Testing the Renegar Golf Wedges

Our design integrity is only as good as its very real and measured performance.  We know your scores will be lower – and that is the final test.  But, talk is cheap.  Our R&D work would not be complete without validating what we have done with good structured and controlled testing.  Golf club performance is well-measured today with both launch monitors and robot testing.

TRACKMAN LIVE PLAYER LAUNCH MONITOR TESTING

Overview of our TrackMan Launch Monitor Full Swing Evaluation - Introducing the elements of human error and inconsistency with live player testing is the final real test for a short game golf club design.  While this kind of full swing test does not prove the versatility of our Renegar design, it is nevertheless a good indication of how our club will perform when pressed to its design limits for swing speed and distance – when it is used as the player's 10/11/12/13 irons.

Test Design - A relatively small sample size of 10 carefully measured shots per club was used because of the obvious effect of tiring upon golf test subjects with larger numbers of test shots.  We enhanced the validity of this small sample size by throwing out the best and worst shots from each club’s data.  Our test subject hit comfortable full swing shots down a pre-determined target line with 56 degree wedges.  A single player hit all test shots.  He was a 0 handicap industry professional power player.  The test subject's current “gamers” were not among any of the three tested clubs.  

Controls and Data Gathering Equipment

  • All three 56-degree test wedges were measured to confirm equal lofts before testing.
  • All shots were hit with identical brand and model tour quality moderate spin balls.
  • All shots were hit in a hitting bay from a mat down an outdoor range with data gathered by a TrackMan launch monitor permanently fixed in that bay.
  • TrackMan collects data using Doppler radar and calculates measures for each shot to the tenth of a yard in distance and direction.
  • Weather conditions were excellent with air temperature at 60 degrees and no wind.

Summary and Conclusions

The Renegar wedge exhibited greater control, accuracy, and consistency – even at the higher swing speeds generated by our “power player” test subject.  The Brand “C” and Brand “T” wedges could not match the accuracy, consistency, or control of our Rx wedge.

Below are the three TrackMan illustrations showing the actual charted “shot dispersion patterns” of the three clubs tested and a table summarizing the results of those same tests.  When contrasted against the two industry leaders, the shot dispersion pattern areas showed the Renegar wedge to be almost 5 times as accurate as Brand “C” and nearly twice as accurate as Brand “T”.   We attribute this improved accuracy and consistency to both the superior club head design and our short game shaft.

Scoring Advantage - The accuracy advantage of the Renegar wedges landing closer to the hole will obviously translate into shorter putts that will surely be holed more frequently - resulting in a true scoring advantage. 

Average Distance and Spin - There were no statistically significant differences in average distance or spin performance among the three test clubs for full swing shots. All three had average carry distances of 100-101 yards and spin rates of 11,100 rpm (+/- 100 rpm). There were, however, quite significant differences in the consistency of distance with the Renegar wedges easily winning that category of performance when looking at all the test data. 

Distance and Direction Data – After throwing out the best and worst shots for each club, the following ranges of performance for the remaining test data were observed for distance and direction and calculating accuracy measures:

 

Brand

Shot Pattern Area

Distance Variance

Direction Variance

Rx12 Wedge

42 Sq. Yds.

7.5 yds.

5.6 yds.

Brand "C"

153 Sq. Yds.

14.6 yds.

10.5 yds.

Brand "T"

63 Sq. Yds.

9.8 yds.

6.4 yds. 

Consistency – The Renegar wedges exhibited significant other performance advantages for “consistency” in the measures of Ball Speed & Carry Distance (this demonstrates our club head design is working - just like the robot test confirms), Maximum Trajectory Height, and Steepness of Landing Angle. 

NOTE ON ACCURACY LIMITS:  It is probably very important to understand the accuracy of the Renegar wedges is actually approaching the design limits imposed by the inconsistencies of golf ball performance. While many technically "savvy" golfers might assume that a robot would "stack" center hit 100-yard shots in a bucket, it is actually true that these balls would land in an area slightly larger than a king-size bedspread (about 4 X 3.5 yards) - and therefore not much smaller than the observed shot dispersion performance of the Renegar wedges.

NOTE ON SKILL OF TEST SUBJECTS:   While it is important for us to create golf clubs that work for players at every skill level, it is just not realistic to expect lower skilled golfers to hit shots consistently enough for us to make precise quantitative assessments of golf club performance and the nuances associated with the development of truly great golf club designs.  Higher handicap players are well-suited to make qualitative assessments for cosmetics, sound, feel, weight, etc., but when it comes to hitting the shots, we will generally use only highly skilled players for our R&D testing.

GOLF LABORATORIES ROBOT TESTING

The weight distribution improvement of Renegar’s patented sole contour was also tested against these same two Sarazen-based design industry leaders for accuracy in an independent laboratory robot evaluation.  Robot testing will confirm the goodness of any particular club head design at performing on off center impact.  This test again replicated the performance of full swing shots, but the robot was set-up with a swing speed to produce approximately 85-90 yard shots – more in the range of normal swing speeds.

In this case, an identical distribution of off center hits was created for all three 56-degree test clubs.  Each club was hit in 5 precisely determined locations on the club face - on center, 3/4 inch toward the heel and toe, and 3/8 inch above and below center.  Resultant shots from these impacts were confirmed with several shots on each location and then charted for distance and direction right or left of centerline.  Area and shaping for those “shot dispersion patterns” are then determined using basic math, graphing, and visual inspection. 

Robot Test Results

In this case, the Renegar improvement proved to be 3 times more accurate than either of these same two competitors.  Better consistency in both distance and direction were apparent for the Renegar wedge – further supporting and confirming our TrackMan launch monitor player results.  The two industry leaders created shot dispersion patterns with great variation in distance – about 10 yards for both.  The most damaging off center shots for both Sarazen wedges were the 3/8 inch below face center (thin) hits - each adding 8-10 yards in distance compared to center hits (and yet this is the most common miss for better players). The Renegar wedge varied only 3 yards from shortest to longest observed shots – confirming that this club head design improvement is working very well for off center impacts.