PING Golf Blueprint Forged Blade Irons Preview: Tour Inspired for the Elite Player

Focusing on the needs of highly skilled golfers who rely on pinpoint accuracy, PING Golf has released their new Blueprint forged blade irons.  They're shaped and sized to deliver the workability and confidence required to play with score-lowering precision. 

 

The irons are one-piece, four-step multi-stage forgings, made from 8620 carbon steel with tungsten toe and heel weights.  They can be ordered and custom fit at authorized PING golf shops around the world. 

PING Golf President John K. Solheim said, 

"As the name suggests, we've applied a Blueprint approach to the new irons.  Every detail is extremely precise and carefully calculated.  The resulting design is spectacular in every way for the elite player, performance, feel, and looks.  It's a true shot-maker's iron crafted with precision and for precision." 

 

While the Blueprint irons aren't for everyone, PING encourages all golfers interested in these new forgings to get fit and compare it to other PING iron designs to find the best solution for your game. 

To paraphrase the warning sign next to the first tee at Bethpage Black that we saw so often last week during the PGA Championship. "The Blueprint is an extremely difficult iron to play, which PING recommends only for highly skilled golfers." 

KEY FEATURES 
Workability and Versatility
Blueprint's small blade design appeals to the player who puts a premium on workability and trajectory control.  Fully forged from 8620 carbon steel, the shorter blade lengths, less offset, and narrow sole widths are optimized to perform in all conditions, and to give elite players irons to attack any pin with confidence. 

 

A machined tungsten toe screw increases the MOI for additional forgiveness and combines with an internal heel weight to provide precise swing-weight tuning. 

PING Golf Pro Tony Finau said, 

"I put them in play immediately once they arrived.  They're workable, incredibly versatile, and feel great.  There isn’t a single shot I can't hit with them, which gives me a lot of confidence in pressure situations.  The look at address is also perfect, and the size and shape really fit my eye." 

Tour Inspired and Tour Validated
Based on requests from several PING professionals for a blade-style iron sized and shaped to deliver more control and workability, PING's engineering team took a scientific, methodical approach to the development and design of the Blueprint iron.  Through on-course observation sessions and conversations with the players about the shots they rely on to excel in competition, the engineers began the prototyping process to apply their findings and gather additional feedback. 

 

After extensive in-house research with varying head sizes, the findings revealed the theory of "aim small, miss small" was validated by many of the highly skilled players in the test, who produced tighter stat areas when hitting the more compact head.  That design was proto-typed in limited quantities and released on tour nine months before the official introduction. 

Four Step Forging Process 
A four step, multi stage process for the one-piece forging provides very tight dimensional tolerance control within the compact design.  The high-strength, 8620 carbon steel increases the iron's durability, ensuring long-lasting performance and quality.  More than 50 steps in the manufacturing process, including machining the face and grooves, are 100-percent inspected. 

 

Pleasing Sound and Feel

The choice of 8620 carbon steel combined with a head design that concentrates mass through the impact zone delivers a pleasing sound and feel.

PING Golf Pro Louis Oosthuizen said, 

"The feel is amazing.  I love the feedback I get and how smoothly they go through the turf from any lie.  They're like no other iron I've ever hit.  The Blueprint's workability gives me the control to hit all the shots with the precision I need to win tournaments." 

 

The irons are available in 2-9, with PW, at a price of $230 per iron, and can have the lie adjusted up or down 2 degrees.  They come with the Golf Pride MCC Align Black/White as the stock grip (in standard or midsize), with other optional grips available as well, including Arccos Smart Grips.  The shaft options include True Temper Dynamic Gold 120 (S300, X100), and PING AWT 2.0 (R, S, X), with aftermarket shaft options available as well. 

As always, if you have any questions feel free to shoot me an email or DM on twitter or Instagram.