Wedge bounce and grind explained: pick the right sole for winter

Vokey’s SM11 comes in six grinds and Cleveland’s new RTZ 2 in five, each paired with a bounce number, and those two markings beside the loft decide what a wedge does when it hits the ground. With British courses turning soft and bunkers getting heavy, October is a good moment to check whether your sole suits the conditions you’ll actually play through until spring.

Bounce: the angle that stops the club digging

Bounce is the angle between the leading edge and the lowest point of the sole. The bigger the number, the higher the leading edge sits off the ground at address, and the more the back of the sole hits the turf first, so the leading edge doesn’t dig.

Titleist’s Vokey Design site sorts it into three bands, and they make a handy rule of thumb across brands:

• Low bounce (roughly 4°–6°): firm turf, tight lies, firm or coarse sand, and sweepers who take little or no divot.
• Mid bounce (roughly 7°–10°): the all-rounder for normal-to-firm turf and neutral attack angles.
• High bounce (more than 10°): soft turf, fluffy lies, soft sand, and diggers with a steep swing and deep divots.

Bob Vokey’s line on the subject is that “bounce is your friend”. With enough bounce, a slightly heavy strike skids into the ball. With too little for your swing and conditions, the leading edge buries and you get the chunk, then the bladed recovery.

Grind: where the sole is cut away

If bounce is a single number, the grind is the shape of the sole that delivers it. Manufacturers remove material from the heel, toe and trailing edge to change how the club behaves when you open the face or move your hands.

The bounce you play with is not always the bounce stamped on the club. Open the face for a splash shot and you effectively add bounce; press your hands forward to hit a low chip and you take it away. A grind with heel relief lets you open the face without the leading edge rising too far off the ground. A full, wide sole stays stable on square-faced full swings but is less happy being manipulated.

Vokey says its grinds shape the sole to improve how it moves through turf and sand, and to help players strike the ball between the second and fifth groove more consistently. That’s a manufacturer’s claim. We’d be wary of any wedge sold mainly on spin numbers, because grooves only grip the ball when the sole has delivered the face to it cleanly.

Worked example 1: Vokey SM11

Vokey offers six grinds in SM11, and its published spec table shows how bounce and grind are paired:

Grind	What Vokey says it’s for	Lofts and bounce
F	Full sole for full shots	44°–52° (8°–12°); 54°/56° at 14°
S	Narrowed trailing edge; hands-forward or back players	54°–60° at 10°
M	Bob Vokey’s favourite; for players who rotate the face	54°–60° at 8°
D	High bounce for steeper swings and softer turf	54°–60° at 12°
K	Wide, cambered sole for sand and variable turf	58°/60° at 6° or 12°
T	Lowest bounce, maximum relief, for firm conditions	58°/60° at 4°

The D grind pairs 12° of bounce with a shape that, Vokey says, lowers the leading edge when the face is opened, so a steeper player can still hit finesse shots. Vokey pitches the wide K sole at sand and variable turf, with the 12° version aimed at soft bunkers and the 6° version at tighter lies. SM11 sells for $199–$229 on Vokey’s US store, depending on finish and options. UK prices vary by retailer.

Worked example 2: Cleveland RTZ 2

Cleveland’s RTZ 2, on sale since 4 September, uses plain-English names instead of letters:

• FULL (12°, 54°–60°): Cleveland’s sand-and-rough option, aimed at softer conditions and steeper swings.
• MID (10°, 46°–60°): a V-shaped sole with a moderate trailing-edge grind that Cleveland calls best for most swing types.
• 588 (8°, 54°–60°): more bounce in the toe, less in the heel, for moderate to shallow swings.
• ADAPT (8°, 54°–60° and 64°): full-face grooves, heel, toe and trailing-edge relief and a bounce chamfer on the leading edge, aimed at skilled players hitting open-face shots.
• LOW (6°, 58°–62°): heel, toe and trailing-edge relief for firm conditions and shallow swings.

Cleveland’s US list prices are $199.99 for the Tour Satin and Black Satin finishes and $219.99 for the Tour Rack. Both brands land in the same place: roughly 12° with a full sole for soft ground and steep swings, around 10° for the all-rounder, and 4°–6° with lots of relief for firm turf and nippy shot-making.

Read your divots, then your course

Divots first. Deep, bacon-strip divots point towards more bounce; barely bruising the grass points towards less. Then the course you play most. A parkland course on clay in a British winter is a very different surface from a firm links in August.

• Sand wedge (54°–56°): this is the club that does the bunker work, so most club golfers in soft conditions are well served by mid-to-high bounce (10°–12°+) on a fairly full sole.
• Lob wedge (58°–60°): if you like opening the face around the greens, pick a grind with heel relief. If you mainly chip square-faced, a wider sole is more forgiving.
• Gap wedge (50°–52°): used mostly for full shots, so a full sole with mid bounce is the sensible default.

It’s also fine to mix: a higher-bounce sand wedge for the soft months and a lower-bounce lob wedge for tight lies is a common pairing. Both brands offer online wedge selectors that ask about swing type and course conditions, and a fitting where you hit from real turf and sand is the best way to settle it.

Sources

• Vokey Design: Wedge bounce explained
• Vokey Design: Wedge grinds explained
• Vokey Design: SM11 wedges and specifications
• Vokey Design: SM11 wedges store page
• Cleveland Golf: RTZ 2 Tour Satin wedge, grinds and specs
• Cleveland Golf: RTZ 2 range
• First Call Golf: Cleveland Golf introduces RTZ 2 wedges (press release)