Golf Punk
SCRATCH WEDGES
Scratch golf offer a bespoke service unlike anything available to the non tour pro golfer. Fill in a form online and you will be given a myriad of options from what head shape you favour, to the the finish, to what type of course conditions you normally play on. And you can even get your name stamped on the back and choose the colour!
Approx. 120. www.scratchgolf.com
Everyone’s Talking About . . . Sole Grinds
No, really, they are. The corridors of Falmer are buzzing with chatter about heels, camber and bounce . . . .
Manufacturers have always offered loft options on their wedges. You can order clubs in different lies and lengths, depending on your stature. So where does customising go next? Sole grinds, that’s where!
Traditionally, when people bought speciality sand wedges and lob wedges they chose on the look and feel of heads and the amount of bounce on the sole. The bounce affects how the sole interacts with the turf and is the measurement of how much the trailing edge of the sole is lower than the leading edge. More bounce makes it useful out of bunkers, while less bounce is more useful from harder ground. Got that?
Good. Because that’s the easy bit. Other variables confuse the issue even more. A wedge with a wide sole and little bounce will play like a higher bounce model. Conversely, a narrow sole and lots of bounce will play like a club with much less bounce. And then there’s camber to think about as well. Camber is the amount the club is curved from the leading edge to the rear of the club. A club with more camber will act like a spoon, scooping through the ground before coming straight back out again.
Those clever clogs at equipment manufacturers have come up with ways to make a wedge more versatile for a variety of shots and different types of swings. As Ari Techner of Scratch Golf (scratchgolf.com) puts it: “Most golfers fit into one of two categories, the sweeper and the digger.” The sweeper has a shallower angle of attack and needs “a lower bounce angle, thinner sole and more camber”, while a digger has a steep angle of attack and takes a bigger divot and requires “a higher bounce angle, a wider sole and little or no camber at all”.
The most popular grind is the heel grind. By taking material from the heel of a club it allows the better golfer to open the face and to hit lob shots from tight lies without bounce affecting the shot. One grind that has gained a lot of use this year has been what Bob Vokey calls the P grind and what Scratch calls the XDG grind. The sole of the wedge looks as if there’s a trench running through it. As Ari puts it: “At impact the lower bounce in front of the trench allows the wedge to dig into the ground while the full sole and bounce angle assures that the sole won’t dig into the ground too much and acts to kick it back out of the ground.” When you open up the face it has the bounce for using out of bunkers, but if you put your hands ahead slightly when chipping it acts like a club with much less bounce. Used by Phil Mickelson and Michael Campbell, Titleist offers a wedge with this grind, as does Solus and Callaway, which has one in the works for the 2006 season.
DANEIL OWEN
