Comment from this article on mygolfspy by club making legend Tom Wishon. I would love to see the groove myth die once and for all. https://mygolfspy.com/labs/the-truth-about-your-old-wedge-grooves-youre-losing-thousands-of-rpms-of-spin/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNPvnRleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF4N3NuVTNZa0JZWjJReTRJAR7HGCKIvnHqKXww81F8OepwtvMplUIxxUBJy7IaexoCeqB7DQB1JzitJINkmQ_aem_6loZ3nDkl6bz_EQVG8jjJA
by prafken
26 Comments
This is true in one particular lie (tight fairway lie on a dry course) but that’s it.

Now I wanna buy a sand blaster.
“Grooves don’t wear down, they just wear down on the *faces* of the *insides* of the grooves”
???
Mind blowing
Curious how raw face wedges play into this.
I remember back when replaceable groove plates came out and quickly went away. It was a solid idea but didn’t take hold.
man every once in a while I see some shit I’ve heard the exact opposite of for years
LOL. I thought the USGA changed the rule of irons not to have U grooves and instead V grooves in 2010, because there was too much spin on the clubs from the rough! How does a major governing body of golf not understand that!?
U grooves had more room to evacuate water/grass, so they created more spin out of the rough.
Question: if the grooves don’t really matter, why were the U grooves outlawed? (Serious question)
Guess I should go buy new wedges every year like how they market.
🤣
So do milled face wedges generate more or less spin than sand blasted faces?
I’m not trying to debunk old mate, but isn’t *natural* sand literally silicon/silica? What’s the difference between natural sand (silicon dioxide most commonly) and “silicon glass”? Is “silicon glass” just purified sand with impurities removed?
I’m not an expert, but aren’t there lots of different media that can be used for “sand blasting”? So I think we need more info here. Specifically what type of sand blasting media old mate is referring to.
His claims are all very vague, IMO.
I mean isn’t this semantics? It’s not the grooves but the space between them? That’s like saying the treads on your car tires don’t grip the road, it’s the rubber between the treads. What am I missing here?
FYI nobody actually sandblasts with sand anymore because it causes lung cancer.
How would sandpaper work to get a wedge spinning ?
I’m not a golf club engineer, but it would seem to me that 95% of golfers shouldn’t worry too much about grooves or whatever, not when their swings are still fairly inconsistent dogshit.
Cool. Tom Wishon had a shop near me. I was always curious about his clubs.
What’s a scoreline?
Tom Wishon is the man
There are dozens of videos on YouTube where someone buys a groove sharpener and adds 700 rpm of spin just from sharpening for a few minutes
Hard disagree. Literally no data.
Can I just sandpaper my wedge face? Is that legal?
I ain’t reading all that but congratulations or sorry that happened
Is there data on this? This should be easy enough to test. A grooveless wedge vs a grooved wedge with the same milling in perfect conditions and see if it provides more spin. I’m having a hard time imagining grooveless generating as much or more spin. I just feel like the groove edges gripping and ripping down on the urethane cover having to contribute to spinning the ball. But I know nothing so.