Crews FG-101 and T-301 Wedges

[Nick Davis]

For the last week I have been fortunate enough to be in possession of a couple of Crews wedges, courtesy of Japan Man. After spending some time with them on the range and out on the course I'd like to offer up a brief (ha!!!) review of my experiences and opinions about these wedges.

First up we need some background about me and my current wedge setup to offer some perspective to what I write and to allow you to put my experiences into your own context.

I currently play off 7 at a parky/heathlandy style course. It's not a long course and offers several opportunities to hit a wedge into the green. I'd describe the fairways for most of the year (except the high summer when the wind and lack of rain cause the course to dry out considerably) as being of a medium consistency, only becoming outrightly soft in the depths of winter. I like to hit a variety of wedge shots but more often than not I reckon I've got a pretty steep angle of attack into the ball, only resorting to little flop shots and opened up faces when faced with short shots to tight pin positions from around the green. Greenside chipping can be a bit of a hit or miss affair due to the amount of traffic around the periphery of the green leading to inconsistent lies….getting to the bottom of the ball in such conditions is pretty much imperative to ensure a decent strike but not always achievable!!!

My current wedge setup consists of three Cleveland 900 BRZ's in 52/6, 56/16, 60/12 loft/bounce combinations. I am particularly fond of the 900BRZ wedge due to its wonderfully soft feeling and despite not having anything in the way of milling marks these wedges seem to impart a goodly amount of spin onto the ball and offer good "drop and stop" performance into the green on full shots. The greens I play at are not overly receptive to spin and you rarely see anyone sucking the ball back 5 yards after pitching past the flag. Shafts are all "Wedge" flex which I assume is the ubiquitous DGS300 (or 200). The only modification I have made to these wedges is to grind the heel area of the 56 wedge to allow the leading edge to sit slightly closer to the ground when the face is opened up. Whilst I have always been delighted with the two higher lofted wedges the 52 degree gap has perplexed me a touch as it feels just a little bit dead and unfeeling by comparison when playing short shots around the green. These three wedges have all been earmarked to be reshafted with Rifle Spinner 5.5 flex shafts in the coming week.

The two Crews wedges I received were a 52/8 T-301 Triple Sole SpinMax and an FG-101 Flat Grind 58/12 sand/lob wedge. The T-301 was finished in a somewhat uninspiring satin steel finish whilst the FG-101 was primarily a glossy black finish with a dark black satin hosel and matt face. Both clubs looked neat and compact at the address position.

Both clubs were shafted with DG S200 steel shafts and built to 35.25"…a ¼" longer than my own clubs. The other thing that I noticed about these clubs is that, whilst they both have the circular milled faces that seem to be de-rigueur these days on any self respecting wedge, the milling marks themselves were very fine…almost like the fine detail patterns you see on banknotes, rather than the noticeable milling you see on the Vokey Spin Milled wedges and other similar beasts like SMT Durometers. My initial reaction was that this milling was perhaps little more than rather half-hearted nod towards today’s market expectations.

One final thing to note about the design of these wedges is the soles. The FG-101's name gives its sole design away…it is near flat from leading edge to trailing edge…none of the traditional curved sole from front to back, just a straight slope. The T-301 also appears to have a similarly flat sole from leading to trailing edge, however closer inspection reveals a very shallow depression along the length of the sole…very much like a shallow P-grind. In both cases the sole design allowed the club to be played square with the leading edge close to the ground, or, opened up with the full effect of the bounce coming into play.

Perhaps in summary, the out of the box experience was perhaps a tad disappointing. Indeed I made the following half joke with Peter when we were arranging delivery…

"... part of me wonders whether this "Japanese craftsman forged wedge hysteria" isn't just hype based on a romantic view of Samurai craftsmen of yesteryear forging their swords lovingly over many cycles of folding and hammering!"

… and it seemed that perhaps my fears had been realised. Neither wedge is something that you'll lovingly caress and worry about stones in bunkers whilst the wife looks on pitifully at her foolish husband.

But still… as I often remind my wife…I didn’t marry her for her looks… and really most golfers looking to spend money on a relatively exotic wedge will perhaps be more concerned with performance than looks.

Contd. in part 2....

[Nick Davis]

My first session with these wedges came at a local driving range last Friday morning, shortly before playing in a society outing up at Thorpeness that afternoon. One of the key things about wedges is that they are "scoring" clubs. When playing a wedge shot into the green you should really be looking to put the ball as close as possible to the hole. In this respect distance control is absolutely crucial and your wedges need to be able to deliver reliable consistent distance. One of the first things that I ever learned many years ago when I first bought a gap wedge to sit between my PW and SW was that simple lofts don’t mean anything. After purchasing a 52* gap to sit nicely (loft wise) between the aforementioned clubs I soon discovered that the actual delivered distance was much closer to the SW than it was to the PW…I actually needed a 50* wedge to sit half way between the clubs in terms of distance. So one of the key things I was looking for was how the two clubs would compare distance wise to my current wedge set-up.

Taking the 52* T-301 first it was immediately apparent that this wedge played distance wise the same as my 52* 900BRZ. What was equally apparent though was that the T-301 delivered feeling in spades and had a responsiveness that my 900BRZ gap wedge seemed to lack. I'd say that ball flight was, by and large, pretty similar…I tend to hit the ball medium/high with my wedges and the T-301 wasn’t significantly different. I achieved the same level of "drop and stop" ability with the T-301 that I got with my 900BRZ's but I must say that distance control was pretty much spot on… I was consistently rewarded with high shots landing on a sixpence (OK a dustbin lid maybe!!) and staying there. A few short chips with this wedge gave a hint of where the clubs abilities really lay…the softness allowing a lovely level of control around the green.

The FG-101 was a different beast to play with. For a start it only hinted at its forged background and was nowhere near as soft as the T-301. In terms of distance it sat nicely between my current 56 and 60 degree wedges. What was also lacking was the ability to control distance with this wedge…hitting with a slightly open face to a shallow depth green 55 yards away was a hit and miss affair…actually the misses were more frequent than the hits and it seemed that for some reason I'd hit one shot long and the next drop it short, despite putting near identical swings on the club. There was less feeling with this club on many strikes seemed a bit harder than the T-301…when I did hit one pure though I really felt it…or didn’t feel it as the case was…but certainly this didn’t happen as often as the 52* wedge. I also felt this club didn’t seem to impart a great deal of spin… landing the ball short of the 85 yard target I normally play my 56* wedge too I often saw the ball roll on more than I'd expect - don’t forget this is at a range where I'm very familiar with the balls and their performance and how they react on the greens. An altogether less encouraging experience than the T-301.

Anyway…the range is not necessarily the best place to get a true idea of a club outright capabilities… real world play is where it's at. Given my experiences at the range I only really felt comfortable putting the T-301 in the bag for that Friday afternoon round. The FG-101 would have to wait its turn. As it happened the T-301 didn’t get many opportunities to shine from distance… perhaps a single approach shot from 90 yards was hit nice and crisply and was found less than a foot from its pitch mark on the green. There were however several opportunities to chip from around the green and, as hinted at on the range, I felt the T-301 excelled in this area providing superb control as I chipped close on many occasion.

The FG-101 eventually got its chance on Sunday at the Belfry and mainly found its use out of greenside bunkers. Given my misgivings about this club on the range I found it stunningly efficient at removing balls from the sand…every time it was called into play it launched the ball crisply out of the sand. Many of the shots were played with a slightly open clubface off damp (but not hard packed) sand and the club skimmed through the upper surface of the sand and sent the ball sailing off onto the green.

Again, as on the range I didn’t feel that the FG-101 delivered much spin, on the Belfry’s fast running hard greens it was easy to pitch the ball high from greenside lies short of the flag and see it run on a considerable distance… no matter how crisply I managed to hit the ball I got very little check at all.

Finally, I managed to get down my own club on Wednesday evening and put both wedges in my bag, consigning the 900BRZ’s to the boot of my car. Apart from a chip on the second where I got a little jerky in the swing the T-301 stiffed the ball to within a couple of feet on 6 out of 8 occasions that I missed the green. The club delivers so much feeling and controls the ball in these short shot situations that it’s untrue. The FG-101 delivered in certain situations…again it provided a superb escape from a down hill lie in a greenside bunker splashing the ball out with nonchalant ease but also still seemed a tad difficult to control distance from 30-50yards pitches.

Conclusions???
The Crews T-301 is an excellent wedge, delivering bags of feel and control around the green and a decent drop and stop performance on longer approach shots. For the style conscious it wont have you ooohhing and ahhing over its looks like a Miura might but it will put a smile on your face when you hit it.

The FG-101 left me with somewhat mixed feelings about a wedge that “might have been”. It wasn’t as easy to hit as the T-301 and seemed relatively hard on all but the very best of shots. Distance control for me was a bit iffy. As a bunker club it worked amazingly well…after several shots I got to the stage where I didn’t even consider that I was going to struggle extracting the little white ball from the sandy stuff. Not a bad wedge at all but perhaps not for everyone.

[CashelFM]

Good review Nick, any idea of prices for these? I looked on their website http://www.crewsgolf.co.jp/cg_wedge.shtml#t_301 and the clubs look decent enough to my eye.

Cheers

[Gord]

Very thorough! Thanks Nick :)

[Nick Davis]

Good review Nick, any idea of prices for these? I looked on their website http://www.crewsgolf.co.jp/cg_wedge.shtml#t_301 and the clubs look decent enough to my eye.

Cheers

No idea whatsoever.

I'd be very interested to see what price points Japan Man sets for these and the other wedges he plans to import.

My personal belief is that, because of the lack of brand awareness here in the UK it will take a competetive price point to tempt Joe Public away from his Spin Milled Vokeys etc.

I notice that Premium Golf sell Vega wedges at around the £140 price point.

Tourspec golf in the US sell the Crews FG-101 for $185...ignoring exchange rates for a minute I generally find that the best way to convert a US price to a UK price is to replace the currency symbol and knock maybe 20-25% off....so this would give us a price of between £138 and £148.

It wouldnt surprise me if the Crews wedges came in at this price point.

In my opinion, prices in this range are too steep unless there is a wide range of stock available for users to at least see in person and at least have a waggle before parting with their cash. Sure some more "technically" advanced users who have a clear idea of what they want in terms of wedge shape, finish, loft and bounce options may be comfortable in shelling out this sort of money over the web for an unseen club.

A more sensible price point from a consumer point of view would be around £120 but I have no idea what the business model of the distributing company might look like in terms of costs of purchase and importing which obviously will have a significant effect on the price point at which these wedges are pitched to the market.

If these clubs are available at point of retail with the option for the users to compare models and have some sort of fitting analysis as to what might suit their game then perhaps the £140 price point might be viable. But hell...how many golfers have been fitted for their irons let alone a specialist club like a wedge? The appeal might still be limited to the majority of golfers.

I am looking forward with interest to seeing some pricing but have a strong suspicion that I'm going to be disappointed. I hope I'm wrong.

Maybe folks visiting the London Golf Show this weekend might like to pop in to the Made In Japan stand and have a look for themselves.

[CashelFM]

I hear what you are saying Nick, I kinda get the feeling that they will be fairly expensive compared to the 70 quid each I paid for my vokeys that were brand new and lengthened with choice of grip. I guess we will see when the prices are released.

[Nick Davis]

I hear what you are saying Nick, I kinda get the feeling that they will be fairly expensive compared to the 70 quid each I paid for my vokeys that were brand new and lengthened with choice of grip. I guess we will see when the prices are released.

...and that will be the problem for many customers....

do i buy one wedge of this brand that I've never heard of, or for the same money, do I buy two of this well known and respected brand thats been around ever since I started playing golf??

[SBL]

...and that will be the problem for many customers....

do i buy one wedge of this brand that I've never heard of, or for the same money, do I buy two of this well known and respected brand thats been around ever since I started playing golf??

I think that this is the case with the vast majority of the Japanese stuff. It's really nice but the cost is far too high in my opinion. It'll never be mass market, just very small amounts to the very rich or fanatics.