Edel wedge fitting

coolcucumber_1 · October 13, 2017

Anyone done a wedge fitting with edel , if so how did it go and what did it comprise of ?

Before the season ends i wanted to get a proper set of wedges for me to work all winter over and hence asking , i have done the putter fitting and really enjoyed so figured id ask around and see.

Also are the wedges really worth the extra 40-50 bucks over vokey, cleveland, TM etc ?

Thanks for the input fellas.

jackbauer · October 13, 2017

I have a wedge fitting tomorrow, coincidentally, so I can report back after. I'm in the same boat as you as I've had an Edel putter for about four years.

Without having actually gone through the fitting, I'm inclined to say they're absolutely worth it because one could easily spend another $40-50 on top of an off-the-rack wedge for a new shaft, grip, adjusting loft and lie, etc. At the end of the day, it looks like I'll be getting equivalent value or better.

EvanScottKing · October 13, 2017

I'd say the wedges are absolutely worth the investment - I've no regrets since getting mine a little over a year ago. The look of them is different than a lot of other brands out there in that they're more round, but I found that I liked that for manipulating the face rather than seeing it as being off-putting.

My fitting was done by Edel's master fitter for the west coast and doubled as a lesson as well as the club fitting. We started out at an indoor simulator by talking over what I liked and disliked about my current wedges, where I was most confident with my short game and what shots within 100 yards gave me the most anxiety. We talked conditions I typically play and what shots I try to play out of them. Then we talked about bag composition and how many wedges at what lofts might make sense to give us a starting point of what to test. Important to note that I was getting warmed-up with my own wedges at the time during all of this. When we finally moved on to testing the Edel clubs we did static and dynamic lie fitting, testing of numerous shafts for what I liked in terms of weight and feel, distance control, etc. I elected for a 4 wedge set-up with lofts based around my 47* pitching wedge, so I have a Gw at 51* my Sw at 55* and finally a Lw at 59*

Next was actually going out in the real world and testing for different grind combinations and dialing in the bounce ranges that we established on the simulator. Hack some out of different lies and from varying distances with the goal of trying to establish what felt best, what cut through those nasty lies with the least amount of twisting/snagging and what gave me the most consistency. Settled on driver grinds for my gap and sand wedges and a digger grind for my lob wedge. Bounce on all three is at 20*+ which I know sounds absurdly high, but I was blown away by how easily they just glide through anything I try to throw at them.

A chunk of change and a few weeks later they arrived and I haven't looked at another wedge since. I don't have any current close-ups of them, but you can look through my WITB link below for what they look like in regards to head shape and the grinds.

Good luck with the fittings!

jackbauer · October 14, 2017

I had my fitting today. Overall, I’m very excited about the wedges. My fitter was really knowledgeable; I’d give the experience a B, whereas the fitter who did my Edel putter in 2013 was an easy A-plus.

We started off with me hitting 30-yard pitches (indoor with TrackMan) with my current wedges (SM6s, 52 F and 58 S with KBS Wedge stiff shafts). He quickly pointed out that they weren’t the best fit due to both grind and a swing flaw (too much forward shaft lean).

After examining the sole of my wedges from using the lie board, he identified two potential grind options (trapper and driver). I hit the same 30-yard pitches both indoors and outdoors on grass. I ended up choosing the trapper grind.

We went back inside and I took some full swings to determine the shaft, with me ultimately choosing the KBS Hi-Rev 2.0 (stiff). I purchased two wedges (53 and 59, my set PW is 48), picked my paint fills, specs, etc., and off I went.

My fitter clearly knew his stuff. He works with or recently worked with two former world number-ones (he showed me cell phone video, not that I thought he was blowing smoke). The reason I gave the experience a B is because I only hit three grinds (if the article I read from a couple of years ago is still current, there are eight grinds in 58-64, three in 46-52, and three in 53-57). He didn’t go into too much detail about why the three I hit were the best candidates or why the other five weren’t good fits.

A couple things to consider:

Don’t be put off by how much bounce the wedges have. I was told that most OEMs measure bounce off of the loft of the club, whereas Edel measures the bounce directly. That there’s a difference doesn’t make sense to me, but that’s what the fitter said. My point is that although the wedges I bought have 16 (53) and 18 (59) degrees of bounce, it’s now WAY easier for me to hit flop shots.
If you’re a lefty, you’ll need to go into the process with more knowledge about shafts than a righty, because it’s highly likely you won’t have that many options to demo.