First Look: Ping Cadence TR Craz-e-r and Ketsch Mid

by Dave Wolfe

Introducing the Craz-e-r and Ketsch Mid

Today is the day when PING officially announces their new GMax and i irons. While these will get most of the fanfare and discussion today, there are also a couple of new additions to the putter corral that are worth taking a look at as well. History tells us that sometimes it’s the also coming soon products that end up being the most significant of the releases.

For example, raise your hand if you remember when PING announced the release of the original Ketsch last year. Not the new Cadence TR Ketsch, but the original. I’m willing to bet that there are not many hands raised up right now. At the time, PING was all about promoting their new Karsten TR putters, neglecting to mention much about that also coming soon little old Ketsch.

Dial life forward a couple of months and the Ketsch wins the Most Wanted Mallet Putter title for 2014, subsequently becoming one of the most sought after putters of the season. One could argue that PING didn’t really even know how good the Ketsch was. I’m sure that PING knew that the Ketsch was a solid putter, like the other PING putters, but I bet that they were surprised at how good it was and how the public demand just exploded after its victory.

I bring up that Ketsch situation because it is possible that someone could approach the release of these new Cadence TR putters with a dismissive oh, and there are also a couple of putters releasing attitude. I’ve learned from that original PING Ketsch situation not to overlook, and definitely not to flippantly dismiss, any putter release by PING, or other manufacturers for that matter.

You never know when that next Most Wanted Putter is going to hit your local shop.

Refreshing Cadence TR Tech

Before we get to the new models, let’s reset the tape a bit with the Cadence TR line first. A couple of months ago, we were able to provide you with one of the first detailed looks at the new Cadence TR putter line. In that report we looked into the features that are core to the Cadence TR line. Here are the key aspects of the line:

TR Grooves

The Cadence TR line features variable-depth True-Roll grooves designed to promote consistent distance of ball roll, even if you happen to strike the ball toward the heel or the toe. These grooves are manufactured into the various inserts used in the line, with the Ketsch TR grooves being milled directly into the aluminum face.

To perhaps oversimplify, you may miss the sweet spot on the face, but the grooves will still help you get it close.

Cadence Weighting

PING has always been about custom club fitting, both with putters and their full-swing clubs. Just think about how their colored dot system pre-dates the custom programs for other manufacturers.

While the colored dots are about fitting for lie angle, the Cadence system is about fitting for tempo. Every putter head in the Cadence TR line-up comes in a Standard and Heavy weight. In some of these cases, we are talking about a 30g difference. The idea is that one of these heads will be a better match for a golfer’s individual tempo. Personal experiences via the iPING app and also from collecting this year’s Most Wanted Putter data leaves me no doubt that the head weight influences performance. Yes, that was a Coming Soon advertisement for 2015’s Most Wanted Putter articles. Stay Tuned!

Remember too that the heavier models are not counterbalanced. Counterbalanced models add weight to the grip, and thus effectively reduce the impact of the heavy head on tempo. These are not counterbalanced. When you go from the 355g Standard Ketsch to the 388g heavy one, you feel the difference.

There are a few other options worth noting since both of these releases are mallets. All of the PING Cadence TR mallets can be shafted to match swing path. These are not just for the Straight players. Slight Arc and Strong Arc paths can also be accommodated with the Cadence TR lines. Adjustable length shafts are also available if you like to tinker, or have not yet achieved a consistent putting posture or height.

 

Cadence TR Craz-e-r

The Craz-e is one of those putters that has performed its way into golf history. I remember when Kenny Perry’s buddy gave him one to play with and Kenny then went on to win millions of dollars with it, until it broke.

I’m also sure that Webb Simpson is not pleased with the USGA’s 2016 relegation of his Craz-e to the garage. Millions made there too.

So what makes this one Craz-e-r? Basically, it’s the new alignment system. PING has added an elevated sight line system to the Craz-e-r, allowing the golfer to site the ball from stem to stern of the head. It is similar to what we saw with the Anser T and Anser W blades. I do think that this is the first mallet to feature this kind of alignment structure.

Will this modification prove effective? Testing will tell. Even if it still just performs equal to the original Craz-e, that’s still pretty impressive.

Remember too that this new model comes in Standard and Heavy configurations, accomplished by using aluminum or stainless steel as the insert material, respectively. One of these weights should allow you to match this new Craz-e to your personal putting tempo.

 

Cadence TR Ketsch Mid

OK, while I tend to run on the opinion that PING knows what they are doing engineering-wise, naming this one Ketsch makes me nervous. In just a little over a year since its release, the Ketsch has earned a ton of street cred. Maybe that should be putting green cred…

Regardless, PING choosing to name this the Ketsch Mid puts a whole bunch of pressure and expectation on the new model. Think about it like naming your first-born-son Michelangelo. Big shoes from birth.

vs. the original ketsch

Anyway, the Cadence TR Ketsch Mid is a smaller, aka more compact, version of the original Ketsch. I never thought that the original was a large mallet, but maybe this smaller one will bring the no potato masher haters into the Ketsch family. Reflecting again upon the name, how could this putter be named anything but Ketsch. Nothing but family resemblance here.

As you can see, the Ketsch Mid is much smaller front to back than the original, but not a whole lot narrower. We see the triple sight lines and the large rearward cutouts on both sides. Weight is again adjusted between Standard and Heavy via sole plate. At 375g, that Heavy Ketch Mid packs a great deal of heft into a small package!

I expect that this new Ketsch Mid will hold up the family name just fine, and that we will be seeing a gold one in the PING Vault before too long. My bet is that putter-prolific Lee Westwood goes gold first.

 

 

Welcome to The Corral

As I mentioned before, the adding of a couple of new models to the existing putter-verse is something that can slip by unnoticed. It’s not our fault. Lots of new putters get released every season, and there are lots of putters out there. We could miss a few. However, when those new putters are made by PING, and one of them is named Ketsch, we really need to pay attention. We don’t want to miss the next “it” putter.

Craz-e-r things have happened.