Callaway introduces the new Opus and Opus Platinum wedges

<!–

–>

Callaway has introduced the new Opus and Opus Platinum wedges to PGA TOUR players ahead of a wider release later this year.

This is the first look we'll get at the finished product, but Callaway staff have been involved in the modeling and design process for nearly two years, according to Callaway Tour manager Joe Toulon.

Toulon says Callaway wanted to dig into what the top players were looking for in their teams.

“We did a lot of work with this wedge in the prototyping stages,” Toulon said.

“We really started to get into this phase and understand what the best players in the world are looking for at the limit.”

The way the club lays down with its face open, the shape of the sole, the sound, the feel, and the way the wedge meets the grass when it hits under different conditions have all been carefully thought out by Toulon and his team.

The experts had the upper hand on this one, despite Callaway's research and design staff having studied the wedge section for decades.

As it turns out the study showed that the wedge shape in the address was the biggest barrier to entry.

“The mode is something that we spent a lot of time with, and making it look good for a lot of players – it's something that you can't hit everyone with right, but this is something where we got many hours of feedback and testing from TOUR players, and this is kind of the final product,” said Toulon.

“I think one of the things players focus on when they first putt is how it looks at address, and how it looks when you open the face, and we've done a lot around that; the shape and roundness of this painting.”

Toulon refers to it as the “final” version as the Opus wedges had several revisions and versions before this result was achieved. The sixth prototype, in fact, serves as the basis for this final variation of the Opus wedge.

“(The Opus wedge) was code-named 'S6' during the process,” Toulon said. “We've stepped on all the wedges here (on the PGA TOUR) like this with the S6, and that's just representative of some of the molding designs we've gone through.

“That was the sixth form structure we settled on based on what the player's response was. That's really the whole story behind this ending; TOUR-inspired, TOUR-driven. These guys out there designed this wedge. This is the last cosmetic design and the last one we went with.”