Groove Sharpening

[GolfaLot]

I repair clubs as a side businesss and have tried about 5 different Groove sharpeners.

By far the best one I have come across is called X6 groove sharpener by http://www.PAR70.com .
It's easy and comfortable to use and it does not get dull.
Some of the others worked OK but were a little small and hurt my hand because they have no grip.

I do my own wedges after about 10 rounds and it seems to make a big difference.

[lumpuckeroo]

I bought one called the groove sharpener and it works great. I used it on an older forged Wilson wedge and it worked great. The grooves looked and felt like new, I just followed the directions on the website.

http://groovesharpener.com/

[James_Black]

why do you want one?
I know it'll make your grooves better but you'll be a cheat.

You won't be allowed to use them in competitions. You probably won't get caught but it's against the rules.

[woodzie264]

got the Wedge Doctor Groove Sharpener ( http://www.wedgedoctor.com ) about a month ago - LOVE it! It's great for sharpening old grooves - restores "bite" of the clubs

[imtomtomim]

why do you want one?

pretty sure it's not against the rules to restore your clubs. If someone took a dremel tool and widened those gaps up, that would be cheating, but shaving off the burrs in the grooves? I don't see how that is illegal at all.

[James_Black]

pretty sure it's not against the rules to restore your clubs. If someone took a dremel tool and widened those gaps up, that would be cheating, but shaving off the burrs in the grooves? I don't see how that is illegal at all.

“Rule 4 1-b. Wear and Alteration, states; “A club that conforms with Rules when new is deemed to conform after wear through normal use. Any part of a club that has been purposely altered is regarded as new and must, in its altered state conform with the Rules” This means for example, even though the face is concave or the grip has indentations for you fingers because this is how it wore down through normal use, it is OK to use it without penalty but as soon as you start reconditioning the club it must be considered new. A hand held tool will not only do a number on the grooves but will most likely render them non-conforming because of the tight specifications the USGA has for grooves, i.e. depth, width, ratio of groove-width to pitch, radius of groove edges and even groove straightness. These specs are difficult to maintain even for an accomplished custom club maker with a milling machine.

I still think they're illegal....

[woodzie264]

I still think they're illegal....

good thing I'm not competing in any USGA events - I don't want to cheat!

[plugged]

I still think they're illegal....

I think they are too, but I'm still going to sharpen my wedge grooves. The only competitions I play in are local club league play (no one cares, or even knows this is a rule). At some point this year or next, I will buy new 56 and 60 deg conforming wedges, but I don't have the money right now.

[vokeyprince]

i sell these in the uk if any1 is intrested get in touch.

and they do work

[imtomtomim]

I still think they're illegal....

I'm telling you that a groove sharpener will not render your club illegal, especially if you're doing it by hand. They do not change the groove draft angles, or depth, or width. They help remove excess metal that has folded over into the groove, much like the burr on a knife that needs to be honed. If anything, those grooves may be in fact shallower than new.

If you're really worried, take take it to the practice bunker! I gotta say, if you're spending hours on sharpening those grooves by hand, you're definitely trying to cheat and force out bigger grooves. Also, it's a block of steel on a metal stick. How wasteful is that to force me to buy a new set of wedges every 4 months just to be conforming? But anyways, you're welcome to do whatever makes you comfortable.

[chriskzoo]

Count me in the groove sharpener camp as well. I was looking to replace my 252.08 and 256.12 Vokeys this year and was bumping around the Michigan Golf Show. I could have replaced them with the new Spin Mills for $190 (for both, or less if I wanted to barter) but I decided to just try the X2 Groove Sharpener (exact same as the bar of metal ones they sell except it has a handle molded on) to bring them back.

I figured for $20 it was worth the risk. I'm an 8 handicap and worn grooves are definitely not what is holding me back from dropping lower at this point.

[alomar123]

There are many iron/wedge groove sharpeners on the market, do any of you have one and does it work well.

I just bought a used set of ap1 and want to bring the grooves back to new, thanks

[Tar Heel]

Also very interested to hear if these work, particularly for wedges.

[JML22]

I know someone who got them and sharpened his old cleveland wedges and they started carving up covers again
The grooves probably arent legal anymore but who cares for the average golfer right?

[Tar Heel]

Yeah, legality isn't a huge concern to me, just nice to get a little extra life out of a wedge.
Thanks for the info.

[JML22]

Not sure where he got it from either

[etlreams]

I wish they'd call these tools groove CLEANERS and not sharpeners. All of these carbide tip tools really do is dig down in the grooves and get the junk out of them.

If you look at it that way... yes... I've found that they really do work. Having completely clean grooves does make a difference in your wedge performance.

But as for "sharpening" them..... you'd have to work pretty hard and long to actually make a change in the shape of the grooves. I mean....these clubs are cast or forged at how many hundreds or thousands of degrees heat?

[JML22]

you can take enough metal off to sharpen them.
They get wider and thus illegal, but it will sharpen the wedges