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

[Laws of Woo]

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.

Ah, I didn't realize the bounce goes that low. Every mention I see of these list bounces in the 15*+ range. I hit all my irons/wedges with much more of a sweeping swing, taking little to no divot. Aside from several experiments with higher bounce wedges, I have always played lower bounce in my wedges. Whether I trained myself wrong or not, I don't know...but it works for me. Now I am a little more interested in trying these out, but the nearest fitter is about an hour-hour and a half away, so not likely going to happen anytime soon.

[xxsoultonesxx]

Is it just me, or do these things have grooves that extend toward the toe of the club more than other wedges? They look really odd at address to me.

Obviously they are missing the vertical lines, but they just look looong.

[jamo]

Is it just me, or do these things have grooves that extend toward the toe of the club more than other wedges? They look really odd at address to me.  Obviously they are missing the vertical lines, but they just look looong.

Yes: [quote name="iacas" url="/t/57874/my-edel-wedges-or-super-bounce-and-why-its-good-for-you-or-the-sweet-spot-is-finally-in-the-right-place#post_709734"]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. [/quote]

[Precis1on]

Does Edel do any kind of refinishing and regrooving for wedges? Being that these are on the high price end and that I wear out wedges every 3-4 years, I would be paying a lot in the end. Or would it be something as easy as me getting a grove sharpner?

[Peleus]

Absolutely beautiful.  I love the appearance from address, and the value for price seems more than generous.

[Aging Boomer]

8° is the maximum bounce I can tolerate for a turf playable wedge.  More than that, and I don't have the high, soft shot from forward in my stance.

[LuciusWooding]

Originally Posted by Aging Boomer

8° is the maximum bounce I can tolerate for a turf playable wedge.  More than that, and I don't have the high, soft shot from forward in my stance.

It's not just the number that indicates bounce. I find that sole camber, relief, weight, and sole width play a larger role in how it actually plays. This company seems to cater those options to your playing style and that's a smarter fitting method than just picking a different bounce number. Not to mention the same sole can play totally different opened up than it does square, differently depending on the ball position in your stance, and react differently in various lies. Be a little more open minded.

I could never play most of the soft courses near me without at least one bounce with 12+. I don't like it off a tight lie or on full shots, but even the closely mown areas near me are sticky and love to grab the club. You have to change your angle of attack and engage the bounce or else the ball isn't going anywhere. I like to sweep, release my wrists and follow through on a ball in front of my stance, but honestly it's easier to make good contact using the bounce if there's any stickiness in the lie. I like lower bounce in my irons and I like to be able to add loft which is easier with a low bounce, but I wouldn't mind an 18˚ wedge with a thin sole, some heel relief, and a big fat camber at times. The grinds they offer seem to facilitate full shots from the fairway for each player's usual method, but it's really hard to make a wedge that does more than one thing well.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Aging Boomer

8° is the maximum bounce I can tolerate for a turf playable wedge.  More than that, and I don't have the high, soft shot from forward in my stance.

You're flipping :). Which is fine, because the Edel fitting system has wedges with as low as 8° bounce (and that's in the 60° wedge - there will be varying amounts in wedges of other lofts, including some lower).

But you should seriously consider learning some better wedge technique. Lay the face open and you don't need to play the ball so far forward. By using so little bounce you're limiting the shots you have to play 90% of the time.

Originally Posted by LuciusWooding

This company seems to cater those options to your playing style and that's a smarter fitting method than just picking a different bounce number.

Indeed. I should have gotten a picture of my 60° wedge laid wide open, perhaps beside my 54° wedge doing the same. You wouldn't believe how, given their 22° and 17° bounce, how low they get to the ground. Yet the bounce still comes into play just the right amount.

Originally Posted by LuciusWooding

The grinds they offer seem to facilitate full shots from the fairway for each player's usual method, but it's really hard to make a wedge that does more than one thing well.

Get thee to a fitting. You'll be surprised. :)

[Apolyon Rising]

Personally I think I would benefit from a wedge with more bounce. Of course I played golf with a pitching wedge as my most lofted club for the last three years... Finally bought a 56 deg. wedge to practice with, Currently untraining myself out of bad habits... I'm pretty new to buying custom equipment... Can you get fitted for these clubs at any Golf Store/Pro Shop?

[Laws of Woo]

Personally I think I would benefit from a wedge with more bounce. Of course I played golf with a pitching wedge as my most lofted club for the last three years... Finally bought a 56 deg. wedge to practice with, Currently untraining myself out of bad habits... I'm pretty new to buying custom equipment... Can you get fitted for these clubs at any Golf Store/Pro Shop?

For wedges in general? yeah, anywhere that offers fitting will typically fit for all clubs. And anymore, most big name stores offer fittings. For Edel wedges? No, not offered at all retailers. You'd have to go to their website to find a dealer.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Apolyon Rising

Personally I think I would benefit from a wedge with more bounce. Of course I played golf with a pitching wedge as my most lofted club for the last three years... Finally bought a 56 deg. wedge to practice with, Currently untraining myself out of bad habits... I'm pretty new to buying custom equipment... Can you get fitted for these clubs at any Golf Store/Pro Shop?

No, you can't get fit for these at any pro shop. They won't have a clue what to do. They'll fit you for some static things and ask you what kind of bounce you want, then sell you a club they get commission on or something. :)

[Liam84]

Originally Posted by iacas

You're flipping :). Which is fine, because the Edel fitting system has wedges with as low as 8° bounce (and that's in the 60° wedge - there will be varying amounts in wedges of other lofts, including some lower).

But you should seriously consider learning some better wedge technique. Lay the face open and you don't need to play the ball so far forward. By using so little bounce you're limiting the shots you have to play 90% of the time.

I was wondering if you could be so kind as to explain how and why wedge technique can improve by using the correct wedges, or at least show us what unproper wedge technique looks like.

After reading your article I am absolutely certain that my wedges fit me horribly, which is quite logical given the fact that the "fitting" process consisted of trying out a friend's gap wedge, but cannot quite grasp what "flaws" or compensations they might generate in my wedge game.

I understand the thread is about the wedges and not technique but given that they seem to have an impact on it I might help to know with a little more detail what you are talking about.

Thanks

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Liam84

I was wondering if you could be so kind as to explain how and why wedge technique can improve by using the correct wedges, or at least show us what unproper wedge technique looks like.

Here's the gist of it fairly quickly: people know what a "good divot" is like (given the conditions of the course). It's not too big, it's not too small. It gets to the dirt, typically, but doesn't really dig too far into the dirt.

The purpose of bounce is to regulate the amount to which the club can dig. Too little and the club will dig too much. Too much and the club will not dig enough.

If someone plays with a wedge that does not have enough bounce, they'll either have to get used to feeling really thick divots (they don't feel very good - you can hit the ball perfectly crisply and it feels lousy) or they'll begin "flipping" at the ball to varying degrees. The less the shaft leans forward, the more bounce you can expose (a club with 1° bounce would have 8° if the shaft is leaning backwards 7°). Players will tend to train themselves not to make big, thick, heavy divots, effectively training themselves to flip a little with the wedges. This is particularly true on the short game shots as well, where the use of the leading edge causes digging and chunked chips and pitches.

Take a look at this divot:

Now, these were apparently prototypes that were "wrong" and didn't have enough bounce, but check out this divot: you can see the ground was relatively firm and dry, yet the divot is THICK and ends very abruptly. This shot was hit with pretty good wedge technique, but the wedge didn't do a darn thing to help the club "get out of the ground."

[GaryH]

This thread has been of great interest to me.  I recently had a chipping lesson and my pro told me that the key was to use the bounce of the club to increase my margain of error.  It's nice to get affirmation that what i've been told to work on is good sound advice.

My pro was teaching Phil Mickelson's hinge & hold technique, and he also told me to open the club at address (i don't recall Phil advocating this on his DVD for basic chips).  I'd never done this before and have been a bit skeptical and it makes aiming harder for me, but it makes sense in terms of increasing the bounce.  I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on this?  Should one be opening the face on standard chip shots?  I guess it's the only way to introduce a good amount of bounce as for chipping you have a descending blow which would otherwise lead to the leading edge making contact with the ground, no?

[Mr. Desmond]

Originally Posted by GaryH

This thread has been of great interest to me.  I recently had a chipping lesson and my pro told me that the key was to use the bounce of the club to increase my margain of error.  It's nice to get affirmation that what i've been told to work on is good sound advice.

My pro was teaching Phil Mickelson's hinge & hold technique, and he also told me to open the club at address (i don't recall Phil advocating this on his DVD for basic chips).  I'd never done this before and have been a bit skeptical and it makes aiming harder for me, but it makes sense in terms of increasing the bounce.  I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on this?  Should one be opening the face on standard chip shots?  I guess it's the only way to introduce a good amount of bounce as for chipping you have a descending blow which would otherwise lead to the leading edge making contact with the ground, no?

I like Phil's DVD and use some of his suggestions.

What Phil does on some shots and this post is from memory (so it may be faulty) - soft chips with a little air - is open the face and then squares up the club by opening the body, so the leading edge is pointed at the target.

I don't believe Phil has his hands extremely in front of the club face - so he can use the bounce - of course, the more your hands are in front of the club face, the less you will engage the bounce unless you flip.

[mvmac]

Originally Posted by GaryH

My pro was teaching Phil Mickelson's hinge & hold technique, and he also told me to open the club at address (i don't recall Phil advocating this on his DVD for basic chips).  I'd never done this before and have been a bit skeptical and it makes aiming harder for me, but it makes sense in terms of increasing the bounce.  I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on this?  Should one be opening the face on standard chip shots?  I guess it's the only way to introduce a good amount of bounce as for chipping you have a descending blow which would otherwise lead to the leading edge making contact with the ground, no?

Check this out  Club shaft has very little shaft lean, arms are soft, weight is forward as you pivot left and let the club head swing.  Can open the face slightly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Desmond

I don't believe Phil has his hands extremely in front of the club face - so he can use the bounce - of course, the more your hands are in front of the club face, the less you will engage the bounce unless you flip.

Correct, hands too far forward and the club is going to dig.  Like I just said, standard pitch I have the hands slightly forward.  Weight is forward, pivot with soft arms.

No "hold" here :-)   But weight is forward and using a lot of speed.

[Righty to Lefty]

I was just talkin about this with my friend last night and I was tellin him how I'm sick of having to adjust to my wedge because it doesn't have enough bounce.  None of my other clubs dig like my 60 degree does and I was just fed up with it so I ordered a Cally Jaws wedge because it has 13 degrees of bounce and this was the most that I could find in a lefty wedge and I know that it will be much better than the 8 degrees of bounce that I currently have.  Hearing that there are wedges out there with more than 20 degrees of bounce is music to my ears and I will for sure be seeking out more info about these wedges and any other options that I may have.  I might be limited though because I'm a lefty but we shall see.  Man I'm glad that you posted this Iacas!

[Precis1on]

Decided to get fitted down at Harborside in Chicago this weekend... looking forward to it!