Callaway Opus Wedges — Review

There’s a particular aspect of being an elite professional golfer that makes me outrageously envious. No, it’s not playing for ludicrous sums of prize money, or receiving shedloads of free gear, hats and golf balls. Most top golfers are socially awkward loners so it’s certainly not the “glamourous” jet-setting lifestyle. And after watching episodes of Full Swing, it’s definitely not vapid golf WAGS.

My greatest golf envy is pros’ wedge games. How one minute they’re carving enormous, crisp divots out of the turf hitting full blast approach shots (if you’re a divot deviant, I highly recommend you google Richie Ramsay’s epic British Masters divot), then the next minute, the same wedge is used to execute a shot so delicate it makes a butterfly’s eyelash seen ungainly and ham-fisted. It's almost like tour pros flick a switch on their wedges. Or maybe their wedges are instilled with a split personality that makes Kanye seem stable and well-adjusted.

The new Callaway Opus is a tour wedge. So, given the tour appellation and the assumed target demographic, I was curious to find out if it would offer me (someone who admittedly, and despite my best efforts, will never be confused for an elite tour player) similar performance.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

For the past three decades the shaping of tour wedges has remained almost static. The visage of the classic Cleveland 588 wedge has formed the basis for most tour wedges over the past 30 years and because there’s not much space in a tour wedge head, there’s not much room to slot any meaningful tech into a tour wedge, either. Often the most significant difference is whether the wedge is cast or forged.

But Callaway are keen to stress that their new Opus wedge is a tour driven wedge, rather than merely a tour inspired one. Ignoring the semantics for a minute, my suspicion is Callaway have designed the Opus first and foremost for their tour guys, then said to the rest of us “there you go, here’s your new wedge”.

In practical terms it means the Opus looks quite different from Callaway’s previous wedges, the JAWS and Mack Daddy series. The Opus is bigger and the shaping is much simpler, cleaner and more traditional. Some might say the 588 bloodline is more obvious, but that would make the Opus sound like it’s 30 years old and thus old-fashioned (which I should point out, simply isn’t the case).

You see, the most important aspect of the Opus wedge is also the least obvious to the eye. Callaway have really leaned into the face and grooves, which feature three key technologies: a revised pitch angle on the sidewall of the main grooves; an offset microgroove pattern and textured blast finish on the hitting surface; and more grooves on the face. It’s designed to help the Opus generate loads of spin, particularly when it’s wet, or if some nuisance grass gets in the way of the face.

I’m well-acquainted with the coarse faces and laser-sharpened grooves that are hidden under the protective face sticker of new wedges, but the Opus really surprised me. The Opus face felt as rough as the business end of a belt sander, albeit one dulled after devouring wooden floorboards on the pointy end of the Janka scale.

But perhaps the most buzzworthy thing about the Opus isn’t the five grinds, or 25 loft/bounce combinations; it’s the fact there are two models of the Opus. And one of them does something no other tour wedge has done before.

The Opus Platinum wedge is neither cast (like the standard Opus wedge) or forged. It’s a multi-material wedge constructed via the Metal Injection Moulding (MIM) technique and is noteworthy for its 17g tab of tungsten blended into its topline.

The Platinum is purpose built for playing shots high off the face, like those you encounter when you open the face up to play an incredibly delicate shot (see Ballesteros, S). The tungsten shifts the centre of gravity higher and provides more meat at the top of the club, creating extra spin and a solid feel. And in my experience, that appears to be the greatest innovation we’ve seen in a tour wedge for about 30 years.

HOW IT PERFORMED

I’m not one of those golfers who goes weak-kneed and gushes about how soft a club feels, mainly because steel always seems to feel rather hard to me. However, without the slightest curling of my lip, I can say both the Opus and Opus Platinum wedge did feel soft off the face. That alone seems like a considerable achievement for the Callaway Opus and Opus Platinum wedge.

But wedges live and die by spin rates; or more specifically, how much spin can be applied to the back of the golf ball to make stop it effectively on the greens, and Callaway seem particularly proud of their Opus effort. The modus operandi was to launch the ball lower but provide some extra fizz, and in testing the Opus seemed to stack up.

Apex height did seem a little lower on full shots (it was more noticeable in the Opus Platinum, I’d say) but it really wasn’t noticeable enough to make me question whether I’d caught it just a fraction thin. Spin, meanwhile, seemed on the money and the razor-sharp face design did chew up a few balls, suggesting the face and groove design was functioning as intended. But to test the full parameters of the Opus I came prepared, Bryson style.

I was armed with a bottle of water, which I dutifully poured over both the ball and face of the Opus. I’m well accustomed to that jittery and skittish feeling associated with playing wedge shots in wet conditions — particularly around the greens — as the ball slips and slides off the face. However, with the Opus I had a clear sense of the face gripping the ball, where it felt like the ball stayed in contact with the face for longer, and there seemed adequate grip to throw the ball in the air and trust it to stop quickly.

I was able to test all five grinds, with the standard Opus wedge offering Callaway’s familiar T, C, S and W line-up. The standard Opus wedge comes in brushed chrome, or a dark finish called Black Shadow. Paired with a black shaft, the Black Shadow Opus wedge must be one of the darkest clubs I’ve seen.

The low bounce T grind was a personal favourite, with a sharp, low, leading edge and plenty of heel and trailing edge relief that made it perfect for angling the face wide open around the greens. But the T grind also nipped it beautifully off the turf on full shots. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the high bounce W didn’t have much grind relief but functioned perfectly when digging the ball out of soft bunker sand with a steep angle of attack.

Meanwhile, the Opus Platinum is available in an S and Z grind and comes in the standard brushed chrome or a dark blue finish. As a general rule, I avoid blue clubs like a redhead with a fair complexion avoids the summer sun. But the dark blue Platinum wedge was palatable. It was dark enough to avoid standing out like a middle aged dad at a Sabrina Carpenter concert and the tungsten tab is a lighter shade of blue, providing a cool contrast. And the blue didn’t seem to wear off as quickly as I thought it might.

I’m not sure I could differentiate all that much between the standard Opus and the Opus Platinum, apart from there being slightly less of a clank sound when playing open faced shots. Maybe it was because of the Platinum’s integrated tungsten. So, if you’re a golfer who loves tinkering with lead tape on your wedges, the Opus Platinum is for you. 

However, I thought Callaway should've given the Opus Platinum the full face groove treatment. The tungsten topline is there to help golfers hit the ball off rarely-used areas of the face, so it seems a logical path to take (although maybe the full face groove version will drop this time next year).     

THE FINAL WORD

The penny did drop after testing Callaway’s Opus wedge: it’s meant to be different to Callaway’s previous tour wedges, but not too different to other wedges on the market.

I think Callaway might be on to something.

The new, simpler and more traditional shaping is definitely less weird than previous Callaway wedges, which suggests Callaway’s tour staff wanted the Opus to align more closely to other popular wedges on the market. The more familiar shaping should tempt players to test the Opus and Opus Platinum wedge and the wet weather performance was impressive, which may give the Opus an edge (I worked out that soup is an anagram of Opus, which seems entirely fitting).

My only concern is that Callaway have gone too vanilla to the point that golfers might view the Opus as just another "generic" tour wedge. But with Callaway staffer Xander Schauffele (who would've had some major input into the "tour driven" design of the Opus) winning the Open this year with the Opus in his bag, the new Callaway wedge has a gilt-edged opportunity to make major headway, and possibly prise some golfers away from competing wedges.

But the most important question remains unanswered: did the Opus help me play like an elite tour player, scything out huge divots while also hitting soft-landing flop shots? Not exactly, but unfortunately I couldn’t blame the Opus.

THE VERDICT

Written by Jamie Martin Jamie Martin is currently locked in a battle to keep his handicap hovering around the mid-single digits. Despite his obvious short-game shortcomings, Jamie enjoys playing and writing about every aspect of golf and is often seen making practice swings in a mirror.