Officially, Callaway engineers began working on the Jaws Full Toe wedge design following the 2019 PM Grind launch. The full story of the Full Toe, however, goes back to the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla.

Callaway’s maestro of wedge design, Roger Cleveland, was on site that week in Kentucky. And when Cleveland spotted the company’s most highly visible staffer with a classic competitive wedge with a high toe peak in his bag instead of a Callaway model, he was — needless to say — less than thrilled, maybe even uttering a four-letter word that wasn’t “Phil.”

Cleveland inquired as to why the venerable left-hander had elected to configure his high-lofters in such a fashion. Mickelson told Cleveland he loved the center of gravity and toe peak of the club and was particularly enamored of the sole interaction and the magic he could work with an open face.

Rather than getting mad, Roger decided to get even, telling Phil “let me see what I can do.”

Cleveland called the team in Carlsbad with a unique demand: “Make me a Frankenstein wedge.”

Regarding the finished product, Cleveland told us, “It’s actually two Mack Daddy 2s. They cut the top off and welded on another piece to create this Full Toe wedge. And they got it done in one day — it looks like a regular wedge!”

Mickelson put the wedge in play at Valhalla, and he ultimately finished second behind Rory McIlroy in the “let’s play the 18th hole together to finish before dark” weirdness that punctuated the 2014 PGA Championship.

From Frankenstein to PM Grind

Callaway CEO Chip Brewer caught wind of the birth of the “Phil Grind” and suggested once the look and the grooves were ironed out, the company should bring a PM Grind wedge to retail.

In 2015, Callaway launched the Mack Daddy PM Grind. According to Callaway’s Senior Director, Brand & Product Management, Dave Neville, the club attained a sort of cult classic status with many non-staffers putting it in play, in addition to Mickelson. The company also found it worked very well for high handicappers who needed more forgiveness and a larger hitting area in their wedges.

However, the PM Grind was pigeonholed as something of a specialty club with many players liking it in their highest-lofted wedge but preferring something more traditional in their 56 or 54 degree.

Roger Cleveland worked closely with Phil Mickelson to design the next generation PM Grind — the PM 19 — which features many of the same innovations that appear in the Jaws Full Toe: offset groove-in-groove technology, a higher toe for better performance on full and knockdown shots, a refined sole grind, and more.

With competitors entering the PM Grind space, Callaway saw an even greater opportunity.

Enter Jaws Full Toe

According to Neville: “With Jaws Full Toe, we wanted to take the best of what the PM Grind had to offer — amazing around the green, money from the bunker, flop shots, knock-down shots — but have a face that is palatable to tour pros and those who want it in the 54 and 56 and on full shots.”

The effort to bring Jaws technology to the PM Grind blends together the Jaws MD5 and PM Grind, Neville said, but the company didn’t want the wedge to merely be perceived as the next iteration of the PM Grind. Instead, Callaway chose the name Full Toe as a reference to both the full grooves across the face and an allusion to the fact that the wedges can be used comfortably on full shots with full control. In other words, Full Toe is not just a specialty club.

Jaws Full Toe wedges feature full-face Jaws grooves, offset groove-in-groove technology, and a raw face, along with a specialized C-grind.

The Full Toe shape noticeably features a higher toe peak to offer more surface area and control on every type of wedge shot — hit the high flop and the bunker skip-and-stop with confidence.

Additionally, the toe height and toe pad raise the club’s CG for lower ball flight and a more controlled trajectory. Working in concert, the Variable Weight Port System moves the CG away from the heel for more solid-feeling strikes in the hitting area.

Neville also mentioned bringing a raw face to the wedge was important to maximize spin. However, research revealed a lot of golfers don’t like the look of a fully rusted wedge, so the R&D worked hard to come up with a solution that would meet both needs. Raw up front, chrome in the back.

Offering a final word on the Jaws Full Toe, Roger Cleveland said

“We’ve very proud of how it all came out. Couldn’t be happier. It was a total team effort between Tour and R&D.”

He could have added it was an effort seven years in the making.

More photos of Callaway Jaws Full Toe wedges in the forums.