Frankly Golf

Frank:
I’ve heard that some players on tour use graphite shafts in their irons. Do they also use them in their wedges for a uniform feel, or do they use steel in the wedges? If they do use graphite, with people going to four wedges, do they use them in all four wedges or leave steel in their sand and lob wedges?
Thanks in advance,
--P.S.

Dear PS:
There are a few pros on Tour using graphite in their irons, and I think this will gradually increase in number as the graphite shafts come to feel more like steel at their high swing speeds. For those of us with slower swing speeds than the pros, many companies offer graphite in their irons and wedges. If you’re going to have graphite in your irons, then there’s no reason not to have them in your wedges as well. Even though the wedges -- especially the sand wedge -- may be considered utility clubs, you want them to feel the same as the rest of your set unless you do something very different in your swing with this wedge. If you ever use your sand wedge for an approach shot from the fairway or rough, you don’t want that swing to feel different from your other irons, do you? There’s enough to be concerned about in golf without adding that kind of complication. As long as you have the option, put similar shafts into your wedges as you do in the rest of your iron set. To find out more about wedges, visit http://franklygolf.com/ftb/ftb_wedges.asp

About two months ago I broke my Callaway X-14 pitching wedge where the shaft met the hosel. I sent it to Callaway and asked to have the club fitted to 1 degree flat. Previously I had my clubs fitted at an Academy in Orlando and was told my clubs were fitted at 1 degree flat. I received my wedge back, but for some reason I cannot hit it very well. That wedge was my favorite and most deadly club. I have lost confidence in it, and I dread using it instead of using my 9-iron. What can I do or should I do? All I want is my old club back.

Unfortunately, because you broke the shaft in your wedge, and we can’t fix broken shafts, you can’t have the old club back. We can, however, try to assemble a new wedge using the old head to reproduce the club that gave you so much confidence before the accident.

First, I would suggest you check the lie angle of the club you have in hand, to make sure that it is not TWO degrees flat. The original fitting was a one-degree adjustment in the neck of the club, not the shaft; when you indicated to Callaway that you wanted it one degree flat, they may have reasonably interpreted that you wanted them to add a degree. The effect of this flatter lie angle will be that the ball goes right of the target even though you think you are lined up properly. (Click on http://www.franklygolf.com/8rules.asp and go to rule # 7, which will help you.)

Next I would check the shaft. Make sure it is similar to the original shaft flex and model that was in the club you broke. If you have the original broken shaft and it has some identifying marks on it, check these and compare them to the shaft in the repaired club.

If the lie angle is correct, then the differences you are experiencing must be in the shaft. Also make sure the swing weight and the grip size are the same. These can make a little difference, but the change should not be so drastic as to have you lose confidence in your trusty wedge.

If everything checks out – and from your description, it sounds like something is indeed wrong – then my only advice is to drown her and start over with a new club that hasn’t had an evil spell placed on it. Or perhaps take her to the range for a few sessions to build back your confidence. Confidence is a magical thing, and a little practice helps it grow.

Frank,
I really do enjoy your column and I know that you will be able to answer my question about grooves on wedges. Do new sharp grooves make a difference to the spin on the ball when I hit the ball from a tee?
Jim, NC

The answer is NO they don’t. If you have a sandblasted face this will probably do as much or more to increase the spin than a grooved face. When you are hitting out of the rough then grooves do matter and the better defined they are the better off you are to get some spin on the ball. The rough condition will always reduce the spin from a wedge when compared to a dry condition but from deep (4 to 6 inch) heavy rough it doesn’t matter what ball you play or configuration of grooves you have on your wedge.

This is the point I have tried to make in my Frankly Friends Newsletter this month (click here to read). The USGA has more important things to worry about than thinking about changing the groove configuration because some pros are able to get out of the rough relatively easily with out too much concern about being there. My proposal is to lengthen the rough for those situations where this is important. The upheaval of changing groove specifications is not worth it. Read the newsletter and tell us what you think by voting.

I read, oftentimes, about pros playing wedges that are bent to lofts one or two degrees less than what they were manufactured for. My assumption is that, this would remove a similar amount of bounce from the wedges themselves. How is this beneficial? You've recommended that when purchasing a wedge, we should look for wedges with at least 14 degrees of bounce. What is different about a professional's play that they do not need as much bounce as an amateur?

Matt,
You are right, if you bend a wedge to decrease the loft by two degrees you will similarly decrease the bounce by the same amount.
A large bounce (14 degrees or more) is required on most sand wedges to avoid the club digging deep into the sand. Once the club’s leading edge starts to penetrate the ground (sand or soft turf) the bounce will add resistance to prevent continued penetration and tend to make the club slide. So instead of digging into the sand or turf it will tend to bounce off it or slide through it. On the other hand this same bounce on a club will literally bounce off very hard fairways or hard pan in bunkers. When the pros are confronted with hard turf conditions such as many of the Open courses in Britain they ask for the leading edge of their wedges to be sharpened so that the club can dig (cut) through the turf before the bounce takes effect. They may also choose wedges with less bounce for these conditions.

As far as most of us are concerned we are not consistent enough, in the way we present the club to the ball to get away with the clubs with less bounce as used by the pros.

If we hit it fat we don’t want the club to continue to dig itself deeper into the turf or sand and thus need more bounce which will forgive our mistakes. The pros don’t need the added resistance to the club as they are able to control the amount of dirt (divot size) they take. For more on wedges click here. For updated information please sign up as a Frankly Friend by clicking here.

I currently play Ben Hogan FTX clubs. They are lofted strong (From the factory) and I play them 2 degrees up and ½"long as I am 6'1". This gives me a good center hit. I already hit the ball a long way; 7-iron carry is 175. 9-iron carry is 150. I need wedges to have any full swing chances from 125 and in. Should my wedges also be setup ½" long and 2 degrees up or should they be shorter? The guy at the shop says to only lengthen them ¼", but to me I don't get the difference between a ¼ and zero. My grip wouldn't know the difference. Any thoughts?

I would ask for 1/2 inch longer on your PW and the 50-degree wedge as these are still part of the set make up. Today's PW is what the 9-iron used to be and the 50 is what the old PW was. The SW and the 60-degree lob wedge are a little different as they are considered to be utility clubs. So these can be custom for you and you can have them the same length as the 52 or shorter if you want. As there is a 1/2 inch difference in the length between consecutive clubs in your set should be the case for you 3-iron to the 50 degree wedge whatever you want to call it and then stay with the same length 55 inches or 55 1/2 inches for the SW and the 60 degree lob wedge. It is really what you feel comfortable with that is most important.

I am curious to the research and testing done while you were working with the USGA regarding spin rates created by a wedge with grooves, and a wedge with no grooves. Many people are quoting you to have said that research has proven that a wedge with no grooves will impart as much spin as a wedge with grooves in perfect contact, dry conditions. What test was performed? While I agree that a wedge that has grooves will generate more spin out of the rough by channeling moisture and debris away, I find it hard to believe that a wedge with grooves does not affect the spin rate of a wedge shot in dry contact conditions. Surely the bite marks in my golf ball indicate that they have some effect. If square or U-grooves can help to generate more spin in light rough that V-grooves (20% according to your response in Golf Digest) because of more volume... why would it not help in dry conditions? Would more volume allow the soft cover to be "grabbed" more efficiently as well in dry conditions? I found information from research on the matter a little contradictory. When a reader asked if rusting his wedge would help bring back spin on his old wedge, your answer was no, and that he should re-groove his wedge to bring back the spin he had lost. I'm confused. I guess the ultimate question I have for you would be, was there a test done by the USGA that has shown that a grooveless wedge will impart 100% as much spin as a grooved wedge beyond a shadow of a doubt. Are these test results accessible to the general public? Thank you very much for your time and reading my email. I look forward to your response.

The maximum spin you can get from a wedge is to have a high coefficient of friction on first contact and minimum friction when the ball is releasing from the face. Experimenting with saw-tooth grooves proved this phenomenon.

The reason is that the ball is wound up by the oblique impact and then the backspin is created by it wanting to unwind and thus the maximum spin on the ball is just before it leaves the face. The fact that it is stuck to the face during the latter part of the time the ball and club are in contact actually restricts it and slows the spin rate down - as would deep grooves.

This is the main reason why balls spin less off drivers with a spring like effect, which holds the ball on the face fractionally longer than a face with no spring like effect. A smooth wedge face will not spin a ball as fast as a sandblasted face as the initial slippage at first contact is too much.

So, sandblasting helps increase the coefficient of friction on contact but is not as bad as deep grooves in holding the spin rate back on release.

This is certainly not the case when grass juice interferes when it comes to wedges. What was interesting also was that the 5-iron spun more with a small quantity of grass between the face of the ball than when it was a dry impact showing the same phenomenon at this angle of obliqueness. Hope this helps.

I'm going to buy a 60-degree lob wedge to strengthen my short game. I have searched several products, but I don't know much about the bounce. Low bounce? Or 12-degree bounce? Can you help? -- Sung

Sung, bounce is the amount, in degrees, the leading edge of an iron is higher than the trailing edge when it's in the playing position. Bounce has to do with the size and shape of the flange on the bottom of the wedge. It causes the club to literally bounce out of the grass or sand and is designed to prevent the leading edge of the clubhead from digging into the ground, or sand. There is significant bounce for a sand wedge (anywhere from 8 to 12 degrees), as compared with that of a fairway wedge, or gap wedge, which usually has 6 to 8 degrees bounce. Ralph Maltby has written some good books about clubmaking and fitting, more specifically a book titled Golf Club Design, Fitting, Alteration and Repair : The Principles and Procedures.

I have a 10 handicap and am playing Ping i3 irons, fitted 3 degrees flat. I carry 52- and 56-degree Adams triple grind Faldo wedges, standard lie. Pitching and chipping are easier with the more upright lie angle, but if I make a full swing with these clubs (95-115 yds) I tend to pull them somewhat. Should I have the lie adjusted on my wedges or is this an acceptable trade off on these clubs? – Mike

Mike,
You have a few choices: either you should learn how to play your short pitch shots with a flatter lie and get both wedges adjusted (which will correct you full wedge shots); or convert one of your wedges to a flatter lie for the full shots; or get another wedge and drop one of the other clubs in your bag. Flip a coin as any one of the above will work.

SPIN

May 21, 2002
Watching the 2002 Masters, I was amazed by the amount of spin that the pros impart on the ball -- particularly because it didn't seem like they hit down very hard on the shot. While I play to a fairly low handicap, I frequently have trouble getting enough spin on the ball to make it stop dead, much less back it up. So I rely on trajectory. I play a urethane-covered ball, and the greens I play on are typically soft, but somewhat shaggy. A friend of mine said he knew a clubmaker who could "make" his wedge bite like the pros by sharpening the leading edge and working the grooves. Is this a common practice on tour or is it a combination of other variables that allow the pros to spin the ball? -- Doug Kramer, Toledo, Ohio

Doug,
You should not be hitting the ball near the leading edge of your wedge anyway, so if you sharpen it all you will do is damage the ball. The way the pros get the spin is to hit the ball cleanly and with a descending blow. They also have a ball designed to spin on the short shots. In any event, make sure that you only get a lot of spin on the shots that normally would go beyond the flag, otherwise you are losing ground.

I am a high handicapper who is thinking about adding another wedge to my game. I already have a 60-degree lob wedge and was thinking of getting something with a little less loft and more bounce. I was reading some comments about clubs and came to something called "rusting" the club. Does this really help to get spin on the ball? Should I buy a club that is made to rust, or go with the chrome one? -- Matthew Ward, Mishawaka, IN

If you increase the coefficient of friction of the clubface, you increase the potential for spin. Anything that can "grab" onto the ball will increase spin. So it is possible that rust could increase spin, but only by a very minimal amount. The poor esthetics of a rusted club far outweigh any very minor benefit of increased spin.

WEDGES

SPIN