WEEKLY REVIEW: Scratch Golf Custom Wedges

GolfOpinions.com Admin:
FlopShot's 56* Scratch Golf sand wedgeSCRATCH GOLF CUSTOM FORGED WEDGES
By Ed “Flopshot” Rhee and Mark“CPA” Heath

When putting together a set of 14 golf clubs, the driver, irons, and putters are usually given careful consideration.  Even the fairway woods are chosen based on their performance and the individual golfer’s needs… do you need a 7wd for additional height and playability?  Or maybe a strong 3wd to reach those long par-5’s?  But quite often, the wedges are an after-thought.  So much so that many people just simply purchase the matching wedges to their irons!  In recent years, major golf manufacturers have discovered the growing demand for specialized wedges.  While Cleveland Golf dominated the wedge market segment for decades, the major players now include Titleist (with their Vokey line), Callaway (with their forged wedges designed by Roger Cleveland) and Nike (designed by Tom Stites and played by Tiger Woods).

Scratch Golf takes wedge specialization to the next level.  A small company based in Oregon, Scratch Golf doesn’t just make custom wedges… they ONLY make custom wedges.  You cannot go into a shop and buy a Scratch Golf wedge off-the-rack.  Rather, Scratch Golf goes thru an extensive fitting interview with each client to determine which head shape, sole grind, leading edge, trailing edge, camber, etc., would best fit that client.  Forged from large blocks of 1018 soft carbon steel from Ishihara, the clubheads are ground into shape with three swingweight checks during the process to ensure the finished product is as desired.  One of six available finishes is applied to your club (or it can be left raw) and then paint-filled.  The result is a fully customized wedge tailored specifically to each clients swing and tastes.

The people at Scratch Golf were kind enough to produce two sets of wedges for this review, for two completely different swings.  FlopShot and MarkCPA were interviewed by Ari Techner, who made recommendations on the club specs.  We put the finished clubs thru their paces, so let’s see if they live up to their low-scoring name!


BACKGROUND (what wedges we are using now, how/why we use them, and what we like/dislike about them)
FlopShot:  I live off my short game, because my GIR percentage is very low (hence my 10 index).  Therefore I rely on my wedges to get me close to the pin for a reasonable par attempt.  I have a very shallow swing that isn’t fast (87mph with driver), and I don’t take a very large divot, so I don’t apply a lot of backspin even with my wedges.  I’m currently using three Vokey 200 series wedges (252.08, 256.14, 260.12) which I’ve de-chromed, because I don’t like the glare of shiny chrome.  My 52* gap wedge is also my primary chipping club. The low bounce is perfect for making a “putting” stroke when I’m just off the green.   I like to use my lob wedge out of greenside bunkers, so it has to be versatile enough to play out of sand, yet not skip across the fairway.  I also like to lay the lob wedge wide open and play soft-landing lob shots.   I’ve even ground down the heel of my lob wedge so it will lay open better.  I play in lush green conditions all year round, so I need some bounce to keep my wedges from digging into the ground.  But I do hit my 56* thin on occasion when playing from the fairway.


MarkCPA's 52* gap wedgeMarkCPA:  My short game is pretty steady and reliable.  It saves and bails me out of big numbers more often than it hurts me.  I have a pretty steep angle of attack and tend to take divots on full shots.  My current lineup of wedges are a Titleist Vokey 252.08 raw, a Cleveland 900 Series 56* low bounce raw sand wedge, and a Cleveland BeNi 60* lob wedge.  My Vokey 252.08 is my primary chipping club around the greens, unless there is a need for the ball to release and run a distance of any significance.  My Cleveland sand wedge is out of the norm for most golfers, in that it only has 12* of bounce (instead of the more traditional 16*) for 56 degrees of loft.  This is because I play in an area of the country where bermuda grass dominates the landscape.  Bermuda tends to produce tighter lies, so the lower bounce helps me use the club from the fairways.  From firm to fluffy sand, the lower bounce has never really been a problem for my Cleveland, so I’ve stuck with it no matter the conditions, for the benefit it brings from those tight grass lies I find here.  The lob wedge I carry is an afterthought for the most part and not something I use a lot.  I don’t pull it out of the bag automatically from a specific yardage, but rather use the wedge when I see a need to get the ball up quick.  It’s the 14th club in my bag that will get pulled if I need another wood or utility club when I know the course I’m playing will require one.  One of my quirks is ribbed grips.  I play them on everything, even my sand wedge.  It doesn’t bother me to have to lay the sand wedge wide open and feel that rib out of position in my hands.

WEDGE PREFERENCES (what we wanted from Scratch Golf, and what Ari recommended in the fitting interview based on our backgrounds)FlopShot: The Vokey wedges perform really well for me, but I don’t like how they feel at impact, in my opinion they are quite harsh.  And living in a coastal environment, I’ve found the raw wedges to be quite messy, leaving rust flakes all over my bag.  I like the shape of the Vokeys, but I like the look of the Callaway Forged wedges even more.  So Ari recommend that we make a 52* gap wedge, a 56* sand wedge with less bounce (12*) than I was using and less effective trailing edge, and a 60* lob wedge with even more trailing edge relief  and some heel relief so I could open up the club.  All three clubs would have a rounded leading edge to help prevent digging, but more camber to help prevent the thin shots.  The shape of the heads would be a little more rounded like the Callaway Forged, and all three wedges would have swingweight D6 to provide a heavier feel than I was used to.  To help provide softer feel and simultaneously reduce the glare, we chose the nickel satin finish.MarkCPA:  I’ve always liked the looks and performance of the standard which I’ve always judged others by, the Cleveland 588 wedges.  Their cast wedges have always performed for me, are reasonably priced, and can always be had in the raw finish I’ve always preferred.  This was an option with Scratch, so it was my natural choice.  While I’ve played for just over a year now with forged irons, all of my wedges have been cast.  To me, a well struck shot is going to feel good, so I’ve never given a thought to hunting down forged wedges.  Ari and I talked about my game, tendencies, and current set up.  Ari liked what I was doing with the low bounce sand wedge, and we agreed that a traditional setup not really different than what I was currently using in the Vokeys would be a nice match.  Turns out I have actually fitted myself pretty well with my current selections.  On the lob wedge, Ari recommended a modification from my current setup.



FlopShot's wedge faces
MarkCPA's wedge faces
FlopShot's 60* lob wedge
MarkCPA's 60* lob wedge


WORKMANSHIP/QUALITYFlopShot: The nickel satin finish looks amazing.  Clubheads are very clean, looks like they were polished very carefully before finishing.  I cannot see any blemishes in the satin finish.  Groves are cut deep and clean into the faces.  Ferrules were not turned but that is insignificant to me since they matched the hosel outside diameter very evenly.  The swingweights of all three clubs were dead on spec at D6.  After they made a few trips to the driving range in my bag, I did notice some bag wear in the finish on one of the hosels.  But who cares, wedges are made to be worn out!


FlopShot's 52* gap wedgeMarkCPA:  Simply put, the heads look good.  They are simple and understated.  No cluttering with stampings and medallions to be found on these heads, although Ari can certainly stamp things into your heads at your request.  With only the loft on the toe, the Scratch old English “S” logo on the back, and “forged” stamped on the hosel, the heads are really appealing to me, and meet my sometimes too strict traditionalist tastes.  All heads are raw, just as requested, with the sand wedge arriving with just a sprinkling of rust already on the head.    After two morning rounds on some very wet ground due to the heavy rains we’ve had here of late, the gap and lob wedge now have some rust coverage as well.      The solid black ferrules are not turned, but have a good match up to the diameter of the hosel.  Ribbed grips arrived as requested, but the one on the sand wedge was badly turned and left the club wide open when held with the rib in its proper position.  I changed the grip before hitting the club for this review.


FEELFlopShot: I love how heavy the clubs feel with the D6 swingweight, it’s easy to groove a nice tempo with them.  The forged metal provides a nice soft feeling.  I hit several buckets of range balls with these wedges, and they didn’t feel like rocks as they did with the Vokeys.  But with short chips, they still felt very crisp, which I believe is important for distance control.  When using my regular ball (ProV1) on the course, the wedges felt like butter.
MarkCPA's 56* sand wedgeMarkCPA:  All three Scratch wedges came to me checking in at D7.  Each is heavier than my current setup of D5 on the Vokey gap wedge and D6 on both the Cleveland sand and lob wedge.   Each head felt solid, especially so on touch shots taken with half or three quarter swings.


PERFORMANCEFlopShot: Note how the trailing edges are ground differently on all three of my wedges, just like Ari recommended.  This made a big difference on how each club reacted for their different uses as they made contact with the ground.  The lob wedge slides thru the turf very easily when I lay it open… sometime too easily, as I slid the blade completely under the ball a few times at the chipping green.  All three of these wedges hit considerably higher than the corresponding Vokey, and I did notice that my shots were more affected by the wind than I was used to.  Accuracy (dispersion) was very good, I consistently hit the ball in the direction I wanted.  Distance was the same as my Vokeys, and distance control was excellent, a very important thing with wedges.  I didn’t hit any fliers, or notice any hot spots on the clubface.  And after three rounds, I have yet to hit my sand wedge thin, even when I made less-than-perfect contact with the ground.


FlopShot's wedge solesMarkCPA:  As I don’t tend to take full swings with the lob wedge, I found the added weight to be quite helpful on this specific wedge.  A nice, smooth stroke got the ball up quickly, and brought quality balls to a quick stop on the green.  Punch shots with the lob wedge were a snap.  I found myself using the lob wedge more often than normal around the greens with the Scratch wedge.  The sand wedge worked well out of the bunker in the firmer sand conditions I’ve found of late.  I saw no notable differences in ball trajectory on full shots in the Scratch versus my Cleveland low bounce.  I had no trouble picking the ball off of bermuda grass, including some rather tight lies, a key quality for any sand wedge is to stay in my bag.  Around the greens, the gap wedge’s additional weight over my Vokey did seem to help in chipping.  I was able to strike down on the ball easily without getting too quick, giving me the ability to check the ball as needed.  On full shots though, the additional weight caused me to lose accuracy when compared to my Vokey on those critical second shots from the 100 to 125 yard mark.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONFlopShot: These wedges provide the combination of feel and performance that I’ve been looking for.  My only worry is the high ballflight, since I play in a coastal environment that is usually windy.  If they continue to perform like my initial impression, my short game should continue to improve.  If you are in a rush for new wedges, look elsewhere, because it took about 10 weeks for my wedges to be delivered (MarkCPA experienced the same)MarkCPA:  Given the custom fitting craze that’s underway thanks to many OEMs recognizing the demanding market of better players, it’s surprising to me that wedges seem to be almost an afterthought for most people.  Scratch Golf has put itself in a unique position to meet a demand for clubs that are critical to your overall ability to score.  Personal attention through the interview process, and quality heads, can only help put any golfer in a better position to get it close, or up and down, with their wedges.


GolfOpinions would like to thank Scratch Golf, and particularly Ari Techner, for providing these wedges for review.  You can learn more about Scratch Golf and their custom wedges at their website www.sgolfclubs.com