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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). Oh, and guess what? They feel identical . I only got the forged set because I really, really like the black finish and it's not available on the cast clubs. :) And despite what some people who gobble marketing materials like it's candy will tell you, nobody can tell the difference between the same club that's cast or forged. Many have assumed the clubs they hit in the test are forged. They're not. 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°. http://edelgolf.com/index.php?option=com_content&view;=article&id;=31&j;=wedges&Itemid;=31 -
I'm interested in getting fit for an Edel putter and am willing to try either the classic or the torque balanced putters. I live in the Palm Beach, FL area and was wondering if anyone had recommendations for a fitter in either Palm Beach or Broward counties. I was also curious if anyone had experience with getting the fitting at the PGA Tour Superstore (they are listed as a fitter on the Edel website) and if there is a vast difference in getting the fitting there versus another fitter. Thanks!
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So… I've finally got my hands on some of the new Edel round putter grips made by PURE. I loved the originals (made by Tacki-Mac) but they would get hard and dry out a little bit if you weren't using them too often (I think the oils in your hands helped keep them soft and moisturized). Anyway… The new grips are a little bit thicker. Many people might not even notice, but I've always been quite sensitive to these sorts of things (or swing weight, etc.) You can see how much thicker in the pictures, and the last one is versus a grip still in the plastic wrapper. The new grips are a little bit firmer at first (though my original tacki-mac grips were quite soft, and the new one in these photos is similarly firm), and they weigh about 28-30g more than the tacki-mac. So, if you've had your putter fit for weight particularly in the heel, you may still want to order the tacki-mac grips they still sell. I was between the 40 and 60g counterweight when I fit my putter, so I put the grip on without thinking too much about it. The putter head does feel a little bit lighter, but I don't suspect it will affect things too much. But… that said, my stroke is pretty stable across a wider range of weight profiles than a lot of people, and I was between two weights when I chose my putter and opted for the lighter one. Plus, my putter is a variable-weight putter, so I can always make the head heavier. You may want to think twice about putting a heavier grip on your putter. That said, I am very, very happy. I don't know that I'll have to change this grip out for five, six, ten years. P.S. https://edelgolf.com/collections/grips - That page doesn't list the new grips, but they cost the same $10 as the tacki-mac one. You could probably just specify that you want the NEW PURE GRIPS in your order notes or something.
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Earlier today I fit a college player and a reasonably good putter with an Edel putter. His putter was a typical blade - the old PING/Cameron/Everyone-Has-a-Version classic blade putter with some heel/toe weighting. He could aim his putter, from about ten feet (bear in mind that the laser reflects back over the same ten feet, doubling the error), to about four inches outside the right edge of the cup. Not great, but not as bad as we've seen from many. His putter had a single, solitary thin line on the top part of the putter. What was his best fit putter? It was an almost identical Edel putter: the Umpqua head with no lines or dots at all. In fact, when I gave him just a dot - I like to give some players a bit more help to center the ball up beside just the heel/toe weighting - he aimed it about an inch right of the cup. Trying something, I drew a line on the putter. Bam! Back out to a cup right. Take the line away? Center of the cup every time. Sometimes the tiniest of things makes a fairly big difference. Where it pulled his focus and attention, I don't know, but it resulted in some pretty big changes. Just a little dot. P.S. His putter was also pretty badly weighted for him, too, or else I'd have recommended he find some way to make that putter work and save the cost of the Edel putter.
