What bounce actually is

Bounce is the angle between the leading edge of the wedge and the sole that trails behind it. Lay a wedge on a table and the sole's back edge sits lower than the leading edge — that drop, measured in degrees, is bounce. Its job: when the club comes into the turf or sand, the sole's trailing edge contacts first and the bounce pushes the club to skid and glide instead of letting the leading edge knife in.

As a working guide on wedges: low bounce is roughly 4–6 degrees, mid bounce about 8–10, high bounce 12–14 and up. Those are families, not commandments — what matters is the match between the number, your swing, and your ground.

Match bounce to your attack angle

The first match is you. A steep swinger — a "digger" who takes real divots and hits down on the ball — needs bounce, because the sole is his insurance against the club burying itself. Mid to high bounce keeps the club moving through. A shallow swinger — a "picker" or slider who clips the ball with thin divots — needs less: too much bounce on a shallow delivery makes the sole skitter into the ball's equator, and the shot is a skulled line drive over the green. If you blade wedges more than you chunk them, or chunk more than you blade, the bounce number is one of the first places we look.

Match bounce to your ground

The second match is where you play. Ottawa golf gives you both extremes in one season: soft, wet spring fairways and bunkers, then firm, baked turf by late July. Soft ground and fluffy sand call for more bounce — the sole has somewhere to sink, and bounce is what stops it. Firm ground and tight lies call for less, so the leading edge can get down under the ball. Golfers who play one course in one condition can specialize; golfers who play everywhere usually land on a mid-bounce gap and sand wedge and vary the lob wedge to taste. Bunker sand matters too: soft sand wants bounce, firm or wet sand wants less, or the club bounces off the surface into the ball.

Grind: the shape that lets you play shots

If bounce is how much sole, grind is where the sole is. Manufacturers grind (relieve) parts of the sole — the heel, the toe, the trailing edge — so the club behaves differently when you open the face or play a specialty shot. A full, unrelieved sole suits square-faced full swings and bunker shots. Heel and trailing-edge relief lets you lay the face open for a flop or a tight-lie chip without the leading edge sitting up off the ground. Wide-sole grinds add help in sand and soft turf; narrow, crescent-shaped soles suit firm-turf shot-makers.

This is also where our bench comes in directly: wedge grind and bounce modification is regular work at the Repair Centre. Within limits, a wedge's sole can be ground to change how it plays — trailing edge relief added, bounce reduced — instead of replacing a wedge whose grooves and loft you already like.

Golf Logics | 17 hours ago

Wedge Bounce and Grind, Explained: The Two Specs Nobody Reads

Your wedges have two numbers stamped on them. You know the first one — the loft. The second one, usually hiding after a dot or in smaller type, is the bounce, and it decides whether the club glides through the turf or digs a trench. Add the grind — the shape of the sole — and you have the two specs that determine how your wedges actually play. Almost nobody reads them. Here's how to start.

The set question nobody asks

Bounce only makes sense across the set. A common, sensible pattern is more bounce in the sand wedge (it's the bunker club), a touch less in the gap wedge, and the lob wedge chosen for your favourite short-game shot and your home course's turf. And a warning we give in the shop: bounce can't be judged by the stamp alone on a used wedge — soles wear, and a wedge that's been reground or heavily played may not measure what it says. We check loft, lie and bounce on the gauge to a tenth of a degree, so if your wedges feel wrong, we can tell you what they actually are before anyone sells you anything.

Wedge questions, checks or grind work: the Repair Centre, 1292 Wellington Street West, Ottawa — walk-ins welcome during shop hours (Mon–Thu 9–5, Fri 9–4, Sat 10–2, Sun 10–1), free parking behind the building, 613-514-0113. And if your wedges are part of a bigger fitting question, the Premium Fitting Studio at 233 Armstrong Street is by appointment only — book a fitting online or call 613-514-0288.

Golf Shaft Adapters Explained: A Canadian Buyer's Compatibility Guide

If you own a modern driver, fairway wood or hybrid, there's a small metal sleeve doing more work than almost any other part of the club. The shaft adapter is what lets you change shafts, adjust loft and lie, and experiment with settings — without buying a new club head every time your swing changes. The problem is that adapters are not universal. Every brand runs its own system, every generation is a little different, and buying the wrong one wastes money and time. This guide walks through what an adapter actually does, how the major brands' systems differ, and how to make sure the adapter you order is the one your club head needs.

Putting Your Clubs Away for Winter: An Ottawa Golfer's Checklist

Ottawa golf season doesn't end — it's taken from us, usually sometime in November, occasionally by snow in October. Before your clubs go into storage for five months, thirty minutes of care decides whether you open the bag in April to the set you put away, or to hardened grips, surface rust and a putter that looks like it wintered outdoors. Here's the checklist we work through in the shop, in order.

Steel or Graphite Iron Shafts? The Honest Comparison

Graphite iron shafts used to mean "senior flex, whippy, for slow swings only." That was true twenty years ago. Modern graphite is a different material with a different argument — and steel has arguments of its own that haven't gone away. Here's the honest comparison from a bench that builds both every week: weight, feel, consistency, joints, and cost.

Swing Weight, Explained — and Why MOI Matching Feels Different

Ask a golfer what his irons weigh and he'll quote a letter and a number — D2, usually. But swing weight isn't a weight, two sets can both measure D2 and feel completely different, and there's a second matching method that works on physics instead of a ratio. Here's what the number actually measures, what changes it, and why our bench offers MOI matching alongside it.

Driver Shaft Adapters, Explained: What Those Settings Actually Change

Your driver's hosel has letters and numbers on it, and most golfers have turned the wrench exactly once — usually in the wrong direction. Here's what your adapter settings actually do to loft, face angle and lie, why the stamped numbers aren't quite what's printed on them, and the two side effects nobody mentions: what rotating the adapter does to your shaft's orientation and your grip alignment.

Stock Shaft vs. Premium Aftermarket Shaft: What's Actually Different?

Your driver came with a shaft chosen by a spreadsheet, not a fitter. Here's what "stock" really means, why flex letters can't be trusted, what premium shafts do differently — and how to find out whether one would actually help your game before you spend anything.

What Actually Happens in a Professional Club Fitting? A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

No retail floor, no lineup, no guesswork. Here's exactly what happens from the moment you walk into our Ottawa fitting studio — the data we collect, what the numbers mean, and why an honest fitting sometimes ends with "keep your current clubs."

Broken Shaft or Wrong Shaft? A Complete Guide to Reshafting Your Golf Clubs

A snapped shaft doesn't have to mean a new club, and a shaft that doesn't suit your swing doesn't either. Here's when reshafting makes sense, what the job involves at a professional workshop, and how to end up with a club that's better than the one you brought in.

Regripping Your Golf Clubs: How Often You Should Do It, What It Costs, and Why It Matters