How Ping Is Using Tech To Transform And Demystify The Custom Fitting Experience

There is a persistent myth in the women’s game, "I’m not good enough to be fitted yet." We tell ourselves that until we stop topping the ball, or until our handicap drops, we haven't earned the right to custom equipment. We worry about the intimidation of launch monitors, the fear of performing under the gaze of a pro, and the general feeling that fitting is a luxury reserved for the elite.

The truth is, the higher your handicap, the more you need clubs that help you. Take Gillian Anderson, for example. A member at Felixstowe Ferry Golf Club in Suffolk, she has been playing for seven years and currently plays off a 29 handicap.

Like so many of us, she’s been playing with the same set for years, the original Ping G Le model from 2017, and while she’s known for a while that new clubs were overdue, the thought of the process kept her at a distance.

Gillian represents thousands of female golfers who are making do with off-the-shelf specs that might be sabotaging their swing. Whether it's a shaft that’s too heavy or a lie angle that’s forcing a compensational move, playing with the wrong gear makes a hard game even harder.

The Fitting Process

This is why Ping’s new WebFit Ladies App is such a breakthrough. It’s designed specifically to take away the bay anxiety by allowing you to start the process in the comfort of your own home. By inputting your physical measurements and playing tendencies, the app acts as a digital fitter, calculating your ideal bag setup, and giving you the knowledge and a starting point to walk into a bay or pro shop with confidence.

I’ve been fitted before, but I’ve never forgotten that initial hesitation. To see if a digital tool could take the pressure off, Gillian and I went through the process together. We started with the app on the sofa and ended up at Ping HQ in Gainsborough to make sure the bag setup of G Le4 clubs suggested for both of us was the right fit.

Gillian arrived at the fitting understandably nervous. Her swing was a little tense at first, something every golfer can relate to, but our fitter Nick Boulton was quick to reassure her. He pointed out that nerves might mask your timing, but they don't change the fundamental DNA of your swing.

The app recommended the Ultra Lite shaft for Gillian, and despite trying the Lite version for comparison, the data didn't lie. Interestingly, even though the Lite is technically heavier, Gillian found it felt too whippy and lost the feel of the clubhead during her swing.

Nick explained this is a common psychological hurdle in fitting. If a shaft isn’t the right match for a player's tempo, the brain struggles to process where the club is, leading to that ‘not working’ sensation. With the Ultra Lite, Gillian gained 5-6 yards of carry with her 8-iron and with the driver an extra 19 yards with her best shot.

The human element of the fitting provided some magic when Gillian was introduced to the new G Le4 8-hybrid. Looking down at it, she felt instant confidence, and it flew further and higher than her 8-iron. "I wanted to put it in my bag there and then," Gillian told me. "It just looks like a club you can trust in any situation."

The app is good for understanding wrist-to-floor measurement, but it didn’t know Gillian had previously had a back injury. Gillian stood a little taller to protect her back, so the lie angle of the clubs was adjusted to be more upright. It’s these small nuances, such as injury history and the fact she plays on a windy links course that turned a great app recommendation into a perfect set of clubs.

For my own game, I was already playing the G Le3s, so I wasn't expecting a total overhaul. However, the move to G Le4 showed me greater consistency. My bad shots with an 8-iron were significantly better, and the dispersion was incredibly tight.

While the app suggested a 6-hybrid, I’ve always been an iron player at heart. Nick recognised that I know my own game, and we used Ping’s ‘Swap’ feature to find that a 7-wood actually gave me an extra 12 yards over the hybrid. We added a 6-iron to bridge the gap, proving that a professional fitting is at its best when it blends high-tech data with a player’s own intuition.

Of course, no bag overhaul is complete without addressing the most important club in the bag, the one responsible for nearly half our strokes. We turned our attention to the putter, using the iPing putting app data to see how our current strokes were actually behaving on the green.

Gillian currently uses a centre-shafted blade, but the iPing data showed she was delofting the club by 6 degrees, essentially driving the ball into the ground. Switching her to the G Le4 Anser 2 D instantly stabilised her stroke.

I had a similar realisation. Although I’d never been formally fitted for my current Ping G Le3 Louise putter, the iPing test confirmed I am a strong arc putter. Moving to the new G Le4 version brought me to a +0.1 handicap in the stroke metrics, a level of confidence you just can't get from a standard practice putting green.

The Verdict

Gillian’s initial reaction to the WebFit Ladies App was immediate: "It couldn't have been simpler." After answering a few quick questions including her height, glove size, handicap and driving distance, the app spat out a recommended set: driver, 5-wood, 7-hybrid, 8-iron, 9-iron, pitching wedge, and sand wedge.

As someone who has been fitted before, I was sceptical. Could an algorithm really understand the nuances of a swing? The app's prescription for my own game was a driver, 3-wood, 7-wood, 6-iron, 7-iron, 8-iron, 9-iron, pitching wedge, and sand wedge with a lite shaft.

When we compared the data, the results were virtually spot on. For Gillian, the app was a near-perfect mirror of what the data told her, only needing the human touch to adjust for her previous back injury and the decision to swap an 8-iron for a confidence boosting 8-hybrid. For me, it correctly identified my gapping, even if I chose to swap a hybrid for a 7-wood based on my own intuition and Nick's recognition of my game.

It was also notable that the app recommended a smaller, streamlined set. For many female golfers with moderate swing speeds, the distance difference between a 5, 6, and 7-iron can be negligible. We simply don't need 14 clubs in our bag. Gillian found this realisation incredibly liberating.

"It's quite freeing," she said. "I usually carry a full bag and take many of them of for a walk. Knowing you have exactly the right clubs for your game takes away the element of choice and replaces it with confidence."

The WebFit Ladies App didn't just give us a list of clubs, it gave Gillian the bravery to step into the bay to have that prescription confirmed and fine-tuned. When I asked her if she’d recommend the experience to other women who might be hesitant, her answer was a resounding yes.

"Do it. Absolutely," she said. "I would love to do it again, from a braver standpoint in the bay , just because it can only be helpful. Finding out things like how my back injury impacted the lie angle of my clubs - that would never have occurred to me before."

The WebFit Ladies App is a fantastic gateway into custom fitting. It proves the process isn't something to be feared, but is simply the quickest way to ensure the golf you play is as rewarding and consistent as possible.

We will continue to follow Gillian’s journey with her new G Le4 clubs to find out how these changes translate onto the fairways of Felixstowe Ferry.