My Edel Wedges (Or 'Super Bounce and Why It's Good for You' or 'The Sweet Spot Is Finally in the Right Place!

May 16, 2021: This topic still has relevant, good information, but Edel's newest line of wedges (the SMS Wedges) is discussed in this topic.

There are roughly three basic motions or shots you can hit with a wedge. They are:

• Full swing (includes any "normal" swing down to as little as a 1/4 swing).
• Chip (short to medium length shot, good shaft lean, uses the leading edge)
• Pitch (short to medium length shot, minimal shaft lean, uses the bounce; includes bunker blasts)

In each, bounce is important:

• Full swing (gets the clubhead out of the ground, prevents taking big divots, enhancing feel)
• Chip (same as a full swing, but you don't want so much bounce you need to have your hands excessively forward)
• Pitch (bounce allows the clubhead to glide along the ground and not dig in, giving you a wide margin of error for shots hit slightly behind the golf ball).

Around the greens, 95% of the shots I play tend to be pitches of some variety or another. Though there's a continuum of shots ranging from "extreme pitch" to "extreme chip," on virtually every short game shot I'm actively using and engaging the bounce more than I'm trying to use the leading edge. It's a simpler, easier way to play, and the game rarely presents opportunities where the precision required to let the leading edge engage with the ground is a good thing. I even play a "pitch" shot off hardpan, and though this shot is the closest I'll typically play to a chip shot, using even a few degrees of bounce gives you a slight margin for error that doesn't exist when you use the leading edge.

Anyway…

Edel has long made what I consider the best putters and the best fitting system in the game. We carry them not because we make much money doing so, but because we truly believe that it offers the best for golfers, and can dramatically increase their enjoyment of the game. We think the Edel putter fitting system is, far and away and bar none, the best in the game. It's changed the way we putt for the better and every one of the students we've fit into an Edel loves it.

The same holds true for the wedge fitting system. We've always taught the short game by teaching people to use the bounce on the club, but the problem is some people have wedges with 6, 4, or even less bounce! They have a hard time using the bounce when they have so little. A proper pitch shot still has forward lean, and with 18° bounce (to throw out a number), even 6° forward shaft lean provides ample bounce.

Instead of providing proper bounce, wedge manufacturers have, by and large, gone with small amounts of bounce but increasingly wider soles. This does help to decrease the club's tendency to dig, but I would argue that it goes about it the wrong way.

What's the problem here? It's simple. Players who play wedges with less bounce will tend to "teach" themselves to play wedge shots poorly. On full swing shots, they'll flip at the ball a little more than they should because they want the club to get out of the ground. Too little bounce and you take big divots that don't feel good at all. On short game shots, they'll either flip more or they'll use the leading edge more, figuring "if the club's going to dig I may as well try to use it." The wedges perform pretty well from the bunker, which is where the wider sole can do some good, but a better grind can still improve even bunker performance (plus most people are just bad out of the bunker, period).

The Edel wedge fitting system has eight different grinds and bounce options (in order from least bounce to most): sweeper, picker, nipper wide, nipper narrow, pincher, trapper, driver, digger.

A typical wedge fitting system takes about 15 minutes. Players are given a 60 degree sweeper wedge and hit a few 3/4 shots (1/2 to 3/4 shots let the fitter assess ground interaction of the bounce for the player that holds true across a variety of shot types). Then they're handed a picker wedge. And then a nipper wide, a nipper narrow, and on down the line. The divots will start out heavy and thick feeling, and at some point - unique to each student - they'll find a wedge that sounds and feels different by a surprisingly wide margin. It's pretty nifty when it happens - the impact sounds clean, the divot exists but is more like a "bacon strip than a pork chop" (to steal from Moe Norman), and the feel is just different. It's tough to describe, but you know it instantly when you hit it.

Once the proper grind/sole/bounce is found, the player hits off a lie board to help determine lie angle and length, and then the player is given a 52 or 56° head in approximately the grind of their preference and asked to hit a variety of shots. The fitter changes out 20+ shafts until the proper spin and launch angle are found for the student, and they've built wedge!

The student can then order wedges in whatever lofts they want from 44 to 64°. They can paint fill and stamp them however they'd like (we've had people use the names of their kids as the lofts, for example - I chose "1" "2" and "3" for my wedges with "IACAS" on the toe), etc.

There are some other unique things about the Edel wedges that bear mentioning. First, their grooves produce a good amount of spin. They have more grooves that produce higher and more predictable spin rates from the junk. You'll give up nothing from any other manufacturer using these wedges. Second, the position of the grooves is shifted towards the toe. The grooves line up with the center of gravity (the sweetspot) of the club, which unlike most other wedges, is in the center of the head. Most wedges shift the grooves and the sweetspot towards the heel slightly.

Just a week or so ago we took our wedge fitting bag up to the course and had a few players go through a fitting. We were just training ourselves and had no intention of selling any clubs. We're skeptics, and we'd have sent the bag back if we didn't think the system worked or provided a benefit to golfers. And yet every golfer who helped us train ourselves bought a set of wedges. The difference was that remarkable to them. And to us - the sound, ball flight, and feel is remarkable.

I encourage everyone to consider going for an Edel wedge fitting. Again, we don't do this for the money - and I certainly don't post this kind of stuff here for the money because very very few of you will ever take a lesson or go through a wedge fitting with me - we do it because we want to share information that makes people enjoy the game of golf more.

So go through a fitting. If you don't instantly "get" the same sensation or "wow moment" that everyone we've tested gets, don't buy them. I'd wager that, whether you know it or not, your wedges aren't really fit for you, and you've adapted the way you swing them to avoid the feeling their bounce and shafts would give you if you swung them properly. In other words, you probably either flip your wedges a bit more than you should, or you take some big divots. Learn what a proper divot feels like without having to flip at the suckers!

Here are some photos of my set of wedges. I had two sets made: one's forged and blacked, and the second is a cast set that's going to be my practice set (because I don't want the blackening to wear out too quickly).

Back of the wedge, with some of the unique pattern from the "blackening" visible here. Like a fingerprint, they're unique. "3" stands for my lob wedge, 60°. I have a 2 wedge (54°) and a 1 wedge (48°) as well.

The three wedges at (roughly) address.

The three wedges.

The faces of the three wedges.

The grips. The circles let you consistently grip down on the club. I replaced these grips with PURE grips. I don't need the circles. 🙂

The sole grind of my 3 Wedge.

The backs of the wedges.

The bounce and grinds. My lob wedge has 22° bounce, my sand wedge has 17°, and my pitching wedge has 14°.

Custom Putters, Wedges, and Single Length Irons by Edel Golf

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$195 each is the MAP. So I think that's all I can say, if you get my drift.

About the same as you'd pay for an off-the-shelf Vokey that you then send in to get your initials and custom paint fill, but without the different bounce options, shaft options, etc.

Mike has some good pictures too:

The clubs lay beautifully low to the ground when you lay them open as well.

Thanks for posting the pics of my wedges Erik.  Can't say enough great things about these clubs.  They make it so easy to hit the ball solid off a variety of lies.  Just seems so basic, I can't believe no one else in golf has figured this out.  Here a quick vid of me hitting a standard pitch with my 56, ball just pops up in the air taking very little turf.  I want to take some video of me hitting shots off a putting green.

As someone else said, you get fit for the swing you have. They have bounces as low as 8°. Get a fitting sometime, and see what you get.

As I said, you may have trained yourself to hit wedges improperly too, by flipping at the ball to engage what little bounce you have. If you never play a wedge with enough bounce you can't really know how easily they get out of the ground and how "down" you can hit on them.

Pretty standard weight. Haven't weighed them, but don't really care to. D-4 I think? Just a guess. :)

I do that now all the time instead of "blading" (putting with the wedge) the ball off the green. I pitch it off now. :)