Leaderboards 
Become a Member 
Shop 
Trade In Equipment
The Vokey Wedge Experience: Learn How to Use It, Then Take the Club Home
By Vinnie Manginelli, PGA
Published on
PGA Member Tim Frazier offers the Vokey Wedge Experience for members at Sycamore Hills in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
What do people want more than anything these days?
The answer is an experience.
Sure it’s cool to get a new Titleist Vokey Design wedge. After all, it’s one of the best in the business. But wouldn’t it be fun to join a small group of golfers to actually learn how to use it, and when you leave at the end of the day, you get to take one home that fits your game?
The SM9 wedge is the newest offering from Titleist Vokey Design.
That’s the Vokey Wedge Experience.
Sycamore Hills Golf Club PGA Head Professional Tim Frazier has offered this special program at his Fort Wayne, Indiana, facility since 2017, with COVID-19 forcing him to put a temporary hold on it over the past few years. Yet plans of reinstating this fun and exciting event are back for 2023, and it’s an idea that can be replicated fairly easily at your own local course.
Frazier and Titleist Vokey reps work together to coach up members on wedge basics, as well as the power of being custom-fit for a new wedge.
Frazier’s Vokey Wedge Experience is a two-hour clinic and fitting experience that welcomes a dozen members to three stations, including chipping/pitching, bunker play and custom fitting. Participants rotate throughout the stations to learn how to use the wedge around the greens and from the bunker, while the third station helps them determine the best use of the wedge for their game — how far can they hit it? Does it fit nicely into their current club setup?
When the clinic is over, participants get to take the wedge home. It’s theirs to keep.
“Our Titleist Vokey fitter comes in and engages participants in discussion about the wedges,” Frazier explains. “He answers questions about lofts and lies, bounce and sole grinds, and distance gapping. At the same time, my staff and I are present around the green and in the bunker to help members with chipping, pitching and sand play.”
The team approach means every participant receives the individual attention that enhances this already cool and memorable experience, and the conversations help participants learn where their greatest needs are when it comes to their own wedge play — a vital part of every golfer’s game.
A Sycamore Hills member tests out a new wedge at the club's practice facility during a past Vokey Wedge Experience.
Are you still buying clubs off the rack? Today, every golfer should get custom-fit when purchasing any new club. And if there's an opportunity to go through a Vokey Wedge Experience or something similar, then that’s the best way to go. Its fun and experiential framework can be implemented with any company that’ll collaborate and could include shots with different clubs, like drivers and putters.
Plus, we all want the attention of our local PGA Professional, because we all want to learn more and play better golf. It's included in the Vokey Wedge Experience.
Frazier says that his members always enjoy the clinic environment and appreciate that the $200 cost of the session includes a new wedge. It’s about forging relationships that make this program so successful. They generate conversations that don’t end when the Vokey Wedge Experience is over. He adds that the combination of learning and growing as golfers and adding a quality golf club to their golf bag is the right formula that makes the event such a hit.
Now that’s an experience.
