Equipment

When are your grooves worn out?

Published

13 years ago

Mar 12, 2013

Have you ever heard an announcer during a golf telecast talk about how PGA Tour players “control their spin?” If you’re like me, you probably thought to yourself, “I wish I actually had some spin to control.”

It’s frustrating to hit what looks like a good pitch shot only to see it bound past the pin and off the back of the green. But if you’ve been using the same wedge for awhile, there might be an easy fix to get more grab on your greens, because having sharp grooves in your wedges gives you the best chance at creating the spin you want inside the 100-yard scoring zone.

Before you run to the store, let’s discuss how wedges actually create spin. From there, we can determine if your lack of spin is actually an equipment problem.

How wedges create spin

At impact, the grooves are responsible for biting into the cover of the golf ball. The downward strike on the ball, coupled with the sharp grooves, traps the ball against the ground and creates backspin.

Over time, the lower grooves will start to wear out and eventually will not catch the ball as sharply. The dulling grooves allow the ball to roll up the face just slightly before catching some of the higher grooves. When the ball rolls up the face, spin is lost because friction is lost.

Creating spin is not done by the grooves alone, however. Spin is a function of the golf club as a whole. Research is finding more and more that spin also has a lot to do with the roughness of the face of the wedge. Pick up a new Cleveland wedge and look closely at the new Rotex milled face of the club. The laser milled pattern you see between the grooves creates miniature grooves on the face and increases the “grab” factor at impact, especially on less than full shots.

To research the difference between new and two-year-old grooves, I hit identical 56 degree Titleist Vokey wedges on a launch monitor using Titleist ProV1s. All the shots I charted were 90 to 110 yards. The wedge that I had in my bag for two years spun an average of 9000 rpms; enough to keep the ball within three or four yards on average of where it landed, never spinning back.

When I switched to the new Vokey, I instantly noticed the difference. The feel and sound was completely different. I heard the sharp groves catching the ball on the bottom few grooves, and I felt the ball staying on the lower grooves. Looking at the ball, I noticed the difference as the new wedge bit into the ball and scuffed the cover. The new wedge spun an average of 12,000 rpms and pulled back on the majority of shots.

(Graph from TaylorMade about its XFT wedges with interchangable faces)

What kind of a difference can these numbers make during a round? Let’s say you’re 90 yards away from a front pin that is tucked behind a bunker and your ball lands just three yards beyond the pin. With old grooves, your ball will most likely stop around seven feet beyond where it lands, leaving you with a 15 to 20 foot putt. With new grooves, that same shot will have a chance at stopping where it lands, if not spinning back towards the hole, leaving you inside of 10 feet and a very makeable putt.

One solution to bringing back some sharpness to grooves that have worn down is to purchase a groove sharpening tool. You can buy these tools at any local golf retailer, but you need to be careful about a few things. While the sharpening tools do give a little bite back to an old wedge, they do not come close to the sharpness of new grooves. When I tested an old wedge after groove sharpening, it averaged about 10,500 rpms on 100-yard shots.

It is worth noting that a groove sharpener works by grinding out some of the metal on the club face. The rules of golf state that grooves must be no more than 0.035 inches wide, 0.020 inches deep and 0.075 inches from any adjacent grooves. If you play competitively, using a groove sharpener could make your clubs non-conforming and illegal for competition. In fact, Titleist’s Vokey Wedgeworks shops will not resharpen grooves because the margin is so thin between conforming and non-conforming.

The sole of the wedge can also determine if it is time to replace the club. When you buy a new wedge, the sole of the wedge has a specific grind to it that hopefully fits your swing and the turf conditions you typically play on. Vokey alone offers 11 different sole grinds on their SM4 wedges. Over time, the sole wears down to fit your individual swing print. As the grind changes, so does the performance of the club. Tiger has said he will change his 60-degree wedge about four times per year because of how much he practices.

New grooves (left) versus worn out grooves (right)

The Takeaway

The best way to know whether to replace your wedges is to practice with them. Although this may seem counter-intuitive, as using your wedges will only wear down the grooves, it is a great opportunity to get a good feel for how much life is left in them. When you are practicing, take note of your ball flight. Does it come out low with a lot of spin, or does it launch high with little spin?

If you are practicing on grass, hit a few shots with some grass built up in the grooves. Try to feel the ball rolling up the face of the club before being caught by some of the higher grooves. These shots will typical launch high with little spin, and seem to fall out of the sky. After you have felt what a shot feels like with less spin, give your wedges a good cleaning and notice the difference as your next shots come out slightly lower, but with much more spin.

Eventually, your wedges will wear down to the point where it feels like there is grass built up in your grooves even after you have cleaned them. This is when it is time to replace your wedges. To test if your wedges are already at that point, check with your local golf shop to see if they have any wedges available for demo. Take the wedge to the range and try it against your current wedges, or schedule a fitting with a PGA professional who can help you determine if your wedge is worn down enough to be replaced.

Related Topics:wedges

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Grant Shafranski

Grant Shafranski is the Program Director for the First Tee of Minneapolis and Head Teaching Professional at Hiawatha Golf Club in Minneapolis, MN. He is a Level 2 PGA Apprentice following a successful amateur career where he played collegiately at Division III University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN).

24 Comments

Dan H

Jan 12, 2017 at 8:54 pm

Here’s a video with a study on it comparing a new wedge to a one year old wedge using Trackman numbers: https://youtu.be/PeOboLZcUuY

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K

Aug 3, 2016 at 3:52 am

“The downward strike on the ball, coupled with the sharp grooves, traps the ball against the ground and creates backspin.”

This is ridiculous. When a golf ball is struck it does NOT compress into the ground and then shoot up. The only time that happens is when you completely top it. The face is pointing up, therefore the ball must go up. Please take this article off this site. It’s embarrassing.

Reply Report comment
- Brent Tharp
  
  Oct 4, 2021 at 10:46 pm
  
  I know this post is old, but it’s always good to hear from those who don’t understand the physics of golf.
  
  Reply Report comment
Jeff Black

Jan 7, 2015 at 3:19 pm

I Sandblast the face of my wedges

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Pingback: Sharpening Your Golf Club Grooves Is a Must! - The Womens Tour
Servost

Nov 9, 2014 at 1:24 pm

Is there any downside of practicing on the range with your worn out wedges and using your new ones when actually playing. For evry sand wedge I hit during a round, I bet I hit 100 on the range.

Reply Report comment
kr

Oct 22, 2014 at 10:16 am

Very few PGA professionals are qualified to qualified to judge the condition of your clubs….do yourselves a favor and find a qualified club fitting professional!

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Brodie Pendleton PGA

Jun 11, 2013 at 10:38 am

Howdy to all,

I received my groove sharpener about 2 months ago. Works real well on my Miz irons and wedges. Takes about 15 mins for a thorough regroove.

Noticed a real difference in stopping power.

I got mine from the friendly folks at http://www.groovesharpener.org

The 3 blades really speeds thing up 🙂

So long folks – Brodie

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Kent T. Depuydt

Mar 22, 2013 at 10:29 am

I have several original Cleveland 588 Tour Action wedges bought in the late 90’s and still use them. Each spring I spend some time with a carbide groove tool, but I also have a nice flat file I use to (carefully) flatten the face of the blade. Combined with the groove tool I can get the edges of the grooves incredibly sharp. I refinish the heads with some gun bluing (They are all RTG raw tour grind wedges.) They come out looking like new and performing like new too.
BTW – cut the knob end off an old golf grip and slip it over the end of the tool to make a cushion. You can really dig down with the tool and it is easier on the hand too! K.

Reply Report comment
- AJ Jensen
  
  Oct 24, 2014 at 10:55 am
  
  Great tip on using a grip on the tool handle. My hands get sore after just one club. I have a set of old Ping Eye 2’s that I absolutely love, so I had got in the habit of grooving one club per day over the winter. With your grip handle idea I could easily do the set in one evening
  
  Reply Report comment
Tyler Sandford III

Mar 20, 2013 at 11:32 am

Aloha folks,

Really good article this Grant – thanks for coming up with it 🙂

I was sceptical about sharpener tools for a long while, but recently relented and bought 1 after a particularly frustrating round.

I bought a triple blade tool from what I am guessing to be a parent company of the 1 listed above.

Well to coin a well known phrase I was “freaking delighted” with the improved performance around the greens that I saw in my game.

The tool arrived in about 7 days to my place in Hawaii – and regrooving is something I will do frequently from now on.

Thought I would give a shout out to the site I bought mine from because the cust serv was excellent as well – it was shipped with online tracking which was a nice touch 🙂

So here is the link guys: http://www.golfgroover.co.uk

Reply Report comment
Spine Finder

Mar 19, 2013 at 4:54 am

Hi y’all,

I got a hold of a slightly different groove sharpener, but it works pretty darn good.

http://www.groovesharpener.org

Saved my Spin Doctor & Mizuno Wedges.

My missus was real happy coz the money I saved got spent on her LOL.

Just waiting for this darn snow to clear so I can get back out on the course again.

Hope the above helps y’all.

http://www.spinefinder.co

Reply Report comment
Golf Grip Mate Airtool MK 2

Mar 15, 2013 at 5:14 am

My goodness,

Never throw your favourite irons/wedges out. All you need is a groove sharpener to revitalise your grooves.

I agree with R. Prince above – the best groove sharpener is the 1 from the Golf Groover folks – that’s where I got mine from anways.

Here is the link for those that are interested:

http://www.golfgroover.com

PS: Good to see Tiger back putting the way he used to – can’t wait for all the head to heads between him and Rory this season.

Reply Report comment
Rodney Prince

Mar 15, 2013 at 1:24 am

I bought a groove sharpener from golfgroover.com two years ago works great for me, still using my old favorite vokeys.

Reply Report comment
Ryan Tracy

Mar 14, 2013 at 1:44 am

Is there a particular groove sharpener that you would recommend? Also, how many times can you resharpen your grooves before the wedge starts to lose consistency and the accuracy of the grooves?

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- Jeff
  
  Mar 22, 2013 at 2:36 pm
  
  Most groove sharpeners on the market will do the job and like anything else they will also wear down, but spending 25-30$ on the tool or $100+ on a new wedge makes a lot of sense. Wedgedoctor.com has a good product and I have done about 10 clubs with one tool no problem. It’s longer than most so it’s comfortable to use and comes with a carry case so it wont rip your bag.
  
  Reply Report comment
  - Ryan Tracy
    
    Apr 15, 2013 at 9:24 pm
    
    Thanks for the info Jeff! I’ll have to look into it.
    
    Reply Report comment
kloyd0306

Mar 13, 2013 at 5:29 pm

Studies and tests have shown that in very dry conditions, a wedge with NO grooves actually creates MORE spin than one WITH grooves.

The real purpose of grooves is to displace moisture and the USGA’s own testing proves as much. Grass contains a good deal of moisture.

Grant’s “research” clearly did not include talking to the USGA and it’s findings.

Reply Report comment
- Straightdriver235
  
  Dec 18, 2014 at 10:07 am
  
  I’m reading this much later, but find this interesting. I have a Ram Tom Watson lob wedge, based on the model he chipped in with at 17 on Pebble. No other wedge–and I’ve been through about 15–matches it for looks and feel, but true it spins less than it might. I keep it and my love for it grows over the years because I can land it where I want to better than other wedge. I am going to pay attention to how well it works then when no grass gets in the way, or the conditions are dry compared to moister more lush grass to see if this is so. If what you say is true it also indicates that we may not hit the ball as precisely as we think, if you have a clean lie, what is grass doing getting into the grooves?
  
  Reply Report comment
Todd

Mar 12, 2013 at 9:54 pm

Which is better, non conforming worn grooves, or fresh conforming grooves? My instinct tells me the non comforting grooves win, even if a bit dull. Thoughts?

Reply Report comment
Rufiolegacy

Mar 12, 2013 at 3:36 pm

interesting read! Makes me think I should get into new wedges!

Reply Report comment
Marc Kilgore

Mar 12, 2013 at 3:31 pm

There must be something useful we can do with these old wedges that get worn out. It seems like a waste to just throw them away, and even worse to rip off some unsuspecting person by selling them a wedge that is worn out. Seems like we should be able to recycle these or something.

Reply Report comment
- Grant Shafranski
  
  Mar 12, 2013 at 3:56 pm
  
  A great thought, and thank you for commenting! I absolutely agree that it seems like a waste, but please consider donating your used clubs to The First Tee. They are always taking donations, and will make great use out of used clubs!
  
  Reply Report comment
- Potomac Golfer
  
  Mar 13, 2013 at 9:46 am
  
  One thought — consider DONATING old wedges to your local First Tee program — they always need equipment, and most of us can afford to sacrifice the $25 trade value of an old wedge.
  
  Reply Report comment

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