What Do Ping Dot Colors Mean?

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What Do Ping Dot Colors Mean?

Ping Golf has made some changes in 2017 along with their G400 line of golf clubs release so please see the update at the bottom of this post.  Updated July 11th, 2017.

Click Here To Read our 2020 Article Revisiting PING’s Dot Colors>

Ping has been the long-standing leader and a huge advocate of getting custom fit for your next set of golf clubs, especially with a new Ping iron set.  If you’re somewhat familiar with Ping irons you’ll notice each iron set has its own Ping Dot Color stamped on the hosel or cavity of the iron.  So what exactly do these Ping dot colors mean and how will they matter to me if I were to get custom fit for a new set of Ping irons?

Ping has a total of 12 dot colors and each one is different based on each golfer’s necessary lie angle of their irons as well as the shaft length.  Lie angles range from 3.75 degrees flat to 4.5 degrees upright in 0.75 degree increments.  Each set of irons is stamped with a dot color that signifies its lie angle and shaft length and while this doesn’t have anything to do with the specific iron set model, it only has to do with each model of irons that Ping brings to the market. So each specific set of Ping iron has 12 different dot colors.

From flat to upright the dot colors go in the following order with gold being the flattest lie angle at 3.75 degrees to brown, orange, purple, red, black, blue, yellow, green, white, silver, and maroon being the most upright at 4.5 degrees.  Please refer to the chart below for more exact specifications regarding each dot color’s lie and shaft length.  For decades Ping has deemed the black dot iron set at being the standard lie angle that most golfers fit into and if you purchased a Ping iron set off the rack from any golf retailer several years ago, in most cases it would’ve been a black dot iron set.

However, sometime between mid-2015 and 2017, after doing further research Ping has discovered that more golfers fit into a bit more of an upright lie angle and now blue dot or yellow dot iron sets have become the new Ping standard dot color, and are typically what more golf retailers keep in stock as opposed to only black dot Ping iron sets.  Keep in mind this does not mean that the lie angles have changed but it’s just that Ping has found that their blue or yellow dot lie angles fit more golfers’ swings than black dot iron sets.

Ping G Iron Set Yellow Dot

Getting custom fit for a set of irons requires several different factors, but for the sake of keeping things simple regarding Ping Iron Set Dot Colors, the main factors in getting fit correctly are your height, and more importantly the length of your wrist to the floor.  The other important factor is the lie angle of your iron set.  While some inexperienced golf custom fitters only measure the first two factors of your height and the length of your wrists to the floor, it is most important to measure your lie angle.

To accurately get custom fit into the correct lie angle, it’s best to actually hit several golf shots off of a lie board.  What does this involve?  It’s actually a fairly easy process, especially if you have a pretty consistent golf swing.  A certified custom fitter will put down a plastic lie board along with some impact tape on the bottom sole of your iron and ask you to take several swings.  You’ll end up the marking the impact tape on the bottom of the iron and your custom fitter will be able to adjust your Ping dot color accordingly, either more upright or more flat so that the sole of the club is striking the lie board and marking the impact tape exactly in the middle.

Ping Dot Color Lie Angle Board

On a side note, to get fit for your lie angle correctly, its important that the person fitting you puts the impact tape on the bottom of the club correctly, Ping provides this impact tape, and your custom fitter should know how to match up the appropriate lines on the impact tape with the grooves on the club face so you get an accurate reading. If the impact tape is put on recklessly you could get fit with an incorrect dot color.

Why is it important to hit real shots off of a lie board?  If you strike the lie board and mark the tape too far towards the toe of the sole, that will cause your iron to open as you strike the ball through the turf and causing a slice or push to the right.  And the opposite is the case when you mark the impact tape more towards the heel.  That will cause you to pull the golf ball to the left, causing an unwanted draw or hook.  Some fitters or golfers think that you can tell if your lie angle is correct by just looking at your setup, this would be referred to as a static fitting, whereas a dynamic fitting would be to truly measure your lie angle during impact and not your setup as the two are often quite different.  Most golfers typically strike the golf ball at a more upright lie angle through impact as opposed to if they were measured only at the setup position.

What happens if you’ve already purchased an expensive set of brand new Ping irons only to find out that you’ve been inaccurately custom fit?  Luckily, you do have a couple options, if you’re lie angle isn’t too far off, say less than 2-3 degrees you can go to your local golf store or golf club repair shop and with the use of a golf club bending machine your irons can be adjusted and bent to the correct lie angle.  If your shaft length is too long or short that can also be fixed quite easily as golf iron sets can be cut down or extended up to 2 inches.

Ping Dot Color Chart

The ideal Ping dot color will help you to make sure you get the correct lie angle and shaft length that is perfectly custom fit for your golf swing so that when you take your swing the sole of the iron is perfectly parallel to the ground creating true, crisp iron shots in the center of the clubface.  Getting fit by a certified Ping Custom Fitting Specialist and getting a new Ping iron set that truly fits your own unique golf swing ultimately generates straighter, longer, and more consistent ball striking in the center of the club face, which also aids in a more consistent trajectory leading to perfect distance control.  This is what Ping Golf is known for and is the exact reason that golfers, who play Ping iron sets, ONLY play Ping iron sets and just upgrade from time to time to the newest model.

Learn more about Ping Custom Fitting Here.

UPDATE: July 11th, 2017

2017 New Ping Color Code Chart

Below you will find a video explaining the changes to Ping’s new 2017 color code chart as well as an image of the chart and Ping’s FAQ’s regarding the new chart.

2017 New Ping Color Code Chart


New PING Color Code Chart Change FAQs

  • What is the reason for this color code change?
    • PING and its iconic Color Code Chart set the standard for custom-fitting systems nearly 50 years ago and it continues to be the method of choice for club fitters around the world. Through decades of fittings and research, PING has evolved the Color Code Chart with the goal of delivering the most accurate and comprehensive iron fittings in golf.

The updated Ping Color Code Chart will allow the fitter to deliver a more accurate fit, especially at the extremes of height and wrist-to-floor measurements. By removing the length-lie dependency, fitters no longer need to convert color codes when adding or removing shaft length.

  • What has changed?
    • The length-lie dependency has been removed by changing color code bands to an “S-shape”.
    • Each color code has a fixed lie angle irrespective of club length. This removes the need for converting color codes when using non-standard-length clubs with the AFS system.
    • Color codes have moved to 1° increments to simplify lie-angle offerings.
    • Yellow and Purple color codes have been removed.
    • Updated length recommendations better align static recommendations with dynamic fitting results. Height columns are now scaled for easier use and overlaps are removed.
  • How is it more precise?
    • By analyzing over 20,000 fittings from our nFlight database, combined with years of research, we have made data-driven changes to better align static and dynamic fittings, particularly with respect to players’ length recommendations.
    • 75% of players will fit to a dynamic color code within one of the new static recommendation compared to 70% previously, while 95% will fit within two color codes compared to 90% on the previous color code system.
  • How is it simpler?
    • Removing the length-lie dependency eliminates the need to convert color codes when building AFS heads at over/under standard length.
    • It also removes the need to convert back when ordering clubs at over/under standard length after a fitting using our AFS system.
    • Removing height overlaps and scaling eliminates ambiguity.
    • Plotting height and wrist-to-floor measurements for a static recommendation is more intuitive.
  • Why do I need to fit length before color code now?
    • Previously, with the length-lie dependency, PING would adjust lie angle for the color code depending on the length of the club when ordering.
    • However, by removing the length-lie dependency to simplify the building of AFS clubs and the ordering process, PING no longer does this conversion. This means that if the length changes, the color code will likely need to change too.
  • Can a golfer order a new set based off their previous specs?
    • New set orders can be placed only on the new color code system. PING always recommends being fit. However, using the conversion chart we can calculate the new color code based off a previous set. The actual lie angle of the clubs will be almost identical, even though the color code may be different. There will be no difference in the performance of the clubs. This applies to all models on new orders.
  • Can a player’s old set be moved on to the new color code system? Can a player’s new set be moved on to the old color code system?
    • No, all sets must remain on the same color code system they are built on. If the set was built on the previous system, it must remain on that system.
  • If a player loses a club or wants to repair/replace/fill-in clubs to a previous set built on the previous color code system, can the player order these on the old color code system to match?
    • Yes! PING will use the serial number to identify the specs of the set and will build the replacement/repair/fill-in clubs on the old color code system to match.
    • Even if the player was yellow or purple we can still replace or add clubs to that set, provided it was built on the old color code system.
  • How do I know which color code system a set of clubs was built on?
    • Using the serial number located on the hosel of the club we can quickly determine which color code system the clubs belong to.
    • Any clubs whose serial number starts with the letter ‘A’ were built on the new color code system; clubs with serial numbers not starting with ‘A’ were built on the previous system.

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