Ping icrossover utility iron £275
GM verdict
Aiming to bridge yet another gap in the bag you didn’t realise you had, the icrossover sits between your longest iron and the shortest hybrid, but is more of an iron than a hybrid. Compared with the previous Ping G425 Crossover, the sole is a little narrower and the head a bit sleeker to make it play more like an iron.
At impact, the feel and sound of the icrossover is much crisper than the G425 and is a little on the hollow side, like a wood, due to the head design. The narrower sole goes through the turf better, especially on tighter lies where the previous model might have struggled. This gives more playable options for drilling the lower-lofted 2 (18°) and 3 (21°) versions going into the wind, as the flight is lower than the G425 thanks to the new design.
Unlike the 22.5° 4 icrossover, the lower-lofted versions see the stock Ping Tour 2.0 Chrome graphite shaft shortened by 0.5 inches to create more control. Not that the icrossover is some wild stallion, far from it, but it is good to see a brand take a simple step like this to make longer irons forgiving for a greater number of players.
The head also looks better in the bag as the notch on the hosel has been removed. This is because the icrossover is the first one to be adjustable – you can vary the loft and/or the lie by 1° or 1.5° up or down. If you want to leave the loft as is, you will need to choose between a lie of 1.5° flat (F) or upright (U). This is because the shaft has to be bored in off centre to enable the adjustability and the flat option seems to be the ‘stock’ lie, so we would go with that.
Changing the settings does vary the flight and carry by five to ten yards. It also changes the face angle, but maybe not as much as you experience with a driver. It is good to see adjustability in this type of club and Ping’s hosel is compact enough to ensure it does not look bulky at address.
Overall, the adjustable hosel on the icrossover, combined with the visual changes and better sound from the sleeker head, are an improvement on the G425. The slightly lower flight will have more appeal to better players and it combines forgiveness with proper iron playability.