Indi Golf StingRay TT Lob Wedge (60)

Product Information

I joined MGS 6 years ago and have been part of a few tests. It is still a huge honour to be chosen and I can't thank the Mods enough for that. Also, I have to say a massive thanks to Indi Golf for giving us this opportunity, I shall endeavour to give your clubs a fair, honest and thorough test. Discard the deep fried oil as it is not good to reuse. However if you still prefer to reuse it, skip chilli powder/ paprika from the seasoning as it discolors the oil. During this time my index dropped from a shaky 15-20 to the mid 9's which is my lowest ever. My personality leads me to look for gains in every possible area in the quest further down into single digits, including: speed training, lessons, fitting, ball testing, and rotating many unfit in and out of the bag. One thing I have not noted was that I used the same ball through the main portions of the test, i.e. Pro V-1. I did do a few holes with others (Callaway Super Soft, Maxfli Tour, Titleist Tour Speed, WIlson Duo Soft, Bridgestone e12, etc.), and found that the clubs worked well with those as well.

Flour: I prefer to use a small portion of flour for my wedges as it helps in 2 ways. Firstly it reduces the chances of the spices and herbs getting burnt. Secondly it gives an extra crisp texture to the wedges. However it is optional and you may skip it if you don’t prefer. Indi Golf first crossed our radar with their original Stingray wedge (review HERE). Those wedges are designed to help the average golfer see Tour-like spin but are not approved for USGA competitions. Looking at launch angle and spin, Indi wins outright with lower launch angle as promised, and quite a bit more spin. The 58 degree had slightly more variance when compared to my PXG 58 degree, whereas the FLX heads won over the PXG wedges all around. These spin numbers are pretty low, even for me, and I don’t know the particular ball being used at this location. I was told it was a Bridgestone ball, but there were no markings to indicate which type. I would say I’m still far more comfortable with the 50 degree than either of the other wedges, but they are coming around. The 58 degree with the ATK head has been especially interesting as by the description from Indi, it really doesn’t fit my swing. I don’t take deep divots, and the area I live in is pretty much in a perpetual drought, so things tend to be pretty dry, but I do like having the sole relief of the ATK. I think the right call was made to go with the FLX head in the other two as I use them for full swings a decent amount of the time, but the 58 degree is almost never hit with a full swing. My test plan for the Indi wedges is pretty simple. I am looking to answer the following questions. Will they be longer than my current set? Are they as forgiving as Indi claim? Can I manipulate the face for the little touch shots around the green? Are these good wedges for chipping? And the big question, can I spin the ball off a green?

Performance

The on course improvements discussed throughout this review occurred mostly at courses I never played before and better results were achieved on the few rounds played on local courses I am familiar with. I expect further gains during periods of play at my normal rotation and as I continue building familiarity. In terms of my game, I’m always going to be a work in progress. I’m currently sitting around a 15 handicap, partially from not playing enough, and partially from throwing a grenade or two (or the occasional handful) at my scorecard each round. I’ve made it no secret that I don’t particularly enjoy the necessary parts of practice to get better. This includes the short game. At one point, I played courses specifically to leave myself a 7-9 iron into the green rather than try to get closer and risk having to hit a wedge. I’m working on it regularly now, but I can get in my own head pretty badly. I was fit for my current wedges last year, and while there is nothing wrong with them, the best way I can describe them is, “They are ok…” I have days where I hit them well, and other days I just can’t seem to figure them out. OF course that is mostly on me, but when the opportunity came up to test the Indi wedges, I was excited, especially with the redistribution of weight to move the CG towards the center of the face. My miss tendency is towards the toe, and with my current PXG wedges, that means I’m coming up well short. Looking at my Shotscope data recently, My distance to the hole after a wedge shot needs some serious improvement. I am, on average, 25 feet away when hitting a wedge from the 25-50 yard range, which I obviously want to drop. That’s what I mean by needing improvement.

Spin: Incredible spin and response from traditional golf balls and range balls! The TractionFace and 22 V-Grove design truly allows for maximum spin. Provided more spin than my Vokey SM7 wedge.So of course the question is, why only 8 of 10? It’s very difficult to describe, but I had an obnoxious amount of trouble dialing in those 1/2 – 3/4 shots with the 54 and 58 degree wedges. There were a number of times in the short game area that I would take these swings and hit the same distances with varying length swings. Trajectory and spin would change, but overall distance would be the same. It was, weird, to describe it. The 50 degree wedge I have not had this issue with and it has become my go to wedge under 100 yards. The 54 and 58 degree wedges have left me short quite a bit with shots that just did not seem to go the distance I was expecting for the swing that was made. I do want to spend a moment on the grips, I don’t recall if I specified Mid-size grips or not, but the wedges came with Golf Price MCC4’s. I have played midsize in the past but had recently been in a standard size grip mode so they will take/took a little getting used to. Distance wise, these things are longer than the RTX wedges I am gaming. Not hugely, but it's there. I will be able to tell better once the weather warms up some more (Yes, I've been testing in winter), but the signs are good so far. Also, I have not had any "jumpers", the old 20 yards further than normal.

remaining rounds played locally were the first time playing that course this season, so the basis for comparison (10/12 rounds) is a difficult one vs previous gamers At a shot level around the green, only 2/7 previous rounds with the 60* resulted in positive Strokes Gained totals with that club vs my benchmark. Of these 7 rounds, they were all played on different courses in 2 different provinces and in Florida across multiple golf trips.

Well, yes I am going to put these in the bag. I think the more I use them the better they will get. The only caveat is that if we have another wet winter I may just "rest" them till the ground firms up again.

For the competitive player, Indi Golf has the Stingray TT wedges. These short game tools seek to bring similarly high levels of spin to those who need USGA-compliant equipment. Looks If the potatoes are too old, have been lying for a long time in the storage, they won’t fry well without parboiling. So I don’t skip that extra step. You may skip but keep the size of wedges thinner so they cook well from inside. I have had the joy of learning golf from my father and it's his fault that I am a lefty. He gave me his old clubs to learn with even though I am right-handed in every other way. I currently get to enjoy playing golf with my brother and nephew, whom are both Templeton members too.The wedges each have the same degree of bounce (10 for the FLX S’s) and that makes for a consistent feel across all when engaging the bounce. It helped in my learning curve on how the wedges would react - as they all bounced the same. local rounds with the Indi's resulted in positive SG vs a 5 index (previous performance was at that of a 15 index or ~1.5 SG worse)