Full day meeting with Titleist and my first ever wedge fitting.

There have been a couple of occasions over the past three years where I needed to write a blog but couldn’t really think of anything to write about.  There have also been times where the experience was so big that I didn’t know where to start.  This past Thursday was the latter.

I’m down here in sunny Carlsbad, California and have completely forgotten it is winter in the rest of the world.  It’s like a Twilight Zone down here and no matter when/where you came from you land on a summer day.  It’s completely understandable that this is a golfing mecca.

My first day here I met with some of the folks over at Titleist and had an amazing time and a wonderful learning experience.  I went on a tour of the HQ in Carlsbad and then headed over to the Oceanside facility where they do both Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) and club fitting.  I hadn’t realized it before I went down there, but anyone can have a club fitting at that facility and it’s done by the exact same guys who fit all of the Tour pros who play their sticks.  It has to be the best value in golf and my only regret is that I just did a wedge fitting and not a full club fitting.  I’m going to have to fly back down here in the next couple months to have my entire set figured out.  Hopefully that will happen soon, too, as in before tournament season picks up in Portland.

But…  Before I get ahead of myself, let me back up a bit and talk about the whole day.

It started with a tour of the plant where they customize all of the wedges for us golfers who want our clubs extra special.  Here’s the facility (or at least an extremely small portion of it) where they do the engraving, stamping and general customization:

And a couple wedges coming out that are getting ready for customization:

 

Seeing as they are lefties, I’d love to say that these were mine but they aren’t the grind that I ended up with.  They are beauties, though.   One really cool thing that they have down there is an archive of all their Tour Pros’ clubs so that if at any point a Pro wants a wedge they used in the past the Vokey guys can pull that wedge from the archive rack and make it for them.  This is just one little section of that and as you can see there are some great names here:

Seems like almost every Tour Pro either plays or has played Vokey wedges and there is a ton of history in these sticks.

I can understand why so many people play Vokeys.  As a lefty, sometimes it’s hard to have options with gear, but they have the same grinds in both lefty and righty which means there are a lot of ways to customize your wedges.  I’ll talk more about that when I write about the club fitting in a second.  I hadn’t realized that you could get different “grinds” of wedges.

After the tour, we went up to Vokey’s office to meet the man himself.  Vokey is legendary in the golfing world.  He’s been helping to revolutionize the short game for decades and has worked with almost all of the greats through the years.  And, he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.

He has to be pretty nice to take time away from his work to do a grip and grin with a guy like Dan Plan.  In his office he has a gold wedge from all of the majors that have been won with Vokeys and it seems like there must be at least 40 golden wedges in total.  Again, tons of history.

After the HQ tour, My contact, Dave, and I went to the Oceanside facility for a wedge fitting.  I’ve gone through a couple fittings since starting The Dan Plan, but I’ve never experienced anything quite like this.  The wedge fitting was a two hour look at my short game where we talked through all of the options that Titleist provides and they explained to me, in depth, exactly what all of the different grinds, lofts, etc meant to my specific game.  And we didn’t just talk about it, the fitter watched me hit shots the entire time, from short bunker shots and bump-and-runs to full wedge blasts.

The crazy thing was that the first step was to see what my gamer clubs were and to my surprise they were all bent between 3 and 4 degrees flat.  I didn’t realize it, but forged irons can actually move over time and you are supposed to get them checked out ever 3-6 months depending on how often you use your clubs.  I’m not sure why, but originally my clubs were bent 2 degrees flat and have moved at least a degree each since I got them last April.  I had been fighting a little fade for the longest time and the wedge fitter explained that having a 3 degree flat club with my specific swing was pushing the ball off the toe. Once he gave me a standard lie wedge and I started striping them down the middle.  In fact, at the end of the fitting I hit my gamer clubs again and couldn’t even get them to go straight.  Golf is so much easier when you have the right clubs for you.

I’m definitely not an expert in this by any means, but another thing I learned while there was that there are a variety of grinds that you can get in Vokey wedges.  They are either called the “S” or “M” or “L” etc, and are named after the Tour Pro that Vokey developed the grind with.  For example, “L” is for Lefty (Mickelson) and “S” is from Stricker.  The grind is a distinctly different way the bounce of the club is shaped.  For images and descriptions check out:  http://www.vokey.com/vokes-notebook/vokey-tour-grinds.aspx

Before I went down there I thought that the only way you could customize a wedge was the degree of bounce, I hadn’t a clue you could customize it this much.  And, the grind makes a huge difference!  During the fitting, they handed me the same degree wedge with different grinds and one I would stripe one while the other I would get stuck in the ground or just couldn’t manage to hit clean.  We worked on this for a long time until we found the perfect wedge set for my game.  I don’t know exactly the models of the ones that I ended up going with, but have ordered them and when they arrive next week I will post all of the specs.  I can’ wait!  Got the email today saying that the order was processed and the clubs will be made soon!

 

I just reread this blog post and think that I sound like a Titleist employee.  I’m not paid by them (or by anyone), but was really impressed with the care that they give to their clubs and to their customers.  During the fitting, I wasn’t a VIP getting something special, I was a normal customer receiving the same wedge fitting that anyone can get.  I learned so much about my game and about how to take it to the next level and, again, my only regret was that I just did a wedge fitting and not a whole club fitting.  If I didn’t have to be in LA today I would be tempted to go back on Monday for the rest of the experience.

I suppose that means I will have to fly back to “summer” in either March or April.  Until then, I’ll be waiting by the door for my new sticks to arrive.  All designed by the Voke himself.