Ben Griffin and Viktor Hovland are the biggest names yet to put in the G440 K.
Jack Hirsh/GOLF, Johnny Wunder/GOLF and Getty Images
Welcome to GOLF’s Fully Equipped’s weekly Tour equipment report. Each Friday of PGA Tour weeks (plus other times, if news warrants), GOLF equipment editor Jack Hirsh will run you through some of the biggest news surrounding golf clubs on Tour, including changes, tweaks and launches.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Ping’s G440 K just earned perhaps its toughest conversion yet.
Viktor Hovland has a boatload of golf clubs still in his bag from 2019-2020, the years of his first two wins on the PGA Tour. But he has one less this week as his venerable G425 LST driver took a back seat to Ping’s new G440 K driver.
Hovland is a notoriously hard switcher when it comes to his gear, still playing Ping’s i210 irons and a Ping Glide 2.0 60˚ wedge. When it comes to the driver, he’s been close to switching to one of Ping’s new G440 line of drivers before. He made a surprise switch to G440 LST at the Masters last year before returning to the 425 before his next event.
But he was really impressed with the new 440 K in his initial testing.
“The spin consistency off the face is a joke,” he said on Tuesday. “If I hit it off the heel or the toe with a 425, the spin discrepancy is very large. Like if I hit it off the toe, I can spin it under 2000. If I hit it off the heel, I can maybe get up to 3000. Versus the 440, it’s very tight. It goes from maybe 2000 to 2600, so a huge gap. And it’s also faster.
“However, the problem is it launches a little bit higher for me. And for some reason, just with the setup that I’ve tested with, it tends to go a bit more to the right. Right now, with my golf swing, when I get stuck, my miss is already a high-right miss.”
Hovland would have been content to stick with the G425 this week, had it not been for poor performance off the tee on Monday, leading to an evening text to Ping Tour Rep Kenton Oates.
“Monday night, he wanted to try some shorter drivers, 45 inches,” Oates told GOLF. “And I was like, ‘Well, this is a perfect time to keep trying the K because the shorter length will take off some height and should help reduce the right miss.”
What’s interesting is that the unique properties of the K driver, a large profile driver with an extremely deep and low CG, should help players square the club face. In early testing, it didn’t go as far right as the 440 LST did, but it was still far enough right for Hovland to start the season in Dubai with his trusty G425.
But this week, Oates decided not only to have Hovland test the K with a shorter build, but also with a different shaft, the Mitsubishi Whiteboard 73 TX.
“The one thing that we’ve always noticed and seen is very good start line tendencies. It’ll start where you’re swinging it and kind of just stay with you really well,” Oates said. “That WB did exactly kind of what Viktor needs this K to do: go a little bit lower and go a little bit more left.”
That was the final build Hovland went with. Despite the .75″ shorter shaft than his previous driver, Hovland was still retaining a 173-175 mph ball speed with more consistentcy and hitting his optimal 9˚-10˚ launch window with 2300 rpm of spin.
If you look closely at the shaft, you’ll see the shaft graphics are actually facing up, the opposite side on what they previously are. That’s because the shaft was actually built earlier this week for Ben Griffin, who also tested it in a G440 K.
Mitsubishi Chemical Diamana WB Wood Shaft
The board is back. After a few years away, the vintage surfboard always associated with Diamana™ makes its return with Diamana WB. Built on an extraordinarily popular and tour-proven platform, WB brings classic low-low performance and the legendary stability and control you’ve come to expect after two decades.
The first in the 6th Generation Diamana™ family, WB is designed with all the traditional branding that made Diamana™ so beloved, including flowers in the handle section, a surfboard behind the Diamana logo, and return to the original 53/63/73/83 weight class designations. But rest assured, the only thing throwback about Diamana™ WB is its appearance. Indeed, super high-modulus 80-ton Dialead Pitch Fiber is used in the butt section to deliver maximum stability and increased energy transfer and high modulus 46-ton fiber is used in the shaft’s angle plies to reduce torque without increasing weight for improved control and stability. Carbon fiber orientation at the tip section is optimized to further lower torque.
The classic feel of this Diamana™ profile is achieved through the use of our proprietary Xlink Tech™ Resin System and MR70 technologies. Our Xlink Tech™ Resin System increases the strength and durability of the shaft while driving carbon fiber volume up for better feel. Feel and strength is further increased through the use of our aerospace-grade MR70 fiber – our strongest fiber to date.
“The shaft that Victor’s played for 5 years was a James Hahn backup driver because Hovland broke his driver in Mexico,” Oates joked. “So maybe that’s our key to getting Viktor into new product is just build stuff for other players and then work for him.”
Griffin plays his drivers at 44.75″ and neutral but Hovland uses his driver Ping’s flat setting, the opposite side of the adaptor. So the shaft ended up at 45″ when installed in Hovland’s preferred setting.
Griffin also ended up making the move to the 440 K from his G430 Max 10K this week because he was actually seeing the driver reduce his miss.
New Ping G440 K driver officially in play for Ben Griffin at WM.
Watching him crank this thing on the range on Monday was fun, but he actually seemed like he was gonna stick with his G430 Max 10k.
Ben has loved to test new gear lately, but he says he rarely likes to switch.… pic.twitter.com/0ZYyT8tJhy
Ping built him several drivers to test at home while he took last week off but he didn’t end up trying them until he got to TPC Scottsdale on Monday. During a Monday afternoon session, Griffin dialed in both a 440 K build and new 430 Max 10K build that could potentially go in, but after playing with it during the week, Griffin went with the new K and his gamer UST Lin-Q Powercore White 7TX shaft.
The three-time winner in 2025 is also using a new Maxfli Tour X-LS golf ball, which he said allows him to swing hard at the ball with his driver and not worry about the ball spinning too much.
Maxfli announced a three-year extension with Ben Griffin, which is now the only equipment partnership the three-time PGA Tour winner has for this season.
Had a really fun chat with Ben on Monday on going going the free agent route for his clubs, and he said Maxfli was the gear… pic.twitter.com/KGKf9fwd0l
“I’m a pretty high ball flight player. I’m able to put a lot of spin on the ball,” Griffin told GOLF this week. “So this new golf ball that’s come out, the Tour X-LS, is able to keep the same profile ball that I’m playing, yet knock down the spin numbers a little bit and knock down the trajectory height for me and it’s going to be a perfect golf ball.”
Why a game improvement hybrid is trending on Tour
Last week, Cam Young did something very strange with his bag.
Young, who had been playing a GT2 hybrid, switched to to a 20-degree GT1 hybrid with a Mitsubishi Diamana PD 80TX fairway wood shaft last week for Torrey Pines’ deep rough. It’s stayed in his bag for this week at TPC Scottsdale too. Tom Kim is doing the same with one in a hybrid shaft.
Really cool story going on with @Titleist right now with both Cam Young and Tom Kim adding the GT1 hybrid to the bag last week and keeping it for this week.
Young's (pictured) especially because it was built with a fairway wood shaft to play as a 5-wood.
The GT1 is a unique club in the Titleist lineup with an oversized, almost fairway wood-like profile and the unique ability to accept both fairway wood and hybrid shafts. Unlike the other two GT hybrids which have left-to-right CG adjustability, the GT1 has fore-and-aft adjustability.
While the GT1 fairway wood, with a large and shallow profile, has gained traction on the PGA Tour, Titleist Senior Director of Player Promotions JJ Van Wezenbeeck said last week at Torrey Pines offered an opportunity to reintroduce the GT1 hybrid to players looking for versatility.
“When we look at GT1, we’re not looking at it solely for slower speed players,” Van Wezenbeeck told GOLF. “We’re looking for trajectory reasons. This is an opportunity for us to do kind of these unique builds on this in-between club.”
The GT1 has a sharp leading edge that allows it to sit close to the turf, making it easy to launch. That high ball flight was great for the rough at Torrey Pines or the firm desert greens this week at TPC Scottsdale.
But it’s the ability of the GT1 to take a fairway wood shaft, which will play softer than a larger tip diameter hybrid shaft, that makes the club so versitile for fitting.
“For Cam Young, we were trying to create more of a 5-wood type golf club, so we were able to build it with a 5-wood shaft and use a .335 tip on the interior diameter, but a hybrid outside diameter [on the hosel]. We get kind of the best of both,” Van Wezenbeeck said.
Big Tone goes low torque
Tony Finau made an under-the-radar switch to a new Ping Scottsdale Tec Ally Blue Onset putter last week during his T11 finish at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Finau hasn’t gained strokes putting for a PGA Tour season since 2022 and had lost more than a stroke in each of the first two events of the season. So he showed up at Torrey Pines looking to try a mallet from his PLD Milled Anser 2D.
Tony Finau made a really surprising change to a Ping Scottsdale Tec Ally Blue Onset putter.
Not only does it make Finau the latest player to move to a low torque putter, but it also moves him away from the milled face of his previous PLD Anser 2D.
This isn’t the first time Finau has used a mallet as he tried an PLD Milled Ally Blue Onset previously at last summer’s FedEx St. Jude Championship.
Ping Tour rep Dylan Goodwin told GOLF they started with the new and unreleased Scottsdale Tec mallet putters since they just arrived on Tour at the end of last season at the RSM Classic.
“Tony gravitated towards the Ally Blue Onset again and the Ketsch 4, which has a hosel he had used in the past on a blade putter,” Goodwin said. “After going back and forth between the putters, the Ally Blue Onset ultimately matched better to his stroke and delivered the face at impact more consistently. As a result, his start line improved, and he liked the contrast between the white finish of the head and the black sight line, which he found easier to line up with.”
While the Scottsdale Tec version and the PLD Milled version of the Ally Blue Onset are the same shape, they have different optics, alignment features and perhaps most importantly, feels. This new Scottsdale Tec marks the first time Finau hasn’t used a milled putter face.
However, the putters sounded the same to him, so he didn’t mind the softer feel of the insert.
In his opening round Thursday, Finau gained .611 strokes on the greens, despite shooting a two-over 73.
Check this out
This section is dedicated to one cool photo we’ve snapped recently on Tour, but haven’t had a reason to share yet. For this week, check out Tony Finau’s Nike Vapor Fly Pro 3-iron.
Brooks Koepka isn’t the only player with this club still in the bag.Jack Hirsh/GOLF
Odds and Ends
Some other gear changes and notes we’re tracking this week.
Brooks Koepka led all gear news this week with his switch to a TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-neck putter. He missed the cut and lost more than 3.3 strokes putting. He did improve to gain nearly .3 strokes putting in the second round … Collin Morikawa also changed to a Spider Tour X, but with a flow neck … Jordan Spieth switched to the new Titleist SM11 wedgesand a GT2 hybrid, replacing his longtime TSi2 … Marco Penge moved back to a Scotty Cameron Newport Tour Prototype and switched to SM11s … Sam Burns also added SM11s along with Tony Finau (just 60), Michael Kim, Bud Cauley, and Eric Cole … Aldrich Potgieter traded his Scotty Cameron 009M gamer for a new Fastback 2 Tour prototype … Chris Kirk added a Quantum Triple Diamond, keeping up momentum for Callaway staff conversions … Justin Rose’s putter last week at the Farmers was actually a backup after his gamer was damaged beyond repair.
3 things you should read/watch
A selection of GOLF content from the past week that may interest you.
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Jack Hirsh is the Associate Equipment Editor at GOLF. A Pennsylvania native, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, earning degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his high school golf team and recently returned to the program to serve as head coach. Jack also still *tries* to remain competitive in local amateurs. Before joining GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a Multimedia Journalist/reporter, but also producing, anchoring and even presenting the weather. He can be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.
