Hi everyone,  

Now that I have received the latest Cleveland RTX-3 wedges in the shop, to go along with the Titleist Vokey SM6 that I also supply, I thought I'd talk a bit about wedges this week, and most importantly most people's misunderstanding of the importance of grooves and indeed how they work and why they are there.

 

Most of you will believe that it is the grooves on a club that make the ball spin but I'm afraid this isn't the case. The true reason for grooves can actually be seen in another sport, perfectly demonstrated. Motor racing has long known that you get the most grip in dry conditions by getting as much rubber onto the road as possible, as this, combined with the type of rubber compound, will give ultimate traction.  There are important points to note here: Firstly, we are talking in dry conditions and secondly it depends on the rubber compound. In perfect conditions and with no worries about tyre wear a wide slick tyre with a very soft compound gives ultimate grip (incidentally, the new rules for F1 next year has meant that teams can go back to wider tyres).

But what happens when it is wet? We all know that aquaplaning causes a problem with wet roads but what does that actually mean. Put simply if water gets between the tyre and the road, and most importantly it has nowhere to go, then the car will start to slide on the layer of water and will lose all traction with the road. Bad news with cars! So we see racing cars go onto intermediates with light grooves if there is a little water but once it's really wet the fully grooved wets come out. Now the water has somewhere to go - into the grooves. That leaves the higher parts of the tyre to come into contact with the road and keep traction. However it is worth adding that the tiny bit of water on the surface of the tyre and road still creates a slightly slippery surface hence we all still need to be careful in the wet, whether we have brand new, fully grooved tyres, or not. Grooves on tyres help you to keep traction in the wet but they cannot give you the same amount of traction as in the dry.

So let's get back to golf club grooves. Yes, the grooves are there purely to get rid of debris between the club face and the ball. That's it. Well actually not quite but the theory is correct.  In a perfectly dry situation (like my indoor swing room where there is no grass or moisture at all) you would get as much spin from a flat faced club as from a grooved one. That is nearly a fact. The nearly bit I will get onto.

You will all remember the 'box' grooves (click here to see old vs new grooves) from a few years ago that the R & A eventually banned. The problem with these was not that they always gave more spin. As we all now know, grooves don't do that (mostly) but what about when it's wet or you're in long grass and there will definitely be grass or muck between the ball and club face. The 'box' grooves, because of their square profile did two things: firstly it created more space for debris to get into and secondly the edges were so square they were basically sharp. This cut through grass and then into the softer skinned balls so giving almost comparable spin as with dry conditions. So the pros, in particular, didn't have to worry about the rough as long as they could get a wedge on the ball. So they all started smashing their drivers as far as possible with no care about direction. This was deemed to be bad for the game so they changed the rules so that the surface area of the grooves in profile was reduced and the sharp square top edges were taken away. Now there is a premium on finding fairways, although as ever the manufacturers are very quick to find new ways to defeat the problem!

So what's with the 'nearly' fact business? Well firstly I want to point out two important differences between the motor racing example and golf clubs. These differences being that the grooves on tyres run in the same direction that the tyre is travelling and also that the grooves are on the softer of the two parties needing traction. In golf clubs the grooves run across the direction that the ball is trying to move (up the club face) and the grooves are on the harder of the two parties. In tyres the edges of the grooves make very little difference because the tyres are soft and so will bend under pressure and they also won't dig into the rock hard road.  In a golf club however both are different and those edges can really dig into something soft, especially if they are sharp and new! So now you have a clue as to why it's not entirely true that a flat face would provide maximum spin.

When a golf ball is struck what actually happens is that, depending on the softness of the ball's skin, it starts to slide up the club face. A softer skinned ball creates more friction and so it grips the club face and begins to roll and also skids less as it rolls, hence the softer skinned 'premium' balls. If the skin is harder it continues to slide even as it starts to roll and so has less revolutions as it leaves the club face. To demonstrate this try imagining hitting a rubber ball, like we all played with as kids. The rubber provides incredible friction so it would grip the club immediately and therefore it would leave the club with maximum revs (if you have the space and opportunity you can actually hit one of these balls quite softly and they will easily spin back past you on a hard surface. This is because they not only grip the club with maximum friction but also the hard surface they land on. In a golf ball we need to marry spin with distance so they are nowhere near this soft. This is also why a harder ball helps the player who slices or hooks as it also imparts less sidespin. This, in fact, proves the point that grooves don't cause spin as there are no vertical grooves to aid with sidespin.

So the sharp grooves of yesteryear did actually increase spin by cutting into the skin of the ball and all by halting the slide up the club face. I'm sure most of you remember seeing groove marks on your ball years ago. Not so much now and that is why you don't see professionals, who because of the pace they move the club should impart more spin than most of us, spinning the ball nearly as much as they used to on the greens. Grooves now do pretty much what they are supposed to do but, as I said, the manufacturers are quick to do as much as they can within the rules.

And so we come to what the new wedges will do for you. The new Cleveland RTX-3 has a very similar groove and face finish to the previous 588 model but they have changed the weighting in the club. They have actually proven that this helps them to hit the ball straighter than previous models so they have moved their attack this way. Titleist's SM6 Vokey wedges came out with a new face finish. The SM5 had a circular milled finish which they have now changed to straight across the face, effectively making them small grooves between the large ones. All of these 'milled' faces help to increase friction and stop the sliding of the ball up the face. TaylorMade have launched new wedges this year that, along with Callaway's new forged wedges and the SM6 have pushed the price up of premium wedges. They are all pushing quality now with slight weight distribution changes and also different sole grinds but you will note that none of them are talking about grooves.

If you are look

ing to change wedges then it is all about about gapping (how far each of your clubs goes and whether there are big gaps between clubs) and also sole grind. If you are someone who likes to open a sand wedge or lob wedge then you might need one of the new grinds that lays the club flatter near the heel. This is what I can now do for you in the swing room with different clubs and the Skytrak system. I have deals on all of the above wedges so come in and see me now.

I hope you found that informative, even if you did know about grooves. More interesting stuff next week. Feel free to fire questions at me by clicking here - I will answer them all

If you would like to book a wedge fitting session on Skytrak then please click here.


 

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