In my job, it’s easy to be disconnected from how the average golfer chooses to spend his money. We hope that our team does a good job in educating golfers to make the correct purchase, but I don’t often see what the results really are. When we are close to the end of the year, I began to dive into some consumer habits with the help of my friends at Fairway Jockey, and while some results really surprised me, a ton did not.
One that didn’t surprise me (or should it surprise anyone else) is that the Vokey wedges took first place in Fairway Jockey. I think there are three big reasons for that.
Jake’s personal pick: Vokey SM11 RAW
Titleist Vokey SM11 Raw Custom Wedge
A Grind For Every Player For every player, there is a set of grinds suitable for clean contact. SM11 provides a cutting-edge combination of lofts, bounces and grinds to promote solid contact (between grooves 2-5), predictable performance, and the confidence to take what the shot calls for. Grind Comparison Consistent CG Location For a given loft, SM11 features the same CG location in all grinds, resulting in a controlled and consistent launch angle. Regardless of which single design suits your swing or course conditions, your launch window is closed – leaving you free to choose the lofts and grinds that work for you. A Smarter Way to Spin The new Vokey Spin System combines an angled face texture, shot-specific groove shapes, and deeper spin-milled grooves to deliver just the right amount of spin from every lie, in all conditions.
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1. Options
The stock Vokey SM11 The family has 27 combinations of loft, bounce and grind, and that’s before adding its WedgeWorks program, which brings in popular tour special designs and limited edition offerings. Not even including the fact that they come in a few finishes.
With 27 different optionsthere is something for every golfer, regardless of skill or technique.
Matching a single wedge to your performance goals is crucial for any player looking to score better around the greens and feel confident getting up and down after a squirrely approach shot.
They also have options outside of their standard family. There are a couple of different finishes to choose from. There are options with Vokey’s Flightlines, which help you create shots around the green, and of course, there is the The Vokey Wedgeworks program.
The Wedgeworks program alone may make enough of a difference for some golfers to choose Vokey, since that’s where tour-inspired grinds that haven’t officially run in the family live. The extremely popular K*, Vokey’s personal favorite 62ºM, and the V-Grind are among the options in the Vokey Wedgeworks program, which also allows players to add custom grinds to their Vokey, plus custom prints and paint fills.
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2. Everyone can salsa like the Tour
The story of the Vokey SM11 technology revolves mainly around the idea of a consistent placement of the center of gravity (CoG). Within a loft, regardless of which grind and bounce option you choose, the CoG remains the same. This ensures that regardless of which wedge finds the perfect shot for you, you will get ideal launch conditions.
In the past, with different CoG placements in different bounce and grind options, there were some opportunities to have proper turf interaction, but not ideal launch conditions. The SM11 family solves this, meaning every golfer who finds the right bounce and grind for their game gets the right launch conditions. That nice cheeky tour-inspired flight is usually somewhere around 28º for a lob wedge.
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3. They are Vokeys
It might sound like a cop-out, but it’s true. There is a mystique surrounding Vokey wedges. They have led the way on the PGA Tour for many years; they seem to hit the top of the bestseller lists every year, and they have no desire to stop putting the pedal to the metal.
One of the most impressive things about Vokey is the team behind it. Not just Bob or Aaron Dill and Shane out on Tour, but everyone who works behind the scenes to make these wedges better every release. They also listen to customers carefully, which led to the Wedgeworks program and eventually to the sales family.
Titleist Vokey
Titleist as a company has never been shy about continuing to innovate. With a two-year cycle in all categories, the company has time to work on the next evolution of each category. There is often a general belief that there is not much Titleist can do to improve the Vokeys. But they continue to show that there is always room to grow, there is always room to improve, and there is always a new consumer problem to solve.