I’ve written about wedge shafts a few times, but it’s been a while, so those might be buried down in the archives of the 400+ articles I’ve written as “The Wedge Guy”. In my opinion, the shaft is the overlooked piece of the puzzle too many times, so here we go again. This re-visit was prompted by a question I received from Stephen, who asked:

“I’ve been recently reading about DG spinner shifts. Can you talk about the different shafts that are used for wedges? More importantly are the different flexes something that is more geared towards pro players or could an average golfer also take advantage of this to improve the performance of their short game?”

Well, Stephen, I’m more than happy to talk about wedge shafts, as I think this is a major reason why so many amateur golfers do not have short games that are as good as they should be. Nearly all golfers are carrying wedges that were purchased ‘off the rack’ at a retail store or golf shop. The industry relies completely on a heavy and stiff steel shaft, in one flex only, to allow the commodity-like manner of selling wedges – one size fits all. In other words, there really isn’t any difference between them.

In my opinion, a more accurate description is “one size fits nobody”.

True Temper purchased Precision Shafts a few years ago, and has commandeered the “Spinner” brand name that was on a Rifle product, and created the DG Spinner. It’s a nice idea, putting the flex zone higher on the wedge shaft (I’ve been leading that charge since the mid-90s), but in my opinion, these are still too stiff and too heavy for most golfers, who are typically playing softer flexes and lighter weight shafts in their irons.

One of the fundamentals of good wedge play is to have complete control over the clubhead and a gentle touch. A big part of the formula for getting there is to have your wedges made with shafts that blend to those in your short irons in both weight and flex, and that match your ability to control the club. With more and more golfers playing irons with light steel or graphite shafts . . . in Regular or even ‘A’ flexes . . . that disconnect between their short irons and off-the-rack wedges is huge. The result is a loss of feel and touch around the greens.

I’m a huge proponent of graphite shafts in wedges . . . if you get it right. Graphite has feel transmission properties that tubular steel can’t approach, and the lighter weight allows a fit to any golfer’s hand strength profile.

At EIDOLON, we worked with UST Mamiya to develop our GENIUS series of shafts – two weights and three flexes to allow us to fit any golfer with wedges that optimize feel and match the golfer’s ability to control the clubhead with their hand strength. I’ve recently switched from our GENIUS 9 (95 grams) to our GENIUS 7 (75 grams) as an experiment. Conventional wisdom would insist that the lighter weight would give me trouble, but just the opposite happened. I am experiencing club control like never before. The lighter weight also encourages a lighter grip on the club and my short game touch has improved noticeably.

So much for “conventional wisdom.”

So, Stephen, if you want to have some fun with your golf clubs, forget driver experimentation for a while and try some variations in wedge shafts. You can start with the free EIDOLON V-SOLE wedge you just won!

Terry Koehler is "The Wedge Guy" and President of SCOR Golf- The Short Game Company.

Click here to learn more about Terry.