Hi Team Titleist Members,

We’ve been receiving a lot of feedback and questions with regard to how best to choose the right grind when selecting your Vokey Design Spin Milled 5 wedges, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to jump on here and provide a short guide for those of you confused, as well as give you the opportunity to ask us any questions you may have directly via this forum post.

To start with its very important to remember that the grind is the last thing to think about when making a wedge selection. Not all lofts and bounces feature every grind, and as such golfers will most likely have a variety of grinds in their bag.

The first thing to do when deciding which wedges are best for you is to look at loft. Gapping is important. At an advanced fitting day our fitter will look at your current wedge set up and work with you to ensure the gapping between the wedges is best suited to your set. If for example you have a 50 degree, a 52 degree and a 60 degree wedge set up, its likely you would be recommended to take the 52 degree wedge to say 56 degree’s to create more consistent gapping.  

Once you have established what wedge set up you need, the next step is to look at bounce. The two things to consider when looking at bounce are the turf conditions where you usually play and your swing type when playing wedge shots. For example, if the ground is typically hard, you may want less bounce to ensure the club doesn’t bounce of the turf at impact. In terms of swing types, you need to identify if you are a digger or a slider. A digger (someone who typically digs into the ground and takes a divot when playing a wedge shot) will require more bounce to stop the club from digging in so much. Below is a good illustration to help you decide what bounce is best for you.

Finally, once you have determined what lofts you are getting and what bounces you are having in each loft, its then time to look at the grinds. Below is the Bounce and Grind Matrix that lists each combination. As you can see, its often fairly easy to determine which grind to go with, as there won’t be a choice of grind for every loft and bounce combination. If for example you have established that you need wedges with high bounce, you will see for most lofts the grind option will be either F or K.

For more information on the new SM5 wedges and all of the grinds available, follow this link: http://www.titleist.com.sg/golf-clubs/wedges/sm5.aspx

I hope this helps. If you have any questions, feel free to post them below and I’d be happy to get back to you. Also, if you’ve already changed to the new Vokey Design SM5 wedges, do let us know what combination you went for and why, we’d love to hear from you. Thanks.

Tom Hutton
Team Titleist South East Asia Manager