Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Product Review: Renegar Golf Rx14 Wedge

While Gene Sarazen may be credited with inventing the sand wedge, Renegar Golf is revolutionizing the club.

In the 1930s, “The Squire” designed a club with a wide sole and the greatest amount of bounce that would enable him to more-easily escape the sand. The sand wedge was born.

Wedges utilizing the Sarazen sole remain highly effective in bunkers, but the slightly raised leading edge can prove problematic on the fairway and other tight lies - often leading to skulled or thin shots. Enter Renegar Golf.

With the Rx14 family of wedges, Renegar has lowered the leading edge, but maintained the maximum amount of bounce - the best of both worlds. While square, the Rx14 provides the lower leading edge. Open the face slightly and multiple bounce surfaces come into play.

There’s more to the Rx14 than just a lower leading edge, however. Renegar offers new “V-43 Double Milled” USGA-conforming smaller grooves, designed to provide the sharpest legal groove edges and a maximum number of edges, while retaining maximum groove volume for optimum spin performance from the rough.

In addition, CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) Face Milling treatment provides a perfectly flat impact surface and the residual CNC mill marks - which are right at USGA limits for roughness, according to Renegar - add significantly to the spin generation formula from less-than-perfect lies.

How does the Renegar Golf Rx14 stand up to the playing test? Very well.

I’ve written before that wedges (more so than other clubs) often have different “personalities” and that they may be the hardest clubs to just slip into the bag and begin playing. That held true with the 56-degree Rx14 we tested, initially. Because of the lower leading edge, I found myself hitting heavy shots off the turf at the beginning of my session. I chalk that up to playing it like I would any other sand wedge - not necessary. Once I approached it like a typical 9-iron or wedge, contact was crisp and consistent.

Out of the sand with an open face, which is how I hit the vast majority of my bunker shots, the Rx14 performed brilliantly. Taking into account the user error of an 8-handicapper, results were very encouraging. Blasting out of the sand with a square face was difficult, however, as the bounce isn’t pronounced. Again, I don’t generally exit a bunker without an open face, so play (for me) on the course would not be affected.

Bottom line: Renegar Golf is changing the way the golf industry has looked at the sand wedge for the last 80 years. The Rx14 innovation is worth checking out.

For more information on Renegar Golf, visit www.renegargolf.com.

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