Heading into ClubTest 2026 , I thought I had a pretty good idea of which 2026 driver I was going to like the best.
But we started at Ping and their new G440 K driver threw a wrench in my and seemingly every other of our tester panelist’s ideas for their dream 2026 setups. And let’s be clear, it’s a great wrench.
We can’t get into specifics, but most of us are very excited about this driver.
On this week’s episode of GOLF’s Fully Equipped, co-hosts Johnny Wunder and Jake Morrow, recording live from the final day of our ClubTest 2026 fittings, talked about why — again, without sharing details — the G440 K could be the hottest driver of 2026.
PING G440 Max Custom Driver
The G440 driver family (MAX, LST, SFT) is optimized to deliver more ball speed through multiple advancements, including PING’s deepest CG in a driver to date and a shallower, thinner face, while continuing to ensure the game-changing forgiveness expected from a PING driver. The G440 MAX is the most forgiving model and fits most golfers; available in 9°, 10.5° and 12° lofts with a three-position adjustable back weight.
HIGHLY FORGIVING
Lighter head weight allows for heavier back weight.
FASTER FACE
Shallow, thinner, face increases ball speed for more distance, higher launch.
SOUND DESIGN
New shaping, carbon crown and internal ribs produce muted impact experience.
FREE-HOSEL DESIGN
Saves weight to lower CG, increase forgiveness. Allows for more heel-side face flexing for consistent ball speed across face.
“I think that driver is going to be like a cheat code,” Morrow said. “It’s the closest thing I’ve had to a cheat code.”
What was most surprising is that many of us testing the G440 K expected it to be a high spin, high forgiveness model like its predecessor, the G430 Max 10K. But that’s not exactly what it is.
“Anybody that has fear about that thing, over-spinning or no, it doesn’t do anything,” Wunder said. “The only thing it does is go out in the middle of the fairway and it’s really fast.”
The driver launched on worldwide tours in November, and it just picked up a late-season win in the bag of Lauren Coughlin at the Grant Thornton Invitational this past weekend.
That’s two years in a row that Ping has won a late fall event with an unreleased driver.
Lauren Coughlin was gaming the new @PingTour G440 K driver at the Grant Thornton this week (pic of the sole was from last month’s The Annika)
“I think you were there when I was hitting. I think I turned to somebody and said, ‘This is not a Ping driver,’” Wunder said. “Speed-wise.”
“Anybody that goes into a driver fitting in 2026, if you don’t try the 440 K, you are an idiot. And take away how it looks. It’s big and this and that and whatever, but it sounds like an LST. It spins like an LST all over the face.”
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Coughlin isn’t the only pro who has gotten the new driver, either. Charles Howell III also received the new 440 K and told Wunder about his experiences testing it.
“He calls me, he goes, ‘Pro, this thing just spins too much,’” Wunder recalled. “And I go, ‘Did you loft down? Like, what did you do?’
“It’s like, ‘No, I just got it in nine and flat.’
“And I go, ‘You have to do a couple of things to it.’ I said, ‘So you got to move the weight, you know, toward the toe. You got to loft down.’
“So he’s like, ‘I’m just going to have Spencer send me a new one with some weight forward. So he got one with 10 grams of hot melt upfront.’”
“And he called me last night when we were done. And he goes, ‘Holy s***, Pro, this thing’s incredible!’”
;)