Equipment
Cleveland CBX 4 ZipCore wedges: What you need to know
What you need to know: Since its inception, Cleveland’s cavity-back CBX line of wedges have remained steadfast about being a logical choice for the 84 percent of golfers who use cavity-back irons. Still, not everyone wants to play a game-improvement wedge. In a nod to that reality, Cleveland’s latest version has all the help one could want but does so in a slightly more appealing package.
Price/Availability: The CBX 4 ZipCore wedges cost $170 each in steel and $180 in graphite. Available in stores Jan. 24.
In 2017, Cleveland said that because 84 percent of everyday golfers were playing cavity-back irons, it made little sense to play with a wedge that didn’t match the rest of the irons in the bag. That led to the development of the wider-soled, cavity-back CBX wedge. Since then, the line has built on the original premise, adding more features along the way. The latest is the introduction of a loft-dependent face finish that increases friction at impact and combines with sharper, tighter spaced grooves for more spin.
3 Cool Things
1. The cavity has got your back. The high majority of everyday players use cavity-back irons that are lighterweight and more forgiving. Yet those same players likely have wedges that are more of a muscleback, heavier and less forgiving. Cleveland continues its mission to educate golfers that a cavity-back wedge would be a boon to their game.
“What’s great about the new CBX4 ZipCore is that they share similar shaping and weighting to modern forgiving irons, so the transition from your irons to your wedges is going to be consistent with what you’re used to,” said Jeff Brunski, VP of R&D at Cleveland Golf. “You’ll have that same swing feel and find more consistency around the greens.”
With a larger clubhead and toe-biased sweet spot (an area many everyday players find with regularity), the head is shaped in a manner to offer an assist on off-center shots. Further, the larger, cavity-back design promotes a higher moment of inertia to mitigate ball speed loss on mis-hits. In other words, uber forgiving.
“These clubs have a higher MOI in the high-low as well as heel-toe direction,” said Brunski. “The CG also shifted toeward by 2.4 millimeters. That’s a significant shift.”
Allowing that shift, of course, is the use of the lightweight ZipCore material in the hosel area, which removes 14 grams of weight, allowing for that mass to be repositioned to achieve optimal CG placement along with a boost to moment of inertia.
2. It’s all about sole. The V-shape sole that stretches from heel to toe is familiar and useful as it creates ease of entering and exiting the turf but the design does not stop there. The amount of trailing edge relief is loft-dependent and allows for the proper amount of relief as loft increases.
Some bounce was added to the leading edge chamfer as well. “Most golfers who play cavity-back irons have a forward press when they chip,” said Brunski. “Adding some bounce in that area works well with that kind of move.
3. How groovy. Across the 15 options (44-60 degrees) and three sole grinds, the CBX wedges boast a loft-dependent face finish that adds friction at impact and combines with sharper, tighter spaced grooves that also are deeper for more spin. A new groove geometry helps increase spin from the rough.