Callaway has launched new Opus and Opus Platinum wedges to PGA TOUR players ahead of wider release later this year.
This is the first look we’ll get at the finished product, but Callaway staffers have been involved in the prototyping and design process for around two years, according to Callaway Tour Manager Joe Toulon.
Toulon says Callaway wanted to dig into what top players were looking for in their wedges.
“We’ve done a lot of work with this wedge in the prototyping stages,” Toulon said.
“We really started digging into this category and understanding what the best players in the world look for in a wedge.”
The way the club lays on the ground with its face open, the form of the sole, the sound, the feel, and the way the wedge interacts with the grass upon impact under different circumstances were all carefully considered by Toulon and his team.
The pros had the power this time, despite Callaway’s research and design staff having studied the wedge category for decades.
As it turns out research showed that the shape of the wedge at address was the greatest barrier to entry.
“The shape is really something we spent a lot of time with, and getting it to look good to the majority of players – it’s something that you may not hit everybody’s eye exactly right, but this is something where we got countless hours of feedback and testing from TOUR players, and this is kind of the final product,” Toulon said.
“I think one of the things that players really focus on when they set a wedge down for the first time is what it looks like at address, and what it looks like when you open the face, and we did a lot around that; the shaping and the roundness of this wedge.”
Toulon refers to it as the “final” version as the Opus wedges had several revisions and versions before this result was reached. The sixth prototype, in fact, serves as the basis for these final Opus wedge variations.
“(The Opus wedge) was code named ‘S6’ during the process,” Toulon said. “We stamped every wedge out here (on the PGA TOUR) in this shape with S6, and that basically just stands for some of the shaping designs we went through.
“That was the sixth shape design that we settled on based on what the player feedback was. That’s really the whole story behind this wedge; TOUR-inspired, TOUR-driven. These guys out here designed this wedge. This is just the final cosmetic and final design that we went with.”
