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Cleveland Smart Sole Wedges

SuperStroke
I let my golf partner play my S and C wedges tonight during our league match. He had one long bunker shot, and hit it to about 8 feet (good). Unfortunately, he also mis-judged the distance a bit on the C wedge, and hit 4 chips over the last 2 holes. He liked the wedges, and will get the hang of the C.
 
I'm starting to get better with partial shots using the S. From around 30-75 yds I'm still only about 50/50 when it comes to good (on the green in reasonable putting distance) vs not so good (short, long), pitches. My chipping from just off the green is getting better. I am still amazed by how easy I find it to hit full shots with this club.
 
I'm sad to announce that the C has come out of the bag and now resides in the extra club bag and will likely soon end up on the marketplace or in a friends bag. I will be using the 9 iron from my set for bump and runs when that's the play. This used to be the play for me a lot.

Then the Smart Sole S happened. I seriously could not be happier with this club. It continues to impress me more and more with every round we play together. Now I would prefer to go high and straight at the pin and land just short, I rarely ever would try to do that in the past. This club has changed the game for me.

Today my friend and I had a similar chip from deep rough to a tucked pin. I used to hate this shot but now I love it. I stuck mine in close and my friend chunked his. After we both holed out we went back for a chip off and the Smart Sole S did it's beautiful dance once again. (There was a slower group a few holes ahead and we were at the end of the slow train with nobody behind.) I asked him if he would like to try my club and he proceeded to hole out his first try with it. Then he stuck a few more in close, all inside of where he was with his wedge. We were going to grab one at the shop after the round but we found one cheap online. Today was a good day. The Smart Sole Army has a new recruit.
 
Snedekerrr said:
I'm sad to announce that the C has come out of the bag and now resides in the extra club bag and will likely soon end up on the marketplace or in a friends bag. I will be using the 9 iron from my set for bump and runs when that's the play. This used to be the play for me a lot.

Then the Smart Sole S happened. I seriously could not be happier with this club. It continues to impress me more and more with every round we play together. Now I would prefer to go high and straight at the pin and land just short, I rarely ever would try to do that in the past. This club has changed the game for me.

Today my friend and I had a similar chip from deep rough to a tucked pin. I used to hate this shot but now I love it. I stuck mine in close and my friend chunked his. After we both holed out we went back for a chip off and the Smart Sole S did it's beautiful dance once again. (There was a slower group a few holes ahead and we were at the end of the slow train with nobody behind.) I asked him if he would like to try my club and he proceeded to hole out his first try with it. Then he stuck a few more in close, all inside of where he was with his wedge. We were going to grab one at the shop after the round but we found one cheap online. Today was a good day. The Smart Sole Army has a new recruit.
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Good stuff. I hit the S a lot again today, and am starting to get a feel for it on partial shots and all around the green.
 
I played at a course today that has an epic practice facility. Two sided driving range, giant putting green and two full size bunkered greens to chip to and you can get over 100 yards away. I took the opportunity to hit about 50 balls from all over the place with my Smart Sole S and then with the 588 RTX 56* I used to use for everything inside 100 and the difference was astounding. The Smart Sole S is not foolproof but it's as close as I've ever seen. What a club.

It's amazing to me it's not more popular.
 
Picked this up due to this thread and have put in two days with it. Saved my *** today.

Was protecting my best round score for this par 3 course that I played today. I really wanted to get this score in--I felt I'd earned it with all my recent practice. Last hole: square into the bunker. Soft sand with a high and deep edge to it. I'd already played around with the S so I kind of smirked instead of felt fear. Pulled the S, hit it like a pitching wedge, put it right next to the pin, and got out with a par and my hard earned best round on that course.

Exactly what I think that club can do. There is now no short yardage game shot, within reason, that I have any fear over. I don't hit all my shots and I'm not "on" as often as I want to be, but I'm not afraid of anything I'll see in there anymore.

That's not the way I ever saw the short game 10 years ago before I ended up leaving the game for about 5 years.
 
Snedekerrr said:
I played at a course today that has an epic practice facility. Two sided driving range, giant putting green and two full size bunkered greens to chip to and you can get over 100 yards away. I took the opportunity to hit about 50 balls from all over the place with my Smart Sole S and then with the 588 RTX 56* I used to use for everything inside 100 and the difference was astounding. The Smart Sole S is not foolproof but it's as close as I've ever seen. What a club.

It's amazing to me it's not more popular.
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Agreed, but then the reason why it's not is pretty obvious
 
Good.Shepherd said:
Picked this up due to this thread and have put in two days with it. Saved my *** today.

Was protecting my best round score for this par 3 course that I played today. I really wanted to get this score in--I felt I'd earned it with all my recent practice. Last hole: square into the bunker. Soft sand with a high and deep edge to it. I'd already played around with the S so I kind of smirked instead of felt fear. Pulled the S, hit it like a pitching wedge, put it right next to the pin, and got out with a par and my hard earned best round on that course.

Exactly what I think that club can do. There is now no short yardage game shot, within reason, that I have any fear over. I don't hit all my shots and I'm not "on" as often as I want to be, but I'm not afraid of anything I'll see in there anymore.

That's not the way I ever saw the short game 10 years ago before I ended up leaving the game for about 5 years.
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Congrats on the score! It's great to have confidence over a shot vs trepidation.
 
Good.Shepherd said:
Picked this up due to this thread and have put in two days with it. Saved my *** today.

Was protecting my best round score for this par 3 course that I played today. I really wanted to get this score in--I felt I'd earned it with all my recent practice. Last hole: square into the bunker. Soft sand with a high and deep edge to it. I'd already played around with the S so I kind of smirked instead of felt fear. Pulled the S, hit it like a pitching wedge, put it right next to the pin, and got out with a par and my hard earned best round on that course.

Exactly what I think that club can do. There is now no short yardage game shot, within reason, that I have any fear over. I don't hit all my shots and I'm not "on" as often as I want to be, but I'm not afraid of anything I'll see in there anymore.

That's not the way I ever saw the short game 10 years ago before I ended up leaving the game for about 5 years.
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Congrats man. This is why I will be making this purchase shortly
 
I am still contemplating adding the C to my bag.....I hit the S so well....just don't know what I would lose to make room for it.
 
TripleBogieTim said:
I am still contemplating adding the C to my bag.....I hit the S so well....just don't know what I would lose to make room for it.
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If you have any wedges that you only practically use for straight chipping from mostly tight lies--you have another go-to for carry, rough, etc--then that is where the chipper would fit. I use all my wedges for different things, so there's no room for the chipper. But in previous years I usually had one wedge that I only used in that one kind of situation because I didn't trust it for anything else.

I'd have swapped that for a chipper no problem.
 
I hit quite a few with the S out of a bunker on the practice hole last night, and I think the big flange on the bottom has improved those shots for me without any effort of my own. I have never been a finesse bunker person anyway, my approach has always been more of just get it out. I don't practice bunker shots much either, I just twist my feet to dig in and blast it out along with a lot of sand. I've tried in the past to open the face take less sand, and so on, but usually ended up blading it over the green. With the S, I noticed that just using my normal shot took less sand and I even got a little spin on few. Pretty nice to get something for free like that.
 
BamBooBender said:
Agreed, but then the reason why it's not is pretty obvious
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It's not obvious to me but I can be pretty oblivious at times. It just seems to that there are so many people that could benefit from a wedge like this for all the lob/sand shots.

If I had to throw a guess at it I would say its looks are what holds it back. Maybe it's the stigma associated with a max game improvement club. But I don't know, please enlighten me.
 
Snedekerrr said:
It's not obvious to me but I can be pretty oblivious at times. It just seems to that there are so many people that could benefit from a wedge like this for all the lob/sand shots.

If I had to throw a guess at it I would say its looks are what holds it back. Maybe it's the stigma associated with a max game improvement club. But I don't know, please enlighten me.
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Agree 100%, and no need to enlighten you, you already got it.
 
BamBooBender said:
Agree 100%, and no need to enlighten you, you already got it.
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That sucks I was hoping it wasn't that. People are silly animals.

That's awesome you were having some success out of the practice bunker with the S. Something for nothin is a pretty rare thing in this world but I feel like I had the exact same experience.

This game is plenty hard, I want the tools that give me the best chance. That just seems like a no brainer to me.
 
Snedekerrr said:
That sucks I was hoping it wasn't that. People are silly animals.

That's awesome you were having some success out of the practice bunker with the S. Something for nothin is a pretty rare thing in this world but I feel like I had the exact same experience.

This game is plenty hard, I want the tools that give me the best chance. That just seems like a no brainer to me.
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I suppose I should add that some folks might look on this is as gimmicky as well. I can't really blame a person for that with all the stuff that has been marketed at golfers for decades.
 
BamBooBender said:
I suppose I should add that some folks might look on this is as gimmicky as well. I can't really blame a person for that with all the stuff that has been marketed at golfers for decades.
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Oh that's a fair point. It's more understandable when you look at it that way. I have been enlightened after all :)
 
I hit some really nice pitches, chips, and one sand shot with the S today that saved me some strokes--not to mention par a couple of times. Unfortunately I thinned a couple as well, which cost me a couple. Grrrr!
 
The one sand shot I hit to about 4', this club is making me look better than I really am from the sand.
 
BamBooBender said:
The one sand shot I hit to about 4', this club is making me look better than I really am from the sand.
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Thats a beautiful thing. I feel the exact same way. I've only used it in two range sessions and one round but the SLDR mini driver is producing the same results.
 
On the advice of a THPer who has similar taste in clubs and whose opinion I really respect, I decided to take the plunge on a Smart Sole S. The club arrived today, so I took it out to the yard for some initial swings and chips. It's almost an easier to chip Niblick 56, if that's even possible. I was picking balls up out of my 3 inch deep grass with ease.
It's going to be interesting to compare these on the monitor, in practice short game area and then around a course. The club is a little lighter than a Niblick so it will be interesting to see how it does on full swings.

I'm thinking of pulling the Niblick 56 and CG14 60 and replacing them with the S. If I could drop a wedge and reduce "choices" and "thoughts" on the course, that'd be a good thing for my score. In my mind I only have the 60 in my bag for sand play, but I end up using it other times when I shouldn't and eat shots.
 
Interesting. I seem to recall speaking of the comparisons between this and the Niblick earlier in the thread. I was told I was wrong, but glad to see you and others seeing how different they are. :D

In fact there is nothing outside of the word Cleveland on them, remotely similar.
 
ryebread said:
On the advice of a THPer who has similar taste in clubs and whose opinion I really respect, I decided to take the plunge on a Smart Sole S. The club arrived today, so I took it out to the yard for some initial swings and chips. It's almost an easier to chip Niblick 56, if that's even possible. I was picking balls up out of my 3 inch deep grass with ease.
It's going to be interesting to compare these on the monitor, in practice short game area and then around a course. The club is a little lighter than a Niblick so it will be interesting to see how it does on full swings.

I'm thinking of pulling the Niblick 56 and CG14 60 and replacing them with the S. If I could drop a wedge and reduce "choices" and "thoughts" on the course, that'd be a good thing for my score. In my mind I only have the 60 in my bag for sand play, but I end up using it other times when I shouldn't and eat shots.
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So would you consider a SmartSole "C" also, or will you stick with the 42*/49* Niblicks?
 
Love me the S wedge out of the sand. Unfortunately, I have really been struggling with the C wedge as opposed to my 9 iron on those types of shots that it's made for so it's currently sitting on the bench. May need to post it on the buy/sell and sell it to somebody.
 
JB said:
Interesting. I seem to recall speaking of the comparisons between this and the Niblick earlier in the thread. I was told I was wrong, but glad to see you and others seeing how different they are. :D

In fact there is nothing outside of the word Cleveland on them, remotely similar.
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JB: If I told you you were wrong, apologies. I don't think I did when I looked back through the thread, but maybe I did. Of course, it could have been others as well.

I've been curious about the S since it came out as a possible Niblick 56/SW type replacement. The design seemed different enough to me to warrant a look. A person that I trust gave this extremely high marks after hitting some demo days. He's a Niblick fan as well, so that pushed me over the top.

The thing that immediately stuck out after the first swing and chips was how the club seemed to glide. The Niblick 56 can dig and get caught up, even with that fat sole. I could just scoop the SS right under the ball, even out of my grass -- which is far from perfect, patchy, uneven, deep fescue.

bobcat said:
So would you consider a SmartSole "C" also, or will you stick with the 42*/49* Niblicks?
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I don't think I'd personally go with the C, but not because I have anything against it. I'm pretty good at chipping with the Niblick 42, probably in part due to the alignment "flange" on the back. I chip with that from the fringe as well as most people I'm paired up with putt. I've holed out more chips with the Niblick 42 than any other club, so there's no reason to change.

I feel like the 49 is just a different club that slots in between the two. For me, the strength of the 49 is in the full shot and the pitch. I don't really chip with it.
 
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