CHARLOTTE — Equipment superstitions exist at the highest level of professional golf. Just because a pro’s resume boasts a couple of tour wins and a major title doesn’t make them immune to bad juju. You do whatever it takes to keep the Golf Gods happy.
Let’s use Sahith Theegala’s 7-iron as an example. During the latter stages of the 2024 season, Theegala hit two shots into the water on the par-3 14th hole during the FedEx St. Jude Championship with a Ping Blueprint S 7-iron. Theegala had mentioned to Ping tour rep Kenton Oates that the iron was the “worst club in his bag” before the first round, which only validated his belief that something needed to change.
“It was a curious comment,” Oates said. “There’s no reason for the 7-iron to be worse than the others. He texts me Sunday night after Memphis and says, ‘This is a ridiculous request, but I need a 7-iron that doesn’t have a 7 stamped on it.’ I had to think about it for a second and then remembered the [Viktor Hovland] irons with the grinds. When we grind on the sole, we end up having to screenprint the numbers on there.”
Oates ground off the 7 on the sole, stamped an 8 on the bottom and instantly solved Theegala’s problem. He still has the “8+” in the bag at Quail Hollow — even if it’s a 7. But don’t say the last part too loudly.
The story of Theegala’s not-7-iron serves as context for another club in the bag with an equally interesting backstory: the lob wedge.
Ping s159 $197 | Golf Galaxy 5.0 GD SCORE GD HOT LIST SCORE Hot List Gold $197 Ping’s most extensive and versatile wedge offering features 25 loft/grind options based on feedback from the company’s tour-pro staff. Grooves on the 54- to 62-degree lofts are tightly spaced for improved spin but less so on the 46- to 52-degree lofts for maximum ball-flight control on full swings. The “Starblast” face blast adds surface roughness for additional friction. Ping added two grinds to the s159 line that weren’t part of the Glide 4.0 family. The H (half moon) works well in soft conditions or for players with a steep angle of attack. The B is a low-bounce, wide-sole wedge that is effective in firm conditions. The E grind, based on the iconic Eye2 wedge, is great from bunkers and remains in the lineup. With options comes the potential for confusion. What grind do I need? What should my loft gaps be? Ping understands this concern and has developed its WebFit wedge app to offer golfers a quick and easy process to narrow their choices. Top 5 in Performance, low- and middle-handicaps. 25 options (46-62 degrees), 6 sole grinds, 2 finishes BUY NOW DETAILS
Before making the switch to a custom s159 lob wedge, Theegala was part of a small but healthy pro contingent playing Ping’s Glide 2.0.
“He liked the amount of offset Glide 2.0 had,” said Ping senior tour technician Adam Harding. “There wasn’t a reason to change, but we’re always trying to let our guys know what else is out there. The s159 we built for him was more of an experiment.”
Due to the offset found in Glide 2.0, Ping tour reps had to get creative to build a lob wedge with a similar look at address. Ping tour rep Kenton Oates suggested taking a 62-degree s159 and bending it to 59 to achieve the proper offset. The problem with bending any wedge beyond two degrees is that it negatively affects how the sole goes through the ground at impact, so adjustments had to be made to the sole to make it play like his previous 59-degree. (Ping confirmed Theegala’s wedge was the first they’d bent more than two degrees.)
There was also concern that Theegala wouldn’t like the idea of playing a wedge with 62 degrees stamped on the head, even if the number didn’t match the stated loft. Sound familiar? It was a situation they wanted to avoid.
“Something in his brain might have made him think it was too little bounce,” Harding said. “We didn’t want that entering his mind when he was testing it, so we ended up grinding off the number and did a little bit of shaping so he couldn’t see what it used to be. To him, it was a 59-degree lob wedge.”
In many instances, clubs have to go through multiple iterations before a pro signs off, but Ping managed to nail the sole geometry and look on the first try. Theegala gave it a thumbs up and the wedge was sent off to have the head 3D scanned so gauges could be made to replicate the build.
“It’s pretty rare to get it right on the first try,” Harding said. “If you were to take a 58 to 59, you’re taking offset away. If anything, we wanted to add offset. It’s unconventional but works for [Sahith].”
The custom lob wedge has since been used by Harris English — Austin Eckroat and Viktor Hovland also had s159 ST grinds (Sahith Theegala) built to test — but Theegala remains the only one in the field playing the custom scoring tool at Quail Hollow.
With an 8+ iron and custom lob wedge in the bag, Theegala is quietly building one of the more unique setups in professional golf. Whatever works.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
