Square Strike 55 degree Wedge
A recent sale offer and discussion for the Square Strike Wedge on one of the Facebook Groups has prompted me to report my experiences using this wedge over the past three months. The sales description offered a wedge that: “is nearly impossible to hit fat”. This is followed by “No more chunked pitch and chip shots, reduces wasted shots” (see Amazon).
Being a golfer who has wasted so many pitch and chip shots around the green, I was immediately tempted and soon became the owner of the Square Strike 55 degree Wedge. The wedge is offered in 45, 50 and 55 degree versions.
I did find quite quickly that the square face and bounce of the club certainly offered a more forgiving club which was much less inclined to dig in before the ball so that “fat” shots still sent the ball towards the hole. This was helped by the heavy weight of the club which took time to handle.
The big downside came when topping the ball where the extra weight could send the ball scuttling off the other side of the green and that was most shots at the very beginning of my adventure. I quickly took the club out of my bag and set up a backyard clinic. My initial result was that I was topping 8 out of 10 practice balls in the back yard, sending them shooting at top speed towards the metal fence with a large Crash!
To correct this I started focussing on a spot behind the ball, loosening my grip and letting the club do the work. This was a slow and very painful three month and approximately 1500 shot experience where I finally moved from an 80 percent fail rate to a 90 percent success rate. I moved from “near perfect” artificial grass to a close cropped mat and then over to the rubber on the back of the mat so that I would be ready to pitch on all surfaces.
The outcome is that the Square Strike Wedge is now my “go to” club within 40 metres of the pin. My first goal was to at least lob the ball on to the green. I am now trying to improve on this and occasionally, just occasionally, getting away with just one put - a big improvement on past play. I suspect that I am also hitting other shots more cleanly as a result of a crazy practice regime.
So is the 55 degree Square Strike a miracle club? The answer for me is no. But once I persevered it is now my favoured club around the green.
