PowerPlay Raw Spin Wedge

Grade: A
Teacher’s Comments: Beautiful, Versatile

The Power Play Raw Spin wedge is a beautiful, versatile, playable tool. The model I tested is a 56 degree sand wedge with 12 degrees of bounce.

Several things about the Raw Spin caught my eye immediately. The first is the rich copper finish. At first, I thought it was some sort of copper coating designed to make the wedge softer, but it seems mostly cosmetic. The copper color is applied using a physical vapor deposition process which is used in plumbing fixtures and offers a very durable finish. Certainly several rounds has had no impact on the finish.

The second thing I noticed was the thin top line and multi-tiered muscle back. That gives the wedge a very professional look. From address, the lines suggest the club’s ability to slide under the ball and pop it up. This in contrast to many game improvement wedges, which are thick enough to cause a player to question whether the clubface can actually glide through sand.

Doubt breeds bad shot making. The Raw Spin breeds confidence.

Finally, I picked up on the beautiful way in which the club rotates from closed and upright to flat and open with all the stops between. It is as smooth a design as I have seen. With the flat, thin leading edge and zero degrees of offset, I have been able to pick the ball off tight lies as well as sand and grass.

In play, I found the Raw Spin highly versatile. In fact, for my game, it almost offers too many choices in set up. There were many times when I found I had rotated the face too far open, leaving the ball short. It will take some practice to be able to figure out how far to open the face on each type of shot.

As its looks suggest, the club glides smoothly through sand, popping the ball up softly. It performed as well in fluffy country club sand as it did on my home course’s mix of sand, gravel and clay. I also like the Raw Spin’s utility around the green.

One area in which I did not find the Raw Spin wedge playing as well as my cavity backs is from the middle of the fairway. I just don’t hit it as far. I’m pretty good at placing my sand wedge shots on the green from 80 yards out with my cavity backs. I consistently left the Raw Spin short.

For my sensibilities, this wedge is easily the equal of one of my Cleveland or Bobby Jones wedges.

This one stays in the bag.

As with all Hireko clubs, the price can’t be beat. The Raw Spin comes in at around $35.

TaylorMade Men’s ATV Wedge

You will need only one.

The new TaylorMade All-Terrain Versatility Wedge has an innovative sole that adjusts the bounce depending upon club head and face position. This lets a player chip, pitch, flop, explode, escape and crunch all with one club. In addition to the ATV sole, an all milled groove design and micro-texture across the face generates more spin, while remaining within USGA rules.

I’d love to give this one a try.

Acer XK Flipper

I got a loaner of this club from Hireko recently in the mail. Unfortunately, the weather here in Michigan has been entirely uncooperative and all I’ve been able to do with it is to chip around on the carpeted floor of GolfBlogger World Headquarters.

It’s a nicely built club with a wide, slightly curved bottom and a putter-length shaft. It’d be the perfect tool for a player who has trouble with chips and pitches around the green. I have a suspicion (entirely unfounded, but based on my experience with similar clubs) that it could be used at ranges from 50 yards in. Here’s what Hireko says:

What type of club would produce the perfect cross between a chip shot and a flop shot? That would be the innovative Acer XK Flipper, which is not just another ordinary chipper on the market.

The Flipper is based on our ever-popular Acer XK Chipper that measures 37° loft and is perfect for producing that pitch and run shot around the green. However, what happens when you miss the green short sided or when there is little room between the fringe and the hole to work with? A pitch and run shot will surely run the ball past the hole and further from your goal.

Ask yourself how comfortable are you at pulling a wedge out of your bag to cozy the ball near the hole in those situations? If the answer to that is not very good, then the ultra-wide sole to glide along the grass coupled with the higher loft (46°), the Flipper allows you to finally make that ‘fly & die’ or ‘pop and stop’ shot that? been missing from your bag.

It’s practically the last call for those square grooved wedges the USGA banned last year. Lets be honest. Your pals at the league aren’t checking the eligibility of your clubs. Get ‘em at GolfSmith

Just received in the mail: An Acer XK Chipper I of course can’t really try it out with the climate in Michigan the way it is, but in bouncing a soft ball around GolfBlogger World Headquarters, it looks like it would be a useful tool in the bag for players with short game struggles.

I’ll do a full review as soon as the weather takes a turn for the better.

An article on the Golf Channel site says there was no indication this past year of a change in play on the PGA Tour due to the changes in grooves.

Consider the most telling indicators, fairways hit and proximity to the hole – two key stats that should have been impacted the most in theory by the groove rule. The Tour’s proximity to the hole average (35 feet, 1 inch) was the lowest it’s been since 2002 and as a group the fraternity brothers hit about the same number of fairways (63.51 percent) as they did in 2009 (62.91) and 2008 (63.16).

The same could be said for greens in regulation. The Tour average (66.26 percent) was the highest it’s been in 10 years, and proximity from the rough around the green (within 30 yards) was the lowest it’s been (42 feet, 8 inches) since the circuit started keeping that stat in 2002.

In theory the new rule was supposed to make hitting fairways more important and greens more difficult, particularly from the rough, but on this, ShotLink doesn’t lie.

One theory is that this past year was wetter than usual, making courses soft and more receptive to spin. Another is that it’s a conscious decision on the part of the PGA Tour to cut down the rough (to which they admit). Finally, there’s the thought that the flyer, rather than being dreaded, is welcomed if its a predictable part of the game. Players simply assume that’s the course the shot will take.

I wonder, though, if this won’t revive the debate over balls. If grooves aren’t the culprit, it’s got to be the ball (I feel a bit like Mars Blackmon when I write that). All those multi-layer, compound material, computer optimized dimple orbs have got to have a bigger effect on the game than grooves. I am absolutely certain that the balls have improved my game more than the grooves.

Still, just to be safe, you’re running out on time to buy one of those old style groove wedges. I love my Cleveland wedges, which you apparently still can get on sale at GolfSmith with this discount link:  Buy 1 Cleveland CG15 wedge for $119.99, 2 for $219.99 or 3 for $299.99 at Golfsmith!

Of course, they’ll always be available on Ebay.

CLEVELAND Niblick

I have a fantastic new weapon in my golfing arsenal: the Cleveland Niblick. It’s a Frankenstein monster of a club, sewn together from bits of putters, wedges, irons and chippers into a weapon of deadly accuracy and ease of use.

Like the Doctor’s construct, the Niblick is a little hard to describe. The version I purchased was the “P.” It’s got a putter-like 35 inch long shaft, 42 degees of loft, and eight degrees of bounce. At address, the lead looks like the offspring of a chipper and a mallet putter. From the bottom, it looks like an iron with a long flange attached. From the front, it has a shallow face cut with Cleveland’s Zip Grooves, but is long heel to toe.

Although the Niblick “P” has the loft of a nine iron, on a full swing, it plays for me like a gap wedge—and that’s what it replaces in my bag. But if that’s all it did, I wouldn’t replace my very easy to hit TaylorMade XD A wedge.  Where the Niblick really shines is in play all around the green, from sixty yards in.

Since I put the Niblick in my bag, I’ve shot two straight rounds in the low 80s, and a 39 on a nine. For me, those are very good scores. Much of the credit goes to the Niblick. When I miss the green, I’ve been able to use it to get the ball close enough for a short putt for par. On three occasions in that stretch, I’ve holed out on a chip for a bird. It’s deadly accurate.

The Niblick did take a bit of experimentation to figure out the best stroke for use. Depending upon the distance and the lie, my stoke generally has been somewhere between a full pitch and a lag putt. I’ve also used it on a several occasions as a full blown gap wedge and watched it check up almost as soon as it hits the green.

I like the club enough that I’ve ordered the sand wedge version.

If you’re thinking about getting one, though, you should act promptly. The Zip Grooves on the Niblick are theoretically going to be banned from production by the USGA after December—although you can use them for the next decade as part of a planned obsolescence program.