I went to my firstest ever demo tonight, at the local range, as Ping were domoing the G2 range. I tried the 460 Driver & the G2 HL irons as well as the SW and GW. I couldnt belive how much better they were than my old cheapo's! Personally i've always thought that there would not be much difference. Especially since hearing people saying that they tried their mates cheap clubs and hit no futher or more acurate than their own oil sheik clubs.

I have to admit I was wrong. One could certainly tell a big difference in the quality of the clubs i hit tonite. the Ping HL cavity backs were so forgiving of my shots I was stunned. Im not sure what they've done. moved the C.O.G. back or something, all i know is it definately worked wonders for me. Bring back the Double Diamond, I say!

it's the constant face of improving technology Darryl plus the added fact that Ping do manufacture a quality product - even if some previous designs have been a touch quirky !

the G2 driver is indeed a great club and it was borderline on the day wheter I bought that or the 983k I eventually went for

the irons weren't my thing but that's only judged against the irons I currently use which are Ping ISI anyway - for some reason I just don't want to part with them , kind of a comfort feeling I suppose ?

one thing about these new Ping clubs is they finally look fairly traditional based against their previous stuff , can only assume somebody new has taken over at the head of design

end of the day "quality" clubs these days (by virtue of their design) make the game dare I say easier and thus more enjoyable for the typical club golfer - and that's got to be a good thing !

sounds like you may be tempted to purchase ?

you pay peanuts you get monkeys so if you want quality you have to pay for it. I did cause i need all the help i can get!

Darryl, I had a similar experience. Went to AGD to try out some different irons around the £200-300 mark. I also grabbed TM & Ping just for reference.
After 6 or 7 balls with each I couldnt believe the difference. I honestly thought with my limited ability that I wouldnt be able to tell one brand from another but consistently hit the G2s further and more accurately than the others.
Each club generally had its own shot pattern and the balls were generally ending up in a group (apart from the occasional wild one!). But the G2 group was further and central. I was blown away.
I have since repeated the exercise on a range with G2s and TM RAC and again the results were similar. Ive now bought a custom fitted set.
I agree that you get what you pay for but I also think that for my ability level its more about maybe one brand is just suited to me rather than another as opposed to which one is more expensive. I was just unfortunate that the clubs that I seemed to hit consistently better were the most expensive that I tried!
At least I have an understanding wife :-)
I wouldnt hesitate now in advising anyone to definitely try a few different clubs out before purchasing any. Once you know which ones you want then shop around. Thats what the internet is good for.
Go to AGD and have a try yourself. Its free, its fun but probably best to leave your plastic at home :-)

Just got back from a demo day at my local AGD and tried the G2 driver in all the shaft combos and I couldn't believe what a variance there was between them. Wasn't too keen on the standard Ping shaft and the Aldila (sp?) green gave a quite noticeable lower ball flight. The Prolaunch, however, was superb and after trying different lofts and with the guidance of the Ping rep, who was very good, the best combination for me was a 11.5* R.

Tried a few 3 woods and the Callaway ERC Fusion was by far the best IMO with the longest distance and least dispersion. My least favourite of the 3 woods was the Cleveland Launcher, the head club felt very heavy, even with the graphite shaft.

Also had a play with the Cleveland CG10 wedges and was surprised at how much heavier they felt than my TM Blacks, also impressed with the range of lofts they offer.