Illegally sharpen your wedges?

[ScottL]

i was playing last week this guy I was playing with had some Vokey wedges that he claims he altered the grooves. he said its probably technically illegal, but doesnt play in tournaments anyway. But he was actually getting some good spin backwards.

i have an old 60 degree sitting in the closet. id like to do this and play with one day just to see. what would need to be done?

[mdvaldosta]

Get one of those $10 groove sharpeners on eBay and gouge some deep, sharp U groves into them. Be prepared to go through soft ProV1's like candy though.

[Golfaway]

There are groove sharpeners sold on ebay. I don't know how they work though.
I just use a sharp tool with a pointed end and dig deeply back and forth into the grooves. I only do it with my Cleveland CG10 58* though. I have not felt any difference honestly, but maybe because the balls I play are not always clean, and the greens are our club are crap.

[jldavis73]

I have a friend that used a Dremel tool on his 52* wedge. He can only hit it 80 yards max, and you can hear the ball "buzz" when he hits it. We get a good kick when he pulls out the "Dremel"!!!

[ScottL]

so what is the goal? to make the grooves wider or deeper? or maybe both?

[Msokol13]

From my understanding you can get the same effect just by roughing up the whole face with sandpaper.

The goal is to make them deeper and wider so there is better contact between the ball and the club face.

Give it a shot and let us know how it turns out...if it's crap then you only wasted $100 for a new wedge.

[imtomtomim]

I started using a groove sharpener, and you cannot make the grooves bigger. You know how you hone the edge of a knife? Same idea, you rebend the edge back. It doesn't make the groove any bigger, just refinises the edge. Yeah, if you took a dremmel to it, you could definitely get some bigger illegal grooves. I think I saw an infomercial for this wedge with interchangable faces but a good amount of them were actually the reverse effect of grooves and they are these edges popping out of the face. Definitely not legal but I'm sure it could be fun.

[wsjer88]

My brother had a old junk cavity back lob wedge that he no longer used. He shaved the cavity back off to make it a blade like wedge, rounded out the bottom of the wedge, then deepened the grooves with a dremel, and sanded the face. It sits pretty much flat on the ground, almost like a 66-70 degrees. It's obviously quite illegal but can be good fun backing up a wedge like that.

[TropicalSandTrap]

On 8/13/2009 at 0:32 AM, imtomtomim said:

I started using a groove sharpener, and you cannot make the grooves bigger. You know how you hone the edge of a knife? Same idea, you rebend the edge back. It doesn't make the groove any bigger, just refinises the edge. Yeah, if you took a dremmel to it, you could definitely get some bigger illegal grooves. I think I saw an infomercial for this wedge with interchangable faces but a good amount of them were actually the reverse effect of grooves and they are these edges popping out of the face. Definitely not legal but I'm sure it could be fun.

Thanks

[Hacker James]

On 8/12/2009 at 9:35 AM, ScottL said:

i was playing last week this guy I was playing with had some Vokey wedges that he claims he altered the grooves. he said its probably technically illegal, but doesnt play in tournaments anyway. But he was actually getting some good spin backwards.

i have an old 60 degree sitting in the closet. id like to do this and play with one day just to see. what would need to be done?

I have never understood, some people's obsession with wanting a ball to spin backwards on the green and more often than not end up further from the pin. I do understand somebody wanting the ball to check up however. I am not good enough to spin back, but when my short game is working, I can usually hit the green and have the ball roll out a "short" ways or hop once and stick closer to the pin. 

[Patch]

30 minutes ago, Hacker James said:

I have never understood, some people's obsession with wanting a ball to spin backwards on the green and more often than not end up further from the pin. I do understand somebody wanting the ball to check up however. I am not good enough to spin back, but when my short game is working, I can usually hit the green and have the ball roll out a "short" ways or hop once and stick closer to the pin. 

I may be wrong, but I am of the opinion that grooves alone are not the end all to make a ball spin backwards. The lie of the ball probably has something to with as well as how well the the green reacts to spining ball. 

Some balls accept the spin put on them easier than others.

I also believe it takes a golfer with the right swing technique to help spin a ball backwards. 

I also saw a guy at a demo day spin balls backwards, while using a smoothe faced wedge. Go figure. Trick ball maybe? 

I can't spin balls back. Gave up on that a long time ago. However, I can make a ball check up pretty well. 

I just figure grooves are there to help get rid debris caught between the club and the ball at impact, and let it go at that. What ever spin I get is just an added luxury. 

Edited July 15, 2017 by Patch

[longdrive23]

1 hour ago, Hacker James said:

I have never understood, some people's obsession with wanting a ball to spin backwards on the green and more often than not end up further from the pin. I do understand somebody wanting the ball to check up however. I am not good enough to spin back, but when my short game is working, I can usually hit the green and have the ball roll out a "short" ways or hop once and stick closer to the pin. 

It's fun to see it spin back. Also, it's so tough to get it when you are still learning it. 

Also, I feel ball fitting comes into play only after one has enough control over the ball/spin around the greens. 

In my experience, if your pursue the backspin and learn how to get it, the process would have improved your swing, ball impact, and your short game scoring !!

[Hacker James]

8 hours ago, Patch said:

 

I also saw a guy at a demo day spin balls backwards, while using a smoothe faced wedge. Go figure. Trick ball maybe? 

 

We have mentioned this before, but years back there was such a wedge called Pal Joey. No grooves but a milled surface. I had one and as I recall, not different than any other as to back spin. 

[Hacker James]

7 hours ago, longdrive23 said:

It's fun to see it spin back. Also, it's so tough to get it when you are still learning it. 

Also, I feel ball fitting comes into play only after one has enough control over the ball/spin around the greens. 

In my experience, if your pursue the backspin and learn how to get it, the process would have improved your swing, ball impact, and your short game scoring !!

ha ha.  I suppose "those who can - do"...the rest of us say "mmm, not necessary".

[Typhoon92]

I had an old cobra wedge that I dremeled with one of the round thin discs.  Oh, it worked...I could spin a ball back on a skating rink, but it was too much work on full shots.

Full shots creating so much spin that you had to land everything 10 feet past the hole to account for spin.  Many times a front pin with a false front I'd screw myself over if I didn't hit it far enough....leave myself a 20 yard uphill pitch.  Also, the only ball that would not shred was a pro v. 

 

Short pitches or flops it was good but my 64 degree pm grind is just as good.

[Jack Watson]

I've gone from trying the cool skip check wedge in short game to more of a soft low spin semi flop.

Spin in short game is cool but if you don't maintain your practice results will not be as predictable as just using traj.

Full shots I want them to stop as close as possible to the ball mark.  I don't wanna hit my distance then spin back.

[iacas]

1 hour ago, Hacker James said:

We have mentioned this before, but years back there was such a wedge called Pal Joey. No grooves but a milled surface. I had one and as I recall, not different than any other as to back spin. 

Except out of the rough.

Grooves also help from the fairway, too, because their corners can "grab" the ball a little. This is true of any club with more loft than about a 5-iron (from dry conditions with clean contact).