Cleveland Smart Sole Full-Face Wedges

Today’s Cleveland Smart Sole Full-Face wedge launch story marks the finish line, in a manner of speaking.

January, as you know, is Launch Season in this wonderful and wacky world of golf. And at last count, the MyGolfSpy writing team has gone through eight wireless keyboards, seven cases of Red Bull and countless megabytes of RAM to bring you (checks notes) 52 product launch stories. And we still have a bunch to go.

It’s Jan. 24, people.

Of those 52 stories, 14 were dedicated to Cleveland, XXIO and ASICS. As Ringo said at the end of Helter Skelter, “I’ve got blisters on my fingers!”

But this is my last Cleveland story for this launch cycle. And to celebrate, let’s bring back one of my favorite Cleveland products: Smart Sole wedges.

To add a cherry on top of this super game-improvement sundae, let’s give Smart Sole another favorite: full-face grooves.

There’s a reason Cleveland is bringing these two crazy kids together, and it makes more sense than you might think.

Cleveland Smart Sole Full-Face Wedges: What’s a Smart Sole?

We have smartphones, smartwatches and even smart appliances, so why can’t a golfer have a Smart Sole? For the uninitiated, Smart Sole is Cleveland’s modern take on an old idea: a set of super wide-flanged specialty clubs designed to take the terror out of chipping, sand shots and all-around wedge play.

The goal is to make the game’s hardest shots a touch easier for the golfer who just wants to have some fun out there. The Cleveland Smart Sole offering hit the streets about a decade ago, and today’s launch marks the fifth iteration. The line has grown from just a chipper and sand iron to eventually include a gap wedge. For this go-round, Cleveland is adding a 64-degree lob wedge to the mix.

“This one was an eye-opener,” says Cleveland Senior Product Manager Casey Schultz. “A lot of people were worried about the 64. But once you hit it, it’s very easy. People who’ve never been able to hit a flop shot in their lives are all of a sudden hitting flops everywhere.”.

We’ll get into the details of each club in a bit. But we do need to discuss the other elephant in the room.

What, pray tell, is with the full-face grooves?

Get Your Full-Face Groove On

If you haven’t yet, sashay on over to the other Cleveland launch story today on the new RTX Full-Face 2 wedges. Those are Cleveland’s blade-style wedge, also with full-face grooves. The theory goes that, for the better player who has a barrel-full of creative, open-faced shots up their sleeve, full-face grooves are helpful since that player will often strike the ball high on the toe. Having grooves there is a good thing,

But your typical Smart Sole player doesn’t have a barrel-full of creative, open-faced shots up their sleeve. The next time that player opens the face to hit a wedge shot may very well be the first time so why in the name of Gene Sarazen would that player need full-face grooves?

Simple. Chances are that player will use the entire face anyway, whether they intend to or not.

“It’s a super-large forgiving face,” says Schultz. “No matter where you hit it on the face, you’re going to get good spin performance. We’ve seen players who’ve never been able to get to a close pin or a tight pin with a bunker in front of them go right for it.”

And Cleveland isn’t skimping on those grooves, either. The new Cleveland Smart Sole Full-Face wedges are getting a double dose of zip.

The Tale of Two Zips

Previous Smart Sole wedges had no real groove story to speak of. It’s not that they had crappy grooves, it’s just that Cleveland’s best groove technology stopped at CBX. Smart Sole players aren’t backing the ball up or anything, so what was the point?

That’s changed with the new Cleveland Smart Sole Full-Face line.

“We don’t want to water things down as you go to a game-improvement or, in this case, super game-improvement wedge,” explains Schultz. “Why should only the better player get that consistent spin or maximum spin performance?”

The new Cleveland Smart Sole Full-Face line features two of Cleveland’s top-of-the-line groove technologies: HydraZip and UltiZip.

HydraZip, as the name suggests, is an aggressive face blast treatment to provide extra face friction and spin consistency in wet conditions. The blast and additional milling help the wedge shed water to minimize spin loss.

UltiZip is Cleveland’s way of cramming more grooves onto any wedge face. The grooves feature sharper edges and are crammed closer together (all within USGA guidelines), allowing Cleveland to put more grooves onto the face. The grooves are also deeper, which helps get grass, sand and other crud out of the way for maximum spin-ocity.

“Just because you want more forgiveness, that doesn’t mean you won’t benefit from one-hop-and-stop performance.”

A noble thought but it’s also true that this type of player usually games a low-spinning ionomer ball instead of a high-spinning – and pricier – urethane ball.

“It gives them a chance,” says Schultz. “If you don’t have better spin technology out of wet conditions with an ionomer ball, I don’t know how you’re going to get that thing to stop. Maybe it won’t hop and stop but it can at least bite a little bit and not roll off the green.”

The Full-Face Lineup

The Cleveland Smart Sole Full-Face wedge lineup now is four deep with the addition of the “L” or low wedge.

The “C” wedge is the 42-degree chipper. In addition to full-face grooves, the C is one inch longer than previous editions.

“It sits a little bit taller,” says Schultz. “You’ll be getting more consistent contact no matter the lie.”

The C may seem like a one-trick pony but it isn’t. Try hitting full shots with it on the range. It’s easy, incredibly addictive and might take the place of your pitching wedge in a super game-improvement set.

The “G” is a 50-degree gap wedge and the “S” is a 58-degree sand wedge. Both are designed for straight-on shots. The wide flange makes opening up the face virtually impossible anyway.

The new kid on the block is the 64-degree “L” wedge. For lack of a better word, it looks like a friggin’ spatula.

“We did a lot of R&D with this type of player,” says Schultz. “The 60-degree prototype wasn’t going high enough. We tried 62 degrees and it still wasn’t going high enough. We had to go to 64.

“And any player using a normal wedge trying to hit a flop shot with a 60-degree wedge is opening it up to at least 64 anyway. Having the ability to do that with a straight-back and straight-through swing without opening it up and with a super-forgiving face? That’s a massive improvement and a lot of fun to hit.”

Full-Face Final Thoughts

This style of club, particularly the chipper, tends to be among the most polarizing clubs in golf. The Get Lessons crowd hates the idea of any club making any part of the game easier (as long as you ignore those hybrids that took the place of their long irons. But I digress.). But there are an awful lot of people out there who play golf for fun. They hit the range once in a while and play on weekends. They’re not going to dedicate hours to practice because, well, they have lives.

So Smart Sole? Bring it on. It’s a game. And games are supposed to be fun.

MyGolfSpy did some bunker testing comparing the Cleveland Smart Sole (and others) to a conventional wedge. That iteration of Smart Sole averaged more than two feet closer to the pin than a conventional wedge and left 25 percent fewer shots in the bunker. The test crew included eight golfers with handicaps between 10 and 20 with driver swing speeds below 90 mph.

In other words, the target golfer.

“We’re under no illusions as to what this player is looking down on,” says Schultz. “It’s unabashedly super game-improvement. It isn’t trying to hide anything or pretend it’s for everyone.”

Cleveland Smart Sole Full-Face Wedges: Specs, Price, Availability

Cleveland is calling the Smart Sole package a four-wedge system designed to blend well with its super game-improvement Halo XL irons.

“It’s four wedges for any kind of shot you’re going to find,” says Schultz. “You don’t have to think about opening the face or getting creative.”

For this iteration, Cleveland is going with the KBS Hi-Rev MAX 105 as the stock men’s shaft. Previous iterations had old-school 135-gram shafts. The stock graphite is the UST Recoil Dart 80 and the stock grip is the Lamkin Crossline 360.

The men’s lineup will be available in both left- and right-handed at retail.

The women’s stock shaft is the lighter UST Recoil Dart 50 and the stock grip is the Lamkin ST Soft. Women’s models will be available in right-handed only at retail. Left-handed models will be available through custom order.

The Cleveland Smart Sole Full-Face wedges will retail for $139.99. They’re available at retail starting today.

For more information, visit the Cleveland Golf website.