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What IS that on the back of Rickie Fowler’s Cobra King wedge?

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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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He played on the Hawaii Pacific University Men's Golf team and earned a Masters degree in Communications. He also played college golf at Rutgers University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

15 Comments

15 Comments

  1. 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

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. Blake

    Jan 31, 2018 at 4:55 pm

    Did people not know this?

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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…

  9. 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.

  10. 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?

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Whats in the Bag

Austin Cook WITB 2024 (April)

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Driver: Ping G430 LST (10.5 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 6 X

3-wood: Ping G430 Max (15 degrees)

7-wood: Ping G430 Max (21 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Black 8 X

Hybrid: Ping G410 (22 degrees)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 85 X

Irons: Ping i210 (5, 6), Ping S55 (7-PW)
Shafts: KBS Tour 120 S

Wedges: Ping S159 (50-12S, 56, 60)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Ping Cadence TR Ketsch
Grip: SuperStroke Split

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Ball: Titleist Pro V1

Check out more in-hand photos of Austin Cook’s clubs here.

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Whats in the Bag

Adrien Dumont de Chassart WITB 2024 (April)

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Driver: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max (9 degrees @10)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 7 X

3-wood: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max (16.5 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Red 8 X

5-wood: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke Max (18 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus TR Red 8 X

Irons: Callaway Apex UT (18 degrees), Callaway Apex CB (3-10)
Shafts: Oban CT 115 (18), True Temper Dynamic Gold AMT Tour White X100

Wedges: Callaway Jaws Raw (50-10S, 54-10S, 58-06C, 58-08Z)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Odyssey Ai-One #7 DB

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

See more in-hand photos of Adrian Dumont de Chassart’s WITB here.

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Coolest thing for sale in the GolfWRX Classifieds (4/30/24): Custom-built Titleist T150s

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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 Custom-Built Titleist T150s.

From the seller: (@boff2guy): “Custom T150s 4-PW built by People’s golf, w/Dynamic Golf Tour Issue X100 Black Onyx shafts.  MCC Plus 4 Midsize.  Only a few irons have been hit off the mat.  Specs and Pics below.  $1,150 shipped 

  • 4)    39.25    21    61
  • 5)    38.75    24    61.5
  • 6)    38.25    28    62
  • 7)    37.75     32    62.5
  • 8.    37.25     36    63
  • 9)    36.75    40    63.5
  • PW) 36.25   45     64″

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link: Custom-Built Titleist T150s

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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