Equipment
Know your grooves
We all know that we should regularly clean the grooves on our clubs. But besides them feeling fresh, how does having clean grooves help us play better?
Take a moment to think about how good it feels to have some brand-new clubs in the bag, and the sheer anticipation of taking them out on the course for the first time. You’ve picked out a set of wedges you’ve run your fingers over the brand-new grooves before taking your first shot with them.
As you strike the ball and watch it follow through to its destination, you’re immediately struck by the increase in spin compared to your old wedges.
It’s almost enough to make you want to stop using it to keep it in as pristine a state as possible, but we can’t avoid the inevitability of wear and tear. Today we want to highlight the importance of wedge grooves as well as consider how dirt and use can dampen their performance.
Why do golf clubs have grooves?
In a nutshell, grooves increase the friction between the face of the club and the ball when you take a shot. This helps generate spin and gives your ball’s flight a more constant trajectory, giving you more control over where you send your shot.
When you’re striking your wedges, you’re hitting all kinds of terrain, from moist soil to sand and dense grass. Grooves act as channels that push this debris away from the impact point, ensuring you have a cleaner contact with the ball.
If a golf club didn’t have grooves, it would significantly reduce ball spin and make it a lot more difficult to pull off accurate shots, particularly around the greens.
What happens when grooves are dirty and worn?
When golf wedge grooves are dirty, friction and overall spin is reduced, making it harder to stop chip shots on the green. With debris present in the grooves, the club can’t grip the ball the way it would were they clean, ultimately resulting in poor shots and missed opportunities in your short game.
Digging into the ground on every strike, golf wedge grooves get noticeably worn down over time. Generally speaking, the top tour pros tend to replace their wedges every 3 or 4 months to keep their short game in top performance. We’re not recommending you need to do the same but it goes to show that a minimal of use can demonstrably deteriorate groove effectiveness.
If you play with some brand-new wedges, you’ll appreciate just how good they are at making your ball stop on your target. We’re available in the pro shop to help you find your ideal wedges, and we’d highly recommend the latest offerings from Wilson.
Wilson's latest golf wedges
If you’re a player that knows exactly which shot to take in any given situation, the Staff Model ZM golf wedge will help you execute them with ease. This wedge from Wilson has undergone a garnet face blasting process to ensure the grooves are deep, fast, and offer more grip on impact with the ball.
Constructed from carbon steel with a precision-milled face, the Staff Model feels great in your hands and cuts through terrain with ease. Wilson has given the Staff Model ZM a high center of gravity for improved trajectory control, and it comes in low, medium, and high bounce variations. It goes without saying that this wedge looks fantastic from all angles.
There's also the highly popular HT (High Toe) model, where the grooves are lengthened in the toe area to give you as much control as possible when playing open-faced shots - this is when the ball usually travels up the clubface, where this increased groove length with really help.
If you feel your short game is your Achilles heel, we’re here for you in the pro shop should you like to get yourself booked in for some lessons to strengthen your pitching and chipping.
