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Meet Terry Koehler: “The Wedge Guy” T
erry Koehler has been focused on the wedge category for over 30 years, and has continuously advanced his approach to designing wedges . . . NOT for tour players, but for the rest of us — the millions who do not have tour caliber skills. His wedge innovations are numerous. He patented his “Koehler sole” in 1993, combining both high- and low-bounce into wedges to eliminate the specialization of grinds. From his first designs, he put more mass in the top of the wedge head than anyone before or since. He pioneered milled grooves in his EIDOLON® wedges long before that became a staple in the category, and his progressive weighting in his SCOR™ wedges influenced the leading brand to do something similar a few years later. His latest creation, the Edison® Forged wedges, push his quest to make wedges as forgiving as your irons to another level. For nearly 20 years Koehler has written a popular weekly blog as “The Wedge Guy” published every Wednesday on www.GolfWRX.com. We felt fortunate to be able to sit down with Terry and get inside the mind of a master wedge designer. 10
Q. How did you get into the golf industry? A. My career started in the advertising business, and I landed Ray Cook putters as an account. I found myself spending more and more time in the back end of the house, learning how putters were made and how and why they worked. As I added golf companies to my client list, that learning curve accelerated. Q. Why did you become a club designer? Like anyone, I thought I could see a better way. It started with putters – over 100 designs – but wedges became by specialty by 1990. Q. What was your vision for launching Edison Golf? A. Every brand focuses on tour players and ‘tour design’ wedges, that frankly don’t vary much from one another, and haven’t since the 1980s or earlier. My vision was to design and craft wedges for ‘the rest of us’- everyday golfers of all skill levels - who simply do not have tour player skills and consistency. Q. Golf has a variety of boutique wedge brands, what makes Edison different? A. Most boutique brands offer some slight variation on the core
‘tour design’ of wedges. Just as we’ve seen irons, drivers and even putters revolutionized for forgiveness, Edison Forged wedges are designed with a bigger sweet spot, forgiveness, and intentional spin, which helps golfers turn “not so good shots” into good ones and experience more “bite” with their wedge shots. That makes golf fun. Q. What is “smash factor” and why does it matter in your wedges? A. Very simply, smash factor is the ratio of clubhead speed to ball speed. In drivers, it can be in the 1.4 range on a dead center hit, because of the face technologies. But on
wedges, a perfect shot on the 3rd or 4th groove will have a smash factor of about 1.18, regardless of the brand. ‘Tour design’ wedges see a rapid fall off that efficiency as impact moves up the face or toward the toe. If smash factor declines up to 20%, you just can’t get the same distance. Fixing that was my singular goal with the Edison design. Creating peneGolf Central • Volume 22, Issue 3
