Fieldreport ADJUSTING WITH THE TIMES: Ping’s Anser driver, complete with adjustable hosel
Switch hitter T
he term Anser fi rst appeared almost 50 years ago, in 1965, around the time the Beatles were recording Yesterday.
Today, Yesterday is the most covered song of all time, and Karsten Solheim’s heel-toe weighted creation is golf’s most aped putter design. Given the heritage in the Anser moniker, it is
perhaps a surprise that the brand has chosen to use it for its most technologically advanced club range to date. Launched this summer, the new Anser family features Ping’s fi rst adjustable clubs, in driver and fairway guise; sophisticated high-launch hybrids; new forged irons; and tour wedges, with smart grooves and exacting sole profi les. “We want to blaze trails but we don’t want
to lose touch with the fantastic history and heritage of our brand,” explains John Clark, Ping Europe managing director. “Anser is a name that has deep-rooted history with
22 SGBGOLF John Clark, managing director of Ping Europe
Ping. It’s one John Solheim [Ping chairman, chief executive and son of company founder Karsten] is very comfortable with in terms of using as a family name for our high-end clubs.
PING’S BRAD SCHWEIGERT
John Clark, managing director of Ping Europe, talks to Duncan Lennard about the company’s eagerly anticipated entry into the market for adjustable drivers
Back in the Sixties the Anser was synonymous with technical innovation, and it continues to be so today.” Moody and magnifi cent in a dark-grey matt,
and retailing at a meaty £355, the 460cc Ping Anser driver could easily be interpreted as a rather grudging nod towards adjustability. Ping is the last of golf’s major companies to bring out an adaptable driver; and when it eventually arrives, it features a bare minimum of adjustability – a hosel sleeve permitting plus or minus half-a-degree of loſt . This is not, however, how Clark sees it. “We’ve been looking at adjustability for
some time,” he counters. “John Solheim was always comfortable with the notion of built-in adjustability, but he was not prepared to do so at the expense of the club’s performance. “In order to build an adjustability
mechanism, you have to add some mass into the hosel area. To stop the club getting heavier,
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