those situations was very very high gave great encouragement like I said very very good performance in those situations as well next shot to moved into was sort of a 50 60 yard pitch shot once again slightly this one slightly lower ball flight and again this is where I found the club to have fantastic feel and fantastic consistency and I gained great confidence in this in that sort of nice pure clean strike and you knew when the ball landed on the green it was going to react fairly well so you could really throw it towards the flag and know that that ball would stop in and around the position that it has landed so again and the feel at this point and like I said that sort of feedback from club head to hands was absolutely superb I can't argue with that you'll also see a couple of positions here where I dropped in the rough just off the green and again a little cheeky one to finish there which is where I managed to chip one in and if Rick Shields did it on his video then obviously I've got a chip in on mine so I enjoyed that one as well to finish but somebody is this anything but the full shots I thought the feeling the club was absolutely fantastic it was very very soft indeed but it's also very responsive I love the sound of it which we always talk about as being the feel right back into the hands and I was really confident in and around those positions I just on the full shots like I said didn't notice anything stand out that I would say that it was really really soft different from anything else and I think that's the big thing for me different from anything else the problem I have with it and I just wonder is why they've pitched it in at this 200 pound mark 200 dollar mark there are a lot of wedges high quality wedges out there that are priced considerably less than this this is this is pitched in really really high and like I said from a brand that is pitched into the mass consumer market it's an interesting one I'd love to know the sales figures on this they've got a quality product performed very very well indeed at a high price tag so how will it fare with the average golfers and will they be prepared to pay 200 pound to stick that in the bag time will tell I suppose anyway that's me done hope you enjoyed that one I'm going to play two or three holes to finish I think and enjoy a bit more of this UK sunshine comments down below thumbs up if you liked the video and as ever subscribe if you don't already and thank you for watching I'm out of here