Global Golf Post - January 18, 2010

Golf may now be a power game, and equipment geeks may love to chatter about big-headed drivers that bomb balls from county to county. But it’s the short clubs that are making all the noise these days. That’s because the gear heads are focusing on the new rules regarding the width and sharpness of grooves that will make it harder to spin shots out of the rough. Their consensus is that wedge performance will be more affected than that of any other club in the bag. As a result, wedges have become topic No. 1.

Folks are also wondering what the new regulation will mean for wedge sales. Equipment makers must stop producing clubs that use the more aggressive grooves after this year. Retailers may continue to sell that equipment for as long as it is available. But manufacturers may no longer make them, and touring pros can no longer use them as of Jan. 1. Casual golfers are allowed until 2024. The specter of a dwindling supply of this year’s wedges might cause a run on that category.

The situation also likely will lead clubmakers to push their wedge products hard in 2010, as they surely don’t want to miss a sales opportunity in these difficult times. In addition, companies are digging even deeper from a technological standpoint to see what they can create within the new parameters.

Then, there are the fruits of those engineering efforts, the products themselves. A number of top equipment manufacturers have rolled out impressive new wedge lines that are helping to engender even greater buzz in that category, whether the one with interchangeable faces from TaylorMade, for example, or the CG- 15 from Cleveland.

Bottom line, the golf geeks are right to be talking, as there is so much going on with wedges. Following are some of the most significant offerings:

TAYLORMADE TP XFT

This club allows golfers to remove a worn clubface and replace it with a new one by a simple loosening and tightening of a pair of screws in the back.

“Grooves wear out over time and
become as shallow and dull as those that
we must make under the new rules,” says
Bryan Bazzel, head of product creation
for TaylorMade irons and wedges. “With
the xFT, golfers can get fresh grooves
without having to buy a new club.”
Price: $129 per club with a Z groove
face that conforms to the pre-2010
USGA/R&A rule. Individual wedge
faces are sold separately for $39 each.

NIKE VR FORGED

Nike’s director of product creation,
Tom Stites, designed these with Tiger
Woods’ assistance, and the company is
currently offering eight loft and bounce
combinations, and two finishes. New
models conforming to the change in
groove regulations will begin coming
out this year as well, with some being
released in February and the majority
next November.

Again, the compelling feature here are the grooves, named MACK Daddy by Callaway staff professional Phil Mickelson and fashioned by the company’s head designer, Roger Cleveland. But Cleveland also touts the new C-Grind sole for the ways it enhances the club’s interaction with the turf from all lies and conditions.