Having started to think about getting a new set of clone irons in early 2013, I looked at some of my options (reduced to Rocketballz, Rocketbladez or Ping G25s) but considered that I could not justify the cost at that time. This left me frustrated partly because I like new things, but mainly because I had started to find out more about building my own clubs. The first set of clones I had bought had been built for me, but this would bring a totally new dimension to my clone golf.
I contemplated my situation, then one day as I mindlessly surfed the world wide web on things golf related, I stumbled across some voice of expertise speaking with authority on the importance of wedges in the modern game. This was it, my low(ish) cost option for new, custom, home built clone clubs. I looked at a site I had come to favour in the US and liked the look of the Professional Open Series 690 black wedges, which were clones of the Cleveland 588 wedges. Both the clones and the brands got good write-ups around the net, so my choice became easier.) As always shipping from the US tends to bring some dose of reality, however I found a website (based in Sweden,) which had the wedges at a reasonable price with shipping. I spent some time convincing myself that I needed to be able to build golf clubs - it was a life skill that would surely only improve me as a person - and then I ordered them. I ordered those bad boys without swinging a club or even casting my eyes on them. This was hopefully worth a punt.I opted for a 52 degree gap wedge and a 56 degree sand wedge. For shafts I thought of something with a low kickpoint to get a higher ball flight, and thus less roll on landing. The thought of being able to stop the ball on a sixpence appealed to me. The Apollo Shadow steel shaft was a low cost option, so two of those went into my shopping cart. Finally, I went for the Winn Excel AVS AI grips in red and graphite. A couple of half inch ferrules would finish the clubs off nicely.
Many many times over the next seven days, I would click on the "track my order" link to see if my package had moved at all in the last five minutes. A few of those times, it had, and at the end of that week, there lay on my kitchen worktop, the components that would make my first ever self built clubs.
The assembly of the clubs themselves, was quite straightforward. I abraded the end of the shaft, fitted the ferrule, mixed the epoxy, and placed the shaft into the hosel. The hardest bit was suppressing my excitement and setting the club aside to let the epoxy cure. The following day I cut the clubs to length and fitted the grips. Easy. Now just one more day to make sure the grip solvent had evaporated.
The thing I noticed immediately about the wedges was their weight. They seemed much heavier than the PW and SW which were part of my clone G2 set. This would give me confidence in the swing, I thought. They were really nice looking wedges, their black melonite finish looking rather menacing, but the overall shape was a thing of beauty. I practiced short shots in the garden frequently over the next couple of weeks, prior to my golf weekend down to Co Sligo, on the West coast or Ireland.
The story was good and bad that weekend. Anything close around the green, I seemed to be able to leave close to the hole, which was no doubt due to the amount of short shot practice in my back garden. However my shots into the green from 100yds and less were more miss than hit. I found myself taking massive divots, with very little ball. This could not be the wedges' fault, could it?
Since that weekend, I have improved my swing for those long wedge shots - I think I was keeping too much weight on my right foot, not transferring it enough through the swing. I'm now hitting my 52 degree around 100yds with a full swing, but more pleasingly, with some consistency.
That was a risk worth taking.
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