Equipment

Why does Aaron Beverly’s wedge have holes in it? A wedge expert explains

Published

5 months ago

Feb 16, 2022

Aaron Beverly received this year’s Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption from tournament host Tiger Woods to play in the 2022 Genesis Invitational. Before even making his PGA Tour debut, Beverly is already making a splash in our GolfWRX forums with his unique wedges.

On Tuesday ahead of the event, we spotted Beverly with a unique set of wedges. Each of his Titleist Vokey SM9 wedges (52, 56 and 60 degrees) have two holes in their back cavities; one on the toe portion and one on the heel.

With our GolfWRX forum members speculating why the holes are there, I wanted to get the real answer. For that, I went straight to Titleist’s Vokey Tour rep Aaron Dill – the man who worked on Beverly’s wedges himself – to get the inside scoop.

According to Dill, there are two main reasons for drilling out, or “porting,” holes in his wedges:

“The first reason would be to reduce swing weight,” Dill explained. “He’s a little bit long, he’s a half-inch over standard length, but he likes standard swing weights. And it’s really tough at a half inch to get him down to D5 and D3, so that’s the first reason.

“The second reason is because it looks cool. Part of it is, yes, we want to balance up the weight. Whatever we’re going to pull from it I want to make sure it’s even on both sides. The other part of it is I don’t want to disturb the BV wings. I’m trying to stay out of there and have a little respect for The Man (master craftsman Bob Vokey, for which the wedges are named). But, other than that, it’s really more about hitting the tolerance and the specs that [Beverly] wants us to hit, and in order for us to do that accurately, we have to port them.”

For those of us who like to experiment with custom club building for ourselves, take Dill’s work as a valuable lesson. For every action there’s a reaction with club building, so make sure that when you change the length of your club setup that you keep an eye on swing weight and make the proper weighting adjustments. You don’t want to drastically change one variable when you’re trying to change another variable in isolation.

Beverly’s wedge set, as you may notice, doesn’t have a uniform finish throughout; he uses a Jet Black 52 and 56 degree wedge, but his lob wedge has a chrome finish. Dill explains why:

“The cool thing about [Beverly’s] set is he actually has a black gap wedge and sand wedge, and then the lob wedge is chrome. I asked him, ‘What’s up with that?’ He’s just like ‘This is what I like.’ I thought that was cool. That’s kind of his thing. Most guys would maintain the same finish throughout, and the majority of guys out here use raw. But for a handful of guys like Cam Smith, Callum Tarren, etc., there’s a handful of guys that really love the darker finish and go with the Jet Black.”

That’s the fun part of customizing your wedges: You can make them functional and practical, while still expressing yourself with things such as custom stampings, the finish, or even ported holes.

Check out all of our photos from the 2022 Genesis Invitational here.

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Andrew Tursky

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.

10 Comments

LUFC Fan

Feb 23, 2022 at 2:38 pm

Minor third thing is it raises the swing weight higher in the wedge which can help achieving a lower flight and increase spin. Definitely helps with players who want lighter swing weight though.

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drumdude96

Feb 20, 2022 at 12:00 pm

I guess the guys in the Titleist tour van have never heard of deburring. He Aaron Dill, every seen a countersink before?! Someone’s going to get their fingers cut on the burrs and sharp edges of those port holes. Terrible workmanship.

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drumdude96

Feb 20, 2022 at 11:57 am

I guess the guys in the Titleist tour van have never heard of deburring? Someone’s going to get their fingers cut on the burrs and sharp edges of those port holes. Half-a$$ed work, if you ask me. Hey Aaron Dill, ever heard of a countersink?!

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Pingback: Tour Report: Rickie Fowler switches to a TaylorMade putter and JT makes a wedge switch – GolfWRX
ericsokp

Feb 18, 2022 at 1:22 pm

Yeah, that must be what’s wrong with my game … my wedges are at D5 instead of D3! I believe that equates to a whopping 6 grams of club-head weight? 🙂

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burner accnt gianni sux

Feb 17, 2022 at 6:01 pm

“The second reason is because it looks cool. Part of it is, yes, we want to balance up the weight. Whatever we’re going to pull from it I want to make sure it’s even on both sides. The other part of it is I don’t want to disturb the BV wings. I’m trying to stay out of there and have a little respect for The Man (master craftsman Bob Vokey, for which the wedges are named). But, other than that, it’s really more about hitting the tolerance and the specs that [Beverly] wants us to hit, and in order for us to do that accurately, we have to port them.”

two words, get real

Reply Report comment
Eric

Feb 17, 2022 at 10:13 am

This is huge. They should offer this. I play +.5 and struggle with my vokeys. I always leave them at stock length because of the swing weight issue. I’ve felt Vokey’s +.5″ and they are nearly unplayably heavy. So I just squat more when I have wedges in hand.

Reply Report comment
- Joe
  
  Feb 17, 2022 at 1:29 pm
  
  Get raw wedges and pick a couple grinds on Wedgeworks, that should drop the SW to about right..
  
  Reply Report comment
  - Eric
    
    Feb 18, 2022 at 10:26 am
    
    I play Vokey 60.08 M as one of my wedges, as an example. Ordering that wedge raw has no impact on swing weight and Im not interested in other grinds.
    
    But even if I were, grinding has almost no impact on swing weight. I would need 6 grams ground off the wedge to meet my needs at +1/2. Aaron Beverly has 2 x 3gram holes drilled in his wedges. You can see how much metal needs to be removed.
    
    Reply Report comment
- drumdude96
  
  Feb 20, 2022 at 11:53 am
  
  This is nothing new. People have been porting wedges since forever. You can easily do it yourself if you have any mechanical ability at all and a few basic tools.
  
  Reply Report comment

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Whats in the Bag

Preston Stanley WITB 2022 (July)

Published

3 hours ago

Jul 2, 2022

GolfWRX Staff

Preston Stanley what’s in the bag accurate as of the John Deere Classic. More photos from the event here.

Driver: TaylorMade Stealth Plus (9 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Blue 7 X

3-wood: TaylorMade M4 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Orange 80 TX

Irons: Srixon ZX (2), Srixon ZX7 (4-5), Srixon Z-Forged (6-PW)
Shafts: Graphite Design Tour AD DI Hybrid Orange 95 X (2), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 (4-PW)

Wedges: Cleveland RTX Zipcore (50-10 Mid, 54-10 Mid, 58-10 Mid)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 (50-54), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue Spinner Wedge (58)