Zip Grooves vs. Spin Milled grooves

[B-Con]

What are the differences between Zip Grooves and Spin Milled grooves? Both are square grooves with tight radius corners, right?

For reference:
* Zip Grooves
* Spin Milled

As far as I can tell the grooves are cut differently, but they still appear the same to me. They're both square and they both claim to have the USGA's maximum groove size, the only thing I can see that may be different is the edge radius. The minimum radius for the groove edges is 0.01 inches , is the radius of the edges tighter on the Spin Milled grooves? Looking at diagrams doesn't make that easy to tell.

I seem to have noticed a preference for the performance of Spin Milled clubs, so other aspects of the club/clubface aside, are the grooves noticeably different?

[Iowa Hawkeye]

Brand. Zip are CG and SM are Titleist/Vokey.

[B-Con]

Brand. Zip are CG and SM are Titleist/Vokey.

Right. I'm aware that they're from competing companies (released roughly the same time, too). But for all the marketing, is it seriously just brand name?

[Zeph]

Different ways to create the grooves, the SM ones got a bit more spin, though I'm not sure exactly why. How they are made and what they look like don't really matter, only thing you should worry about is which works best for you. The only way to figure that out is by testing them both.

[leo3]

I beleive "Spin Milled" refers to the machined surface on the face of the Titleist wedges, it really has nothing to do with the grooves.

[nokmond]

Spin Milled refers to the CNC milling on the actual clubface not the grooves. If you look closely at a Vokey SM you can see circular patterns on the face. The grooves are much the same only Clevelands tend to last longer.

[David in FL]

As others have said, "spin milled" refers to the process by which the club face is produced.

As to the grooves themselves, tomato/tomauto.......

[ballhog]

I was wondering about this as well, I have a CG11 with the spin milled face and I get decent spin off it and was wondering if the "zip grooves" really had any benefit compared to regular or spin milled wedges such as mine. has anyplace done testing for this or is it just marketing?

[iacas]

I beleive "Spin Milled" refers to the machined surface on the face of the Titleist wedges, it really has nothing to do with the grooves.

Wrong

Spin Milled refers to the CNC milling on the actual clubface not the grooves. If you look closely at a Vokey SM you can see circular patterns on the face.

Wrong

As others have said, "spin milled" refers to the process by which the club face is produced.

Wrong

http://thesandtrap.com/forum/showthr...730#post276730

[David in FL]

Wrong

Bob Vokey's own words on the video here...... http://www.vokey.com/wedges/detail.aspx?id=19

[iacas]

Bob Vokey's own words on the video here...

And Bob's clarified to me on a few occasions that the origin of "spin milling" referred to the process of cutting the grooves. Yes, "Spin Milled" wedges also have a milled face - but even that video where Bob talks about milling the face flat doesn't put those circular patterns on the face. That's yet another milling process.

The true "spin milling" is still how the grooves are cut. You can see a subtle radius at the edges of the grooves because they're cut by taking a circular saw blade, putting it on its side (or edge), and carving out the grooves. Then they mill the face flat. Then they put the little pattern on. I'm just going by what I've been told - repeatedly - by several people at Titleist. The faces of the 200 series wedges are also milled flat in the same way as the SM series. They don't have the "spin milled" grooves, though (nor the circular decorative milling or "micro texture" as it was/is called). Back to topic. As far as getting back to the OP's question, though the Zip and SM grooves are supposedly about the same size and whatever, I've always found that the Zip grooves don't seem to generate as much spin. http://thesandtrap.com/clubs/clevela..._wedges_review

[B-Con]

Thanks for the info guys.

As far as getting back to the OP's question, though the Zip and SM grooves are supposedly about the same size and whatever, I've always found that the Zip grooves don't seem to generate as much spin.

Your article was actually what motivated my post. I'd read a couple opinions about Zip Grooves and SM grooves and your write-up that was the last straw for my curiosity, I wondered if I was missing any technical specs differentiating the two types of groove.

[iacas]

Your article was actually what motivated my post. I'd read a couple opinions about Zip Grooves and SM grooves and your write-up that was the last straw for my curiosity, I wondered if I was missing any technical specs differentiating the two types of groove.

Yeah, for all intents and purposes, you'd think they'd be about the same. But enough other people have told me they felt similarly to my review that it seems to be true to some extent.

So whatever.

[bIGwIRE]

Questions #6 and 7 under "spin milled wedge questions" address your particular questions, but listen to the whole pod-cast anyway.

Cleveland golf as well as other companies have the circular "micro mill" texture on the face of their clubs,like my CG1's, but the patented "spin milled" phrase refers to the grooves and the way they were specifically machined.
Its not a super exotic secret process or anything, just a very effective one, and backed by excellent marketing.

[B-Con]

Thanks for the recommendation, that was an informative podcast.

[bIGwIRE]

Thanks for the recommendation, that was an informative podcast.

Yeah it was. Iacas turned me onto it a while back.

Your welcome.