PXG 0311 3X Forged wedges

Gear: PXG 0311 3X Forged wedges
Price: $179 each
Specs: Forged 8620 carbon steel in Chrome or Xtreme Dark finish. Even lofts from 50 degrees to 62 degrees.

Who it’s For: Golfers who want a clean, classic-looking wedge with forged feel.

The Skinny: The cleanest, most classic-looking PXG wedge made, the 0311 3X Forged is designed to maximize feel, while milled grooves and high-toe design create a large hitting area and more spin.

The Deep Dive: The PXG 0311 Sugar Daddy II wedges are packed with several technologies that make them outstanding short-game tools, but with a price tag north of $400 each, they are simply out of reach for many players. The new 0311 3X Forged wedges will be more affordable and still have been designed with several features that should help golfers improve their performance on short approach shots, chips, pitches and greenside bunkers.

The PXG 0311 3X Forged wedges have a high-toe design and grooves that cover the entire hitting area. Forged three times using 8620 carbon steel, the 0311 3X Forged wedges have a high-toe design that many players prefer because it provides a larger, more versatile hitting area, especially when you open the face on flop shots and in bunkers. The milled grooves cover the entire hitting area, so even when the face is opened, there are grooves that can grab the cover of the ball to help generate spin and increase control.

The sole design of the 0311 3X Forged wedges is tapered in the heel area and fairly straight across the middle and toe. It is meant to provide players with versatility, with the gap wedges and sand wedges (50, 52, 54, and 56 degrees) having 12 degrees of bounce and the lob wedges (58, 60 and 62 degrees) coming standard with 9 degrees of bounce.

To help ensure that each wedge is made precisely, PXG is robotically polishing the clubs. Milling, which involves a computer controlling a high-spinning bit as it passes back and forth over the clubhead to create the shape, works well but greatly increases the price. Robotically polishing after the third forging helps to increase the consistency from club to club more than hand polishing, but at a lower cost than milling.