Derek needed a Guest Tester for his article for Golf Digest Ireland Magazine, so we asked our customer Michael Forth to help with testing the new range of Vokey Wedges.
Titleist sent over 14 different Vokey wedges with different lofts, bounces and head materials. Michael had explained he was thinking of replacing his own 3 year old wedges and we wanted to see if he could figure out what he needed just by hitting a few different shots …. without our advice and direction.
Straight away, he noticed that the new SM4 heads felt softer but had less spin than his old wedges. This was largely due to the new groove. The SM4 was also the head he liked cosmetically. The Black Nickel can feel a little softer than the chrome ones, perhaps due to the groove configuration on the face. It has more grooves on the face than his old wedges which can give less ball contact with the face.
Michael needed a little bit less bounce on his more lofted wedges. Also a little heel and back edge grind would allow more front edge at impact. Ultimately, this would allow the wedge to work more efficiently with his sliding wedge style of strike.
Michael said during his feedback,
“In testing, I played 20 different shots with each of the 3 wedges and the results were very interesting. Yes, my current Vokeys did grip and stop on the 2nd bounce.
Hitting another 20 balls from the same position with the SM4’s, the ball consistently went higher and ran out more. However, comparing the results, my grouping of balls was much closer to the hole using the SM4
Yes, the ball doesn’t spin as much but if you’re hitting it closer more often and putting yourself into better positions, will I really care how much its spins ?
The Vokey website is extremely good for choosing finish etc, but in terms of being able to self-build a scoring club, the devil is in the detail and surely “mortal” golfers simply cannot have the level of understanding about shaft, loft, lie, bounce, yardage gaps etc. to achieve the maximum performance from their wedges, without being custom fitted and hand built to individual specification by experts. There are 21 different lofts available in 3 different finishes and that’s before you decide on bounce preference and then grind options.”
By the end of Michael’s test session we got a whole different perspective on what the golfer sees when they try to pick out a new club. There is no shortage of information available online. However, this is only good if you can apply it to the situation or the golfer and that’s where the “third eye” comes in.
When you are fitted for a wedge at ForeGolf all the details are taken into consideration, like the correct distance gaps, correct bounce and shaft as they will determine if the wedge will work correctly with the player and their irons.
Sometimes just because it is new, does not automatically mean it will work.
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This article is in addition to Derek’s equipment review in the Golf Digest Ireland Magazine
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