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A Bouncing Idea: The Story of the Sand Wedge

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If you’re like me, it’s painful to watch the golf ball tumble into a bunker, or as you Americans like to call them, “traps.” Fear and trepidation soon follow while surveying the next shot from the sandy grave.

We watch in awe as professionals effortlessly splash their escapes exquisitely up to the hole. With endless hours to practice and a technique honed to perfection, these guys make it look easy. In fact, they sometimes prefer sand to greenside rough. The average weekend warrior has a much bigger fear factor and is less concerned in leaving the ball beside the hole as he is in not leaving the ball in the bunker. And the anguish of today’s golfer is only heightened as he sees the ball in anything but a perfect lie on the beach.

Compared to the early days of golf, however, bunker play is relatively easy.

LongnoseWaterRakeGolfWRX

A water iron (far left), a rake iron, and a long-nose play club (far right) from the 1900s

Back in the dark ages when golf was invented, the landscape was not as refined as we know it these days. Golfers had to put up with all sorts of interesting lies including cart paths, (made by horse and carts, not the tarmac cart paths we know of today), ruts, hoof prints and cow pats. In those days, golfers used all sorts of designs to extricate themselves from hazards including the “water iron,” which was used from casual water. Back then, you played the ball as it lay no matter what!

The bunker itself came from our golfing forefathers in Scotland. The first golf courses were built on sand-based links land, and pits appeared that they called “bunkers.” And merely getting the ball out of a bunker was an issue. They were really a hazard and golfers accepted them as a punishment. They were unkempt, were full of stones, shells, weeds, and rocks and didn’t have rakes. They looked like they had been fashioned by men drinking whisky, which was probably not far from the truth. Indeed in early exhibition games, the crowds used to stand in the bunkers to get a better view of matches.

RoyalCountyDownBunker

Royal County Down keeps the natural look to its bunkers.

Prior to the 1930s, the best club for short approach shots was the niblick, roughly equivalent to today’s 9-iron or pitching wedge. The design of this club, however, featured a flat, angled face and virtually no sole, making it difficult to use in sand and other soft lies as it was prone to digging into the ground. Players had to pick the ball cleanly off the sand, which required a good lie. The other alternative for bunkers was the jigger; it was similar to a chipper with a short shaft, but little loft. Less loft prevented the club from digging in too much on soft lies, but the compromise was the low launch angle and it was useless at moving through the sand to dig out a buried ball. The club was also not ideal for approach shots from a greenside bunker, as a chip shot made with this club tended to roll for most of its distance. The club designers in those days were often blacksmiths who offered up all sorts of strange solutions to the bunker dilemma. The rake iron (pictured above) was invented by a Scottish optometrist who became fed up of having to remove sand from the eyes of golfers playing at the local links, and created a club designed to cast up less sand when swung.

The governing bodies soon began to clamp down on design and banned many offerings. Spoon clubs offered varying degrees of loft and allowed players to scoop their ball out of sand traps and deep rough. Some had bowl faces, others featured deeply grooved faces, but not all of these designs conformed. Walter Hagen was using a lethal-looking sand wedge in the late 1920s, with a hickory shaft and a smooth concave face with a lot of loft and about a half pound of weight in the flange. This was deemed illegal and soon became outlawed.

OldGolfClubWRX

Walter Hagen concave sand wedge with a smooth face.

It is widely acknowledged that the biggest breakthrough in sand play appeared in the 1930s, and many connect Gene Sarazen with the design of today’s modern sand wedge. The story goes that he dreamed this club up after flying with Howard Hughes, the aviation tycoon, movie producer and scratch golfer. When Hughes’s plane took off, the flaps on the wings came down. We don’t know if alcohol or narcotics were consumed at the time, but Sarazen made a connection between the flaps and the flange you could add to a club that would allow it to slide through the sand and help the ball pop up.

SandWedgeWilson

Early Wilson sand wedges.

Sarazen experimented by soldering flanges to his niblicks, which were similar to a modern pitching wedge. Another modification that he made was to add extra lead to the front edge of the club face, allowing it to cut through the sand more smoothly. He sent the clubs to Wilson, and the company used those prototypes to come up with its first sand wedge in the early 1930s with a steel shaft, dot markings on the club face and the amount of flange that is still widely used today. After he won the 1932 British and U.S. Opens with the help of his new club, its popularity quickly grew. Almost 85 years later the club has hardly changed, and you’ll still see Wilson R-20 and R-90 wedges in the bags of golfers today.

Sarazen was also a pioneer of the explosion shot. Up to then golfers tried to pick the ball clean out. By hitting in behind the ball and using the bounce of the club, the sand shot suddenly became more consistent. Of course, Sarazen downplayed it, saying it was the game’s easiest shot because the club face never touches the ball.

gene_sarazen_sand

Gene Sarazen hitting a bunker shot.

Today, we are a lot more educated than ever on the design aspects of the sand wedge from the grooves and loft to the bounce. We have so many grind options these days with laser-engraved grooves machined to tolerances previously unachievable. Dave Pelz, Roger Cleveland, Bob Vokey and others are now celebrities of the short game, an industry within the game. The gap and lob wedges were natural additions, driven by marketing demands to sell more clubs, but in truth the basic concepts have only changed marginally. More loft seems to be the current trend, and it’s interesting to see 58-64 degrees as the new norm. I stop at 60, as I have this recurring nightmare of a ball coming straight up and hitting me in the face, but that’s another story

So the next time you find yourself on the beach, think bounce, knock it out and tip your hat to Eugenio Saraceni.

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Mark Donaghy is a writer and author from Northern Ireland, living in the picturesque seaside town of Portstewart. He is married to Christine and they have three boys. Mark is a "golf nut," and is lucky to be a member of a classic links, Portstewart Golf Club. At college he played for the Irish Universities golf team, and today he still deludes himself that he can play to that standard. He recently released Caddy Attitudes: 'Looping' for the Rich and Famous in New York. It recounts the life experiences of two young Irish lads working as caddies at the prestigious Shinnecock Hills course in the Hamptons. Mark has a unique writing style, with humorous observations of golfers and their caddies, navigating both the golf course and their respective attitudes. Toss in the personal experiences of a virtually broke couple of young men trying to make a few bucks and their adventures in a culture and society somewhat unknown to them... and you have Caddy Attitudes. From scintillating sex in a sand trap to the comparison of societal status with caddy shack status, the book will grab the attention of anyone who plays the game. Caddy Attitudes is available on Amazon/Kindle and to date it has had excellent reviews.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Greg V

    Aug 15, 2016 at 12:49 pm

    Eugenio Saraceni – who is this violin player of which you speak?

  2. Flavastalloni

    Aug 14, 2016 at 9:51 pm

    Tom Morris Junior perfected the rutclub shot from off the green which won him his Opens

  3. Pe

    Aug 14, 2016 at 2:35 am

    I also have this recurring nightmare that while I play a links course in Scotland in the brutal winds and I go to take a pee in the gorse bush, the wind would blow so hard the pee would splash up and hit me in the face

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Whats in the Bag

Chesson Hadley WITB 2024 (March)

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Driver: Titleist TSR3 (10 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 70 TX

3-wood: Titleist TSR2+ (14.5 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana D+ 80 TX

Irons: Titleist T200 (3), Titleist 620 CB (4, 5), Titleist 620 MB (6-PW)
Shafts: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 105 X (3), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (4-PW)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (52-12F, 56-14F), WedgeWorks (60-K)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG 2-Ball
Grip: Odyssey

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Check out more in-hand photos Chesson Hadley’s clubs here.

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Whats in the Bag

Gary Woodland WITB 2024 (March)

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Driver: Cobra Darkspeed X (8 degrees)
Shaft: Accra TZ5 70 M5

  • The white circle that appears at the top of the face a removable sticker that’s used for launch monitor tracking, and Woodland removes it for competition!

3-wood: Cobra Darkspeed X (14 degrees)
Shaft: Accra TZ5 GW100 Prototype

7-wood: Cobra LTDx LS prototype (20 degrees)
Shaft: Accra TZ5 GW100 Prototype

Irons: Wilson Staff (18 degrees), Cobra King MB (4-PW)
Shafts: KBS Tour C-Taper Limited X

Wedges: Cobra SB (48), Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (52-08F, 56-14F), Cobra King (60)
Shafts: KBS Tour C-Taper Limited X (48 degrees), KBS Tour V-Ten 125

Putter: Scotty Cameron T-5 Proto
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy Tour 3.0P

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord

See more in-hand photos of Gary Woodland’s WITB in the forums.

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Equipment

Q&A: Martin Trainer on his Bobby Grace “Greg Chalmers” putter, 6.5-degree driver, and “butter knife” 2-iron

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As unbiasedly as I can put it, Martin Trainer has one of the coolest club setups in professional golf. (At some point soon, I’ll put together a top-10 list of “coolest club setups on Tour,” but I know that Trainer will be in the top-10)

What a lineup. He plays a 6.5-degree Wilson prototype driver, a 13-degree Wilson prototype 3-wood, a true blade Wilson Staff Model 2-iron, and a Bobby Grace “Greg Chalmers Commemorative” putter!

 

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I mean, look at this 2-iron from address…

To quote the great author R.L. Stine: “Goosebumps.”

On Wednesday at the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open, I caught up with Trainer to learn more about his bag setup.

Here’s what he had to say:

You have the Internet going crazy over your bag setup, and your putter. Where’d you pick the Bobby Grace-Greg Chalmers putter up? How long have you had it?

MT: This was from when Bobby Grace came to my course in California: Cal Club. And for whatever reason, they just started having them in the shop. So then I took my buddy’s, started using it, and made, like, a million putts in a row, which is how every putter story begins, I guess.

And then, I bought a couple of my own, used it for years, got to the Tour with it, won on Tour with it (the 2019 Puerto Rico Open). Then, about a year later, started using another putter, did that for a couple years, but now it’s back in the bag.

When did it come back in the bag?

MT: December of this past year. So a few months ago.

What year would you say was the first time you threw that in the bag, or, like, when you bought it?

MT: God…Probably, 2016, maybe? 2018?

Do you remember how much you paid for it?

MT: I don’t know, actually. Maybe $100-150 bucks or something. I think that’s the only golf club I’ve bought between high school and now. Well, two, since I bought two of them.

The driver is interesting, too. What went into the prototyping process?

MT: That was a version of the current driver, but it was the prototype that they first came out with for Tour guys to try. And for whatever reason, I just never switched out to the new one.

It’s just 6.5 degrees, right?

MT: Yeah. Very low loft, yeah.

What kind of ball speed do you have with that these days?

MT: Like high 170’s.

Yeah, that’ll work. And then a 2-iron blade? We’re seeing fewer and fewer of those out here.

MT: Yeah. The butter knife.

Very cool thing to have in the bag. Have you done any testing with driving irons? 

MT: Yeah, I used to have a thicker one, but it was a little offset, and I never hit it that well. And then finally, I started messing around with the butter knife. And I remember the first time I looked down at it, I was terrified. And then I ended up getting used to it, putting it in play, and it’s been in place since. It’s a pretty good club for me.

How far do you carry that? 

MT: Like 235.

A good little wind club, I’m sure.

MTL Yeah, exactly. I can hit it very low. It’s great.

I love it. You have people shook looking at that. Thanks for the time, man. 

MT: Absolutely.

To see more photos and discussion of Trainer’s bag, click here.

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