You cannot underestimate the value of a good wedge.
The average PGA Tour professional hits just 11.7 greens in regulation, which means that he's got a wedge in his hand on at least a third of the holes he plays. The average high-teen handicap golfer hits just 5 greens a round and is going to need a wedge on more than two thirds of the holes he plays.
Paradoxically, most specialty wedge manufacturers produce blade style wedges almost exclusively unless you're buying the matching wedges of your iron set. There was always going to be demand for a specialty wedge to fit the greater golf population, one of high build quality that performs on par with the other specialty wedges but offers greater forgiveness and ease of use.
This is the niche that the Fourteen DJ-4 steps into quite nicely.
The Fourteen DJ-4 is forged from soft S20 carbon steel. It is buttery soft at impact but rather chunky at address. The cavity back design guarantees an ease of use that should match up well with game improvement iron sets. The grooves are machined onto the finished clubheads to the absolute limits of the rules of golf. Although there's less visible technology here, its performance says otherwise.
The Fourteen DJ-4 comes in lofts that range from 41 to 60 degrees. This means a golfer could replace everything from his 9-iron to his lob wedge with a DJ-4. The sole is fairly wide and comes with less bounce that you might think you need, but in the field, you would be hard pressed to notice the difference. It's quite a bit larger than most blade-style wedges, which adds confidence when you step up to a shot.
The DJ-4 is available in Nippon Steel shafts in 95 and 125-gram weights as well as Fourteen's proprietary FT-62w graphite shaft that weighs 65-grams. As Fourteen believes that wedge shafts should weigh at least 10-grams more than a golfer's iron shafts, this shaft is meant to compliment irons with shafts in the high 40 and 50-gram weights.
Our demonstrator came in with a loft of 56 degrees which is a perfect fit as a sand wedge for most golfers but with a bounce angle of just 7 degrees, far less than is thought ideal for the largest variety of conditions. In the field, the exact opposite was true. On fuller shots, distance was very predictable. The feel is that of a high-quality forged iron; soft and responsive.
Spin, as advertised, was plentiful. It was not a problem to get the ball to do exactly what you want. It went into play quite naturally. It seemed just as happy to be played squared up to the target as laid wide open in a variety of conditions. It's far more versatile than its design would indicate and works well with players of a broad swath of abilities.
Very impressive.
The Fourteen DJ-4 is available in all Srixon Proshops for PhP11,000.
