Ping G430 Vs Ping G425 Fairway Wood Comparison Overview

Every year, golf club manufacturers try to make their clubs more appealing.

Some Companies are more effective than others. If you have been keeping a sharp eye on new fairway wood releases over the last few years, you may have noticed that there is not much change from one year to the next.

The Ping G430 fairway woods were released to be the successor of the popular G425 fairway woods. But do they offer enough to make them worthwhile? Is there enough change here? We tested them side-by-side to find out.

Ping G430 Fairway Wood Overview

“It should be noted that the Ping G430 comes in a MAX and SFT version.”

As you can imagine the SFT version has a slight draw bias but in every other way, these woods are the same. We tested the MAX version for this comparison. The Ping G430 MAX features the upgraded “Carbonfly” wrap which, you guessed it, is a carbon fiber crown panel that bleeds into the heel and skirt.

This does help lighten up the overall feel of the club which was a big deal for a lot of our testers with slower swing speeds. They found that the Ping G430 MAX helped them push their distance off the deck by about 3 yards on average.

The Ping G430 woods also have the “Spinsistency” faces which help preserve optimal launch angles on less than perfect strikes.

Ping G425 Fairway Wood Overview

“The Ping G425 has many of the same features as the Ping G430.”

Again, we are testing the Ping G425 MAX specifically but there is also an SFT version. The Ping G425 has features like a C300 maraging steel face, facewrap design and internal weighting that lowers the CG which are all also present in the Ping G430 fairway woods.

The biggest difference is that the G425 fairway woods have stainless steel bodies instead of the composite carbon we see in the Ping G430 fairway wood. The difference can be felt on your backswing. There is just a bit less stability due to the slightly heavier head.

“In most respects, the Ping G430 and the G425 fairway woods performed similarly. They launch high, are copiously forgiving and have a very pleasing sound/feel thanks to maraging steel faces. However, the lighter Ping G430 will help higher handicappers get down the fairway further so we would say there is just enough of a difference to justify the Ping G430.”