A Day Out at Ping Golf

On Monday, I was given the chance to head out to Ping Golf Headquarters out here in Phoenix to check out the entire facility.

Initial thought? Awesome. Thought after 24 hours of sleeping on the trip? Double awesome. The place gets it, and it's producing some incredible equipment that proves that. Walking through the factory and learning about the history of the place was just as great as getting a chance to hit all the new equipment and find out some of the great things they're working on (one I can't talk about will literally shock the golf world when it hits and I'm really excited for the feedback when it happens).

I got a good chance to tour the whole place, and have some photos of both the tour and some of me testing out the equipment. I never thought going to a factory would be better than playing at a Scottsdale golf course, but hey, even I'm wrong from time to time. Hit the jump to see my trip in photo form.

Above is one of the gold putters in the Ping vault, this one belonging to the one and only Tiger Woods when he won one of the U.S. Amateur events. 

This is the entrance to the vault. Pretty serious stuff!

The Ping Man, the company's original Iron Byron, got a certificate for a hole-in-one it hit back in 1993. Rumor is it took him only five shots to ace it from 80 yards. 

Probably a necessary sign to have with all these golf nuts around. 

Myself and Ping master fitter Bill Iseri, who has been with the company for 11 years. We're working with 7-irons, just going over some of the info after a few shots. 

Me taking a whack with the s56 irons. 

More swings, but this time with the G20 driver. I had to move back because I was getting close to clearing the net. DID YOU HEAR THAT, BUBBA?!

Bill explaining to me how the iPing app works for the iPhone. A really smart idea by the company to combine the latest in technology with the club you use the most. 

And one last shot of me banging a few drives out of the VIP bay.