Junior Golf Clubs Made Easy: Ping Prodi G 2024 Club Set Review
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At a glance
- TG Rating
- Owner Rating
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Pros
- High-level golf clubs
- Superb for juniors learning the game
- Great fitting solutions
- No corner has been cut
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Cons
- Requires significant investment into a juniors golf game
What we say...
It’s hard to commit to buying a set of clubs for your kids knowing how fast they grow up but have Ping just solved this issue for parents? and is the Prodi G set worth the significant investment?
I got a shock when I searched online for the best junior golf club sets. I wasn’t expecting to be greeted by the sort of avalanche of information and advice that even the most obscure search for adult golf gear elicits these days, but I expected a lot more than I got.
When I mentioned the scarcity of information about junior clubs to the editor, he replied with the joyous sentence “I’ve got just the thing”.
By very, very fortunate coincidence, my 12-year-old son Rafer was getting more serious about his golf – and outgrowing the four-club Nike set he got about eight years ago – a few weeks before Ping launched the Prodi G range.
The little information I had been able to garner from the internet was also not especially impressive. Most manufacturers tried providing some sort of junior option, but it was hardly compelling. It all seemed like an afterthought as if it was something they felt they should do rather than being really enthused about it.
It surprised me because while the juniors of 2024 might currently be penniless irrelevances to equipment manufacturers, they are the driver-buying adults of 2034 and beyond. We all remember our favorite trainers or football boots as a kid and, whether they were adidas, Puma, Nike, New Balance, or Mizuno, that affection never leaves you.
I can see thousands and thousands of juniors having a soft spot for Ping from this point forward. They have released a range of clubs and a way of buying them that is, it seems to me, on a different level to anything else out there.
Quality Equipment
Two aspects make the Prodi G range (get it?) different. It has the same technology as its adult lines (I also happen to play Ping clubs – which is pure coincidence, but a very happy one in a ‘father-and-son’ way), which naturally means this is well-made, technology-packed equipment. You probably just expect that level of excellence from Ping equipment, although I can’t emphasize enough that the quality of these clubs is absolutely astonishing.
They do not feel in any way like a lower caliber of kit to mine. Rafer’s pro George has had a hit with the driver and thinks it is incredible. That’s the first and, on the face of it, most important aspect – that the gear itself is high quality.
But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve thought this second element is as at least as important. In fact, it got me recalling something TG’s instruction guru Duncan Lennard said to me 10 years ago when we were discussing the best ways to both get a junior into golf and create a solid player.
He said the correct length and weighting of equipment was almost the No.1 factor because using adult clubs or even cutting down adult clubs is a deterrent to achieving both things.
“Get Golf Growing”
Well, Ping now have an app and website plus a sensational after-sales service that tackles both of these aspects.
The app/website recommends club specifications and set make-up based on the answers to a few questions about the player – skill level, age, height, wrist-to-floor measurement and average driver distance.
It’s not the same comprehensive custom-fitting as you’d get from a trip to Ping’s hi-tech Gainsborough fitting bays, but it is unquestionably of massive benefit and a HUGE step forward in terms of getting the right clubs for a junior golfer.
And then there is this… as part of Ping’s industry-first ‘Get Golf Growing’ scheme, you get a one-time, no-cost adjustment to sets of five clubs or more.
So, the Prodi G clubs grow with the golfer, meaning you get two sets for the price of one. With your one-off adjustment, you can re-shaft, lengthen, re-weight, and re-grip.
I found this as impressive as it is generous and as useful as it is clever. Kids are going to get years of use out of their Prodi G clubs, so in my boy’s case by the time he is ready for adult clubs it feels hard to imagine he won’t want to continue with Ping.
The set itself
There are 10 clubs in the Prodi G range, starting with a 15° titanium driver, 22° fairway wood, and 28° hybrid – I’ve hit all of these and they are superb! Then there are perimeter-weighted irons from 6- to 9-iron plus a pitching wedge as well as wedges with 54° S & 58° H of loft. It’s rounded off with either an Anser or Tyne H mallet putter.
You can order any combination of clubs. There are two smart-looking Hoofer Prodi G carry bags (34″, 4.3lbs. and 30″, 4lbs) to choose from too.
He loves his clubs and is improving by the week. Clearly, his regular lessons are clearly a key part of that, but the equipment fits him and is forgiving, so it’s making the game seem do-able to him. Just as it does for adults, that simply makes him want to play more.
Final verdict
The Prodi G range will be a big success in my opinion and you can easily imagine others will follow suit. That’s only good news because it means if someone searches for junior golf equipment in a few years’ time, their results will be a lot more comprehensive.
Also consider
The Team TaylorMade set is a superb option when it comes to buying your junior their next set. It has the quality of the Prodi G set and is great for developing golfers learning all the fundamentals. If you’re after a more budget-friendly set then the Cleveland CGJ Set the quality of the set is arguably as good and will still do the job for more than half of the price.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chris Bertram – Golf World Top 100 Editor
He was born and brought up in Dumfriesshire and has been a sports journalist since 1996, initially as a junior writer with National Club Golfer magazine.
Chris then spent four years writing about football and rugby union for the Press Association but returned to be Editor and then Publisher of NCG before joining Golf World and Today’s Golfer as Senior Production Editor.
He has been freelance since 2010 and when he is not playing and writing about the world’s finest golf courses, he works for BBC Sport.
A keen all-round sportsman, Chris plays off 11 – which could be a little better if it wasn’t for hilariously poor lag putting which has to be seen to be believed.
