Cleveland 588 RTX Wedge. Credit: Snap36

Cleveland’s updated custom-fitting carts and fitting “displays” come stocked with interchangeable wedge heads and shafts. The carts include a choice of three head styles (588 RTX, 588 RTX CB or 588 Forged) in an assortment of lofts, bounce or lie angles. Specifically, the 588 RTX (46° to 60° lofts) comes in high bounce, standard or low bounce options, plus 2° upright, standard, or 2° flat lies. There’s also a selection of nine wedge shafts so you can dial in a desired flight and feel.

The company’s fitting displays (a pared down version of the carts) include four wedge heads -- 588 RTX (56°), 588 RTX CB (56°), 588 RTX Low Bounce (56°), and 
588 RTX CB (50°) -- and five wedge shafts. A complementary fitting app includes product specs and info, recommended fitting processes, custom shaft and grip options, and a searchable database of pitching wedge lofts (all brands) from the past five years to help choose proper wedge lofts to match your irons.

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The last thing the engineers at Porsche want to do is mess around with the 911. Give it a more-powerful engine, add ceramic brakes, tweak the suspension…fine, but the guiding principle is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Today's 911 looks very similar to the first one that rolled out of the factory in Stuttgart, Germany, back in 1964.

When Cleveland Golf recently decided it was time to update the 588 wedge—so named because in 1988 it was the company's fifth wedge offering—it took the same approach. The 588 has been used to win 26 major championships and 335 PGA Tour events, and it's not a stretch to say that the club is the foundation of the entire company.

With an updated logo, the back of the new 588 has received a facelift, but the shape of the club and the form it takes at address have not been altered at all. Still forged from 1025 carbon steel to give it a soft feel, the new 588 has Cleveland's Tour Zip grooves for the first time along with the company's new laser-milled surface-roughness treatment. First applied to the CG15 wedges, the tiny lines etched into the club's face are designed to help maximize spin.

"This treatment helps to create a lot of friction between the ball and the face on every shot, from the rough and from the fairway," says Scott Carlyle, Cleveland Golf's business unit leader for irons and wedges.

The 588 Forged wedges will be available in lofts ranging from 46° to 64°. "We've provided all these lofts so you can optimize the gap spacing between every wedge in your set," Carlyle says.

The 588 will also be available in low-, standard- and high-bounce offerings to ensure you'll have the ideal amount of bounce for the sand and conditions you face most often.

Both the satin chrome-finished and mirror chrome-finished 588 Forged wedges will come standard with a True Temper Tour Concept wedge shaft for about $140. Look for them to arrive in pro shops in November

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Cleveland clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — The new Mizuno MP R-12 wedges, which are set to arrive in pro shops in early September, have two unique features that should appeal to golfers who are trying to seamlessly blend their irons and wedges.

First, the sole grinds on stronger-lofted wedges are different from the sole grinds on the higher-lofted models. For example, the 50° gap wedge has a “triple cut” sole design that features a beveled leading edge, the sole itself and then a beveled trailing edge. This sole design makes the wedge behave and feel like an extension of your irons.

"If there is one thing that this club is good at, it's being an 11-iron," said David Llewellyn, manager of research and development for Mizuno Golf.

The 56° and 58° wedges have a modified C grind that removes bounce from the toe but leaves it in the heel to help golfers get out of the sand and rough more easily and stop the club from digging. The bounce in the toe and the heel is aggressively ground off the MP R-12 long wedges to maximize versatility.

In addition, by studying full and half shots closely, Llewellyn and Mizuno engineers discovered that a narrower and deeper groove is more effective at creating spin on stronger-lofted wedges. Armed with that information, they built the MP R-12 gap wedges (50°-54°) with a slightly different version of the company's Quad Cut grooves than the higher-lofted wedges (56-64°).

"The closer you get to the greens, like on a 30-, 40- or 50-yard pitch shot, the shallower and wider grooves actually give you more bite," Llewellyn says.

The MP R-12 wedges will come standard with True Temper's new DG Spinner shaft and will be available in either a satin chrome or black nickel finish for $120.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Mizuno clubs, and schedule your fitting with  GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Last year Ping released its first forged iron, the Anser. The new Anser wedges look like an extension of those irons, and they have some features that should make them appealing to mid- and low-handicap players.

"It's a forged wedge and the hosel got a little bit longer," says Matt Rollins, one of Ping's PGA Tour representatives. "Therefore, we decided to add a tungsten piece out on the toe to elongate the sweet spot."

In the photo on the right, the tungsten is the slightly-darker metal surrounding the 60.

Rollins also says that the ball flight of the Anser wedges, which are made from a soft 8620 stainless steel, is slightly flatter and lower than some of Ping's other wedges. "I'm not saying that's wrong, or better, or worse… it's just different," Rollins said.

The biggest difference between the Anser wedges and the other wedges in Ping's lineup (Tour-S, Tour-S Rustique, Tour-W TS) is that there is no back weight, according to Rollins. Ping has traditionally used that back weight to help adjust the club's swing weight. With the Anser, club builders can insert small weights inside the hosel to adjust for a player's desired shaft weight or shaft length.

While the Anser lacks the weight badge, it does feature a stabilization bar that runs diagonally across the cavity in the toe section. "We had a couple of people in our testing who said it was a little off when they hit it intentionally out on the toe," Rollins says. By adding just a little more mass in that area, Ping hopes to enhance feel on flop shots and delicate pitches.

When the Anser wedges are released later this summer, look for 50°, 52°, 54°, 56°, 58° and 60° options. Thanks to a notch that Ping designs into the hosels of all its wedges and irons, fitters can easily bend the clubs into the exact loft you want. In fact, Hunter Mahan, who put the Anser wedges into play last week at Quail Hollow, had his 56° bent to 53°.

"You just have to remember that for every degree that you bend the club, you take a degree of bounce either on or off," Rollins says. "There's a one-to-one ratio."

Ping does not have a suggested retail price for the clubs yet.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Ping clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC and Golfsmith. 

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Luke Donald is one of the best bunker players in the world. This season he's playing with new wedges, changing from Mizuno's MP-T10 to the company's newest model, the MP-T11.

Like its predecessor, the MP-T11 wedges are forged from 1025 carbon steel and feature Mizuno's Quad Cut Groove technology. The company says the process allows Mizuno to precisely control the width, depth, draft angle and shoulder radius of each groove more precisely.

When Golf Magazine asked several "regular Joes" to try the MP-T11 wedges, they said that the clubs seemed to produce as much spin with their new, USGA-conforming grooves as old, big-grooved wedges did. Testers also noted that the clubs easily handled a variety of lies and were extremely versatile, providing excellent distance control on chips and pitches along with a soft feel.

The only knock against the MP-T11 wedges heard was voiced by a few testers who said the clubs felt a little light and were not as forgiving as some other wedges on the market.

Learn more about the MP-T11 on Mizuno's Web site.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Mizuno clubs, and schedule your fitting with  GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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(Photo by Shaun Best/Reuters)

Instead of hacking chips and greenside pitch shots out of long, gnarly rough, as they do in a U.S. Open, the competitors at the Masters are forced to perform acts of short-game heroism off tight lies.
 
Really tight lies.
 
"Augusta National and the Masters put more of a premium on technique than a U.S. Open," says Roger Cleveland, who as chief of golf club design at Callaway Golf makes the wedges for three-time champ Phil Mickelson (right) and 2008 Masters winner Trevor Immelman, among others.
 
Cleveland notes that under U.S. Open conditions, the ball sometimes buries in the rough and other times sits up. Regardless, pros can swing steeply with a high-lofted wedge and pop it out like a bunker shot.
 
That technique won't work at the Masters, where tight lies make it hard to get under the ball. Only crisp, in-the-grooves contact will produce the spin a player needs to control the ball on Augusta's legendary greens.
 
Equipment preparations for the Masters usually begin in Florida several weeks before the tournament.
 
Bob Vokey, who designs wedges for Titleist and works with many of the company's staff players, was busy two weeks ago at Bay Hill. "[The pros] think it's going to be firm greens, so I switched out some [wedges] of staffers like Zach Johnson and Ricky Fowler and Charlie Hoffman," he says.
 
According to the man they call "Voke," the rule of thumb is to use wedges with slightly less bounce at Augusta National. The less bounce a wedge has, the easier it is to slide under a ball resting on a tight lie. But taking too much bounce off a wedge has a downside at the Masters.
 
"Sometimes I'll be working with the player and we'll talk about taking the bounce off,” Vokey says. "But the sand there, you know, it gets kind of fluffy. If you take too much bounce off to make the club work from the tight lies, you're going to take away from the benefits you get in the soft sand.”
 
Brandt Snedeker, who tied for third at the 2008 Masters, recently asked Cleveland Golf's Rob Waters to make him a new 60° wedge with reduced bounce in both the heel and the toe.
 
Reducing the bounce in the heel allows Snedeker to open the face more while still being able to slide the club under the ball. Taking bounce out of the toe means Snedeker's wedge won't rebound off the turf as much as it swings through the hitting area. The bounce remaining in the middle of the head is helpful when Snedeker hits square-faced bunker shots. It's a subtle detail, but an important one.
 
Roger Cleveland also says that he gets many requests from Callaway staff players for Augusta-specific wedges in the weeks leading up to the Masters. He notes that both Mickelson and Ernie Els made modifications to their wedge setups, with the tournament in mind, a few weeks ahead of time.
 
Like playing a series of practice rounds at Augusta before Masters week, Cleveland says it's one of those things that veterans simply know to do, but some rookies don't.
 
Another strategy to increase spin and control at Augusta is to add a super-high lofted wedge. Mickelson used a 64° wedge to get up and down several times at Winged Foot in 2006 during the U.S. Open, and a few players now carry one all the time. Cleveland warns that it's not a magic wand.
 
"You have to practice with it,” Cleveland says. “You can't just put in a 64° wedge. I mean, these guys are incredible, but it still takes a big commitment to swing as hard as you need to swing with that club. You've got to get used to it, especially under pressure. It's difficult, which is why I think a lot of guys are reluctant to use it.”
 
Vokey notes that adding a 64° wedge also presents another challenge: What club is the player going to take out to make room?
 
One thing that Waters, Vokey and Cleveland all agree on is the necessity of fresh grooves. Regardless of the sole grind or the loft, the USGA's recent groove rule changes make sharp grooves critical to generating spin and control.
 
Reps and club builders from all the major manufacturers will be on-site in the days leading up to the opening round of the Masters. If players need last-minute tweaks, complete back-up sets of clubs are waiting in each company's tour van across the street.
 
They can work a lot of magic on wedges in those trucks, and they’d be happy to do some tailoring too if one of their players ends up with a new green jacket.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Callaway, Cleveland and Titleist clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC or Golfsmith.

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(Photos: top, Robert Beck/SI. Bottom, John Biever/SI)

Answering a reader's golf equipment question on Twitter is tough because a good, thoughtful explanation usually requires more than 140 characters. So here is a video I created to answer a question I was sent by a 16-handicap player who can't decided whether to add a hybrid or a gap wedge to his bag ...

If you have a question that you'd like me to answer, send it to me on Twitter.

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With much of the United States now sizzling in the dog days of summer, only a fool would be thinking about his plans for New Year's Day. Yet here I sit, grateful to the genius who invented air conditioning, thinking about Jan. 1, 2011. And if you need all the help you can get pitching, chipping and blasting the ball from greenside bunkers, you should be thinking about Jan. 1 as well.

Golf club manufacturers will not be able to produce, sell or ship wedges—or any other club with a loft of 25° or greater—with large volume grooves after Dec. 31, 2010.

Players on the PGA Tour have already been banned from using the large-volume grooves in competition. Top-level amateurs will need to switch by 2014. But the vast majority of recreational players can continue to use the old, large-volume groove clubs until 2024, including in rounds posted for used for handicap purposes.

Golf Magazine and its equipment-testing partner, Hot Stix, recently compared the performance differences between the new grooves and the old grooves. If you are a player who tends to miss greens, the findings might induce goose bumps.

Wedges with pre-2010 grooves generate, on average, 48 percent more spin from the rough than 2010 wedge grooves.

So, as I wrote in this blog one year ago, I'm planning to create a stockpile of wedges that have those wonderfully big, razor-sharp grooves and stash them in my closet. The way I see it, USGA officials are more concerned with limiting the pros' bomb-and-gouge tactics than curtailing my weekend enjoyment. They created a loophole for golfers like you and me, so we should legally exploit it to the fullest.

Take a look at the results of ClubTest 2010: Wedges again, talk with your local PGA professional, and then meet with a good clubfitter. This summer you'll be able to buy a wedge with any loft and bounce combination you like; in December, as supplies dwindle, getting the exact club you want might be harder.

If you have the financial means, buy at least two sand wedges and two lob wedges. With wedges ranging from $80 to $125 each, this is not an insignificant investment, and if you can't spend that much, consider buying one or two 58° wedges. It's a versatile loft that a clubfitter can easily bend to 56° or 60° later.

So ignore the rising thermometer and listen to the clock ticking, because as surely as winter will come, spin-enhancing wedges will be gone.

Related: Follow David Dusek on Twitter or Facebook | Shedule a fitting with GolfTec.

One of the many perks to being a PGA Tour member is having access to the best club fitters and builders every week. Want to try a new shaft in your driver? Done. Like your grips changed after every four events? No problem. A special grind in your wedges with your initials stamped into back of each club? Piece of cake.

For nearly everyone else, getting your hands on Tour-caliber, ultra-customized wedges has been about as easy as scoring a Saturday morning tee time at Cypress Point. For example, the only way to get a Titleist Vokey Design TVD grind wedge was to buy a Limited Edition on Vokey WedgeWorks before they sold out. (Every Limited Edition wedge has, in fact, sold out.)

But starting July 15, Titleist plans to re-launch WedgeWorks and provide every golfer with the chance to get a club that is as personalized as those created for players like Rickie Fowler, Davis Love III and Zach Johnson.

The first wedge to be made available will be the TVD, which features a crescent-shaped grind along the sole and moderate bounce for enhanced versatility. Customers will be able to buy these clubs in four different finishes, with several different shaft options and up to eight hand-stamped letters or numbers on the back. There are 40 different toe-stamp designs to choose from and 20 different colors of paintfill available. After you pick your grip of choice, you even get to choose the shaft band you want.

All of the clubs will be built and assembled by Vokey's team—the same folks who make the tour players' clubs—in Oceanside, Calif.

A WedgeWorks TVD club with no personalization and a standard True Temper Dynamic Gold shaft will cost $150. Having up to four characters stamped on the back of the club and getting your choice of grip will add $25. Eight characters stamped on the club, custom grip and shaftband, and a toe engraving with your choice of paintfill color adds $50. Upgrades and custom-shaft options may also increase the price of your club.

All the wedges will come with large, sharp grooves that amateurs can use until 2024. Wedges with Condition of Competition grooves will be available in September.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Titleist equipment, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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According to Nike, Lucas Glover recently put a 64° Victory Red V-Rev wedge in his bag. Nike has not sent out a media release on the club, but because it is a new design it will be made with the USGA's new conforming grooves.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Nike clubs, ClubTest 2010: Wedges, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Ping's PGA Tour staff players got their first chance to use the company's newest wedges—the Tour-S wedges—in the days leading up to the 2010 Players Championship.

According to Ping's Matt Rollins, the copper-colored Tour-S wedges are made from 8620 stainless steel (right), which is softer than the material Ping has used to make previous wedges. Designed to reduce glare, Rollins says that golfers should expect the finish to wear off with time and use, but rust will naturally develop to keep the coloring fairly consistent.

The chrome-finished Tour-S wedges (below) have the same head design as their copper-colored counterparts but are made from 1704 stainless steel, the material Ping has used in the past to create wedges.

"The wedges made from 8620 stainless steel are going to wear out a little bit quicker," Rollins said. "We are going to have to replace them a little bit quicker for the guys on tour. The 1704 wedges are like the ones we've always had."

The hosel of the Tour-S is slightly longer than the hosel of the other Ping wedges, which moves the club's center of gravity closer to the heel. According to Rollins, that should produce a flatter ball flight.

The first groove of the Tour-S wedges runs nearly parallel with the leading edge, and because it painted white, it's extremely easy to see. "That's something that our Tour pros prefer," Rollins said. For amateur players, it should make aligning the club much easier.

Like the S-57 irons and the Tour-W wedges, a polymer insert behind the face of the clubs softens feel at impact and allows Ping club builders to adjust the swing weight of the Tour-S wedges easily.

Since the clubs are new this season, they come with 2010 USGA conforming grooves; manufacturers are no longer able to bring new clubs to market that contain the old grooves.Look for the Tour-S wedges to start appearing in pro shops this summer.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Ping clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTEC.

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Callaway/Odyssey
Mathew Goggin, who tied for fourth at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, had a great week on the greens. Last season, Goggin averaged 29.53 putts per round, ranking him 142nd on the PGA Tour. But last week at TPC Scottsdale, using a new Odyssey White Ice 2-Ball Blade putter for the first time, the Aussie was more than one stroke better, needing just 28.3.

Adding those four strokes to Goggin's final score would have dropped him into a tie for 24th and cost him more than $200,000 in prize money.

Nike
Trevor Immelman made his 2010 debut last week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and he did it with a new driver. Immelman, who won the 2008 Masters using a Nike SQ Dymo STR8-Fit prototype driver, played at TPC Scottsdale with a new SQ Machspeed STR8-Fit.

Ping
Hunter Mahan went to Ping's factory in Phoenix last Tuesday to meet with the company's engineers, club builders and tour department. To say thanks for all the work they have done for him, Mahan even brought lunch for 30 people.

While at Ping's headquarters, Mahan worked with a master club builder and tour rep to improve the performance of a new EYE2 lob wedge that he started using during the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. Unlike the EYE2 lob wedge he'd previously been using, Mahan's new wedge has grooves that conform to the new USGA standards. He felt the ball was rolling up the face too much on full shots, so material was welded to the sole and 3° of bounce were added to the club. The result for Mahan was more control and a flatter trajectory while keeping the 59° of loft.

On Sunday, en route to winning the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Mahan had to overcome a problem with his Ping Rapture V2 driver.

"My gamer had a little crack in it on 2," he said Sunday evening. After talking with officials and confirming that he could take the club out of play and replace it with a new driver, Mahan's girlfriend, Kandi Harris, ran back to his car and got his back-up.

"Luckily the rules staff ran her out to the car and she got it and I got it before the next tee shot, which was nice, because the next hole is a par 5," he said. "I really didn't want to hit a 3-wood off the par 5."

TaylorMade
The new Vecino Spider (right) arrived on tour last week at TPC Scottsdale. Both Martin Laird and Joe Ogilvie immediately put the new putter in the bag, and according to the company, J.B. Holmes, Kenny Perry and Scott McCarron all requested that Vecino Spider putters be made to their specifications for testing.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Callaway/Odyssey, Nike, Ping and TaylorMade clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTec.

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Officials from Ping and the USGA met Wednesday in hopes of working out a reasonable solution to the controversy surrounding the use of Ping Eye2s with square grooves. At 3:16 pm Thursday I got the following e-mail statement from the USGA:

Officials from the USGA and PING met yesterday in Dallas to discuss the use of PING EYE2 clubs on the PGA Tour.

USGA President Jim Hyler issued the following statement today:

"We met with representatives from PING yesterday. Our conversation with PING regarding the status of the PING EYE2 irons on the major professional American tours was productive, and we are hopeful that a solution can be found that respects and reflects the best interests of golfers and the game." 

Eight minutes later I got an e-mail statement from Ping saying:

"We had a productive meeting with the USGA yesterday regarding the PING EYE2 groove debate on the PGA Tour,” said PING Chairman & CEO John Solheim. “I’m encouraged by their willingness to openly discuss some of the challenges the golf industry faces relating to equipment issues. We left the meeting with an understanding we would continue to seek a solution that benefits golfers and acknowledges the importance innovation plays in the game."

As Yogi Berra said, "It ain't over 'til it's over." And this baby is far from over.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about Ping clubs and schedule your fitting with GolfTec.

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(Photo: Phil Mickelson's Ping Eye2 lob wedge, which he's no longer carrying. By Robert Beck/SI)

Titleist
Cameron Morfit, a senior writer for Golf Magazine, spoke with a few golfers at the Sony Open and heard about new Titleist Pro V1 golf balls some players were using.

Since last August, Titleist has made two tour-only versions of the Pro V1 ball available to PGA Tour players. The Pro V1 Plus Spin is marked with a <s----PRO V1---s> on the seam while the Pro V1x Plus Trajectory has a <+---PRO V1x---> on its seam.

According to a Titleist tour rep, "These products are customized versions of 2009 Pro V1 and Pro V1x golf balls that have been designed to optimize performance for a small handful of PGA Tour players."  

According to Titleist, of the 96 players in the field at Sony last week who played a Titleist ball, just six used the Pro V1x Plus Trajectory and only two played the Pro V1 Plus Spin.

The tour rep also wrote in bold, "These products are not in response to nor designed to address new groove rules and they are not planned to be sold commercially."

Titleist is not planning on making any changes to the current Pro V1 or Pro V1x ball in response to the USGA's new groove rule changes. The ball was most recently updated for the 2009 season.

Callaway
Ernie Els is continuing to use Callaway's yet-to-be-released FT-iZ driver (right). The triangular-shape club, which was reviewed in the 2010 Golf Magazine ClubTest, is being touted by the company as being the longest and straightest driver its ever made.

It certainly seems to be working for Els, as he averaged 306 yards per drive at the Sony Open, 15 yards more than his 2009 season average. Els also continued to use Callaway's Tour i(s) ball.

TaylorMade
According to TaylorMade, Retief Goosen became the first player to request a new face plate be installed in a TP wedge with xFT.

Using a torque wrench, the face plate (which contains the wedge's grooves) can be removed and replaced with a new one that contains fresh, sharp grooves. Goosen, the 2001 and 2004 U.S. Open champion, had the face plate in both his 54° and 60° wedges replaced.

See-Try-Buy: Learn more about TaylorMade, Titleist and Callaway clubs, and schedule your fitting with GolfTec.

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TaylorMade's new TP wedges with xFT (Exchangeable Face Technology) allow golfers to unscrew a face plate that contains the club's grooves and replace it with a new plate in about a minute.

TaylorMade had planned to sell face plates separately so golfers could play with fresh grooves more often, but the USGA informed TaylorMade in October that it could not sell face plates with the company's Z grooves—which will soon become non-conforming for professionals—in 2010. However, TaylorMade could sell a whole TP wedge with  Z grooves and face plates with a conforming groove.

TaylorMade appealed the ruling, and on Wednesday the USGA reversed itself, saying that TaylorMade will be able to separately sell Z-groove face plates, which will cost about $45, in 2010.

Dick Rugge, the USGA's senior technical director, refused to comment on the case on Friday morning.

Before the ruling was announced, Benoit Vincent, TaylorMade's chief technical director, said the root of the USGA's initial dispute wasn't with the interchangeable face technology. In his mind, the real question the USGA had was, "Are the additional faces that might be sold in 2010 a threat to the clean-up goal that the rules [and deadlines for implementation] intrinsically have?"

According to Vincent, the USGA is hoping that wedges and other clubs with U grooves will naturally start coming out of amateur golfers' bags as they get worn out. By the time weekend players need to start using the conforming V grooves in 2024, it is hoped that the vast majority would already be replaced with equipment that conforms to the new guidelines.The interchangeable face plates, presumably, would make it possible for golfers to stockpile non-conforming grooves.

TaylorMade will not be able to sell or ship wedges or face plates that contain non-conforming grooves after December 31, 2010. However, pro shops and retailers will be able to sell their remaining inventories until they are depleted.

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