Great pic, Jon. For those that say that the size of the sole bothers them, that picture should erase all doubts. But, I guess there will be those that hate a wedge that looks normal at address AND sits square to your target.
Cleveland Smart Sole Wedges
I messed with it a bit, but the extended sole forces the leading edge up a good bit when you rotate it open. Get the feeling that this is really made for square alignment. I'll try to mess with it a little more once get it out though.
I agree completely with JonD. I'm still very much in the adjustment mode though, so I'll let anyone else who's played more than one round with the S chime in if they've tried opening it up or not.
rbarthle17
One-length advocate
Cleveland Smart Sole Wedges
Got mine today along with my new Idea a12 OS irons. Happy!
Got mine today along with my new Idea a12 OS irons. Happy!
So got out to the range and brought the smart sole with me to work on some target swings. It was mats only and I discovered real quick that I had to play it a touch back to get the best results. On my 80% swing I was seeing near 100 yards which is long for me. High towering shots. Not gonna get too worked up about that until I get it out on the course though. Was able to dial back the distance pretty easily and I was landing the ball pretty close to my targets. Things were a little left but that's always how I start with wedges. All in all a good start.
I think you need to too, too.
As much as I don't think I need it, I want it.
Shall be fun, got a $100 credit burning a hole!
Ah dude, then get it. It's just a fun club to play with.
mikedean441
6X HOF
That's a no brainer then
I am anxious to hear all the on course testing and how these wedges make it easier/harder to hit good shots. I am very famaliar with the niblick clubs from cleveland and would like to know how they compare both performance and playability wise. One problem I had with the niblick SW was the shallow face compared to a standard SW.
The S Wedge is a great deal different than the Niblick and the Smart Sole C Wedges.
I will have the S wedge on the course tomorrow and will have some updates.
Figured it would take the weather to almost forget about this. Got mine yesterday but 30s and sleet all weekend will not allow for any on course time. Until next weekend....
- Staff
- #142
Yep, looks like back above 40 on Monday here and since that's my cutoff I'll be out and about. I will admit I love the weather extremes (hot and cold) bc the courses get EMPTY and I can test as many clubs as I need!
Snow showers today, snow showers tomorrow, Monday is forecast to be sunny but a high of 31 degrees. Normally I wouldn't think of playing, but having these wedges out last week has me looking for excuses to get out and play more. Not much more hardpan than frozen grass...and how much touch can you have wearing mittens? It might just be time to find out.
TripleBogieTim
Long lost sheep
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2010
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- Location
- Houston, Texas, United States
- Handicap
- my swing
I grabbed a 58* S wedge from Golf Galaxy yesterday...but alas it's cold, windy and rainy today so no golf for me.
So I got this wedge out this weekend for a cold, painfully soggy round and had some mixed results. We had plugging issues all day, to give an idea of how wet is was. I put this wedge in play with no backup plan, and had my much lower handicap FIL take some shots with it. For the purposes of this post, I'm going to break it up into the different shots I was able to take.
Full Swings: This is an area that I only had a few chances to test in here as my layup distance is a little outside of lob wedge range. The club performed admirably for me here when I had a chance. My only shots were from the fairway and I had no issue throwing up some super-high approach shots. I mean towering high. With the height, none of the shots had issue sticking. Generally less than 3' from where they landed. I'm used to a little back up TBH, as the MDs spin the crud out of the ball. I had some issues with distance control as this seems to be a little longer on full swings than my MD 58, but that is to be expected. The only 'issue' that I really had was that my shots seemed to be going further left than my usual wedge shots. Could be the indian at this point. Usually my full wedge swings are a touch left. Anything long term here could likely be resolved by adjusting the lie as I play my irons a little flat.
My FIL has been dealing with chunky contact with his lob wedge on full swings lately. He thought that this club was hugely helpful for that. He too, had a couple of issues with distance control but nothing insurmountable.
Partial Swings: Didn't get too many chances here. I hit one from about 50 out that I missed a little long on, but I attribute that to limited time with the club.
Pitches: I think this is as good a place as any to state that this club will not fix a bad swing.
Of which I had plenty. That said, when you commit to hitting through the ball, and you don't get lazy, this club seems to perform pretty solidly. Ball did not check like I was used to but if it means leaving less shots in the rough, then so be it. Here again I struggled a little with distance control. This club seemed to be a little shorter here for me than my MD 58, which is weird, but it's what I was seeing. This led to some long shots as I tried to dial it in.
FIL hit it here too with no issue outside of a muddy lie. His distance control was better than mine by a little bit but he had a little issue with these touch shots.
Chipping: I'm getting away (again) from defaulting to a single club for chipping, and have been using my UW & PW a lot more around the greens. That said, I had some decent success when I did pull this club for a chip. I've been practicing this a bit more at home so distance control here was pretty good for me. I still chunked a few, but that's because I was trying to force it on a longer shot when I should have been using a different club. My fault entirely. Didn't hole any but had a couple of short chips that I left within tap-in range.
Bunker Shots: This is where I expected this club to shine, and for the most part, I wasn't disappointed. I hit a few bunkers and we dropped a few to see what we could do. The bunkers at this course were super fluffy, which is something I'm not used to where I usually play. It took me some time to work on ball position as I've never played square to my line out of the bunker generally speaking. At first I had the ball too far forward and was taking way too much sand. Once I got it figured out though, this club was pretty easy to get out with. Much like the RTX CB testing from last year, I think the weight of this club makes it easy to push through. I had one buried just in front of a lip and was able to blast it onto the green fairly easily.
Bunker shots were easily my FIL's favorite part. He's not bad out of the sand but he loved how easy this club popped the ball up and onto the green.
Overall, not a bad first outing for me and a wedge. Let me know if you have any questions.
Full Swings: This is an area that I only had a few chances to test in here as my layup distance is a little outside of lob wedge range. The club performed admirably for me here when I had a chance. My only shots were from the fairway and I had no issue throwing up some super-high approach shots. I mean towering high. With the height, none of the shots had issue sticking. Generally less than 3' from where they landed. I'm used to a little back up TBH, as the MDs spin the crud out of the ball. I had some issues with distance control as this seems to be a little longer on full swings than my MD 58, but that is to be expected. The only 'issue' that I really had was that my shots seemed to be going further left than my usual wedge shots. Could be the indian at this point. Usually my full wedge swings are a touch left. Anything long term here could likely be resolved by adjusting the lie as I play my irons a little flat.
My FIL has been dealing with chunky contact with his lob wedge on full swings lately. He thought that this club was hugely helpful for that. He too, had a couple of issues with distance control but nothing insurmountable.
Partial Swings: Didn't get too many chances here. I hit one from about 50 out that I missed a little long on, but I attribute that to limited time with the club.
Pitches: I think this is as good a place as any to state that this club will not fix a bad swing.
Of which I had plenty. That said, when you commit to hitting through the ball, and you don't get lazy, this club seems to perform pretty solidly. Ball did not check like I was used to but if it means leaving less shots in the rough, then so be it. Here again I struggled a little with distance control. This club seemed to be a little shorter here for me than my MD 58, which is weird, but it's what I was seeing. This led to some long shots as I tried to dial it in. FIL hit it here too with no issue outside of a muddy lie. His distance control was better than mine by a little bit but he had a little issue with these touch shots.
Chipping: I'm getting away (again) from defaulting to a single club for chipping, and have been using my UW & PW a lot more around the greens. That said, I had some decent success when I did pull this club for a chip. I've been practicing this a bit more at home so distance control here was pretty good for me. I still chunked a few, but that's because I was trying to force it on a longer shot when I should have been using a different club. My fault entirely. Didn't hole any but had a couple of short chips that I left within tap-in range.
Bunker Shots: This is where I expected this club to shine, and for the most part, I wasn't disappointed. I hit a few bunkers and we dropped a few to see what we could do. The bunkers at this course were super fluffy, which is something I'm not used to where I usually play. It took me some time to work on ball position as I've never played square to my line out of the bunker generally speaking. At first I had the ball too far forward and was taking way too much sand. Once I got it figured out though, this club was pretty easy to get out with. Much like the RTX CB testing from last year, I think the weight of this club makes it easy to push through. I had one buried just in front of a lip and was able to blast it onto the green fairly easily.
Bunker shots were easily my FIL's favorite part. He's not bad out of the sand but he loved how easy this club popped the ball up and onto the green.
Overall, not a bad first outing for me and a wedge. Let me know if you have any questions.
I think this is as good a place as any to state that this club will not fix a bad swing.
QFT - this took me a hole or two to figure out, but this wedge definitely shined for me once I committed to hitting through the ball.
rbarthle17
One-length advocate
FWIW, my local Golf Galaxy (Toledo, OH) had exactly one of each club in stock, and in steel shafts only.
I think it bears mentioning that I just received a text from my FIL saying that he picked up one the S wedge after our round this weekend. Considering that he plays to a low single digit HC, I think that speaks for itself about the kinds of golfers that this club can benefit.
rbarthle17
One-length advocate
Got my first action with this today. Went out and played for two hours, playing one ball tee to green and dropping another in different places. Got a chance to play this club from a full swing (70 yards), from around the green, and from 2 bunkers I dropped 5 balls in total.
I love this club. Especially from the sand. All 5 were out and on the green. Pound I could take a much harder swing then I could with my old sand wedge, and the design of this club accommodated it wonderfully. It truly was bunker play made easy.
I did notice the ball got no real release on any of my shots. But I hit the ball high as a rule.
This club fills the need my old sand wedge and lob wedge were good for.
I love this club. Especially from the sand. All 5 were out and on the green. Pound I could take a much harder swing then I could with my old sand wedge, and the design of this club accommodated it wonderfully. It truly was bunker play made easy.
I did notice the ball got no real release on any of my shots. But I hit the ball high as a rule.
This club fills the need my old sand wedge and lob wedge were good for.
bobcat
Avid Golfer
Actually, the opposite is true...these smart sole wedges are actually aimed at occasional players and higher handicappers that don't work at their short game much. In my opinion, it was the 2011 Niblicks that were closer to a "players" type of short game hybrid. I also liked the way they put the large "P", "D", and "S" on the soles of the 2011 Niblicks as with other wedges.
Also, I can't imagine using the Smart Sole high bounce Sand Wedge being very effective for very firm sand, or for a downhill or semi-buried lie in the sand. Those kind of sand shots just beg for a 60* low bounce wedge to allow you to get under the ball.
Furthermore, there is a huge 16* gap between the Smart Sole 42* "C" Wedge"), and the Smart Sole 58* "S" Wedge. Cleveland states on their site that these (2) wedges can cover all your short game shots, but I don't better players will buy into that at all. Way too big of a gap there...
In my opinion, both the 2010 and 2011 Niblick series are much better than these...
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