No one in the equipment world is busier than Aaron Dill leading up to a major championship. Vokey’s Tour rep is tasked with handling any and all wedge requests, which requires him to start working on backups and fresh sets roughly two weeks before the U.S. Open.
Of course, being prepared for a major doesn’t mean Dill is home-free once the week commences. For pros getting their first glimpse at Los Angeles Country Club, it’s not uncommon for them to make last-minute wedge adjustments in the days leading up to the opening round, especially if their current setup isn’t geared for the conditions.
There’s also the unforeseen Dill can’t predict — like the USGA making on-the-fly changes to the sand in the bunkers in recent days.
“The bunkers initially started out really firm, but then they fluffed them up a little bit to make them soft again,” Dill told GOLF.com. “Now they’re adding some moisture to compact them. So there’s been some indecision on bounce and sole selection with the recent changes to the bunkers.”
Fluffier bunker sand is generally going to require more bounce to keep the club moving efficiently through the sand, but with the USGA adding moisture to firm up the bunker base in recent days, Dill said he expects players to go the opposite direction and remove bounce.
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“The majority are going into a lower bounce option for pitching and chipping around the greens,” he said. “But they’re trying to find something that works relatively well in a bunker at the same time. For weeks like this where the conditions are just dramatically different than what guys are used to seeing from week to week on Tour, we might have to take it to a more extreme place like you would at, say, an Open Championship.”
According to Dill, former Open Championship winner Cam Smith plans to switch to a Vokey K-Grind with a paltry 6 degrees of bounce for the firmer conditions. Other pros are giving Vokey’s T-Grind a hard look, while Patrick Cantlay plans to return to a milled 61-degree Vokey SM8 that offers plenty of versatility from the bunker and around the green.
“[Partick’s] removing a little bit bounce and adding some speed to the wedge,” Dill noted. “That’ll help out of the rough. The rough here is pretty inconsistent. There’s some spots where it’s long, but it’s certainly not your moist, juicy rough. It’s more whispy. I think that’s where guys are trying to create some speed, which is where the lower bounce stuff helps a lot.
“It’s not only trying to find that balance, but when we looked at [Patrick’s] stats over time, [the SM8] wedge performed well for him in the past. That 61-degree actually has a neat story. It’s pretty custom and strikes this balance where it’s forgiving at square but still versatile enough to hit other shots, too.”
But what happens if you don’t feel comfortable rolling with just one lob wedge for the week? If you’re Justin Thomas and Cam Davis, you carry two to handle whatever the course throws your way. With two unique grinds for the everchanging conditions, lob wedge selection can turn into a game-time decision each day.
Having the ability to pick and choose your wedge based solely on the course setup can be a total game-changer — if you know what you’re doing. Thankfully, most pros can handle making those calls over four days.
“They might think a certain lob wedge is good for Thursday and Friday, and then as the course bakes out they shift into a lower bounce wedge for Saturday and Sunday,” he said. “They’ll definitely practice with both. It’s not common to play two throughout the week, but there can be differences in feel that you need to account for. If you can play the same one for four days, regardless of the conditions, there’s a lot of peace in being able to do that.”
Peace (and confidence) in the short game setup is something every pro in the field would love to have as they prepare to tackle Los Angeles Country Club in search of U.S. Open glory.
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