WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Ping PLD Milled line-up expands to include two classic Anser blade additions (notably Tony Finau’s Anser 2D) and three mallets, including the DS72 model that Viktor Hovland used on his way to winning the FedEx Cup last year. The new line also includes PLD Milled Plus, a customisation platform that lets users personalise designs through an interactive online form.
PRICE & OPTIONS: $870 for PLD Milled and PLD Milled Plus. The line-up includes three mallets (Ally Blue 4, DS72, Oslo 3) and two blades (Anser, Anser 2D).
3 COOL THINGS
1. Tour-level milling. While the original Anser design and its most precise re-imagining are part of this next line of PLD Milled putters, most of the five new models got their shapes and specific milling inspired by the input of Ping’s staff of tour players.
Anser 2D
“It’s really been about emphasising how we’re working within our engineering team with the tour player,” said Ryan Stokke, Ping’s director of product design. “We’ve had a principal engineer within our team that is focused making products directly for tour players, and we’re better at grabbing those insights and then having those lead into putters.”
Stokke said it’s also been instructive to see how those ideas have led to small quantity releases (PLD Limited) that might be sold out in minutes that then become some of the wider release models like this group.
Anser
Like the originals, each putter is made through a precision CNC milling process that takes between 75 and 100 minutes per head. That process includes a deep aggressive milling pattern (AMP) on the face. The heads are largely milled from 303 stainless steel (Anser, Anser 2D, DS72 and Oslo 3), with the exception of the Ally Blue 4, which is milled from aircraft-grade aluminium with a heavier steel sole plate.
Oslo 3
2. Roll your own. The five PLD Milled models are matched to specific stroke types based on their hosel type and weighting. The plumber’s neck Anser and wide-sole, heavier Anser 2D (365 grams vs 350 grams on the Anser) are blade-style models that favour strokes with a slight arc. The mid-mallet DS72 uses a double bend shaft for a face-balanced feel that favours more of a straighter stroke. The Oslo 3 uses a heel-shafted flow neck hosel on its compact mallet frame and should resonate with slight arc strokes. Finally, even though it’s the larger of the mallets in this new group, the Ally Blue 4 uses a slant neck to favour those with a strong arc stroke. Both the Oslo 3 and Ally Blue 3 feature heavier heads (370 and 375 grams, respectively), while the DS72 is the same heft as the Anser 2D at 365 grams.
3. Getting personal. The PLD Milled lineup expands to include a new array of personalisation options, all presented through an interactive customer website. Called PLD Milled Plus, the platform will let users choose their preferred alignment aids, paint fills, custom graphics and paint-filled grips through an online selection tool on the Ping website. Golfers take their unique design specifications to an authorised Ping PLD Milled Plus retailer who places the order with Ping’s customisation specialists at company headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, where the design is brought to life.
“The customiser was designed to be relatively easy, allowing the golfer to experiment with different ideas throughout the process,” said John K. Solheim, Ping chief executive and president. “With all the alignment options and combinations, we wanted to have a performance benefit as part of the experience. After that, it’s all about colour, custom graphics and creating a putter they call their own. They can keep it simple or take full advantage of all the options. We’re looking forward to seeing what people come up with.”
