Which wedge is right for my game? We get variations of this question frequently. Our in-house golf pro is here to help you choose the right wedge bounce. If you need further assistance, do not hesitate to contact us. Discount Golf World: There is nothing in golf we don't do!  Shop our Wedges: http://bit.ly/FTF-Wedge-Bounce See the video:

Patrick Reed was struggling. By the end of April 2013, he’d entered 13 PGA Tour events and had missed the cut eight times. Save for a 7th place finish at Pebble beach in February, his first full season on Tour was horrific. In fact, from mid-march through the end of April, Reed had missed the cut in 5 of 6 tournaments and finished t71st—almost dead last--in the only event in which he’d managed to play the weekend. With the truncated 2013 season half over, Reed made the switch to Callaway in May. Since then, he’s missed only one cut and garnered 4 top ten finishes, including his first ever victory at the Wyndham Championship, and earned over $1.6 million and enough FedEx Cup points to begin the playoffs at number 22 in total points earned. Reed’s change to Callaway in May resulted in stellar play ever since, and in July he added the new FT Optiforce 440 Driver and Mack Daddy 2 Wedges to his bag. Entering the FedEx Cup playoffs, he’s one of the tour’s hottest players with top tens in his last three starts. In winning the Wyndham Championship, Reed was 1st in Greens in Regulation, 5th in putting and 11th in driving distance. We can’t tell you definitively that Reed’s game turned the corner with Callaway, but the stats don’t lie…and they would indicate the equipment change propelled his season in a new—and highly lucrative—direction. Here’s Patrick Reeds Bag; DRIVER: Callaway FT Optiforce 440 (9.5 degree) with an Aldila Rogue shaft IRONS: Callaway X Forged (2-iron bent to 15 degree, 2- and 4-irons) and Callaway Razr X MB (5-PW) with True Temper Dynamic Gold shafts WEDGES: Callaway Mack Daddy 2 (50, 56 and 60 degree) with True Temper Dynamic Gold shafts PUTTER: Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 BALL: Callaway Hex Chrome+ You'll find Patrick Reed's Callaway equipment and much more at DGW.

By his own admission, there was a time when even Phil Mickelson, not one known for self doubt, questioned his ability to ever win a British Open. That changed Sunday with his victory at Muirfield. Phil’s first Open Championship and fifth Major title was much more dramatic than the three shot margin of victory would indicate. Starting the day 5 shots off the lead, Mickelson was steady, if not spectacular through the first 12 holes on a day when steady looked, well, spectacular compared with the rest of the field. Pars were at a premium and birdies were scarce. So it was remarkable that Phil played the last 6 holes in 4 under par, sealing the victory and ending a tournament that looked as if it were anyone’s game until that final, fateful hour. How did he do it?   Phil is known for changing up his equipment, for experimenting (see, e.g. The Phrankenwood) and for tailoring his equipment to the venue and conditions, even more so than your average tour pro, who does a fair amount of all of the above. For the Open Championship, Phil packed five wedges and no driver, opting to tackle the lengthier tee shots with a Callaway X Hot Pro 3Deep Three Wood. In the end, he credited his three wood and his Odyssey Versa #9 Putter for his finish as the only golfer in the field to break par. And Mickelson is nothing, if not gracious, so it was no big surprise, really, when he thanked the Callaway design team and technical folks for outfitting him with the perfect set to fashion what he claimed to be his best round of golf ever as a professional.   Here’s Phil’s Bag:   Fairway Wood: Callaway X Hot 3 Deep (13°) Hybrid: Ping Anser (17°) Irons: Callaway X Forged (4-PW) Wedges: Callaway Mack Daddy 2 (60°, 64°); Callaway X Series Jaws (52°, 56°) Putter: Odyssey Versa #9 Ball: Callaway Hex Chrome+   For a limited time Callaway and DGW are commemorating Mickelson’s winning score of 281 with a celebratory sale on Callaway Hex Chrome+ Golf Balls for $28.10. We have all of Phil’s Callaway equipment at DGW.

The USGA likes to say they set up the US Open venue to identify the very best player as our nation’s champion. And despite the fact that this isn’t always the case—see Michael Campbell--Justin Rose clearly fit that description for the Open just ended at Merion Golf Club. In the end, he struck the ball better and putted better than anyone else through 4 rounds on what appeared to be the hardest golf course on the planet. Particularly impressive were his clutch putting, including a 20 footer for birdie on 13 that tied him for the lead, and his long iron play on both 17 and 18. Of course, he had to hit fairways to hit good iron shots, and none was more impressive than the drive on 18, setting up the opportunity to rip a 4 iron dead at the hole, and effectively eliminating any legitimate drama from Phil Mickelson’s finish.   Rose used a full complement of TaylorMade equipment, including the new Lethal Golf Ball. Here’s his bag:   Driver: TaylorMade R1 Fairway Wood: TaylorMade RBZ Stage 2 Tour Irons: TaylorMade RocketBladez Tour (3-6), Tour Preferred MB (7-PW) Wedges: TaylorMade ATV (52°, 56°, 60°) Putter: TaylorMade Spider Blade Ball: TaylorMade Lethal   Check out DGW today for all your TaylorMade equipment needs.    

Cleveland Golf announced the release date for their new line of 588 wedges recently. The 588 RTX CB Wedges abest work from home re set to begin shipping November 16, 2012, just in time to add them to your Christmas list. This newest offering is the latest in a long line of the iconic 588s, the wedge that changed the way we think about the short game. In an era where many manufacturers name a club either through the marketing department, or by alluding to some dubious technological breakthrough, Cleveland is decidedly old school, in that the names of their clubs typically have meaning. In the case of this new wedge, the “RTX” stands for Rotex, which refers to the directionally milled face pattern designed to add roughness to the face, and thus spin, on open-faced shots. Cleveland accomplishes this through a proprietary Laser Milled technology that increases surface roughness with four perfectly calibrated texture lines milled between each groove. The CB (cavity back) is a more familiar designation, although not necessarily in a scoring club. We’re used to seeing cavity backs as game improvement features, but not in a wedge, and certainly not from Cleveland, the company known for its Tour presence in that category. So what’s the deal? Well, think about whether you’ve ever toed or heeled a wedge shot…of course you have. So it makes sense that an undercut cavity, offering perimeter weighting and forgiveness, would find its way to the wedge category. Why haven’t others gone there, you ask? Well, I don’t know. But I do know that Cleveland makes quality product for those who are passionate about the game, and frankly the cavity back wedge seems so obvious as to be pure genius in its simplicity. There’s nothing “simple” about the design of this wedge, though. In addition to the aforementioned attributes, the 588 RTX CB sports new Tour Zip U-grooves, developed closely with Tour players, which are 16% larger than the previous generation of Tour Zip grooves. This larger U Groove design enhances the proven ability of Cleveland’s U Grooves to channel away moisture and debris in order to maximize spin from the rough, sand and wet conditions. The 588 RTX CB incorporates a “Reverse C” sole inspired by Cleveland’s CG14 and CG16 wedges. According to Cleveland, this is a constant-width sole with heel and toe grinds that helps with bunker play and shots from long, gnarly rough. Distance is nothing if you can’t get the ball close to the hole when needed. If ever there were a time to up your game by upgrading your wedges that time is now. Don’t wait for Christmas. Get yourself the gift of better golf now. Check out the video and then order your Cleveland 588 RTX CB Wedges today at DGW.

Dylan Fritelli, recent University of Texas graduate and first team All America, entered the professional ranks last week as the newest addition to the Nike Tour Staff. Fritelli, you may remember, sank a 20 foot birdie putt on the 18th hole of famed Riviera Golf Club earlier this month to win his match and secure the NCAA Divison I Championship for The Longhorns. After signing with Nike last week he immediately justified his professional potential with a tie for 33rd place at the BMW International Open in Cologne, Germany.   Fritelli plays a complete set of Nike VR Pro clubs from driver through wedges and trusts a Nike Method putter as his flat stick of choice. On tournament days he tees it up wearing head-to-toe Nike Tour Performance apparel and Nike Lunar Control Golf Shoes.   Check out Dylan’s equipment, apparel and other Nike products, all of which are available here at DGW:   • Driver: Nike VR Pro Limited Edition 8.5-degree • Fairway Wood: Nike VR Pro Limited Edition 3-wood/15-degree • Hybrid: Nike VR Pro 19-degree • Irons: Nike VR Pro Combo (4-PW) • Wedges: Nike VR Pro 52-, 56- and 58-degree • Putter: Nike Method 004 • Apparel: Nike Golf Tour Performance Collection • Footwear: Nike Lunar Control You might also want to take a look the DGW "What the Pros Play" page to see what Phil, Tiger, Ernie and a host of other PGA Tour stars are featuring in their bags in 2012.

You remember the 1987 R.E.M. song "It's the End of the World As We Know It"? Well for today's golfer, December 31, 2010, will be the end of the world as we know it in regards to wedges. What? Why? What are you talking about? I'm talking about the USGA decision to change the rule regarding the grooves on wedges. As of December 31, 2010, golf club manufacturers will no longer be able to produce wedges with large square grooves that most golfers have grown to love. The new grooves must be smaller and much shallower in comparison; about 30% smaller to be exact. Why is this happening? I suspect it is because the USGA feels that professional golfers are getting too good at getting good shots from out of the rough. The intent of the rule change is to place a premium on playing from the short-grass and making it harder to have precision, spin and control when hitting out of the rough. Their goal should be accomplished on the professional level as the majority of PGA professional golfers hit the fairway approximately 60-70% of the time, and with practice I am sure that percentage will go up from there. As for the rest of us, well that's another story. In my game, I feel a little strange when I actually do get to play from the fairway. I am typically in the rough off the tee and tend to stay there most of the hole. The problem for golfers like me (there are more of you out there I know it) is that the smaller grooves reduce the contact surface with the ball (I will explain more on that in a sec) which in turn reduces spin performance and predictability from out of the rough. So since a Tour player is on the fairway the majority of the time and most average golfers like me are not,  you can see this is a problem more so for me and you than it is for the PGA Tour. How does the rule change really affect the game of golf? For the 2010 PGA Tour season, all Tour players must already be playing wedges that conform to the new ruling. At the end of this year, all manufacturers must begin to produce only wedges that conform to the new ruling. By the year 2014, all USGA sanctioned amateur events will have to have the new ruling in place. And finally, by 2024, this rule change will affect all golfers everywhere; as any golfer who posts a score for handicap purposes will have to be using the new conforming wedges. Fortunately (or unfortunately some would say), most golfers today will never be a PGA professional golfer (except maybe in our minds and our locker-room bragging), nor will the majority of us ever actually try to qualify for the US Open (although I thought about it once, then I remembered that I live in the rough), so this rule change will not affect the game of the average weekend warrior for another 14 years. So if we have 14 years until the average golfer will be affected, why are we talking about it today? Well, in short, since manufacturers will no longer be able to produce wedges with current large grooves, you will no longer be able to buy wedges with the current large grooves. Therefore your golf game will be dramatically affected from here forward. All this fuss about grooves, what does it really matter? It matters because it greatly affects your game. With 70% or so of all golf shots played within 120 yards of the green, the wedges tend to be the most used clubs in your bag. And with a majority of those shots, at least for me, being played from the rough, it is important to have a good set of wedges. Wedges are typically used from the rough because a wedge has larger and deeper grooves to help clear debris from the contact point. In fact, how the grooves work is quite interesting. The grooves on a golf club are designed to channel moisture and debris away from the club face and improve friction on the golf ball (you can think of it in the same way that a tread on your car tire channels water for grip on the road). So as expected, the larger and deeper the groove on the wedge, the more debris that can be channeled away from the surface allowing more friction on contact. Friction on the golf ball is what gives more control, spin and predictability. So if the new grooves are going to be smaller, thus not clearing as much debris away from the contact surface, you can foresee the potential problems. With the new rule change going to smaller grooves and the fact that a lot of courses are starting to make the area around the greens longer and less manageable, most golfers will have a more difficult time setting themselves up for good putts. So here is the bottom line; if you like using wedges with the large square zip grooves, then you have approximately six (6) months to stock up enough wedges to get you through the next 14 years. And with the average avid golfer buying a new wedge every couple of months, that means a lot of wedges. But don't worry; wedges will still be around to buy next year, the new ones just won't have the same technology they use today. So hurry and act now, ‘cause once they're gone, they're gone. Look to the right for some of our most popular large groove wedges still available.