Titleist debuts new Vokey line

When you’re Bob Vokey, wedge design is a constant evolution—a search to continually improve. That’s part of the job when you design the best-selling and most-played wedges on the PGA Tour. For the new Titleist Vokey SM6 line, that meant a significant renovation of the line, where the lower-lofted wedges have been designed to blend more easily into the set from the pitching wedge as the center of gravity has been lowered on the lower lofts and gets progressively higher as lofts go up. For the higher lofts, more mass has been placed high to raise the center of gravity, thus allowing for a more controlled ball flight as well a tighter distance dispersion.

Vokey’s work didn’t end there, however, as the grooves have been redesigned to where they are less aggressive on the lower lofts (since those are often used for fuller swings and no one likes to see ball come ripping back off a green) and more aggressive on higher lofts, where players can use all the greenside spin they can get. Milled lines between the grooves also have been added as opposed to a circular mill pattern, the theory being the circular mill pattern could compromise the edges of the groove and the mill between the grooves provides more consistent edges. All five SM6 grinds (L, M, S, F, K) are in play on tour with each grind the result of feedback from tour players.

The wedges were first introduced to the company’s tour staff at last fall’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and have been a hit on tour since. It also provided an opportunity for Vokey to receive more feedback. “I’ve always said I have the best R&D facility in the world—the PGA Tour,” Vokey is fond of saying. That’s a good thing, as for Vokey, the evolution of wedge design never stops.