REVIEW: James Patrick Custom Wedges

Best Looks + Best Performance = Best Wedges
If you were to create a checklist of how to make the best wedge ever, what would you put on it?  I would want a wedge that works from just about any lie, can be used for any shot, squares up easily, spins aggressively, feels soft and looks great.  James Patrick wedges are just that, I can easily say they are the best wedges on the market.
If you want to see all the wedges I have reviewed, just glance at the pull down menu, and you will see a pretty extensive list.  While some are very good and have treated me well on the course, these JP wedges are the best I have ever put in the bag.
I’ll start with the obvious, these wedges looks amazing.  JP has a number a really nice finishes, but the vintage raw finish he applied to mine, (the first with this finish) just look amazing, like burled oak.  There is such a texture of tones, some copper flaking with some dark rust tones; it is more like a piece of art than a golf club.   The finish did wear some on the soles of these wedges, but that is expected because of the raw nature of the finish.  It still looked awesome even after a number of rounds because of the rusty look. Add to that the custom nature of stamping that JP can do, you can get the look exactly how you want, from stamped full to almost stampless.  The creative loft degrees and other cool ideas make for a really unique piece of art for each customer.
 

But no matter how good a club looks, if it doesn’t perform on the course, it doesn’t matter, it is not going to be worth the investment.  These on the other hand are the best performing wedges I have played.  Let’s start with the one unique reason these are so good; the Center of Gravity placement.  JP has studied the art of making a wedge for some time and learned that in order to keep a traditional look and get the CG to the dead center of the face, a different material needed to be added to the mix, thus the signature of JP wedges are the tungsten plugs in the toe part of the muscle.  Each head is ported and then hand ground with the weights for a seamless look.  Having the CG in the dead center helps in a couple of ways, it keeps the head square at impact and creates an incredibly solid feel.

After the perfect CG placement, the grind is the next most versatile and useful nature of these wedges.  JP puts an aggressive C-grind on all his wedges from gap to lob.  It makes it easier to hit from any lie and allows for creativity with each club.  With each wedge being hand ground, you can really notice the craftsmanship of these wedges; they work perfectly.  Also a thinned out hosel makes it really easy to cut through the deep grass with the face opened or closed.

Another aspect that made these wedges better than the rest is the shape and lines of the head.  The leading edge is nice and straight with very clean sharp edges all the way around the face.  When you look down the hosel it seamlessly transitions right into the leading edge.  While it looks sharp, JP grinds just enough camber and blunt to the leading edge so you can cut into the turf, but not dig to deep.

The last major feature that will make these wedges stand apart is that the grooves come in two options, both conforming and non-conforming.  While many of the big boy wedge companies don’t offer aggressive grooves anymore, this is an opportunity if you can still use them for a number of years, to get some really sharp non-conforming grooves.   I was really happy with the non-conforming grooves as they spin like crazy, although they do shred the balls up a little, but that is to be expected.

For my on course review, I put a 54* and a 58* wedge in the bag.  This late fall was one of the best times for testing wedges because we had the greatest extremes of conditions and everything in between.  It started with very dry hard-pan ground, then it got soggy after some rain and finished the season with ideal firm but soft turf.  The 54* fit a perfect gap for me.  I was able to hit a consistent 105 yards on full shots.  I felt so comfortable with this wedge from the fairway or from the rough.  I hit almost every green I aimed at with this club.  It squared up so easily and spun so nicely that everything just hit and stuck.  The 58* is the most versatile wedge I have ever hit.  For 90 yards and in, this was the club.  Full shots, chip shots, punches, flops and sand shot were all consistent and easy to hit with this club.  While I used it very sparingly in the sand because of the rocks in the muni courses I play, in the grass it really worked wonders.

I paired these heads with some of new wedge shafts from Miyazaki.  Not only did these shafts look incredible, they too are great performers.  They impart some nice spin in addition to the grooves and feel so smooth. I did have 2 different weighted shafts, but they matched up perfectly with my use of the 54* compared to the 58*.   These wedges were then finished with JP’s logoed Pure grips.  I liked the tacky soft feel of these grips. 

The only thing that will keep these out of the hands of golfers is going to be the price, but beauty and performance comes at a price.  With so much put time and effort into each head it isn’t an unfair price by any means, but some might balk at the price.  JP didn’t set out to design a cheap mass produced wedge, he set out to create the best wedge money can buy.  So if you are serious about getting the absolute best wedge available, then check out JP and get some custom made wedges for your bag.

For more information: www.jpwedges.com

Quick Hits
+Beautiful works of art
+Custom finishes and stampings
+Soft forged w/ c-c grooves or non-conforming grooves
+Perfect cg placement
+Excellent custom grind

–All this beauty and performance comes at a price