When Vokey came out with its SM10 line of wedges, it was building on the success of the SM7, 8 and 9 wedges, while also trying to make important improvements to the new club.
The center of gravity, the grooves and the look of the SM10 have all seen adjustments to make this a better performing wedge than its counterpoints. These shifts weren’t about reinventing the wheel, but taking feedback from Tour players and gathering data to make advancements that would resonate with the consumer.
“The thing that (Bob Vokey) taught me nearly 20 years ago is that you don’t want to change things that matter,” Vokey Tour rep Aaron Dill said. “When we look at what we’re trying to do here, we’re trying to clean up some little areas that our tour players did tests on. They said, ‘Can you fix this, can you make it do this?’ If there’s a consensus on that between a bunch of different players, we study it further and say, ‘Hey, let’s put this into the next line.’”
And that’s exactly what Vokey did with this new wedge.
The first aspect that the team focused on was the look, because as Dill says, “Beauty is No. 1, that’s how we connect with the golfer. If you don’t like what you’re looking at, you’re going to put it back on the shelf.”
Vokey stuck with their classic tour chrome finish, as well as the jet-black look, but they also added a new nickel finish that has some gold flakes in it. Dill says that Vokey also focused on toe polishing, leading edge polishing and the consistency in how they make the clubs.
When looking down the line, you’ll notice that offset will increase as you increase loft, and the hosels will also increase in length with higher lofts.
Outside of the look, the center of gravity was reevaluated in the SM10 and adjustments were made for specific clubs within the line. In the 46 to 52 degree wedges, the center of gravity is more centered for less face rotation and less draw biased flight.
“So, when you’re trying to step on one, hit it that extra two yards, it’s going to stay on its intended line,” Dill said. “That’s something our Tour players have shared with us for a number of years, saying, ‘I just want to know that I swing, I hit the ball and I get it on the line that I want it to go.”
The center of gravity is just inside center on sand wedges and lob wedges and have been moved higher and more forward. Dill says that in those clubs, we want face closure to increase spin and keeping the ball flight down, so the placement of the center of gravity helps encourage that.
The center of gravity helps with spin, but the grooves also play a big part in what the ball does off the face. Dill says he always encourages consumers to look at how often they change out their grooves because they decay over time, especially in lob and sand wedges.
He sees Tour pros change out pitching and gap wedges one or two times a year, sand wedges up to four times a year, but can go through as many as eight lob wedges in one season. The average consumer doesn’t play as often as Tour pros, so that isn’t suggested for the average golfer, but Vokey has tried to take spin decay into consideration for its golfers.
“I think it’s really important that our consumers know that we understand these things happen,” Dill said. “We heat treat every groove, so we’re actually trying to double the durability for you, so you can keep these for longer periods of time. We’re taking that additional step to try to make them last twice as long.”
In addition to heat treating the grooves, Vokey has a spin mill process that varies the width and depth of each groove to help give maximum spin in all conditions.
The SM10 has updated technology and advancements to help your game, but Dill says that the only way to know which wedge is right for you is to get fitted. With the number of bounce, loft and grind options, finding out what combination fits your swing and needs best is going to help you maximize performance from the club.
“If you are going to make the investment of getting a new set of wedges, go get fit,” Dill said. “You’re going to learn cool things about your game, what you do well or what you do poorly. And if you find the right tools, the confidence and those shots will get better and you’ll shoot better scores. It’s really important to get fit.”
