Chas c

I had a chance this weekend to get some real world testing in during less than ideal conditions, and while these wedges probably wouldn't disappoint most people, I'm not sure they are living up to the hype. We have been getting a LOT of rain in Orlando, and this Saturday was the first time in 9 days that my go-to local course was open. It was a swamp. Shrek would have felt right at home in the middle of some of the fairways on the back 9 that don't drain quite as well. I got to do a decent amount of side by side comparison testing without slowing down anything since the pace was really slow. The Good Distance - These wedges have a little more distance, which helps with the strong lofted AI Smoke Irons I use. I get 130 yards out of an average PW shot if I strike it well, so being able to get up to 120-115 yards with the Opus 50 is perfect. Turf Interaction - I really like the grind on these. I could probably use a little less bounce, but I'm thinning much fewer shots and I like it. Hitting out of the Rough - I don't know what to attribute this one too, but these cut through thick grass like butter. I sliced my drive off into the woods, hit a beautiful 6 iron out of the woods that was stopped by an ill placed branch, and wound up about 150 yards from the green in 6 inches of unmown bermuda. I knew it was too far but I pulled out the 50 in the hope that it would cut through so I could get back on the fairway and get some decent distance and boy did it deliver, with a beautiful 100 yard shot that wound up exactly where I wanted. I used the 50 out of the rough Saturday and Sunday to excellent results. The Bad Spin with non-Urethane covers - In my comparison testing with Supersofts vs. Vice Pro, the clubs just didn't seem to generate much spin on the Supersofts. This was even worse on the 50 degree Opus wedge, which is likely since it lacks the secondary grooving. For a full shot it wasn't quite as bad, since the ball will compress much more and thus generate enough friction to get spinning, but on shorter shots it was very obvious. The Ugly Wet - Oof. I don't know I can say much more than that. I was downright disappointed when the ball got wet. Given the conditions, I was cleaning and dropping often, but that's not always going to be available, so I tried to take as many shots as possible with a clean but damp ball. I did a lot of comparison shots with my Vice Pro and Supersofts, and both of them would damn near run off the other side of the green. I thought it might have been just conditions, so I played a few shots with my MG4 wedges, and while the spin wasn't fantastic, for the conditions it was fine, and the ball would generally only roll out a few feet.\ It's been drying out the last few days, so I hope to get out again this week/weekend and get some more rounds in and see if my impressions of the club changes as I get more used to them and use them in different (drier) conditions.

One of the positives I noticed during my fitting was that these wedges went further than my current setup, with good shots on the 50 degree going a solid 120-115, whereas the best shot I had ever made with my 50 degree MG4 was 105, and it fit the gap in my current setup better.

First impression is up, lots of pictures, some initial testing impressions will be coming Monday or Tuesday

No warning for me either, just an ominous text from the Treasurer: “Did you buy more golf clubs?” I’m out of town right now but I can’t wait to get home Saturday and see what Santa brought me!!!

As a new-ish golfer, I'm still trying to stick to "cheap" since it's not unheard of for me to lose a dozen balls when my driver slice gets bad, but I'm getting to the point now it probably makes sense for me to start using better balls and probably buying new, since my last few rounds I've only lost a couple balls. So far my favorites have been TP5's and the Vice Pro. Amazon had a GREAT deal on Vice Pro balls on a prime day sale and I wish I had bought 200 of them! Instead, I'm about to spend the next year going through the 6 dozen supersofts that I got for about $8 a dozen lol

Had a ROUGH day yesterday, wedge testing did not go quite how I planned, however I felt good about my decision to go with the Opus 50° and 56° wedges with the S (regular) grind. There are only a few spots on most of my normal courses where you're going to be using the wedge from a tight lie, mostly I'm hitting from the rough, and quite often the ball is propped up on the rough which makes it really tough to get a solid strike with my 60° iron since it cuts through so easily and I often wind up just sliding under the ball and pop it straight up. Had a few good shots from about 100 yards out with my 50°, but my current 56° sand wedge just doesn't work for me for some reason. Going to be doing some travelling this week and playing some new courses so hopefully I can get some better play time from different lies with my current wedges. Other than that, I'm super excited to try out these wedges, and like it has already been said, these things look AWESOME when you see them in person. I think they need to fire whoever did the photos on the Callaway website, they do not do these wedges justice at ALL.

Hey everyone, its been a minute! Super excited to hear that the wedges are on the way. I've been swamped this week between being sick and having company wide meetings, but I'm getting out to the course tomorrow to try and get some good baseline data on my current wedges. It's forecast to be hot and sunny, so hopefully I don't get too worn down, but we'll see how it goes

Went and got "fit" today! I had a somewhat similar experience as @GolfSpy_SHARK at the PGATSS, but at least they had more than one wedge! I am super excited to get this test rolling, the fitting showed a lot of promise. I ended up picking the 50 and 56 degree wedges to match my current set, as the Opus wedges look to be a solid 10-15 yards further for me on a solid hit which was pretty surprising. The spin numbers looked great as well, with a yard or less of rollout on well struck shots.

Anyone have any suggestions for playing in wet conditions? I use my apple watch, and have noticed that often if it starts raining and I get wet the system stops registering shots. Pretty frustrating considering how often it rains in the afternoon down here in central Florida. Been considering getting the Link Pro, does it work in tandem with a watch?

Posted my intro! Can't wait to get these bad boys and see what the Opus wedges are all about

Good afternoon everyone! I am currently sitting in an auto shop waiting to have new tires put on my truck, so now is as good a time as any to get this party kicked off. My name is Chas, and I have a problem: I haven't been able to play a full round of golf in over a week! I started playing while I was in middle school, but growing up there were no courses near me that weren't private and EXPENSIVE, so I had to give it up when I started high school. I recently moved to Orlando for work, and my buddy suggested we start playing golf on the weekends since that's about the only time we can hang out. I bought a set of 2nd hand clubs in April and haven't looked back since. I've already replaced everything in that original set with something new/new-ish, as they were all 12-15 year old clubs. I've taken some lessons, and have been hitting the driving range regularly. I played my first real round of golf since I was a teenager on June 21st, and I've played 19 more rounds since then. It definitely helps that I have 2 very reasonably priced courses within 5 minutes of my house, and about 50 others within a 1 hour drive. I'm currently sitting at about a 25-30 handicap, most of which is due to my downright garbage putting, but I'm working on it. Clubhead speed on my driver is about 105MPH, so when I get ahold of the ball well, it goes. At the moment I would say my approach/short game around the green is my biggest strength, so I'm super excited to test out these wedges. For the most part I generate plenty of spin and see very little roll out on well struck shots on my short irons, just a little hop n' stop when I'm playing well. I'm currently rocking a set of Taylormade MG4's (50°/56°/60°), but the gapping with my new iron set is less than ideal as my PW loft is 42° and has a carry of around 130 yards average while my 50° gets about 105 yards at absolute best. I had initially planned to stick with the 50°/56° Opus wedges for a real apples to apples comparison, but I may be switching it up with the testing and going for the 48°/54° combo. There is a very small likelihood I choose a lob wedge for testing, as most of the courses I play have very fluffy rough that is borderline unplayable for a lob wedge. Currently planning to get the lower bounce options, as I have a relatively shallow swing plane and take very little, if any, divot on a good shot, which means I have a tendency to thin the ball if the club has a lot of bounce. I have a fitting scheduled for Friday, so we'll see how it goes and I'll keep everyone updated with my choices. Testing-wise, I'm going to ride these clubs hard and put em' away wet. I am lucky to have a job that I can leave around 4pm, so I play often in the late afternoon as long as it's not storming. My favorite close course has a really great chipping/pitching practice area, and I intend to give these Opus Wedges a good thrashing there at the first opportunity. The course also has Trackman range, so I can get some good data on distance/speed/height/etc. On the course, I've been playing from the 2nd closest tee box in an effort to work more on my accuracy and decision making. Playing from the farther tees, it's almost always driver unless you're on a par 3, but from the closer tees if I play driver I'll wind up in a bunker or the woods past the dogleg, so I've found myself hitting more long to medium wedge shots as an approach vs. a mid iron that's typical from the longer tees. I also have a week off coming up, and I plan to travel and play golf at some unfamiliar courses around the southeast, so it will be nice to see how confidence-inspiring the Opus wedges are when playing in unfamiliar territory where you might not you're about to make a mistake when you mis-hit the ball. I also partake in a Topgolf League at work which will be starting back up in early September, which will give me plenty of opportunity to test out the consistency of the wedges on shorter targets. I've done a little research, and it seems the Opus wedges fill a similar niche as my current MG4 as a top of the line wedge with only a smidge of forgiveness, vs. something like the CB series of wedges. I wouldn't say I'm a Callaway fanboy, but I do have a new Callaway bag, Smoke AI Irons, a Paradym X 3-wood and an Epic Max 5-wood, as well as an Odyssey Jailbird Cruiser putter, soooo... Ok, you got me, I like Callaway. I will say, I am pleased as punch that these wedges don't have any AI branding or camo on them, as I think it's kind of lame looking, but what I care about at the end of the day is performance. Luckily, with the Opus wedges I'm already smitten: I really like the smooth lines and minimal offset, and the plating looks... *chefs kiss* . In terms of actual results, my biggest issue with my current wedges is that I'm not super happy with the amount of spin I get on full shots, so what I really want to see out of the Opus wedges is a little more spin on full shots. I also like the fully coated face, as they should last longer and keep higher spin levels vs. the raw face of the MG4s I run with at the moment. I figure I'll leave it at that for now, I don't think I need a novel for an introduction. If anyone has any questions tag me and I'll answer 'em as they come! First Impressions!!!! 10/10 Score Holy cow am I excited to get out and try these bad boys! I ended up going with the 50° and 56° S-Grind wedges, standard loft/lie/length with regular stiffness AMT Black shafts to match my irons since I do take full swings with both of these clubs currently. Packaging was in good shape when I got it. The clubs were well secured and protected with bubble wrap secured around the club heads and the plastic shrink wrap on the head itself was still intact. No nicks or scratches noted. The first thing I noticed comparing these was the differences in the face texturing between the two clubs. A new feature that Callaway is using on these clubs is the Spin Gen Face Technology, which is a combo of more groves, a blasted face texturing, and and "offset groove-in-groove" on the 54-60° wedges which is a smaller secondary grooving cut at a 45° angle; all of these features combine to help generate more spin to keep the ball where it lands. I still lose enough balls that I am generally use something decent and cheap, currently Supersofts, and I can definitely tell I need all the help I can get to generate spin on wedge shots since I switched to these from TP5s. The blasted face texturing is really evident on the 50° clubs: it looks smooth from a distance but has a very slight sand-papery feel. You can see it on the 56° near the face edges where the secondary grooving isn't present, but it's not as evident to the touch. This is also a good closeup of how the groves are cut, they appear to be steeper on the "uphill" side of the club, which should give them a nice bite. Here's a comparison shot: Nice Clean 56° Opus Face vs. Old Rusty 56° MG4 Face vs. 50° Opus Face: I have definitely noticed a small decrease in spin on my MG4s which kind of makes sense after I took a loot at this closeup, the face texture is definitely starting to wear some from use on my current 56° wedge since the raw finish let's the surface rust. I'm hoping the coating on the Opus face is nice and hard so it holds up well and keeps spin up on the 56° after constant use. The wear is extremely evident on my current 50° shown in the back. Another selling point of these clubs is the shaping of the head. Callaway claims these are the "most Tour-tested, Tour-validated shapes in Callaway history", and after seeing them I can believe it. The shape of these wedges appears extremely forgiving, with nice rounded edges around the toe and heel, plenty of camber and a nicely rounded hosel transition to help you out when things don't go as planned, and with my current skill level, they often don't, so I am hoping for fewer mishits when things don't go my way. The grind on these clubs looks extremely confidence inspiring as well: a very smooth transition from the leading edge with no noticeable transitions. In fact, from the side these wedges look nearly identical. My biggest gripe with my current wedges are the grind; I have a tendency of hitting it super thin due to the somewhat abrupt transitions on the grind. This nice smooth grind looks like it could be just the ticket I need to get more comfortable with my sand wedge again. It started raining so I had to cut the photoshoot short, but I took a couple practice swings and I absolutely LOVE how these clubs feel. The balance on these clubs seems perfect, even really easy 50% swings felt effortless, and I will be extremely surprised if these clubs don't work out for me. And, most importantly, these things look GOOD in my bag! Unfortunately since I've been out of town I have "responsibilities around the house", and between that and the impending rain I can't get out to test these today, HOWEVER, my work-sponsored Topgolf league starts tomorrow, so the first few shots with these will likely be with golf balls that have more in common with rocks than what I normally use, but science sometimes requires sacrifices, and I am happy and willing to do my part!

Pretty annoying to not be able to book solo online, I agree, however I generally look up the tee times online, see what's available, and then call the pro shop to reserve that tee time since every course near me that offers online booking charges an extra $3-5 as a 'convenience fee.'

I'd be careful about playing through pain, it can screw you up. My dog jumped on me in the middle of the night back in April and dislocated a couple of my ribs. It caused enough pain/discomfort that my swing "feels" changed WILDY to avoid pain while being able to hit the ball straight. Once I healed, my swing is absolutely screwed since I am still trying to fix my screwed up swing from the rib pain.

One of the courses I play you can connect your phone to the cart speakers - perfect volume for when you're chilling waiting for your turn but quiet enough you really can't even hear it if you are more than 5 feet from the cart. Its a pretty good setup I think.

My big pet peeve lately is local courses scheduling regular tee times behind tournaments/scrambles/etc. without enough buffer. Recently had an after work round that would have become a 5+ hour round if I had stayed since they A) gave the group a 30 minute buffer and B) triple booked the first tee time behind the group (showed up at the first hole and there were 9 people)! Seriously considering not going back after they way I was treated when I called the club house after waiting 20 minutes on the 3rd hole ( I never did tee off, the last tourny group was only 150 yards out 20 minutes after teeing off, and the green was clear the whole time, they weren't being held up). I scooted to the back 9 and tried to get back to the front afterwards, but it was still backed up ( I got to the 6th hole and there were 3 groups waiting to tee off).