PXG Desert Golf Club - Unofficial Review

[Chux13]

Good evening spies, and welcome to my unofficial review for the newly released PXG Desert Golf Club! I had to jump on this club almost immediately after I read about its release back on November 14th as I felt the MSRP of $99.99 ($79.99 Heroes Discount is what I payed) was well worth the plunge into something new and out there to have fun with. What made this item more appealing is the fact I play in nasty, rocky, dry conditions out here in Eastern Arizona and these natural desert landscapes on the course which HAVE been quite unforgiving to my clubs. The landscape is not artfully crafted into the natural desert landscape, but the landscape as the land lies with rocks, ant hills, busted cart paths, cracked clay flats, you name it! The thought of just ripping out a club to navigate nasty lies and the promise of getting punched in the face without the usual damage to softer steel got the gears turning and has me wanting to share my journey with you all fine peeps!

For starters, I seriously thought the design was going to be a limited run design for the current PXG Gen7 line (Forum Review Found Here) and was disappointed to see it was just a single club. BUT, this was no ordinary club I ran into! As mentioned prior, this 44º, 8-iron length Desert Rescue promised the ability to "...help golfers conquer adverse conditions while keeping their primary set pristine (PXG Media Release)." Now, I am a very functional kind of fella, so I am not buying clubs and freaking out with every sandy or bare lie out there as my clubs are going to do what they are supposed to do, hit a dang ball and smash some ground. That being said, it does still pain me a bit and find myself apologizing to a club that has to face the wrath the desert has to offer when I am having to play every stroke. Often, hybrids would take the plunge to punch a shot out from under trees, but more often than that, I find myself off the green stuff from an errant drive and have that shorter distance a long wedge would be needed for. This is where I feel the Desert Club will shine. Having the ability to take the shot without regret or apologies sounds nice and only time will tell if the splurge purchase pans out.

As mentioned before, the Desert Club sits at 36.5" length with a 44º face angle and lighter head. The promise is to provide faster swing speeds with the added length from the traditional pitching wedge while keeping a face angle that allows for wedge type shots like chips and pitches while choked up and swinging in a difficult lie. Where the strength to take on abuse comes from is its raw hardened 17-4 stainless steel, material that is harder than the stainless-steel bodies use with other PXG offerings in 8620 and 431 stainless. That is a lot of mumbo jumbo to me as I am no metallurgist, but it sounds good, and only taking the club to the course will tell how true the promises PXG is making with this rescue club will hold up.

As you can see above, it is a pretty slick aesthetic and does feel good in the hand. I opted to get mine with the Mitsubishi MMT 80g graphite and jumbo grip offering to hopefully help with shock to the limbs while still maintaining some control. I took a few quick swipes at some PXG Xtreme Tour golf balls on my hitting net and can say the club feels very solid at contact, a bit muted, but not too muted to where I can't tell how I am striking the ball. I do intend on getting the club on the Garmin R10 shortly to get a few baseline metrics and compare that to my 44º pitching wedge. Club arrived pretty quickly but still feel SOME heartburn that I had to pay $30 shipping for this single club. Thankfully, the club was well protected and arrived double boxed, no issues at all.

All that being said, hope y'all take a minute or two the next few weeks to join me on my journey to find the worst lies and put this club to the test. Please do let me know if you have any questions on the club and or if you have something in mind I can try out. If you have one yourself, join in!!! The more data the better for all of us as the desert is not the only place a club like this can shine. Till then, swing well and catch you in the rocky side of the fairway!!

[Josh Parker]

Nice!  I can't wait to see how this works out. 

[Coulter]

Awesome! I’ve been waiting to see how the desert club works out!

[TJ Hall]

Think of it as $10 for shipping after the hero discount!  Really hope this works out for you, it is an interesting concept.

[Rob Person]

Awesome intro to the club! Look forward to your on course testing !

[BreakfastBall15]

Saw this the other day and thought it was an interesting concept. Looking forward to the review!

[Wolfstrum]

Let’s Play Thru posted this review earlier today. 

Looking forward to your review. 

Edited November 26 by Wolfstrum

[Chux13]

8 hours ago, Wolfstrum said:

Let’s Play Thru posted this review earlier today. 

Looking forward to your review. 

I saw that!! Love this channel and can't wait to see what LPT has to say about the club. Good chance to either verify or challenge what comes up in the review. Appreciate the share! 

[musicalmedicine]

Happy to see a fellow Arizonan reviewing this club! I got one of the marketing emails from PXG when they released this and my first thought was “what a great idea!”. Looking forward to read more about your experience with it.

[Chux13]

Gouda morning, spies! Finally getting a chance to get to the course today. Got a few baseline numbers on the R10 yesterday, so stay tuned for my first update soon!