Nothing is more baffling, frustrating, and misunderstood in wedges than the concept of “bounce” and “grinds” that permeate the wedge landscape. It doesn’t have to be so complicated.
Every Edison Forged Wedge is developed around the patented Koehler Sole, which has a dual-bounce design that eliminates the need to have different bounces and grinds in the bag.
The Koehler Sole combines a high bounce angle in the front of the sole and a low bounce angle in the back of the sole. If your swing is steep or you play in soft conditions, Edison Forged Wedges will perform like a high-bounce wedge. If your swing is shallow or you play in firmer conditions, Edison Forged Wedges will perform like a low-bounce wedge.
That might sound too good to be true based on what you might have heard about wedges, so let’s take a step back and clear up some myths about bounce and grinds
WHAT IS BOUNCE?
Bounce refers to the downward angle of the bottom of the club in relation to the vertical plane of the shaft. It is there to help the club slide through the turf at impact so the leading edge does not dig in.
Wedges can have a low-bounce angle of less than 7-8 degrees, a high-bounce angle of as much as 30 degrees, or one of the many variants in-between. But understand this number is only part of the equation; the functional bounce of any club is a combination of the bounce angle and the width of the sole.
Most wedge soles are generally about ¾ of an inch wide, give or take, but there are certainly exceptions.
The Ping® Eye 2® wedge of the 1980s-1990s, for example, had a very high bounce angle of 25-35 degrees. But because the sole was less than ½ an inch wide, it worked. You might remember Paul Azinger was magical with his.
In contrast, when the first 60-degree wedges came out, they were typically characterized by very low bounce angles, but the soles were huge, making them functional. Tom Kite almost single-handedly put that club on the map.
WHAT IS GRIND?
Grind refers to the intricate shaping of a wedge’s sole to fit the specific wants and needs of a given player (usually an extremely talented tour pro), and the manufacturers have come up with all kinds of names and designations for their various “grinds."
Realize that these nuanced alterations to wedge soles stemmed from working with elite professionals: golfers who can feel things in a golf club you can’t imagine. But also realize they play near-perfect course conditions and they have short game skills and touch that are borderline mystical.
Every wedge grind has its strengths and weaknesses, but what’s so special about The Koehler Sole is that it takes cues from some of the best grinds of all time and integrates the most helpful aspects into each of our wedges. This is why you can hit so many different shots with Edison Forged Wedges without having to make major adjustments to your swing or setup.
HOW CAN BOUNCE AND GRIND BE CUSTOM FIT?
We’ve always objected to the way the golf equipment industry proclaims that bounce can be fit to a player based on turf conditions and swing path.
How can you possibly claim to do that when both of these things are constantly changing? Have you ever seen a golf course that has the same turf throughout or has the same conditions all the time?
On top of that variety, our research reveals that 80% of golfers say they don’t take the same size divot most of the time. This means that their wedge is rarely interacting with the turf in the same way from shot to shot.
Good luck fitting to that!
A BETTER IDEA: ONE SOLE FOR ALL SHOTS
In 1990, our Founder, Terry Koehler, took a golf trip to Scotland with his brother, where he quickly found that his “tour design” sand wedge was fine for the bunkers but certainly not suited to the firm turf at the Old Course.
On his tour of Auchterlonies Golf Shop, he saw a grinding wheel and had an idea. He went back to the hotel to get his sand wedge and worked it over, creating the first crude iteration of The Koehler Sole (which was patented in 1994). It worked beautifully the rest of the trip with a very high bounce on the leading part of the sole and a very low bounce on the rear of the sole.
Through its many iterations, tens of thousands of golfers have proclaimed The Koehler Sole to be the most versatile sole design in the wedge category, as it handles a wide range of turf conditions, sand textures, and swing paths.
It has been proven to excel for nearly 30 years in the wedges Koehler has designed – from Merit® Golf to Reid Lockhart® to EIDOLON®, SCOR™ and Ben Hogan® – and now the Edison Forged line.
Thousands of golfers are still playing their worn-out SCORs and EIDOLONs because the sole is that good.
THE KOEHLER SOLE
This rendition of the Koehler Sole for the Edison Forged Wedges is Koehler’s best yet. The high bounce leading portion of the sole has been widened a bit, the actual bounce angles have been tweaked, and some nuanced shaping of the sole at toe and heel makes the Edison Forged Wedges even more versatile.
It would be hard to find a lie The Koehler Sole doesn’t like or a swing path it can’t handle. No matter what shot you're about to hit or where you're playing, you'll always have the right wedge.
