Groove Sharpening

[CoachTony]

My short irons and wedges are getting a little dull and worn, the control difference is quite noticable now. Does anyone have any advice about the best way to revitalise my club faces. MX23 irons and vokey spin milled wedges.

I've seen ads for tools to do it yourself, are they any good? if taken to a pro (or there is a little old fella with a club repair shop near me, but i havent asked him yet) does such a service prove expensive?

Any help or advice would be welcome (assuming it is of the usual high standard found on this forum )

 

[Twire]

Personally, I can't see how these scrapers don't render the club illegal. Club manufacturers produce clubs to their optimum, which includes width, depth, position of grooves. Once you start scraping metal out, you will be increasing the width and depth, and by doing this, I can't possibly see how you keep it within tolerances specified by the R&A.

Next year the rules will be changing for the professionals regarding grooves. Square grooves will not be allowed, so they won't be able to impart so much spin. This will be introduced into the amateur game in about 10 years.

If your clubs are so badly worn, they probably need replacing anyway. It's not just the club face that deteriorates with use.

Anyway that's my 2 pennies worth.

 

[USER1999]

I would go with that.

 

[brendy]

A set of grooves hit thousands of times, add in stones/sand etc, the grooves will close over slightly. Imagine a stick being hammered into the ground, after repetitive blows the top of the stick does go rounded and blunt, I know that is more dramatic but it does happen.
Personally though, if my clubs got to that stage, its time to trade them in for something shiney.

 

[Twire]

I love your stick analogy Brendy........But I've found a slight flaw in it. Hit a wooden stick (soft) repeatedly with a hammer (hard) Hmmmm, now what's going to wear first? Now hit a ball (soft) repeatedly with a club (hard)........

I'm not saying clubs don't wear, or get stone chips and bruses, but it's near imposible to repair just the damaged area of the groove without altering the rest of the groove.

Out of interest, I've just looked at my old X12 sand iron which was bought in 99 and used up until last year, under a microscope, and the grooves still look pretty good.

 

[brendy]

I know I know, but you arnt just hitting a ball, you are hitting stones, sand and other hard impediments.
Just playing devils advocate. I almost bought one for my vokey as its been well practiced with, the spin milling is gone but when the grooves were clean it was grand again with regards to spin.

 

[drawboy]

I have revived my grooves with a groove sharpener and yes they do look better,with defined square edges. I havn't noticed any more spin though

 

[USER1999]

But have you had them measured to make sure they are still legal? If not, you could be cheating, even though you are not taking advantage of the new sharpness.

 

[haplesshacker]

In reality though, who would check them, or even raise the issue at a comp?

It might come across a bit churlish to even suggest that the winner of the club champs has his grooves measured. But rules is rules I guess. A little pickle of a dilemma.

 

[USER1999]

But we play golf, the only sport where you call penalties on your self. If you have tampered with your kit, and made it potentially in breach of the rules, then you should get it checked. Otherwise you may as well apply the leather wedge when no one is looking. It is all the same.

 

[haplesshacker]

I'm not disagreeing with you Murph. My old 'love' was a self disiplined sport as well, where you called penalties on yourself. However if your indiscreation was witnessed by another competitor, and you didn't penalise yourself, you would be protested by that third party. Which would then be heard by a protest commitee for a decision and ruling.

Self policing is what makes these two sports so different from the likes of football, rugby, boxing, tennis etc. It is also what defines a competitors character and produces positives characteristics in our youngsters.

A bit removed from the OP. But coming back to that. Just buy a new wedge if in any doubt. Funds permitting of course.

 

[theshrew]

I used to work in a shop at a driving range. Done this to my wedge. Did it work yes kind of. Would i do it again no.

As people have said you dont no how much your changing them. In theroy you could have evey groove on the club different that cant be good. (Using the hand tool i did)

Did get more spin but to be fair i did the grooves fairly big and lets face it most people wouldnt notice anyway.

 

[drawboy]

Cant see the makers of these products being in business long if their product infringed the rules of golf. The maker of the sharpener I use go to real pains to point out that the sharpener cannot make the grooves illegal as they will only cut to a certain width and depth.