Gear: Cleveland Smart Sole 4 and CBX Full-Face wedges
Price: $119.99 steel, $129.99, graphite (Smart Sole 4); $149.00 (CBX Full-Face)
Available: Feb. 7 (Smart Sole 4), Feb. 28, CBX Full-Face
Pros make awkward shots around the green look easy because they practice for hours every week and understand how to use their wedges to get balls out of sand and tight lies. Many weekend players rarely practice, so when they face challenging shortgame situations, they struggle.
For years, Cleveland Golf has offered unique wedges designed to make shortgame shots easier for the masses, and for 2020 the company has updated one and released an all-new model as well.
The three new Cleveland Golf Smart Sole 4 wedges are the latest iteration of clubs designed to help golfers who struggle with the fundamentals of chipping, pitching and bunker play.
Each wedge features an extra-wide sole and lots of leading-edge bounce to reduce the chance of digging and encourage a clean strike. There are also CNC milled grooves in each wedge designed to get water and sand off the hitting surface more effectively and maximize spin as well.
The Smart Sole 4 C wedge is designed with chipping in mind. It comes standard with 42 degrees of loft, like a traditional 9-iron, and at 34 inches in length. That’s about as long as many golfers’ putters, and when players make a putting stroke with it, the loft and upright lie angle help to naturally create bump-and-run style chip shots.
The 58-degree Smart Sole 4 S wedge is for sand play. It has the widest sole and the most bounce, so it can work through bunkers more smoothly and help golfers escape more easily.
The Smart Sole 4 G comes standard at 50 degrees and can be used from a wide variety of lies and situations. Its loft is the same as a modern gap wedge, so it is especially useful on approach shots because it can get the ball up quickly, but the Smart Sole 4 G still presents a large hitting area that will inspire confidence.
For golfers looking to maximize versatility, Cleveland is also offering a new wedge, the CBX Full-Face. It has been designed with a high-toe shape, so when golfers open the face on flop shots, bunker shots and in other tricky situations around the green, there is more hitting area presented to the ball.
Cleveland’s Tour Zip grooves cover the entire face, but between each groove, Cleveland has added four laser milled grooves to complement the circular Rotex milling pattern that is applied to the whole face. The combination of these technologies dramatically increases surface roughness and friction, which should help golfers generate more spin.
The back of the CBX Full-Face has a new half-cavity design that features a muscleback shape in the toe section and a cavity-back design low in the heel. It is designed to shift the center of gravity away from the hosel and more into the center of the hitting area. Cleveland claims this will enhance feel and consistency.
The CBX Full-Face wedge is available in 56, 58, 60 and 64-degree loft options.
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