Whilst the pro's on the LPGA Tour make their living using clubs and shafts designed for men, it is clear that this approach isn't going to benefit the majority of amateur women who play the game.
Ping's range of women's golf clubs has always brought the best of the company’s club technology to the market in the best package to benefit the swing characteristics of the majority of female golfers and the 2015 Rhapsody range is no exception.
Ping Rhapsody Driver
The Rhapsody driver brings the Turbulator first seen on the Ping G30 driver to the women's game.
The Turbulator's lower aerodynamic drag is optimised for women, helping to maximise driver speed and distance from slower swing speeds. The distinctive pearl colour driver has a 12º loft which is adjustable through 5 settings, giving a range of +/- 1º to fine tune trajectory.
The centre of gravity(CG) is low and back to promote a more forgiving and higher launch and heel weighting has been incorporated to help square the clubface at impact for a longer straighter flight.
Weight is obviously crucial if you are trying to promote speed and the Rhapsody driver comes with ULT 220 graphite shafts in either light (52g) or ultra lite (40g) options. Combined with a lightweight compound 8g grip meaning the Rhapsody is a lighter driver than the previous generation Serene.
Ping Rhapsody Fairway Wood
The Rhapsody Fairway is a high-MOI fairway club with a low and back CG to make it easy to launch the ball from the tee or turf for greater distance and accuracy.
Again the weight is also biased towards the heel to assist the toe in turning over to square the club at impact and ball speeds are maintained by a uniform-thickness, 17-4 stainless steel, face to maintain velocity on strikes across the head.
Like the Ping G30 fairway, the Rhapsody fairway also features Turbulators on the crown to improve the aerodynamics.
As in the driver, the Rhapsody fairways come with ULT 220 graphite shafts in either light (52g) or ultra lite (40g) and a reduced weight grip to reduce weight and increase speed.
Sharing the "Tropic" colour theme that runs throughout the Rhapsody family, the fairways are available in 3w (18º), 5w (22º) and 7w (26º) options.
Ping Rhapsody Hybrid Iron Set
To complement the Rhapsody driver and fairway woods Ping have created a hybrid iron set to allow golfers to pick the correct clubs for them to complete their bags and ensure that they cover all the gaps with clubs that will hit all the shots required.
There are 3 hybrids available at 4 (22º), 5 (26º), 6 (30º), which have been designed with forgiveness in mind to make it easier to square the clubface at slower swing speeds. The hybrids have a low and back CG with heel bias to get the ball in the air with straighter flights and the large profile aims to give confidence behind the ball at impact.
Like the Rhapsody fairway, the faces are constructed from a durable 17-4 stainless steel and are thinner across the face to maximise ball speeds.
The hybrids are complemented by highly forgiving perimeter-weighted irons from 5-Pitching Wedge with a 52° U-Wedge and 58° Sand Wedge also available.
The irons are 10g lighter than the previous generation Serene and like the rest of the Rhapsody range have ULT 220 graphite shafts that in the irons weigh 55g in the 'lite' option or 48g in 'ultra lite and contribute to getting as much distance as possible from slower swing speeds.
The Rhapsody irons have been modelled on the body of the men's Ping G30 irons to make them easy to hit and extremely forgiving. A large elastomer badge in the cavity of the club gives the club an extremely soft feel especially by dampening vibrations on mis-hits.