Go in this wedge guarantees you're never gonna chunk a shot ever again it guarantees you're gonna have a better short game and they are bold statements you guys have been asking. For it so i've gone out and bought a square strike wedge i watched the 18-minute commercial i was brainwashed by how outlandish it was. And how kind of cheesy and corny it was well there's only really one way of testing i'm going to give it a test i'm going to give you guys the honest truth about this wedge [Music]. So before hitting the first shot with the square strike i want to give this club a little bit of context you guys have asked me to review this club so much in the usa you've probably seen it because the advert or the commercial gets plastered all over tv it's quite a corny commercial but it claims to eliminate chipping and pitching woes forever reckon you cannot chunk this wedge see if that's the case um it's 99 so i bought it online and it's quite a unique look it's got quite a lot of unique factors to it now chippers in its simplest sense and nothing new they've been around for ages but this does have quite a few unique features that have not been seen together in a chipper before first thing is this is a 45 degree lofted golf club. So it's almost effectively a pitching wedge loft it's got a really heavy head and it's got super wide soul now square strike call this wide soul something ridiculous they call it the acs2 low friction anti-trunk slide ramp soles wow okay in simplest terms it's a wide sole. And it has kind of a bit of a beveled edge to stop it from digging in the ground simple as that it does come in other lofts 55 degree. And 60 but 45 degrees seems to be the most popular choice it comes in sand wedge length of club which i really like because often again chippers come in almost like putter length got a long grip so you can go up. And down the grip if you need to to get a little bit more control and the lie angle is very much upright. For such a lofty club because the technique to use this club effectively is pretty much like a putting technique not using the wrist. Or not flicking at it but using much more of a pendulum motion while aiming square to the target all sounds great right so i wanted wanted to try it out with a very challenging shot for me a shot that was at the front of the green about 20 yards out tight lie front pin one if i'm honest with you i'm not comfortable with grabbing a sand wedge. Or lob wedge i i've been known to hit those shots either heavy or thin so let's see if the square strike from that position does any good [Music] all right that's not bad i take that normally [Music] that's good [Music] go in [Music]. So as you can see first impressions was pretty good i can't complain. For the shots the heavy head took a little bit of time just to get used to in in the practice swings but on the actual execution of the shot the club did what it said it would do. And that surprised mix i was kind of hoping to be able to rip this to shreds a little bit because as i've seen on the commercial the fact that it tries to brainwash you to thinking this is some sort of magic wand. So i thought i'd try on some longer shots too similar tight light front pin but slightly longer shot [Music] so far so good i think the thing is what i've noticed with this club is on those tight lines when i've not really got to get over a great deal because even though the ball comes out with a little bit of height it's not loads of height as you can imagine with a 45 degree club it's not gonna go flying up into the sky. But if you see it as a chipper and that's really what it is it's a chipper glorified one granted a little bit of a uh a crazy one granted. But it's a chipper in that situation it worked great gave me good execution the likeliness of i kind of caught a few thin off the bottom of the golf club but the result still worked you've got to bear in mind you've got to try and land it a little bit shorter to the green but that's really the only thing you've got to take into consideration it's much shorter swing than you would experience with a sandwich or a lob wedge so i want to try a shot over a bunker now this is where if you are a unconfident chip. Or a pitcher a shot over the bunker is a nightmare shot because you're just thinking don't go in the bunker please don't win the bunker. And often either fat it because you can't scoop it up in the air or you'll thin it straight through the back of the green with a traditional lofted wedge or a lob wedge now the square strike did a job. And that's the only way i can explain it it did a job it did a decent enough job to get the ball over the bunker. But do not be fooled to thinking that this is a lofty club that's going to fly you up in the air certainly not in the 45 degree loft it had its limitations. For me as a i'd like to think somewhat of a skilled player i would much prefer to get my lob wedge open up fly up over the bunker. And hit a more skilled shot but that does come with its downsides because like isn't mentioned don't hit it well the results can be horrendous if you are bottom of the barrel with confidence with chipping just something that pops it over the bunker would be more than sufficient. For you so then.
I wanted to try a few more different shots certainly shots from around the green in the rough because that's where for me i want to get a little bit more risky with it a little bit more flicky able to elevate the loft but this club it's not advised one bit because you thin them if you do that. So i had to try and play the kind of square back square through putting stroke pendulum stroke out of the roof as i mentioned before it wasn't brilliant in this situation it did a job it got it up out of the rough onto the green. But i'm never going to get it that close certainly off some of the really hard shots that i put myself in when you've got loads of green to work with i mean it's just simple when you've got tons of green. And you've just got to bump it over a little bit rough this club is perfect. For that because it just delivers the loft use the bottom of the club not to dig in the ground and it just pops up really nicely and after a little bit of time getting used to the technique as you know not using the wrist as much it works a treat so then.
I thought well hold on that's me you know i can i can kind of change my technique pretty quickly you know if it tells me to keep my wrist straight. And do a pendulum stroke i can do a pendulum stroke what happens though if i put the club in the hands of some unexpected amateurs. So i got a hold of a group of guys that just come off the 18th hole at marriott woodsy park and uh i didn't tell them a lot all i told them was this is a chipper that you've got to use a putting stroke to make it work more effectively now truth be told these guys struggle a little bit the feedback i received was one guy said he couldn't get his head around using a putting stroke from. So far away but he said he was a quite a good chipper. So maybe he didn't particularly need it the guys who struggle with chipping for me did okay with this club. But not that impressive a lot of thin shots happened a lot of shots where it came off really low and just skipped along the floor in its defense nobody chunked it and that is something that's really hard to do this club it's very difficult to chunk it i hit some where i really tried to chunk it i went back on my right foot tried to scoop it. And i hit the ground behind the ball now the ground was pretty hard when i tested it it skimmed along the ground still made contact with the ball. And as long as you've not got anything to get over i actually hit some decent enough shots which is totally embarrassing because they were horrendous shots. So all in all the perfect candidate for this golf club is someone who hates chipping someone who doesn't want lessons. And actually just sick of being laughed at by their plane partners they just want to get the ball on the green and it does a great job. For that you're never going to flop it up in the air like phil mickelson. But you don't really need to with a club like this the commercial the advert is corny. And cheesy and i hate every bit of it but as a golf club it works and if you hate chipping it's definitely worth giving a try thanks for watching we'll see you next.
Time and that was a square strike wedge.
