Equipment
What IS that on the back of Rickie Fowler’s Cobra King wedge?
Rickie Fowler is no stranger to using wedges that are custom-made… and with wild, Oklahoma State-orange stampings on them.
Back in 2015, I spoke to Ben Schomin, Cobra’s director of tour operations, about Rickie Fowler’s special Tungsten-plugged Cobra irons and wedges. Schomin told me that since Fowler likes his wedges a half-inch short and at a swing weight of D3, Cobra developed a special fixture to mount the wedges in order to be able to insert conical Tungsten rods into Fowler’s wedges to make them heavier. He also said that each wedge took to 2-to-3 hours to make.
Flash forward to 2018, and Schomin has a bit different, more time-efficient process to add weight.
As we spotted in his recent WITB, Fowler has new wedges (56 and 60 degrees) with metal protrusions on the back cavities that look like caterpillars. To find out more about Fowler’s new Cobra King wedges, I again spoke to Schomin to get the lowdown. Here’s what he had to say.
“The grind is a specific shape I’ve been making for Rickie the last couple of seasons. Since he plays his irons 0.5 inches short, we need to add weight to those clubs to get the swingweight back up… Typically we’ve added tungsten internal weighting for both, but for testing purposes, I’ve added weld beads to increase weight over the years, which helps speed up the weighting process. Now I clean up the weld heat tint and re-blast the head to make it look good.”
Here are the specs on Fowler’s new 60-degree wedge.
- Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold S400 Tour Issue
- Length: 34.5 inches
- Swing weight: D4.5
- Grip: Golf Pride Tour Velvet .600 Rib 1+ .5 RH
Next time you see Fowler get up and down using a wedge, know that he has a bead-welded, torched caterpillar on it helping out.
See all of the clubs in Fowler’s bag here.
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Equipment
Coolest thing for sale in the GolfWRX Classifieds (5/7/24): Mizuno 245 irons
At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals that all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.
It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.
Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, there is a listing for a set of Mizuno 245 irons.
From the seller: (@JB_007): “1. Mizuno Pro 245 – $1000 –> 950/obo
- Purchased brand new – they have 36 holes on them, with probably 10 premium range balls. Great set of irons, I just am looking to go another way right now.
- 5-PW –> stock L/L/L
- Project X LS 6.5
- Stock MCC Mizuno Grips.”
To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link: Mizuno 245 irons
This is the most impressive current listing from the GolfWRX BST, and if you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum you can check them out here: GolfWRX BST Rules
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Whats in the Bag
Peter Kuest WITB 2024 (May)
- Peter Kuest what’s in the bag accurate as of CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
Driver: TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus (8 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X
5-wood: TaylorMade SIM Titanium (19 degrees)
Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Black 85 6.5
Irons: Srixon ZX U (2), Srixon Z-Forged II (3-PW)
Shafts: Nippon N.S. Pro Modus3
Wedges: Cleveland RTX6 ZipCore Tour Rack (52-MID 10, 56-MID 10, 60-FULL 9)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
Check out more in-hand photos of Peter Kuest’s clubs here.
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Whats in the Bag
Kelly Kraft WITB 2024 (May)
- Kelly Kraft’s what’s in the bag accurate as of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. More photos from the event here.
Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Max (9 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Red 60 TX
3-wood: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max (15 degrees)
Shaft: Project X Denali White 70 TX
Hybrid: Callaway Apex UW (21 degrees)
Shaft: Aldila Synergy Blue
Irons: Srixon ZX U Mk II (23 degrees), Callaway X Forged Star (5-PW)
Shaft: Project X IO 6.0
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (52-12F, 56-08M, 60-08M)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400
Putter: Odyssey Versa 2-Ball Prototype
Grip: Odyssey Garsen Quad Tour
Grips: Golf Pride ZGrip Cord
Check out more in-hand photos of Kraft’s equipment here.
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sid
May 9, 2018 at 10:19 am
Cobra club designers must wince painfully to see all that ugly weld bead on the back of their beauties. It’s a total rebuke by Rickie that must really sting… lol
William King
Feb 2, 2018 at 11:21 am
Is that club on the USGA and R&A approved list? No doubt the original is, but I think that the rules prohibit alterations to an approved club.
Milton Gombo
Jan 31, 2018 at 7:20 pm
He used as little welding heat as possible, so as not to warp the club head. Weld will crack and fall off if not ground down and finished properly.
Lesson learned: if you like a heavy wedge, look elsewhere.
George
Feb 2, 2018 at 5:18 pm
You don’t have a clue what you are talking about.
Milton Gombo
Feb 2, 2018 at 5:51 pm
Professional Certified Welding Inspector and consultant here.
Heard we can all learn something from everyone. Please elaborate.
M-Herd4
Jan 31, 2018 at 5:38 pm
If it doesn’t bother Ricky it doesn’t bother me. Most pros don’t care how pretty the club is as long as it feels right in their hands and they can hit the shots they need to on command.
Blake
Jan 31, 2018 at 4:55 pm
Did people not know this?
farmer
Jan 31, 2018 at 3:36 pm
Not a very good job of welding. Ugly, but it works. No way to clean up those welds and make them look good.
George
Jan 31, 2018 at 3:20 pm
It’s a tool. All these idiots that sit around looking at their clubs obviously have no idea how to use them.
Piney
Jan 31, 2018 at 1:57 pm
“Now I clean up the weld heat tint and re-blast the head to make it look good.”
If that’s your definition of “good”, please don’t ever touch my clubs. It looks ridiculous. Also, there’s physically no way that bead welding, then removing a finish, then re-blasting his clubs is faster than adding or removing a few strips of lead tape…
Ed
Jan 31, 2018 at 1:20 pm
What’s wrong with a neat patch of lead tape? The weld bead makes the Cobra wedge fugly.
Will Cobra provide me with a custom weld bead or do I have to go to a local muffler shop for a weld bead? 😮
deeo
Jan 31, 2018 at 2:01 pm
Maybe it‘s inefficient to use leadtape because of all the adhesive?
I honestly don‘t know, but this torched caterpillar seems more … condensed than adding layers upon layers of lead tape.
Zach
Jan 31, 2018 at 1:16 pm
Are those 56 and 60’s really those lofts? He has some 54 and 58 stamps on them that would elude one to think they are 54* 58*??
Brian
Jan 31, 2018 at 1:55 pm
They’re probably bent to 56/60 for bounce and/or offset purposes.
Zach
Jan 31, 2018 at 3:55 pm
Or is it the other way around? Looks to me like the stock on them is 56/60 and he has bent to 54/58?