Seen on Tour: Cleveland 2025 Wedge Prototypes

The new Cleveland 2025 wedge prototypes are showing up on the PGA Tour this week in Las Vegas.

From what we can see, they are, at least cosmetically, a return to the classic wedges of Cleveland’s past.

We don’t know much other than Cleveland is calling them the CG Proto Wedges. However, there is much we can infer.

Cleveland 2025 Wedge Prototypes: What we know

All we do know comes from a concise email to the press. The new Cleveland wedges debut this week at the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas. We also know Cleveland wants us to call them the CG Proto Wedges.

Like I said, it ain’t much.

We also know that Srixon, and now Cleveland, is informally/formally letting us (and, by proxy, you) know about their 2025 offerings in drips and drabs ahead of the traditional January festival of product launches. Both Srixon and Cleveland operate on two-year product cycles. We’ve already had a sneak peek at the new Srixon irons. Today, we’ll get to see the new Cleveland wedges.

New Srixon drivers, fairways and hybrids are also due in January. We haven’t seen anything informally/formally from Srixon but the new drivers are listed on the USGA conforming list. We’ll discuss those in a bit.

We also know that Cleveland wedges have been busy looking over the past several iterations. However, the 2025 wedge prototypes feature a cleaner look that harkens back to the Cleveland RTX 4 from 2018.

Cleveland 2025 Wedge Prototypes: What we can infer

Even though Cleveland wants us to call them “CG Proto wedges”, we can see evidence of a new naming convention. Going as far back as 2012, Cleveland wedges have gone by RTX, for its distinctive Rotex rotational face-milling pattern. Since 2020, Cleveland has added ZipCore to its naming convention, culminating in the 2023 Cleveland RTX6 ZipCore wedges.

Judging from the imagery provided by Cleveland, it appears RTX ZipCore has been retired and replaced by the shortened RTZ. We’re inferring here but we’re guessing the “Z” stands for ZipCore.

ZipCore is a proprietary Cleveland material with low density and a high melting point. The 8620 carbon steel wedge is cast around the ZipCore material. ZipCore is four times less dense than 8620. The difference allows Cleveland to move the CG closer to the center of the clubface and a tad higher. The close-to-center CG makes for a better feel and a bit more forgiveness. The higher CG helps promote a lower launch and higher spin.

“Tour Rack” is Cleveland-ese for its raw finish. At launch, expect Tour Rack, Tour Satin and maybe one other finish.

About those Srixon metalwoods …

Four new Srixon drivers, the ZXi, ZXi MAX, ZXi LS, and ZXi TR, hit the USGA conforming list in August.

Again, we don’t know much, but we can infer a few things.

First, the ZXi would appear to be replacing the ZX7. The ZXi MAX takes the place of the more forgiving ZX5. How direct those replacements are is open to question. The ZXi MAX has a deeper body with a back-end weight port to push the CG back. The standard ZXi has a more compact look with two swappable sole weights. The fact the ZXi is listed with 8-, 9- and 10.5-degree lofts while the MAX is listed with those same lofts plus a 12-degree option also indicates a departure.

The ZXi LS is also a bit of a departure from the ZX5 LS from 2023. That model was a surprise bomber in MyGolfSpy’s 2023 driver test. As with the ZX5 LS, the new model features a sole weight behind the face for a forward CG. However, there’s also a new lighter rear weight. That should give fitters some leeway to make the new LS more forgiving.

The new kid on the block is the ZXi TR. Like the standard ZXi, it features two weight ports on the back half of the sole. It’s hard to tell from the USGA imagery but the TR appears smaller and more compact, likely in the 440- to 450-cc range.

Each driver also has an “i-FLEX’ marking on the face. We can only assume it’s a new face-flexing design for Srixon.

We’ll know more about all of these products in January.