Time for some new wedges
 

Some new irons are on the menu for this year, but I'm also going to get a couple new wedges. I like my pitching and gap wedges to feel and play like the rest of my irons so those will be part of the set, but I prefer something different for my sand/lob wedges.

I wondered what kind of input the lbg membership could provide before I start shopping. Specifically...

• Any thoughts on 54* vs 56* out of the sand?
• Any comments on bounce? (I was going to go with a high bounce on the 54 or 56 and low bounce on the 60)
• Shaft Flex. Do you use a different shaft flex on your wedges than on the rest of your clubs? If so, why?

Any other comments about your wedge setup or things I ought to try are welcomed!!

I've just had a new set built -I would recommend you read "search for the perfect club"by Tom Wishon.

I have spin milled Vokeys 56* and 60* and use a high bounce on the sand wedge and a low bounce on the lob. They really stop the ball well on the greens. I can use both in the sand, and open/close to alter the bounce as needed. They are great out of all sorts of lies in the rough as well.Cleveland 588's are great, too, and are bargain priced.

I'll do that, thanks.

I've owned Vokeys and 588's and was very happy with each. The spin milled Vokeys and CG12's are high on my list. I've also seen some modified 588's that are interesting. They have been "ported", ground, and the grooves enlarged to the max.

I have owned 3 sets of cleveland wedges ,52,56,&60. in the 588's and CG10's.
I have now found I was playing wedges that were too light for me.I have also gone to a 53 and a 58 so I now carry only 3 instead of 4 ,but i can now hit more shots with my gap wedge now that it is weighted correctly.
Also ,the lofts and lies are correct!:)

I agree with neil, at least for me the CG series was too light and didn't have enough feedback. I found the Vokey's didn't have enough heel relief to allow for creativity, just my personal taste I suppose.

I love my Ping Tour wedges (54 and 58 ), worth considering them if you haven't tried them.

Wedge Grinds and Initials
 

Great comment, Ed. As usual, you're right on!

In fact, almost all 'high-bounce' wedges have the same problem (at least for the 'creative' player who wants to 'open' the blade in tight lie situations).

To solve the problem, every PGA TOUR player I work with grinds the heel of his lob wedge (and sometimes his sand wedge, too). For Titleist players, Mr. Vokey often performs that service personally, just before he stamps their initials on the back of the blade!

8-)

Customizing
 

I suppose we could send our wedges to the Bucket's custom shop for tweaking.......:crybaby: :crybaby:

UPP in nice enough to play today Ohio

I've not tried these but will. Are your's straight off the shelf?

weighting
 

The Wishon book is in the mail. I assume it covers how to determine the proper weighting? If not, could you explain how to find the correct weight?

Thanks to golfgnome I now know I need much flatter than normal clubs, so that will be a mandatory adjustement on the new sticks. When I had my current wedges bent, I had the lofts checked, also; I found it interesting that two of the three were over a degree different than what was stamped on the club.

I'd really like to only carry a couple wedges as you are doing. Have you had any grinding done on either of your wedges? What bounce do you play in the 58?

Thanks

Yep, lie is fit of course (1 deg flatter than the rest of my set), but no grinding or modifications to the head or grooves.

The book does explain what weight they should be in relation to the rest of the set.
The big thing for me was that the first wedge you use "for less than full shots" should be heavier [in swingweight]than the rest of the set.The sandwedge is always heavier than the rest of the set.
So even though my clubs were MOI matched,the wedges were made to suit the shot ,not the set.
As an aside, the wedges are just beautiful.[micro milled]:golf:

Sorry Bambam,
forgot the last question.
No additional sole grind ,but the 53 is a 52 [with 6* of bounce] bent.
the 58* is a 60 bent to 58 with an original bounce of 10*.
The original sole grind gives a "no bounce" look ,but increases as you open the face .:eyes:

Wedges
 

Ben

What wedges did you end up with...I am looking too:)

HG

Here's a quick summary, keep in mind that it's cold up here and I couldn't hit many of these outside.

Of the wedges I tried in the store, I liked the ping tour wedges best. The weighting, grind, and feel at impact were all really nice.

The vokey spin milled, callaway x-tour, and cleveland 588's were all really nice, also.

As I was narrowing down my search, I decided to try the lie board in store to see if my swing and/or specs had changed. It was different than this time last year, so I decided to hold off until I could see Ted about some new irons.

When visiting Ted, let's just say my swing was rusty from the winter. He worked his magic, and had me hitting the ball good enough to do a fit and order clubs. While at the swamp, I checked out the Henry Griffitts RDH wedges, and they were basically identical to the cleveland 588's. Since I trust the HG quality control and liked the style and feel of those wedges, I ordered a 60, 56, and 51 degree @ 3 degrees flat.

The snow finally melted, and I played my first 9 holes with them last weekend. They performed beautifully, as did the rest of the HG irons.

:golf:

Thanks Ben for the feedback....a couple of more questions if I may...what bounce angle did you select for each of your wedges and what factors contributed to that selection?....what is the basis for 3 degrees flat on the wedges..is that the same lie as the rest of your irons?

I have short legs in proportion to the rest of my body, and 3 flat is the result of the dynamic fitting (and is actually the same as my results on many static wrist-to-floor type fittings). My whole set is 3 flat. That's up from 4 flat last year because of swing changes.

Ted or Jeff will have to provide the exact bounce numbers, but it's pretty standard. Higher bounce on the 56 for sand shots, and lower on the other clubs so it's easier to play from tight lies and execute different types of shots.

In search of Wedges
 

Anyone familiar with or play Mizuno MP T Series Wedges?

You are in good hands.
I really wanted Jeff to fit mine, but distance -and the fitting process meant I couldn't:salut:

It's pretty easy to grind your wedges to suit your needs...
 

Which is why I have a bench grinder... to fix the heels, among other tasks. The Ping wedges look nice, harkening back to the old Eye 2 wedges. You can also still pick up the Trinity Golf Eye 2 remakes on eBay.

Any tips or good links for doing this? (other than keep your fingers and face away from the stones and practice with an old wedge) ;-)

Get a ping wedge and ask them to grind it .. only about less than 20 a head.

Callaway C-grind.. is available now :)

ya, but that's no fun! :)

Borrow a friends PING wedge and ask them to grind it-I WOULD LOVE TO SEE THAT FUN:salut:

Somebody should buy them Chikara wedges . . . they are HAWT. I can't afford 'em.

Wear rawhide leather work gloves and safety glasses. You can get practice iron and wedge heads from golfsmith or buy thrashed old clubs from Goodwill/Salvation Army. Go to Tom Wishon's website for basics. It's really not that hard to do. I just practiced a little before I tried it on my good wedges. Or just go on ebay and find a nice 60* Trinity Golf wedge. They are identical to eye 2 lob wedges (except those were 58* originally, I think). You can get up and down out of a ball washer with one of those.

What kind of grinder did you buy? Can a retard (me) do it?

I just have a plain old 1/2 hp bench grinder from Lowes. Cost about $80.00. You can also get the various buffing/polishing wheels and compounds to pimp out your irons (um... refurbish, that is) at the end of the season.

If you can rub your tummy and scratch your head at the same time, you should be okay. Just wear the gloves (the metal gets hot fast) and as Norm Abrams says, "Always weah youah protective eyegeah..."

Go East
 

They sure are man.

I just got a set of Zodia wedges and they are the business Im even spinning the yellow range balls back at the range.