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Cutter Golf CTR-1 wedge: Here to help

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Let’s start with this—if you don’t struggle using a traditional-style wedge then the CTR-1 from Cutter Golf is probably NOT for you. But if you do truly struggle, this could be a game-changer for your short game.

Greenside shots, especially ones that involve escaping deep rough or sand are some of the most feared shots for the average golfer. It’s one of the biggest differences between amateurs and professionals. With a decent lie, pros give themselves a fairly high potential to hole out, while amateurs are just hoping to escape in less than one attempt.

The “pitch” from Cutter

Thanks to the unique shape and hosel transition, the Cutter wedge has 65 percent less leading-edge contact than a traditional wedge to prevent twisting on shots out of the rough. The additional face height and aggressive perimeter weighting offer a 75 percent larger sweet spot (per the company), and you have a club that should make hitting short game shots a lot easier.

My take

The Cutter wedge doesn’t claim to be traditional, but the principles behind the design all have merit in creating an easy to hit wedge. The high bounce sole with heel-toe relief improves turf interaction while the pushed back from the leading edge hosel gets through long grass easier and lowers the possibility of hitting the dreaded shank. As mentioned off the top, total versatility and shotmaking are not high on this club’s list of priorities, but being easy to hit is!

After going out and testing the wedge in some poor turf conditions I will fully admit, as much I do not prefer the look of it compared to my traditional wedge, it flat out works in getting the ball out of almost any tough spot. Feel is the last part of the puzzle and because of the large thin face it has a higher pitch than what I was used to, but it’s still very pleasant – similar to the acoustics produced by other large game-improvement clubs.

Overall, if you are headed into 2020 with a lot of doubts about your short game or just want to try a wedge that will actually help around the greens the Cutter CTR-1 could be for you.

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Ryan Barath is a club-fitter & master club builder with more than 17 years of experience working with golfers of all skill levels, including PGA Tour players. He is the former Build Shop Manager & Social Media Coordinator for Modern Golf. He now works independently from his home shop and is a member of advisory panels to a select number of golf equipment manufacturers. You can find Ryan on Twitter and Instagram where he's always willing to chat golf, and share his passion for club building, course architecture and wedge grinding.

16 Comments

16 Comments

  1. M.Coz

    Mar 27, 2020 at 2:42 am

    Sometimes I don’t know about some of the posters here. How many times do we have to put up haters here who really don’t know the game or it’s history of both the game and its equipment. Do I need to remind of the first steel headed drivers, much revolt or even more the first big headed drivers how they looked like a (use many descriptions here) on a stick. Or the first rescue/hybrids that some thought the head would make a better handle of a crutch if turned upside down. Or how about the first Ping K-1 irons were considered an abomination compared to the typical blades with their offset and no chrome finish. Of course those Eye 2 wedges were thought to be large and ridiculous. Then they came out with their big wooden head drivers with its goofy shape that was so strange. Oh and then Jerry Pate winning a major with (god forbid!!) a colored ball!! GET OVER it. If you have nothing to contribute move on.

  2. Petalocos

    Mar 23, 2020 at 11:09 pm

    I’m an 8 index and have experimented with the CTR-1. While I don’t see it necessarily replacing my current (TaylorMade) wedge, it certainly performs around the green as well as my current wedge. Therefore, I would recommend it to anyone who likes the CTR-1 aesthetic (looks like a driver face) and/or is struggling with improving their short game.

  3. Danny M.

    Mar 20, 2020 at 9:16 am

    How about golfers just LEARN to hit a bunker shot, work hard at figuring out how to escape deep rough, and dedicate some time practicing around the green.

    This junk is just a band-aid used to cover up laziness.

    • andy c

      Mar 20, 2020 at 11:08 am

      haha, yeah because everyone has time and money to go to the short game practice range that doesn’t exist and spend 2 hours a day honing our skills. Can’t tell if you are trolling or not but most golfers I know work for a living and time spent on the course is for fun. Call out a blue collar guy like me for being lazy over how a club looks, and you’d find out how it looks in your in shin.

      • Joe

        Mar 23, 2020 at 1:11 am

        If you have time to play you have time to practice.

        This wedge is one of those 1 – 2 months gimmicks, and then disappears. Through the years I (everyone) have seen many.

    • Big Danny M Fan!

      Mar 23, 2020 at 12:52 pm

      Wow! The great Danny M. has spoken! I’m sure Danny M. has tried the “junk” and most likely a +2 and knows what he’s talking about because he doesn’t sound like a “know it all” and a douche….nope, not at all.

  4. D. Fosbury

    Mar 20, 2020 at 2:51 am

    Life is full of this… “but it looks funny”.

    If it works, it works. This article seems a little short on that, but don’t judge solely on looks. Sometimes, we find out that we’re doing it all wrong because someone is crazy enough to make a point.

  5. Guia

    Mar 19, 2020 at 7:37 pm

    It is said that “there is one born every minute”. So they are guaranteed to sell at least “one”.

  6. Tim

    Mar 19, 2020 at 5:22 pm

    Many of us can get under a ball in long grass its the tight lie we fear. Where tempo and touch are critical. This is why I and many others use an 8 iron or hybrid from off the green.

  7. Charlie Waffles

    Mar 19, 2020 at 5:07 pm

    You’re kidding I hope…..

  8. GoCougs!

    Mar 19, 2020 at 3:17 pm

    I’ve seen the wedge and although the looks are strange. The person using it was making some serious shots and was deadly accurate on his chips from 30 yards out. Just my 2 cents…

  9. Rich Douglas

    Mar 19, 2020 at 12:08 pm

    And when you get done with your round, you can take it home and serve up a nice piece of pie.

  10. SV

    Mar 19, 2020 at 11:00 am

    It looks like the mutant offspring of the Cleveland VAS irons.

    • Rich Douglas

      Mar 19, 2020 at 12:07 pm

      Oh, I so disagree. The VAS was a good iron in its day. Take a look; you’ll see a lot of design features–anti-vibration badge, large bounce, long heel-to-toe, lots of offset–that you see in many GI irons today. They’re just blended into the design and not as obvious as they were in the VAS.

  11. Shallowface

    Mar 19, 2020 at 10:01 am

    Considering how many of us struggle around the greens with the myriad of conventional wedges, any attempts at innovation for this section of the bag are most welcome. Many of us would benefit from having a good look at (horror of horrors!) chippers. I’m looking at trying a wedge with a more upright lie angle to see if that helps.

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Equipment

Spotted: Tommy Fleetwood’s TaylorMade Spider Tour X Prototype putter

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Tommy Fleetwood has been attached to his Odyssey White Hot Pro #3 putter for years now. However, this week at the Wells Fargo Championship, we did spot him testing a new putter that is very different, yet somewhat similar, to his current gamer.

This new putter is a TaylorMade Spider Tour X head but with a brand new neck we haven’t seen on a Spider before. A flow neck is attached to the Spider head and gives the putter about a 1/2 shaft offset. This style neck will usually increase the toe hang of the putter and we can guess it gets the putter close to his White Hot Pro #3.

Another interesting design is that lack of TaylorMade’s True Path alignment on the top of the putter. Instead of the large white center stripe, Tommy’s Spider just has a very short white site line milled into it. As with his Odyssey, Tommy seems to be a fan of soft inserts and this Spider prototype looks to have the TPU Pure Roll insert with 45° grooves for immediate topspin and less hopping and skidding.

The sole is interesting as well in that the rear weights don’t look to be interchangeable and are recessed deep into the ports. This setup could be used to push the CG forward in the putter for a more blade-like feel during the stroke, like TaylorMade did with the Spider X Proto Scottie Scheffler tested out.

Tommy’s putter is finished off with an older Super Stroke Mid Slim 2.0 grip in blue and white. The Mid Slim was designed to fit in between the Ultra Slim 1.0 and the Slim 3.0 that was a popular grip on tour.

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Equipment

Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

…The Jailbird craze hasn’t really slowed down in 2024, either. According to Odyssey rep Joe Toulon, there are about 18-20 Jailbird putter users on the PGA TOUR.

Most recently, Akshay Bhatia won the 2024 Valero Texas Open using a broomstick-style Odyssey Jailbird 380 putter and Webb Simpson is switching into a replica of that putter at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Now, Fowler, who essentially started the whole Jailbird craze, is making a significant change to his putter setup.

Fowler, who has had a couple weeks off since the 2024 RBC Heritage, started experimenting with a new, custom-orange Jailbird 380 head that’s equipped with a standard 35-inch putter build, rather than his previous 38-inch counter-balanced setup.

According to Fowler, while he still likes the look and forgiveness of his Jailbird putter head, he’s looking to re-incorporate more feel into his hands during the putting stroke.

He told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Championship that the 38-inch counterbalanced setup “served its purpose” by helping him to neutralize his hands during the stroke, but now it’s time to try the standard-length putter with a standard-size SuperStroke Pistol Tour grip to help with his feel and speed control.

Although Fowler was also spotted testing standard-length mallets from L.A.B. Golf and Axis1 on Tuesday, he confirmed that the custom Odyssey Jailbird 380 is the putter he’ll use this week at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

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Equipment

Details on Justin Thomas’ driver switch at the Wells Fargo Championship

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Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

So, with a couple of weeks off following his latest start at the 2024 RBC Heritage, Thomas sought to re-address his driver setup with the remote help of Titleist Tour fitting expert J.J. Van Wezenbeeck. About two weeks ago, Thomas and Van Wezenbeeck reviewed his recent driver stats, and discussed via phone call some possible driver and shaft combinations for him to try.

After receiving Van Wezenbeeck’s personalized shipment of product options while at home, Thomas found significant performance improvements with Titleist’s TSR2 head, equipped with Thomas’ familiar Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 60 TX shaft.

Compared to Thomas’ longtime TSR3 model, the TSR2 has a larger footprint and offers slightly higher spin and launch characteristics.

According to Van Wezenbeeck, Thomas has picked up about 2-3 mph of ball speed, to go along with 1.5 degrees higher launch and more predictable mishits.

“I’d say I’d been driving it fine, not driving it great, so I just wanted to, honestly, just test or try some stuff,” Thomas said on Tuesday in an interview with GolfWRX.com at Quail Hollow Club. “I had used that style of head a couple years ago (Thomas used a TSi2 driver around 2021); I know it’s supposed to have a little more spin. Obviously, yeah, I’d love to hit it further, but if I can get a little more spin and have my mishits be a little more consistent, I felt like obviously that’d be better for my driving…

“This (TSR2) has been great. I’ve really, really driven it well the week I’ve used it. Just hitting it more solid, I don’t know if it’s the look of it or what it is, but just a little bit more consistent with the spin numbers. Less knuckle-ball curves. It has been fast. Maybe just a little faster than what I was using. Maybe it could be something with the bigger head, maybe mentally it looks more forgiving.”

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

 

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