SCOR System Review - Forum Testing

adwillingham said:

One place that this becomes an interesting discussion is if you buy these to go with one set of irons, then buy something different that is lofted differently. That could very well create a situation where you needed to re-check the loft gaps and either switch lofts or have them bent/adjusted.

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That is definitely an issue that you may run into. While bending is an option, I remember SCORShawn saying something about how that does impact the bounce so my guess is you may not get the full benefit of the V-Sole technology when the bounce angle gets changed.

staticline said:

Nice looking sticks.

What are all of the Bounce options? I didn't see that on the online fitting that adwillingham discussed.
Are there multiple shaft options?
Does each tester has the same, or different shafts?

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SCOR4161 feature a patented sole design we call "V-SOLE". V-SOLE is essentially a custom grind...even though our master tooling has V-SOLE cast then forged into each individual head. The patent is for two positive bounce angles...both of which are effective on every shot. The leading 25% of the sole has an aggressive bounce angle that provides relief to keep the head from digging on shots from deep rough, soft sand or wet closely mown fairway/teebox lies. The latter or primary portion of the sole has a traditional low bounce for tight lie performance. The result is a high lofted iron/wedge that performs well from any lie...like a high and low bounce wedge in one advanced design.

Exact specs by loft are below:

Hawk said:

I have a question about the V-Sole

I had a shot where I wanted to lay my 58° open. I was shortsided near the green. The lie was sort of a mix of sparse rough with a little bit a hardpan underneath. I actually told myself I was doing a dumb thing before I took the shot. I was right and and ended up bouncing the bounce off the dirt and flubbed the chip short of where I wanted it to go.

Would the V-Sole have helped in that type of situation?

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No, once you opened it up it was game over from the sounds of it, V sole or not. For those types of shots I go with the highest loft I've got, make sure the leading edge is right down to the ball (which will actually deloft the club a touch) take it back slow and then violently down on the ball with very little to no follow through. The leading edge with the low bounce gets right down there and pops the ball up and out with a lot of spin. You'll still get a touch of roll out but not much and the ball does get pretty high so if your short sided and down a hill you can still pull this off.

That might not be the correct way to do that shot but through my trial and error it's what I've found works with these.

dubbledxu said:

Honest question for the testers. After having several weeks testing the wedges, how big of a percentage of your improvement in wedge play can be attributed to the wedges / system themselves versus how much can be attributed to the extra attention your wedge game is getting oncourse / range. To put it another way, if you spent the same amount of time practicing with your old wedges, how much worse would your game be?

I know its not really a fair question or that there's an easy answer, but I often wonder this in my own testing.

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No, that's entirely a fair question and something I asked myself early on which I should have posted about. I'll preface my thoughts by saying I don't like the indian not the arrow comment. It has truth it but if you have a repeatable swing it's time for that arrow to bend or be setup the way you need. I see a number of people with a very repeatable swing with solid foundations who just aren't using a club that's suited to them. Change that club a ticht and watch that arrow fly as it were. That's my philosophy to equipment and it's probably why I'm such a gear head as well.

Now as to the actually question I believe that the setup of this club has a lot to do with the increased performance. Yes, I've been practicing/playing more during the test because I want to cram in as much experience and results into the thread for those who are interested in them as quickly as I can. Would that have made me a better wedge player if I did that with my past set? Probably. Signifigantly better? No. I've noticed two signifigant jumps in my wedge play in the past year. The first was when I went from xFT's to Scratch's with the Sweeper/Slider grind. The second was when I went from the Scratch's to the SCOR's. In both cases I was moving from a club that doesn't suit my swing due to the head design (mostly bounce and leading edge) to one that fit much better. I use to blade shots a fair amount of the time because I couldn't get the leading edge down or would bounce it off the turf if I fatted the shot. The later is still an issue but no club is going the fix that. The former is no longer an issue because I can set the wedge up on the low side of the bounce to ensure I get down to the ball.

Have I become a better wedge player? Definately, especially around the green which use to be my nemisis (which is now sand). Part of that will be through practice but part of it is I'm no longer fighting the club in my hands.

John Masters said:

Hey THP, new member here that just received the 46 degree SCOR pitching wedge.

To start, let me concur with everyone else regarding customer service. I have been fortunate enough to deal with Shawn during the fitting process and we exchanged several phone conversations as well as email before I placed my order for the...

46 degree, 36" Length, 64 degree lie, plus 2 wraps

Recently I switched from a set of Mizuno MP29s that I had been playing for 10 years to a set of the original Callaway Fusion Irons with Nippon 1150GH Tour stiff shafts. With the Mizunos, the PW was perfect and transitioned into my Cleveland 588s perfectly but with the Fusions I immediately knew that I was going to want to stick with a blade style club for my pitching wedge on down. So, initially i gave myself two choices... continue playing the MP-29 PW which breaks the set and interferes with re-sale or play my Cleveland Regular 588 PW(you dont see them much but they do exist). The problem with this is that the 588 PW just doesnt have the feel of the 588 GW,SW and LW and a rather large gap exists between the Fusion 9 and 588 PW because the Fusions are LOOONG.

I discovered SCOR via their giveaway over at GolfWRX. Initially I was planning on purchasing a 4 wedge set of the Eidolons at the Kingdom 59 price as Shawn said he would match their price however they were out of stock on a few of the satin chrome heads so after a few days of deliberation I decided instead to get started with one of the SCOR wedges. I thought the 46 was the best place to start as the original Fusion PW was also 46 and a few weeks of testing should help me decide on the gapping from there on down and whether I want to replace the 9I with the 41 SCOR. Possibly 41, 46, 51, 55, 59

Initial thoughts after un-boxing...

Quickly shipped and Nicely boxed with a nice bag-tag and repair tool, THANKS!.

This is a very nice looking wedge. As attractive as anything else I have seen recently. Like most of you, I like for my equipment to look good and be well thought out from head, to ferrule, to shaft, to grip. And this one certainly is. Quite honestly, the reason I havnt ordered a custom wedge as of yet from anyone else is that I am not going to spend good money on a custom club if the grip isnt custom as well. This was another reason that swayed me from the Eidolons to the SCORs. And, let me say, my initial impressions of the grip are very good. I have never been a fan of cords but the fact that the cord area is shorter than most which keeps the cord only in my glove hand is something I like very much. The grip feels good with 3 wraps. I expect with one wrap this grip is going to seem slim compared many other grips.

Also, although I love the neoprene head cover and think its a great idea, I happen to be a neoprene head cover snob(I've tried most of them) and will immediately switch to the ones called "Iron Gloves"

Although i have seen others comment that the club initially had a light feeling, that is not my experience so far. It pretty much feels just rite and similar to my other PWs. It also has a nice feeling when swinging it here in the office. Also, for me, the club head itself does not appear to be small probably because I am used to the MP-29s and 588s. One reason I moved to the Fusions is because these days the MP-29 3 and 4 Iron are looking tiny.

One thing I would suggest is to add the name KBS to the shaft-band somehow. There is no actual evidence that the shaft is in fact a KBS and I think since KBS is a big selling point of these wedges it should be represented somehow and would aid in re-sale. I like seeing the patent number on the shaft-band very much.

I'll be looking forward to my first range session and reporting my experience here on THP.

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John - you are too kind...we simply try to do the right thing for every customer.

Re: headcovers - there has been some dialog here in the testing forum regarding these. Honestly, we never intended for these to be a golf course solution, simply a matter of protecting the clubs during transit and part of the presentation when the box arrives. Based on the feedback here and from others (again, including my own dad), we're working on a solution so the loft can be shown.

Re: the light weight - as our CEO like to say, we've only had two complaints about the clubs so far. They are too heavy...AND...they are too light. ;-) Feel and weight mean different things to different people.

Re: GENIUS 12 Steel Shaft - we are working on it with KBS. Problem in this proprietary version that we co-developed with KBS is the softer mid-section...exactly what makes it a great short game shaft. There are a few more steps there than the standard version...so the stock KBS label is too long to go on the underside of the shaft. We're working to get a shorter co-branded version completed.

ddec said:

This goes for all testers...

So if they have made your game better from 150 and in. When you consider a new set of irons, would you look at sets where the lofts go in line with the SCOR wedges that you have? Since you have your known clubs from 150 and in, would you consider buying only the few irons that you would need to round out a set?

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Yes, yes I would. As far as I'm concerned the only purpose of all the other clubs in my bag are for the purpose of getting me into scoring range. Now that range doesn't have to be 150, it could be 200, 110 or whatever range someone feels confident of scoring from. Irons IMO are no different from wedges, hybrids or woods. Get a set of the specific clubs you need for their purpose and that's it. If you know you're a hybrid player from 3-5 then there's no point getting a set of 3-PW in your irons. Now I would just be looking at it from either end instead of one.

This is hypothetically based on what sort of irons I would play in the future. If we're talking a cavity back set, I'd be inclinded to go SCOR from the 9 to my last wedge as I really like the combo set aspect. If I was playing something like I am now where there are blades in the scoring irons already then it's not so cut and dry depending on my comfort level with the blades in the set.

But then I've thought for awhile that the "traditional" setup of clubs is dying so I might be biased on the combo set idea.

mcook77 said:

Not an official tester but since I own the 52, 56, and 61 I would like to chime in here. I was recently wondering if I needed GI irons and immediately my thought process led to looking at lofts that would mesh with my current SCOR wedges. Even to the point of picking up 49, 45, and 41 in the SCOR and then just getting a 5,6,7 to fill in the bag until the hybrids picked up. Yes, they are that good IMO.

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Although I have not hit my 46 yet. After reading this thread and thinking about loft quit a bit lately. If I had a choice I would increase the loft on all of my Callaway Fusions by 2-4 degrees, making it easier to fit the SCORs to the Irons and to get to a 60 or 61LW with 4 degrees of separation between the SCORs. In my mind, this would leave my gapping problem between my longest iron and hybrids which does not seem nearly as critical as being mis-gapped in the short irons.

The problem is, as I recall, the Fusions can be adjusted for lie but not for loft. Hey ScorShawn, Is that correct?

SCORShawn said:

John - you are too kind...we simply try to do the right thing for every customer.

Re: headcovers - there has been some dialog here in the testing forum regarding these. Honestly, we never intended for these to be a golf course solution, simply a matter of protecting the clubs during transit and part of the presentation when the box arrives. Based on the feedback here and from others (again, including my own dad), we're working on a solution so the loft can be shown.

Re: the light weight - as our CEO like to say, we've only had two complaints about the clubs so far. They are too heavy...AND...they are too light. ;-) Feel and weight mean different things to different people.

Re: GENIUS 12 Steel Shaft - we are working on it with KBS. Problem in this proprietary version that we co-developed with KBS is the softer mid-section...exactly what makes it a great short game shaft. There are a few more steps there than the standard version...so the stock KBS label is too long to go on the underside of the shaft. We're working to get a shorter co-branded version completed.

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Hey Shawn, regarding marking the headcovers for each individual iron...

How about above the SCOR4161 on the cover you just add one line of white screen printing like... 9 P G S L and then when you decide which club the cover will go to you just black out the other designations. I got the idea looking at the 4161 under SCOR and thinking if it was going on either a 41 or 61 you could just black out the other digits. Obviously printing 41 42 43 so forth would be too much and I think most of us, no matter the variations in loft, will continue to refer to our wedges by there names and not there numbers

Hawk said:

I have a question about the V-Sole

I had a shot where I wanted to lay my 58° open. I was shortsided near the green. The lie was sort of a mix of sparse rough with a little bit a hardpan underneath. I actually told myself I was doing a dumb thing before I took the shot. I was right and and ended up bouncing the bounce off the dirt and flubbed the chip short of where I wanted it to go.

Would the V-Sole have helped in that type of situation?

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Hawk - beside the 50 yard bunker shot, the lie you describe here is probably one of the hardest shots in golf...in my opinion. I say this primarily because you will inevitably have a ton of grass between the face of the golf club and ball...plus you have a tight lie to contend with.

Totally agree with Super Tuna as a golfer here. You need low bounce to make sure you can get the club face on the ball as quickly as possible. Remember that when you open the face of a wedge, you are also adding bounce to the sole...and you are adding a totally new variable for your golf brain to calculate. How much loft did opening the face add...and how much harder does that mean you need to swing to execute the shot at hand? And, because I added bounce by adding loft, is that going to cause the sole of the club to skip into the belly of the ball? (most likely...especially on a hard, tight lie)

Like Super Tuna said...I'd say first pick the club in your bag with the highest degree of loft...and try avoid opening the face. You want the club to dig on this particular shot. In my own game though, I struggle with the swing thought of little or no follow-through...it cause me to decelerate and hit shots fat...which I hate almost as much as those low and quick right ones.

To get the high ball flight you need for the short sided green situation from a sparse rough/hard tight lie, I'd try this sequence during your next practice session:

1. Take a few practice swings to get a feel for how hard you need to keep moving through the shot for the given distance/loft of wedge in your hand. Also practice an outside/in swing plane.
2. Line up the club face first, pointed at your target.
3. Step into the shot and open up your stance with ball position slightly towards your front foot (left foot for right handed golfer).
4. Grip the club a little tighter with your lead hand (left for right handed golfer).
5. Let your last swing thought be to keep the handle of the club and your left side moving the the shot. (don't quit on it...or you'll have a fat or bladed shot)

Again, this is one of the most difficult shots you'll find. Have realistic expectations...pick where you want the shot to land...and commit to your method. If it doesn't work, go practice it and try something else.

Would V-SOLE have helped? It certainly wouldn't have hurt...and the reason I say that is because our higher lofted wedges have less bounce than most on the primary portion of the sole. It sounds to me like you half bladed the shot, but had some grass between the face and ball that softened the result. Not much you can do to keep grass from between the face and the ball...but I'd try to work on not opening the face in these scenarios with a hard base.

Thanks Shawn,

Any pro's using these?

John Masters said:

Although I have not hit my 46 yet. After reading this thread and thinking about loft quit a bit lately. If I had a choice I would increase the loft on all of my Callaway Fusions by 2-4 degrees, making it easier to fit the SCORs to the Irons and to get to a 60 or 61LW with 4 degrees of separation between the SCORs. In my mind, this would leave my gapping problem between my longest iron and hybrids which does not seem nearly as critical as being mis-gapped in the short irons.

The problem is, as I recall, the Fusions can be adjusted for lie but not for loft. Hey ScorShawn, Is that correct?

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John - If I recall, those irons are a titanium alloy body with titanium face insert. "Tunite" was an alloy Callaway Golf used in those heads...and I think it is way hard, but you didn't feel it at impact because of the titanium face and insert in cavity. So what you'd be bending is that tunite alloy...which I believe is a titanium / tungsten alloy. Very durable and probably very difficult to bend. Don't quote me on this though...call our friends at Callaway Golf in Carlsbad - 800-588-9836

That said, you can easily change loft and lie on most clubs...just always be sure you trust who is doing it...and to check loft after any lie change. Not a huge fan of changing loft by more than 1-2 degrees though because of the effect it has on bounce. You add loft, you add bounce. Adding more than 1-2 degrees of bounce is usually not a good thing on most irons. You really don't want more than 4-5° of bounce on a golf club with less than 41° of loft.

Thanks for the answers, everybody! That's makes complete sense to me and I know what I will do the next time.

staticline said:

Thanks Shawn,

Any pro's using these?

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No one on the big tour yet, but there are a handful of developmental tour / senior tour and PGA teaching / playing professionals that have SCOR in the bag here in Texas. I cannot mention any by name since we do not pay anyone to endorse them...but there are many...even in the short time since we launched in late July 2011.

Why have you never heard of us? We are a new brand...but our team has been designing equipment for 30 or more years...most of which for the short game. EIDOLON Golf has been making V-SOLE Wedges for more than 5 years now, but never gone after mass distribution via brick and mortar retail. We are changing that with SCOR because we feel like it will truly help anyone's game, but we still have no plans to pay players to endorse our products. We put more credit in what everyday golfers like those here on the Hackers Paradise say about the performance of SCOR4161.

Better players are the most critical of their wedges...and I will tell you that in our testing, SCOR performs for a broad range of players...from the best to the rest of us.

Lots of good info in here Shawn. man, its so insightful when you post in this thread. I see a lot of techy questions in here and I am not the type of person to focus on bounce numbers or any other numbers for that matter. I pick up the club that has the number on the bottom that I feel will be best for my distance and then I just TRUST them. They just work. Thats all that can be said. I will leave the techy stuff up to you smart people.

dubbledxu said:

Honest question for the testers. After having several weeks testing the wedges, how big of a percentage of your improvement in wedge play can be attributed to the wedges / system themselves versus how much can be attributed to the extra attention your wedge game is getting oncourse / range. To put it another way, if you spent the same amount of time practicing with your old wedges, how much worse would your game be?

I know its not really a fair question or that there's an easy answer, but I often wonder this in my own testing.

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I have to answer your question is in stages:

How much improvement due to the wedges... That is a hard one for me to answer because I had recently switched to Eidolon wedges. Eidolon wedges are certainly a different club from the SCORs, but the benefits that I saw from the V-Sole were immediate and incredible. My Eidolons are 50, 54, 58. Whereas my SCORs are 45, 50, 55, 60. Strictly speaking, the gaps of the SCORs fit my set better in a 4 club option. But there is a confidence factor that is built into this game. Even though it's only 2 lousy degrees, I am far more comfortable standing over a ball with a 58 than I am with a 60 and given the choice I would have forced that into my set. That said, I am more confident with the SCOR 60 than I have been with any other 60 I have ever had.

How much improvement due to system/practice... I feel like these have to be answered together. The only unfair part of the question is that you separated these two aspects. The system and practice are inexorably intertwined, at least for me. Without practice how could I learn that I reliably hit my 45* club 123 yards exactly? Not, I hit it about 120-125 or on a REALLY good swing I can get it out there 135-140. The system "forced" me to go out and learn EXACTLY how far I hit the ball with a comfortable normal swing. It took actual work, fun work, but work none the less. The time that I spent practicing the system produced results that I cannot deny. I have every intention to continue to work on the system because I truly believe that I reap the benefits of that effort.

If I spent the same amount of time practicing with my old wedges? If you saw the pictures I posted earlier in the thread... I own/have owned a LOT of wedges. Every time I got a new one, I would spend hours on end in the yard trying to figure out how to use it effectively. Then a few months later, I'd be looking again. In fairness, I have not had these wedges for months. I've had them for almost 6 weeks. Again, in fairness to the question, I have spent a lot more time practicing with them (due to the nature of the test) than I had with any other wedge. Often with my old wedges I knew within minutes that I made the wrong buy after hitting in the grass. Occasionally, it took me some time to come to that conclusion. The V-SOLE has been discussed here at length, but it truly is AWESOME! Certainly there are lies in which it does not excel. But in my limited experience no other club would either and most would (and have) perform far worse.

This is a difficult game, and there is not magic club that will automatically make me shoot in the 80's or 70's. Every change we make, or advancement in technology requires practice to "master". There are lots of different "systems" (Stack-N'-Tilt etc). Without putting in the required work none of them are worth a darn. Some of them never were worth a darn.

After writing a novel, the short answer to your question... I am a better golfer because of all of your questions, not just one in particular.

ddec said:

This goes for all testers...

So if they have made your game better from 150 and in. When you consider a new set of irons, would you look at sets where the lofts go in line with the SCOR wedges that you have? Since you have your known clubs from 150 and in, would you consider buying only the few irons that you would need to round out a set?

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To me that is a budgetary question more than anything. Many of us, myself included, cannot afford to buy $XXX.xx worth of irons, plus $XXX.xx worth of wedges.. In a perfect world, I would not consider it for even a moment. In the world where I actually live, it would certainly be cause for pause!

I think I would still hit every set of irons I could afford and look for the set that fit my whole game the best. Off the tee on a par4 or 5 I am hitting driver, 3W, or hybrid. From there I have decisions to make. Layup or go for it depends on where I am, and what the hole has to offer. Before this test, I tried to put myself at 150 because that is my 8 iron, and was my most comfortable club. Because of the test I find I push a little further sometimes to get myself within 120. Often I will layup, because I know that longer shot is fraught with problems that I can reduce.

Given what I have learned through this test, I say I would not hesitate to by the irons that fit me best and damn that gaps created. But I would also know in the back of my head that I needed to save for a new set of SCORs!

Griff - Just got a chance to watch your recent videos and enjoyed them. Those greens are teeny tiny!

Got some catching up to do so I will break this up.

Hawk said:

I have a question about the V-Sole

I had a shot where I wanted to lay my 58° open. I was shortsided near the green. The lie was sort of a mix of sparse rough with a little bit a hardpan underneath. I actually told myself I was doing a dumb thing before I took the shot. I was right and and ended up bouncing the bounce off the dirt and flubbed the chip short of where I wanted it to go.

Would the V-Sole have helped in that type of situation?

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I'm not sure, Hawk. If you were to not open up the V Sole may have helped. Live, learn, and forget to not do it next time is what I usually do. I make the same mistakes over and over on the course because I'm stubborn.

If you check out my 55 video on page 68 I had something kinda similar. I was sitting down in a bare spot off the green, bare spot was basically dirt and hard. I wouldn't say I was very short sided, but I didn't have much roll to work with. I actually opted to close the face down to make sure the club didn't twist. You can see the ball come off a little funny toward the heel. I had to hit through the turf lip the ball was against and get to the ball. Worked out and if I had gone at it normal or open the club may have twisted. I have soft hands around the green. A good thing in that I can have good control and a bad thing in that the club can twist on me. Not sure if my shot was anything like yours, but the lies may have played similar.

dubbledxu said:

Honest question for the testers. After having several weeks testing the wedges, how big of a percentage of your improvement in wedge play can be attributed to the wedges / system themselves versus how much can be attributed to the extra attention your wedge game is getting oncourse / range. To put it another way, if you spent the same amount of time practicing with your old wedges, how much worse would your game be?

I know its not really a fair question or that there's an easy answer, but I often wonder this in my own testing.

Click to expand...

I still hit bad shots and still hit good shots. Make good decisions and bad decisions. The testing process will probably improve my short game as I actually have a plan now. The SCOR system has made me critically think about my short game. As of now it's really hard to say if my scores have improved as I have scored very few official rounds. Lots of dropping balls here and there, worsening my lies, dropping balls at specific distances, etc.

If I had spent all this time practicing with my older setup I probably would be fractionally better. But, the clubs would still perform the same way. Being touchy with a CG16 was a challenge for me, they are pretty chunky. Getting through thick rough was 50/50 with Mizuno MP T10s. Niblicks are great but demanded of me a "Niblick" swing that doesn't match my normal wedge/iron stroke. Redline wedges are low in versatility.

ddec said:

This goes for all testers...

So if they have made your game better from 150 and in. When you consider a new set of irons, would you look at sets where the lofts go in line with the SCOR wedges that you have? Since you have your known clubs from 150 and in, would you consider buying only the few irons that you would need to round out a set?

Click to expand...

Yes, ddec. Building from the highest loft on down makes really good sense when I think about it. Take a 60 or 58 degree wedge. It can be responsible for 5 to 60, 70, 80, on up yard (depends on how big a hitter you are) shots. Driver isn't responsible for that wide coverage. Irons are responsible for a very small distance gap. Wedges and short irons have many demands on them and it now makes sense to me to start at the highest loft I can comfortably hit and go from there. Tell you what, those Pro Cavities would look sexy next to the SCORs.

Hawk said:

Griff - Just got a chance to watch your recent videos and enjoyed them. Those greens are teeny tiny!

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Thanks Hawk. That is the unofficial local THP test course. Not many people there, owner doesn't care how many balls I hit so long as I don't hold anyone up, it's cheap, it's bad for driver (1-2 holes are driver friendly), but anything else is great. My "real" course is much longer and busier. Guess I never thought of the green size, there are some postage stamps to hit now that I think about it.

I play something similar to that for the same purpose. Good testing grounds.

State of the SCOR Address – 10/18/2011

Taking a cue from Griff’s post last week, I thought it was time to publish a summation of my thoughts about the SCOR Wedges and System up through the rounds I played last weekend. Hopefully Griff won't mind that I borrowed his category list almost verbatim. Obviously testing will continue and there are some areas I certainly need to spend some more time on going forward.

As a reminder, here is the testing information:
Testing Club: SCORGolf 45, 50, 55, 60 Deg – Shaft: Genius 12 (KBS Tour 120) – Stiff Steel
My Club: TaylorMade R11 PW (45) and AW (50) - Shaft: KBS Tour 90 – Stiff Steel and TaylorMade xFT 54 and 58 deg – Shaft: KBS Hi-Rev – Wedge Flex Steel
Ball Used: Bridgestone B330-RXS, Srixon Q-Stars, Range Balls

Appearance

The SCOR Wedges are terrific looking clubs. The toplines are not as thick as the R11 Irons I’m using (which themselves are on the thin side for GI irons), but they are certainly thicker than the blade-like wedges of any other brand. They are just very classic looking clubs.

One of my early concerns when doing direct club-to-club comparisons was the smaller head size of the 45 deg SCOR versus the R11 PW it was replacing. Once I just put the SCORs in the bag and removed the R11s, I haven’t noticed the size any more.

I do not see any concerns with wear on either the clubface or sole…there are marks showing my mishits, but nothing unusual.

Grips

One of the things I give SCOR Golf a lot of credit for is the design of the UST Mamiya grips that are on these clubs. Ignoring the markings for a second, these are quality grips that react much like the NDMC grips I have on the rest of my clubs. The cord section in the top hand is not as severe as the NDMC, but I can’t think of any times I’ve observed any slippage.

Now, the markings. One of the things that the SCOR System advocates is choking down on the club and still taking a full swing in order to bridge the gap between two clubs. The markings on the grips make this very easy to do consistently since there are various lines about an inch apart. These lines allow the user to adjust the grip up and down very easily since you can just pick a mark for a full length grip, and use the next mark down for choking down.

One suggestion for improvement would be some sort of marking on the grip to designate an open clubface position. The SCOR System also advocates opening the clubface a few degrees to reach a consistent shorter distance, but I have found that difficult to be consistent with from a hand position perspective.

Shaft - Genius 12 Steel Stiff Flex

The Genius 12 shaft is a co-branded KBS Tour 120 shaft. I really feel that this is a great pairing with the clubhead. The weight of the shaft balances the club very nicely. Really the weight distribution feels perfect for a short iron/wedge in that it is neither head-heavy nor head-light. I will speak more to performance below, but I have absolutely no criticism of the shaft that SCOR Golf has chosen to combine with the 4161 heads.

V-Sole

First found on the Eidolan wedges, the V-Sole is the star of these clubs in my opinion. I have always found the decision of which bounce option to buy one of the more frustrating pieces of any wedge purpose. I don’t play a single course repeatedly, so I often find myself in changing turf conditions. With the V-Sole, I don’t have to worry about having the right tool for the shot, I just have to use the tool I have correctly. If I need lower bounce off of a harder lie, I leave the face square and use the front section of the sole. If I need the higher bounce out of a bunker or fluffier lie, I can open the face and use the rear section of the sole.

Even better than that, the V-Sole is a terrific thing for a digger like myself. Yes, you can still hit a shot fat, but the V-Sole will not let you excavate a trench like blade wedges I’ve used in the past. I have looked at the length of some of the divots I have taken and been very surprised with the ball flight results.

Gapping

One adjustment to the SCOR System that I would like to see is that not every golfer wants or needs to carry a 60-61 degree wedge. Now obviously one of the great things is that every single loft between 41 deg and 61 deg is available, but it would be nice if the online SCOR Fit tool allowed the user to designate the highest loft they want to carry. Of course, the user can manually order what they want, but the tool does force fit you into a Lob Wedge.

That all being said, I am seeing the following approximate distances:
45 deg – 110-115 yd
50 deg – 95-100 yd
55 deg – 80-85 yds
60 deg – 65-70 yds

With those distances in mind, I have pretty consistent 10-15 yard gaps between each pair of clubs, which particularly with the concept of choking down provides me with most every distance I need to cover. However, I am struggling with finding a club I like to chip with. The 55 seems like too little loft, and the 60 feels like too much. If I was ordering again for myself, I would probably customize to 45-50-54-58 to tighten up those lower gaps a bit, and provide myself the 58 deg as a primary chipping club.

Again though, the beauty is that the user can micro-manage whatever they feel like doing without having to have clubs custom bent +/- 1 deg.

Forgiveness

In transitioning from the R11 PW and AW to the SCOR 45 and 50, I was really concerned with the drop in forgiveness. A few balls into the first range session, those concerns were erased. Distance loss due to off center strikes is no worse off of the forged SCORs than the GI R11s. Nor does directional forgiveness seem to be any more concern.

Spin

I am not a high spin player, but these SCOR Wedges generate more spin than any previous wedge I have owned. I have used a spinnier ball (B330-RXS) and a straighter distance ball (Q-Star) and seen more spin even on chips and pitches than I would have expected. I’m not sure if it is the groove design (USGA Conforming by the way), or the combination of the head/shaft, or both, but this is an area that these wedges shine in. Even on shots that I catch a bit thin, I know the ball is going to hit and stop a lot quicker than I would have previously expected.

Shotmaking/Accuracy

The other area I continue to be really impressed with is the accuracy of shots hit with the SCOR Wedges. I’m not sure if it is due to the lower offset or some other factor, but my directional accuracy is considerably better with these wedges. This was really the first thing I noticed in the transition particularly with the 45 and 50 deg wedges. The side-to-side dispersion of 10 shots with these was probably half of what 10 shots with the R11s produced. Distance control is another area where the SCORs seem to fulfill their promise. The distances I listed above are exactly in line with the clubs they were replacing when taking loft into account.

One area I have not spent enough time on to form an opinion is the SCOR System of adjusting for distance by choking down or opening the club, but still taking full swings. I certainly understand the premise, and have taken some full choked down swings and seen a shot that ended a few yards shorter. Right now, my swing isn’t adjustable enough to do that reliably on the course. I just feel like I’m swinging an inch shorter club that I’m going to blade. Opening the clubface has been decent as long as the lie allows it, but as I mentioned above, I’m not able to consistently measure how much to open the face.

Conclusion

As I’ve stated before, these clubs are not a miracle drug, but they are a solid over the counter painkiller. One thing that is very obvious is how well thought out these clubs are, from the V-Sole to the shafts to the grips. SCOR Golf obviously has their focus on the right areas for a small manufacturer. As we’ve all seen in this thread, the customer service they supply is top notch and these are obviously a product they believe in.

As the final comment here, I think the best way to analyze my overall thoughts would be to answer the questions “If I had to send them back right now, would I purchase them out of pocket?” and “What would my bag composition be?”

Right now, I would say that as a replacement for blade-like wedges (in my case the xFT 54 and 58 deg) I would absolutely buy these in a heartbeat. Maybe not in the 55/60 loft combination, but probably as a 54/58. The harder question for me right now is if I would go out of pocket for the PW and AW replacements. I really like the 45 and 50 SCOR wedges, and there are things they do better than the R11 PW and AW, but given that I already own the R11 clubs I probably would not spend the money to switch those out. If I was ordering irons from scratch where I could build a combo set, stopping with a 9i and starting with the SCOR Wedges from there, I would definitely consider doing that.

Excellent little summary there, Donne. Very objective thoughts and I appreciate you candor.

Nice write-up AD! Thought only nicely and hitting on all critical aspects.

Great job ad! I agree with everything you've said in your summary. Like you, one thing I need to improve upon is utilizing SCOR's advice on hitting more full shots. I've been golfing for almost 30 years and it's tough to break old habits.

As for chipping have you tried to close the face on the 55, use the hinge and hold technique, and put it a little back in your stance a little? It's been working for me and gets me through the rough even easier on those very slow touchy swings. Sorry for the unsolicited advice.

Again, great write up and can't wait to hear more.

Ad that was a great write up. I agree with everything except the grip section, but that is perhaps my own little quirk. I to need to spend some time working on the choked down full swings to get exact distances. However, I have pretty much always been one to choke down for in between shots, so I just need to learn the distances rather than guessing at them.

Keep it up, you are killing it in here!

Thanks for the comments guys.

griff said:

As for chipping have you tried to close the face on the 55, use the hinge and hold technique, and put it a little back in your stance a little? It's been working for me and gets me through the rough even easier on those very slow touchy swings. Sorry for the unsolicited advice.

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That is not a technique I have tried Griff. I'm just a creature of habit, and I guess I'm just used to chipping with a 56 or 58 degree wedge. Its not so much a turf interaction issue as it is getting a feeling of distance control on chipping with the 55 or 60. As good as these are, I am still struggling with a mental block with seeing a 60 on the bottom of the wedge with the fear that I will blade everything with it (even though I have not seen this to be the case with this one).

mdbuschsr said:

Ad that was a great write up. I agree with everything except the grip section, but that is perhaps my own little quirk. I to need to spend some time working on the choked down full swings to get exact distances. However, I have pretty much always been one to choke down for in between shots, so I just need to learn the distances rather than guessing at them.

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Choking down is something I almost never do, so the adjustments of the inch shorter club are a bit foreign. Something I will continue to work on as the course time is replaced by range time over the next couple months.