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Smart Sole SW - can you open it up?

SuperStroke
TLuke

TLuke

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I was gifted a used Cleveland Smart Sole 58* 3.0 sand wedge but haven't been able to play it yet. My bunker play stinks. Most instructions say to line up the SS square in the bunker and take a normal swing. Just curious if you can open it up to 60-64* without defeating the purpose of the club design. I like the look of the Callaway Sure Out 60 and 64*. If I bought a Sure Out, what would be better for greenside bunker play - 60 or 64*? Thanks.
 
TLuke said:
I was gifted a used Cleveland Smart Sole 58* 3.0 sand wedge but haven't been able to play it yet. My bunker play stinks. Most instructions say to line up the SS square in the bunker and take a normal swing. Just curious if you can open it up to 60-64* without defeating the purpose of the club design. I like the look of the Callaway Sure Out 60 and 64*. If I bought a Sure Out, what would be better for greenside bunker play - 60 or 64*? Thanks.
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Sure out is by design going to play best the same way, straight forward. The goal of these types of wedges is to take the guesswork out for the user and keep it as simple and effective as possible in straight forward wedge shots. You can try to open it up, and may find success, but its just not designed to do that.

I'll say this, go hit it first. 1) 2 degrees from the 58 to a 60 in the sure out isn't going to be noticeable to most human beings and 2) it will surprise you that it does what its designed to extremely well, up easy and down soft.
 
I agree with Jman. To answer your question more directly, you can open it a little and it will still work. I only do this if I want to take more of a partial swing or pitch type shot because I am in rough or a bunker close to the pin and I don't want to ball to go as far. On these types of shots I tend to pull the ball left if I don't open it a little at address. (For all I know it may be square at impact when I do this.) You may not need to with your swing. But you can't open it anything like a normal wedge and expect the best result.
 
BTW, when I first got mine it was great in rough, but I bladed it in the bunker until I figured out that you still need to hit the sand and blast the ball out with the sand. When Cleveland or golf reviewers say take your normal full swing, they are talking about the swing itself, they don't mean line up right behind the golf ball like you're hitting an iron in the fairway. What I do is focus on an imaginary ball 1-2 inches behind my real golf ball. It's great. Assuming I'm playing a course with good sand in the bunkers, I am fine landing in a green side bunker now. Sometimes that's better than some of the alternatives in terms of thick rough or other obstacles around the green.
 
I find success with leaning the handle back a bit versus rotating the shaft to open the club
 
sabig27 said:
I find success with leaning the handle back a bit versus rotating the shaft to open the club
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Experimenting with this a bit and it seems to work!
 
The thought process of opening up a traditional wedge is to expose the bounce so the club doesn’t dig into the sand. With the smart sole, Sure Out type clubs you already have a ton of bounce when sitting square. Hence the more straight forward setup.

I game the Sure Out 64* and have setup to the ball with a square face, slightly open and slightly closed and it works just fine. I just remember to hinge early and I try to swing outside in and stab the sand about 2” behind the ball and splash it out.

As for the loft. The 64* requires a good amount of clubhead speed in the sand. I had a 60* Sure Out and actually preferred it from the sand over the 64*. But for full shots I liked the 64* much better. The 60* for whatever reason I didn’t hit as well on full shots so I dropped it and kept the 64*.
Shots.
 
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