Blinded by the blade?
For any serious golfer and especially juniors it truly amazes me to see how many youngsters are playing the wrong wedges, and not helping themselves progress in the sport. How many times do you use your wedges in an average round, and how much do you invest in your short game?
A giant paradox of the equipment game and logically laughable at how many players give their drivers and putters the annual facelift, but wedges are just too expensive. Makes no sense other than ego (which is fine because they do also come with flashy covers).
The global statistic is that 84% of golfers play cavity back irons, and not until recently has there actually been much innovation, or real thought into this glaring gap and actual problem in the golf market.
Blade wedges look cool to any golf purist’s eye, no doubt and that’s what we have been looking at most of our lives and what we think works best?
But how do you know, like really, really know without any real testing and true comparisons?
Wedge wisdom from the field and after an interesting chat with Alfred Sutton who is the Master Fitter and Tour Representative for Srixon, Cleveland and XXIO Golf South Africa, he was kind enough to point out some of the common mistakes, and misinformation he’s seeing with juniors and younger golfers taking up the game.
- Blade wedges are heavier than the cavity back wedges.
- Larger sweet spots in the cavity back wedges will have more forgiveness than a bladed wedge.
- Cavity back irons will almost always have a lighter shaft option, bladed irons will come with a heavier shaft for the stronger, bigger and better player. Lighter shafts provide more spin and are able to get the ball up in the air easier.
- More bounce is more forgiveness in the cavity back wedges versus lower bounce options in the blades.
One of the worst things you can do is go for a full-size wedge and cut it down. Cost-effective as it may be in some people’s eyes but certainly not for optimal performance. Shafts have various flexes (kick points) by trimming shaft performance and swing weight will definitely be distorted.
Cleveland Golf without a doubt has one of the most comprehensive wedge ranges on the market. Who have thought this out with great global success in their CBX range (see below), and more recently the introduction of the CBX ZipCore (more spin).
A market leader in game improvement and the short game, within the range there’s certainly something to consider when looking at your next upgrade or if you play cavity back irons.
Also, if you go to https://clevelandgolf.co.za/ players in South Africa are now able to book an online fitting or demo. This eliminates more risk out of the situation as wedges are not really accessible to demo and properly compare in a shop, or worst case refundable when things don’t work out.
Best is always try to compare like with like in an authentic golf environment and if you can access accurate tracking with the likes of Trackman. Then you should have the best possible data to guide you.
