About a month ago, Cleveland Golf officially launched the RTX 6 ZipCore wedges, offering an update to Cleveland’s most traditional-looking wedge. As expected in today’s wedge market, there were plenty of options as RTX 6 offers four sole grinds spanning eight lofts. At the time of the original announcement, Tour Satin was the only finish available, although Cleveland teased that two additional options would be arriving this spring. Well, with all due respect to Punxsutawney Phil, it seems that it will indeed be an early spring, as Cleveland is bringing both the Black Satin and Tour Rack RTX 6 ZipCore wedges to market sooner rather than later.
Options are great, and most wedge manufacturers understand that which is evident by the number of lofts, grinds, and finishes available throughout the industry. My preference has consistently been to find wedges that offer a glare-reducing finish. Cleveland has done well recently, producing a dark finish that reduces that nasty glare. They have even found a formula that withstands the harsher encounters that wedges tend to experience on the course, thus adding durability. If these characteristics are high on the must-have list, the Black Satin finish is undoubtedly worth a look.
Cleveland’s Tour Rack wedges are the same ones used on tour. They offer a raw finish, which will gloriously rust over time, but also have more customization options than the Tour Satin and Black Satin versions. While the Black Satin version is strictly an additional finish, Tour Rack represents a different beast.
“With Tour Rack, we’ve made tour-level customization an option for the masses,” said Pat Ripp, Tour Engineering Manager of Research and Development at Cleveland Golf. “We can bend, grind, color, engrave, and assemble your Wedge to your exact specifications, just like we do for the professionals on tour.”
All sorts of companies offer some semblance of customization where golfers can add different colors or stamping. It’s a great option that has become more available to the everyday golfer. With Tour Rack, those options are there, but they take the customization process and kick it up a notch. When going the Tour Rack route, pick the Cleveland RTX 6 loft and sole grind you fancy. From here, golfers can adjust aspects such as the leading edge or add extra relief on the heel, toe, or trailing edge. For example, a standard full grind wedge could get trailing edge relief to help gain some extra versatility. Tour Rack wedges are here to give the amateur golfer a tour van experience.
Cleveland is bringing these two additional RTX 6 ZipCore options to the market on March 1st. Pricing for the Black Satin version will be $169.99, which is the same price as the Tour Satin version. With the Tour Rack, the price goes up to $189.99.
Now that the RTX 6 ZipCore wedge lineup is complete, please drop a comment below or on the THP Forum to let us know which RTX 6 wedge is the one for you.
