Welcome to Spotted on Tour, where we’ll highlight buzzy apparel, gear, gadgets and more that caught our eye over the weekend. Better yet, we’ll help you get your hands on your own.
Joaquin Niemann glided to victory on Sunday at the Genesis Invitational, and according to Ping’s engineers, that was entirely by design.
The 23-year-old Chilean conquered Riviera Country Club — long one of the PGA Tour’s trickiest setups — with ease en route to his second career PGA Tour victory, a two-stroke win that read more like a wire-to-wire thumping (just the second in Riv history, next to only Charlie Sifford). Niemann’s was an effort tournament host Tiger Woods must have found endearing, if not familiar; it was easy dominance, with no spoilage of cracks nor weaknesses.
Riviera is tough for pros because of its narrowness. Its greens are postage stamps. Kikuyu grass and sloping bunkers gobble mishits and careless efforts. Only the smart, the calculated, the cool survive.
It was these conditions that Ping thought about when crafting its Glide 3.0 wedges, which were in Niemann’s bag for the entirety of his win at the Genesis. When the Glide 3.0 first debuted professionally back in 2021, its aim was simple: provide top-level forgiveness without sacrificing an ounce of performance.
With the Glide 3.0, Ping’s engineers completely overhauled the design, focusing on providing increased spin, extra-soft feel, and of course, high levels of forgiveness. To do this, they inserted larger Cutom Tuning Port inserts behind the head and back cavities for extra spin and improved trajectory. With a series of different head options, there’s a selection for every type of player, from Tour-winner all the way down to high-handicap.
To learn more about the Glide 3.0, check out the link below.
