Ping officially launches new Glide 3.0 wedges

Ping unveiled new Glide 3.0 wedges at the 2019 Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, which Nate Lashley won while using a 60-degree TS-grind Glide 3.0 model. Other early adopters of the wedges include Bubba Watson and Cameron Champ. Now, just a few weeks later, Ping has released information about the designs and announced the wedges are currently available at retail.

The company has essentially given the Glide wedge series an overhaul compared to the Glide 2.0 wedges launched in January 2017. The new Glide 3.0 wedges are designed to be higher spinning, more forgiving, lighter overall, have longer grip lengths, and the company has reintroduced an Eye2 grind, which is a popular model from Ping’s history. The Glide 3.0 wedge line will now consist of four grinds (SS, TS, WS and Eye2) compared to just three options in the Grind 2.0 line.

“From a fitting standpoint, we engineered four distinctly different sole grinds, including an Eye2 sand-wedge-inspired option, to ensure that trained Ping club fitters can properly match a Glide 3.0 to a golfer’s swing and playing conditions,” said Ping president John K. Solheim in a press release.

Made from 431 stainless steel, the Glide 3.0 wedges have a CTP (custom tuning port) that’s made from elastomer to provide greater feel and forgiveness. The CTP insert in the back cavity of the Glide 3.0 wedges is larger than the Glide 2.0 wedges, according to the company, which better activates the elastomer creating better feel. Also, Ping designed the Glide 3.0 wedges to have more perimeter weighting, resulting in higher MOI (moment of intertia), and thus, more forgiveness.

For more spin, Ping sharpened the edge radii of its wheel-cut milled grooves to create more friction between the club and golf ball at impact, and an extra half-groove was added onto the bottom of the faces in the higher lofted wedges (54-60 degrees) for more spin.

As previously mentioned, Ping’s new Glide 3.0 wedges were created lighter and with longer grips. The grip was lightened by 6 grams and the shaft was lightened by 5 grams; in addition to a 4-gram decrease in head weight, this equals an overall reduction of 15 grams for each wedge. Also, the grips have been lengthened by three-quarters-of-an-inch and the grips have a reduced taper to allow golfers to choke down on the club for “more versatility and trajectory control,” according to the company. Solheim says the new weight distribution will help golfers swing the club easier.

“The lighter overall weight allows the Glide 3.0 to better blend into a golfer’s full set and help them swing the club easier,” said Solheim. “We’ve also reduced the head weight by approximately four grams while maintaining our traditional wedge swing weights to ensure golfers still benefit from the club head feel they need to play with control and precision.”

The Glide 3.0 wedges are available in four different grinds, allowing fitters to find the right wedge for each golfer’s attack angle and short game needs. There’s a Standard Sole (SS grind, 46-60 degrees), a Wide Sole (WS grind, 54-60 degrees), Eye2 grind (54-60 degrees) and a Thin Sole (TS grind, 58 and 60 degrees). The SS grind is for moderate angles of attack, the WS grind is for steeper angles of attack, the TS grind is for shallow angles of attack and the Eye2 grind has a high-toe design that was originally developed by Karsten Solheim nearly 40 years ago, according to Ping. The Glide 3.0 Eye2 grind matches the original profile of the Eye2 sand wedge, and Ping says the narrow hosel transition helps with bunker shots and touch shots around the green.

Ping’s new Glide 3.0 wedges come stock with Ping Z-Z115 shafts made by Nippon, but a number of aftermarket shaft options are available. They’re also equipped with Ping 360 Dyla-wedge Lite grips offered in three different sizes. They are currently available at Ping authorized shops worldwide for $160 each with a steel shaft and $180 each with a graphite shaft.