Ping Sydney Putter Review

Bottom Line: The Ping Sydney putter is lightweight, balanced, and accurate. One of Ping's highest MOI designs, the Sydney is manufactured with a wider footprint and is built from lightweight, milled aluminum with dense tungsten weights that aid balance and accuracy.

Pros

• Sets up square
• Wide footprint promotes straight back-straight through stroke line
• Brightly colored alignment aids easy to keep in field of vision

Cons

• Thin, metallic sound off the face

Sept. 27, 2011 - Being a leader in golf club fitting for 50 years, Ping recently trumped the competition by taking its traditional putter fitting into the 21st century with the iPING putter fitting application for the Apple OS. With the iPING system, golfers are classified by putting style and Ping makes a fitting recommendation based on the golfer's style of putting. Whether you are a "popper" or a "smooth stroke," Ping recommends a style of putter based on your putting stroke path (or, to put it another way, your putting arc).

Enter the Ping Sydney putter. At first glance, I figured the Sydney model was named due to its resemblance of the famed Sydney (Australia) opera house. It's big, in other words, and there appears to be a lot going on. But not to worry. The Ping Sydney is a face-balanced, high-MOI putter for players whose putting path is straight back and straight through. The wider footprint ofthe Sydney putter presents a balanced look, crucial on a back-and-through stroke.

Visually, the putter's red alignment bar stretches from the top line of the steel face to the rear portion of the head, which provides a nice reinforcing aim line.

Along with the wide-body design, a trio of 8-gram weights helps keep things stable. However, I was a bit disappointed with sound off the face. I expected a more solid and muffled sound. Instead a thinner, "tinky" sound is what I heard off the face. This was really the only demerit for the Ping Sydney putter for me.

Feel off the putter face, on the other hand, is one of softer metal even though there is not an insert. More importantly, distance control is very good on both fast and slower greens thanks to the high MOI and metal face. Accuracy is aided by the visual alignment and the overall shape of the putter, leading to easier center-face placement.

If you have identified your stroke as straight back and straight through, the Ping Sydney putter is worth a look. Its solid control and accurate roll just may save a few strokes.

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