A few months back, Cleveland introduced RTX ZipCore, their new line of performance wedges and they have been incredibly well received. The one request made by golfers on the THP Forum has been more finish options and today Cleveland is launching Black Satin and Tour Rack.
Rather than go into all of the technology that make ZipCore unique, we will send you here, to our original preview which is filled with everything you need to know, since generally speaking, these are the same wedges…with a caveat. More on Tour Rack below.
Cleveland has been known for their darker finishes for quite some time and the Black Satin offering of RTX ZipCore is no exception. As you can see from the in hand photos, the wedge will completely cut out any glare making the sleek design an optimal choice for those that struggle with reflection. Having the choice between Tour Satin and Black Satin would fill the gamut for most golfers. Both look outstanding and with the custom paint fill options Cleveland offers, can really stand out.
Tour Rack…oh Tour Rack. Before going into the subtle details that need to be covered, Tour Rack is Raw. Before anybody asks, this wedge will rust. Depending on the moisture you play in, it will start gaining a patina rather quickly. There are golfers that swear that raw wedges feel softer, and while I am not one of those, I do love a raw wedge for the purity that it has.
With the Tour Rack option, you are getting all of the technology benefits that come with RTX ZipCore, with some choices. Some pretty amazing choices. Marked with a T on the hosel, these are identical to the wedges found on tour vans and used by the best in the world. Before giving their explanation, I think these sole stickers give you an idea of what we are working with here.
“We’re giving you exclusive access to this special stock of made-for-tour wedges. And we’re offering the deft handiwork of our grind craftsmen so you can customize each sole grind to match your game exactly”.
Wait what? Yes, you read that correctly. Cleveland is upping the ante with Tour Rack. Start with any of the new RTX ZipCore sole options and a master craftsman will hand grind your dream sole for you, just like the best players in the world. What does this do and who is it for? We will have a lot more on sole design coming soon, but it is for everybody. Sole/grind options are subtle and not so subtle differences that can change the way you play the game.
“Tour Rack gives golfers the full tour-level experience,” said Brian Schielke, Marketing Director at Cleveland Golf. “With the raw finish and custom sole and leading edge grinds, now any golfer can get their set of wedges built just like the guys on tour.”
What Cleveland has done with RTX ZipCore is create a line of wedges that is both unique and straight forward at the same time. Their sole options were already plentiful, but adding the customizable Tour Rack, at a price that is extremely palatable, is over the top.
The Details
In Stores: October 2nd, 2020
Cost: Tour and Black Satin $149 and Tour Rack $169
Shaft: True Temper DG Spinner Tour Issue
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360
The price point is fantastic for the customization. The Raw finish will look amazing. Looking forward to seeing these after a few months.
Love the spinner shaft pairing too
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Reviewing this beauty is going to be fun, just got to get away from the house for a while and hit some balls.
60* Full (12* Bounce), S-Shaped Grind, Rounded Leading edge.
Poor attempt to show the S-Shaped grind and Rounded leading edge in these next two.
Standard shaft and grip, good stuff, but I’ll be changing them.
Making its way to Texas is the RTX ZipCore Tour Rack Raw 54/12 Full with Heel & Toe relief. I went back and forth with the Full or Mid and settled on the Full as that was the closest to my current 54* wedge that is in my bag. I am currently playing the MD5 Jaws 54/12 W and it is my work horse inside of 100yds. I am not a player who full swings my wedges. The 48* will be the highest lofted club that I full swing. I have used anything from a 7i to a 54* inside of 100 yds, but a majority of the time it’s my 54* that gets the call.
At the moment I really like what the Jaws 54* is doing for me. I went with the W grind as it helps me when I need to open it up and hit a more delicate shot when I need to.
Ok now onto the star of this show, The RTX ZipCore 54/12 Full with Heel and Toe relief. It has been a while since I have played a Cleveland wedge. Performance wise they have always stacked up with whatever is out there on the market and I didn’t feel like I was leaving anything on the table. This one is paired with the DG Spinner wedge and based on early feedback from others, it definitely helps create spin with the proper strike.
Like I said this one will get a heavy work out inside of 100yds. I will put it through an initial range session and compare it to the MD5, but after that is 100% commitment and it will be in my bag to give it a thorough review. The plan is to get out tomorrow or Sunday and report back. Until then here are some pictures of the wedge and comparing it to my MD5. If I have missed anything, ask away and I will be happy to answer what I can.
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Hit a bucket into a 25-30 mph winds. Stock spinner shaft is solid. Easy to flight down. Nice weight. Plenty of control. Sound at impact really is a soft thunk-zip. Weather was deteriorating fast, so instead of heading to the practice greens, I jumped on the empty course and played 3 holes targeting some on course testing.
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Par 3, about 120 yards to pin. Big wind from right. I know I can’t get the 54 there, but that’s OK. I will have some nice little chips.
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Full swings felt great, and the feel with the Srixon ZStar is lovely. Distance control was good, right at what I would expect. These were all within a couple of yards. Left right spread had as much to do with the wind as anything.
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Grass is short and grippy. We’ve had hard freezes each night, and the ground is firm. I have to open up the face and slide through to catch the ball on each chip. Too steep or overplay the bounce, and the result will be thin. Squashed deer duds on the lower right.
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No problems. Chip outcomes were pretty good. I made solid contact with each. I am liking the heel grind. I can feel the club slide through the grass and turf with the face open. Nearly holed one.
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Overall, very nice. Zipcore Tour Rack in stock form exceeds expectations. The bounce and grind is a good choice for my needs. I have pictures and can go through similar for the next two holes. I’m not clear if that’s a good idea or not. There were some really fun shots with severe slopes and into massive winds, including a thin over a green. I’ll ponder it.
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The new Tour Rack wedge is compliments of THP and Cleveland Golf, thanks again for this great opportunity to test and review, and is 60* / Full / 12*, with S-Shaped Sole, Rounded leading edge, stock TT Dynamic Gold Spinner Wedge shaft, and GP Tour Velvet 360 standard grip. This first time out with it I took along my RTX4 60* / Low / 6* which I believe is a C grind sole, and my CBX2 55* / 12*, which has a similar S-Shaped sole, to get some comparisons.
First stop was the practice bunker, with the new sand this is a rare opportunity to hit bunker shots that aren’t from the hard-pan bunkers with minimal sand that are so common around here. This Tour Rack wedge excelled here, easily lofting nice soft landing shots from a normal open-face setup. My RTX4 really struggles in this kind of sand, as expected, since the low bounce is really made to order for harder bunkers. The CBX2 did well here too, as it has a similar sole grind and the same amount of bounce.
Next I went out to hit some 50+ yard shots from tight lies, and the conditions were a bit soft. Here again I was really pleased with the Tour Rack, the Full / 12* S-Shaped sole, and the rounded leading edge, gave me the forgiveness I need to hit near full swing shots in these conditions. With my low bounce RTX4 I pretty much have to make a perfect swing to get good results here, and often end up knifing into the soft turf with terrible results (which is why I pretty much never use my 60* from soft tight lies).
I finished up chipping from various lies, and had good success from most, especially having fun hitting some towering flop shots from fluffy lies.
I can’t really speak to how well this club spins the ball from the various shots today, I was hitting range balls, but I know the Cleveland grooves in all their wedges provide exceptional spin, so no worries there. The standard shaft feels fine, but I am a graphite shaft guy, and have Recoil 95s in my other wedges, so will be making that change to this one too. The stock grip is probably fine for most, but I’ve been using mid-size grips for so long this was one area that I really couldn’t get used to, but again, a real easy fix. I’m hoping to get out on the course in the next few days, and will definitely be taking this wedge along.
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Again this wasn’t a heavy short game session for me. I had my daughter with me so the day was more for her and to work on her swing, but I brought my ZipCore and my MD5 to get some initial feedback for the forum. Some thoughts
1. the weight feels a touch heavier with the ZipCore. Not a bad thing at all as I like a heavier wedge and it helps me not decelerate with delicate shots. I can use the weight to help me commit to the shot at hand.
2.The DG Spinner shaft is new for me. I’ve always tried to match my wedge shafts with my irons for nothing more than consistency. I’m still trying to get my thoughts together on the shaft. Nothing bad, just different than what I’m used to.
3. Keep in mind I’m using range balls here. I had two targets to aim at. One at roughly 48yds and another at 83yds. I don’t full swing my wedges. So I use my 54* a lot inside of 100yds. The first thing I noticed is the ball stopping fairly quickly once it landed. I wasn’t trying to swing hard and generate spin, just nice easy 3/4 wedges and pay attention to the results. I controlled distance by adding speed and kept the ball middle of my stance. Could be fresh grooves at play or the shaft, but hitting 20 balls the ZipCore had more check than my MD5.
4. Aiming at that 48yd pin I put the ball in the back of my stance to hit some mid to low pitches and see how the ball reacts. This is my go to shot when I need to get the ball one the green or close to a flag. I’m looking at roll out here and trying to gauge where I need to land the ball while paying attention to spin control. I really liked how the ZipCore played and compared to the MD5 is didn’t roll out as much. In fact a few times it hit the spot and didn’t move forward. Again not sure if fresh grooves or the shaft or the combination of both, but something that stood out.
Overall I like the wedge more than I anticipated. It sets up nicely behind the ball and the weight of the club really promotes a smooth swing. I’m anxious to get it out on the course and I’m looking forward to putting this one through a good session in the short game area to test out spin control on touch shots around the green.
If I missed something ask away and I’ll answer as best I can.
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Now with additional grinds with the Tour Rack, zipcore becomes even more interesting. So far I find the toe & heel grind to be very subtle. It doesn’t change the wedge. But across shots that open the face, I see a little more flow through turf while still having the support of the wedge bounce. For me, this is perfect. I love to open up the face in my 54 sand wedge. That’s my go to club around greens. I haven’t played yet with how I might use the toe grind. I’ll have to spend some time trying the Michelson fringe toe down chip. IDK if that is something I would use or. not. I’m not Phil.
Sold base wedges. Custom grinds. Check and check. With the test wedges we didn’t get to play with personalization or customizations beyond grinds. But I did go through that on the website to see what the options were like. For one, they have a very nice shaft selection. And then the personalization looks fun with the ability to add some text and colors. For wedges this good, I 100% recommend spending the time to customize and personalize. It is an easy system to navigate. Once I sort out my next iron set, I will get a customized and personalized gap wedge. And, I suppose I’ll have to follow through for consistency and do the same with sand and lob wedges.
Winter is currently here. I can get these on GCQuad a few times a week. Hopefully we get a nice window of playable weather before the final season curtain call. Either way, I will keep updating. I also look forward to seeing what the other testers learn and share.
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Went with a 60/10 with heel/toe relief and rounded leading edge.
Left is the above mentioned Tour Rack, right is a RTX4 60/6.
Seems like a good afternoon to ditch work and go take the 58* for a shakedown lap.
EDIT: The ball further from the flag in this photo was a 54* Mid ZipCoe (Satin) from 105. (1st of 2…. gamer ball)
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In terms of forgiveness I think they are similar to JAWS MD5 and Vokey SM8.
So still very traditional and not moving towards the CBX line then.
When ordering the heel-toe grind with standard leading edge, I was trying to get the Mid to sit a little closer to the ground when opened up while keeping plenty of available bounce. I didn’t want the leading edge too sharp as I play in quite mixed conditions. It was medium-soft today with lots of recent rain still moistening the turf. I once again had tons of spin available from the fairway, rough, and greenside. The bounce was instantly my friend and it played just as I hoped today… plenty forgiving in softer ground but still sits nice on hard lies and very playable from just about anywhere.
I forgot my towel and the course was wet with new granular fertilizer applied… I had to go shopping, cook dinner, etc. before just now wiping it down and the face is pretty trashed out from the fertilizer. Whoopsie. The main point, is that the club was wet during the whole round and covered with gunk… I was using the wet turf with half dissolved fertilizer to wipe down mud and grass after shots having forgot my towel. Not the cleanest of contact conditions by a long shot. Fresh UltiZip grooves don’t care – I was leaving shredded urethane in the grooves on approaches from the wet rough and fairways.
It was hop and sit tight conditions in general at the course today. Greenside I was not the sharpest but I got out exactly what I put in, and the club played fantastic. I hit a few open shots and it sits great opened up. The bounce is general is exactly what I was expecting and hoping for, a bit more generous the the prior gen RTX4 in my mind, but when opened and off tighter lies the leading edge is plenty close. I think the relief grind really adds something to this wedge. I like a close leading edge… just not low bounce for our softer periods on course. I even played a crazy little toe-down chip just to see ho it played and it worked out. I never play those, was impressed.
My one omission is I forgot to hit out of the sand all day… did a good job stayed out of bunkers ? and forgot that I was supposed to be testing from them! Next time… a little sandblasting is needed to clean up the fertilizer rash.
Overall it was a great first outing and TBH I expect great things from here. I love the ZipCore lineup and the raw, hand-polished finish and hand ground options are just outstanding.
That’s my take.
The spin is crazy nice. Interesting on the wet performance. I’ve played zipcore wedges quite a bit this year. I’ve taken dead aim for hop and stop over and over. Playing partners have said things like, "that’s not possible." But I also find these easy to control spin and get release when needed. The confidence to hit shots knowing the clubs will provide the consistency is fantastic.
I still find my eye catching the hand polished Tour Rack zipcore when I look at my bag. It is the best looking club in my bag, period.
58* you say? Tour Rack? Full set?
Wet performance is sooo good that I was not adjusting for rollout from dry today. Predictable outcomes across varying conditions is IMO one of the best things about the grooves on these. It is kind of astounding how well they hold up.
I’ll have a 50/54/58 ZipCore family. 58 is low with certain relief (much like the titleist m grind that I love). I’m excited.
That will be a sweet setup. What shafts did you get? Stock DG spinner surprised me. Nice shaft.
I was pleasantly surprised too so I kept it stock shaft, +1/4 and different grip (Tour Velvet should still be discouraged/banned by The Hague in my opinion)
What’s the difference between the S-shape and the Heel & Toe grind? The biggest part I’m hung up on is the Toe part of Heel & Toe. Why would I need less on the Toe?
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I did hit out of one bunker, nice flat lie, had to carry it a bit to get to the green, then not much green to work with (see photo below). The sand was better than it looks in the photo, I took a normal open-face bunker shot, flew it about pin-high, a few feet left of the pin, had some good spin on it so it stopped within a couple of feet of where it landed, leaving me about a five footer for par.
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I only took a couple of full swings with it, one from some light rough, and that was a really nice shot, about 70 yds, high, soft landing, and rolled a couple of feet from the ball mark. The other was something I did just for fun. One of my favorite Par-3s on this course is a little 100 yarder, where I pretty much always hit my 55*, but today they had it playing short, at 84 yds. What the heck, I’ll hit the 60*, I should be able to get it on the front of the green, and worst case it spins back a bit and ends up just short. So I just dropped a ball to hit it off the deck, aimed a bit right since my miss with the short clubs is a pull, and a miss right works here, a miss left is dead. I hit it dead straight, carried about 75 yds, missed right, but kicked off the slope right of the green and ran right past the pin, stopping a ways left of and past the hole. In the photo below, I hit the slope right of the green, a bit short of the steps, and you might just see the ball past and left of the pin. That green slopes back-to-front, and right-to-left, and landing on the down slope like it did kicked it hard left and towards the back.
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I really like this wedge! I still need to get a mid-size grip on it, and probably a Recoil 95 shaft too, just so it matches up with the rest of my Cleveland wedges. I’m not looking forward to seeing rust on it, that’s just not my thing, so I’ll probably let the face go, but can see myself polishing the rest of it on occasion, because without rust this is one great looking finish.
Toe relief comes into play with those that like to manipulate face angle quite a bit.
Bet it would come in handy for me these days when I have been chunking on the toe end of my wedges!
quite a bit meaning like…..opening the face so it looks straight up to the sky type of manipulation?
With my test 54mid, I went with the heel & toe grind. I have the same wedge without the grind for comparison. I can’t say I noticed any benefits or drawbacks to the toe grind. In my two days on the course, I tried as many shots as I could imagine. I like to manipulate the head/face for shots. Maybe in time I’ll sort that out. But what i can say is that the grind had no impact that I could ascertain on standard full and partial swing shots. Now the heel grind, I could immediately feel the little extra zip through turf when I opened the face. It is subtle but something I liked from the get go.
for me it comes into play when I want to open the face and hit a more delicate shot without fear of the leading edge. I think it has been most helpful for me with longer bunker shots.
i think i somewhat understanding it, without seeing it firsthand. I open my wedges up even its 10 degrees or the other extreme of face looking straight up at the sky inside a bunker. I never play my wedges square, unless its an aggressive full shot with the 52, trying to hit a pin at 115yd.
so with that in mind, I fully understand the heel grind and also edge relief but was having a harder time understanding what the wedge would look like with toe grind. or rather in what type of lie the toe grind portion would benefit. maybe i’ll find a used wedge with a similar grind at the store and check it out.
not here to cause any ruckus. i just couldn’t visual it.
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1. It feels lighter than the Vokey
2. It definitely spins more
3. I will not be putting the Vokey back in my bag.
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Ok, I tried. I legit did. I accidentally forgot the towel. I let things rust. I tried to be cool about it. Thing is… I like polished steel. I’m a mechanical engineer. Rusty things really are not my wheelhouse.
I was feeling badly about what will henceforth be referred to as "The Fertilizer Incident". Brand new wedge, first outing, wet course, aggressive fertilizer… 8 hours later the wedge had some gnarly rust spots on the face.. Quite uneven and aggressive spotting. Like ugly. I cleaned the crap off and let it sit for a day… last night around beverage #2 I couldn’t handle it anymore. Something was gonna happen.
You rust lovers might want to tune out now…. don’t @ me .
Auto detailing techniques were applied to remove rust "damage". I mean, I’m reviewing this on the forum and don’t want to be posting pictures of a trashed brand new wedge right?
After these regimen, the finish has been entirely restored to as received condition with not a hint to give away "The Fertilizer Incident". It is important to know who you are dealing with as reviewers on this site. Well, now you know!
I won’t post the before ?, but here is the after ?
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I’m with you 100% on this, probably due to a strong presence of "The Engineer Gene". I know I’ve mentioned before that to me, rust = neglect, and I have a hard time with that. I used some automotive polish on my test wedge after the first practice session, and it looked so good when I was done. I’ve convinced myself that I can let the face go, and just polish the rest to keep it looking good, time will tell if I can follow through on that though.
Thanks for the support! Great to know I’m not the only nut
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First time I have noticed the Full does not have the step at the trailing edge. Nice photo.