PGA Tour pros do this in their wedges every week, don’t they?

I recently took a trip to PING headquarters in Phoenix and had the incredible experience of having Adam Harding, from the Ping Tour Truck, custom grind me.

When we visited Ping before for Completely suitableI had trouble getting the lob wedge right, which was frustrating because I loved how they felt off the face and they were rolling more than anything else I’d tried the rest of the week. Thankfully, we were on another trip out west and I got to work with Adam, who I had been texting for weeks about my wedge calling attempt.

I have already received feedback from viewers and followers that this is not a “normal” thing and it is hard to compare the experience to what a consumer might get. However, that’s wrong, and I’m more than happy to let you in on this little secret.

How did I know I needed a custom grind?

When we came out for Fully Fit at Ping, I really, really liked the new S259 wedges. In full shots with the ditch wedge and the sand wedge, I was impressed with the feel, and more importantly, the penetrating flight the wedges produced with more spin than I had seen from anything I tested. This was confirmed throughout the week-long trip.

The problem was we couldn’t figure out the lobe wedge. I usually play a wedge with a lower bounce to prioritize the ability to open the face without exposing the leading edge. This helps add effective puffiness while allowing me to be creative.

Oddly enough, the best option of the day in the Fully Fit ended up being the W grip, but that was mostly because I could make the wedge work for more types of square-faced shots. Bending the shaft, holding the hands back or going down the toe was easy and the wedge was very forgiving, but I had to abandon the option of opening the face on small shots around the green. With that wide of a sole and so much bounce, it just wasn’t something I was comfortable watching or executing.

This is where custom contention comes in.

A friend of mine used to work on all my golf clubs and a couple of years ago, we found that a significant reduction in the heel of each lob wedge is good for my game. I like to open up the face, and the heel drop helps a lot with that.

I also like to add some slip to the leading edge to ensure I don’t create a knife that digs into the ground and never comes out. In 2024, I sported a Mizuno T24 that was customized with camber and heel relief, and for 2025, I did the same with a Cobra King, a new grind of which is a current first for the bag.

There was just something about these Ping S259 wedges that I really liked, so I messaged Adam about possibly making some changes to the H-Grind, which was very close in testing. It worked well around the greens but was too sharp on longer fairways or full shots. Drilling really hard and not coming out of the ground properly is a common issue with the H-Grind, and I had the same problem.

Adam was sure he could help. He texted me to say he was exploring some options for that problem whenever I could see him next. You can see the entire interaction in the YouTube video we created.

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Figuring out what custom milling should be

We started by hitting some shots with the “pretenders”. Adam wanted to use the S259 S-Grind as a baseline test because it is PING’s “standard” grind. It’s something that works for many players and has a unique way of showing what a player might need from a wedge. It’s not difficult at all for me.

Of course, I took one out of the money. Definitely not one we would move forward with. Next, we went back to testing the H-Grind. We were pretty sure this one would work for me on the green, so it was more of a fun test just to show off a bit. The H-Grind has about 90% of what I look for on shorter shots around the green, but I could still feel the heel making contact with the ground in front of the ball.

Finally, Adam, for his research, wanted me to hit the newly created E-Grind.

The E-Grind takes the classic Ping Eye style grind and modernizes it for today’s game. It still has the eye grind style material cut on the sole, which gives the two leading edges and the two trailing edges of a sort.

The idea is to have the front of the wedge lower for use around the greens, but high enough on the bounce to hit fuller shots. Unfortunately for me, the shape of the leading edge was still a bit too sharp for how steep I am on pitch and full shots. Even trying to open it around the greens, I struggled to get past that “second cut” in the sole. We went back to H-Grind to hit some more shots and decided that would be our starting point.

From there Adam went to work.

He started by grabbing a fresh S259 H-Grind from the truck drawer (no weight port installed) and taking it to the grinding belt. Using a thicker, more aggressive belt, he began to remove the material.

Since Adam had done the same for himself, it didn’t take him long to get there. He removed a bunch of material from the heel and what was once a bit of a knot in that area became nice and flat. He then smoothed out the rest of the wedge with a finer, less aggressive strip to help blend before meeting the leading edge.

To make it less sharp without adding too much extra bounce, he had to be careful about the angle he chose to grind this new “slide”. By tapering off the front end a bit more and creating a glide, I can aggressively stay at the angle of attack without worrying about the wedge getting stuck in the ground during pitches or more full shots.

Again with this, he started with a thick strip to lower the shape and remove the material, and then finished it off with a finer strip to blend it back into the wedge. Since this was a Hydropearl 2.0 Chrome finish, it’s easy to see the work done, but Adam did a fantastic job blending the grind, even with the finish removed.

Making sure we didn’t screw it up

After Adam created the new wedge, he built it to my specifications with a Project X 6.5 Wedge shaft and a GolfPride Tour Velvet Cord grip.

The cool part about building a PING wedge from scratch is access to the CTP weights (pictured above). Heads start without a gate weight, so they can build the wedge without having to worry about tip weight or swing weight at all, and then the appropriate CTP weight can be placed on the construction at the tail end to ensure proper swing weight.

This is especially cool when it means there are zero problems building a unique length and, in my case, building it the same length as a gap wedge.

After the wedge dried, we returned to PING Test Points chipping the green to hit the same shots we started with.

I felt the difference immediately.

It was so easy to open the wedge and be aggressive in my angle of attack without ever fearing that I would drive the wedge into the ground. We quickly hit some great shots and then headed to the box to hit some full shots. Here we would find out if the whole experiment was worth it.

The good news: it was a breeze. The wedge didn’t get stuck in the ground once. It got into the ground quickly, which helps me make sure contact with the first ball, but it came out quickly enough that the spin values ​​remained stable, the impact location and the consistency of the shot improved. The flight window I was looking at was almost perfect. One shot after another, Adam’s final shot proved its worth. I was a very happy golfer with a new tool.

Tournament experiences are great… but how does the regular golfer get that?

One of the common comments I’ve received since this content was published is that it’s not fair to show an experience that the average consumer can’t get.

But this is not true.

There are many private bay fitters who do custom mounts and grinds, and many online resources for places to send your wedge with notes on how you want it ground. Remember, some things will require more investment. If you really feel like you’re out of options in the wedge market, it’s absolutely worth investing a few more dollars to get a pitch just the way you need it. It is for me anyway. But that’s not even the best part.

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The best news is that this type of experience is available through Custom Ping. A authorized Ping dealer can work with Ping through what is called the Ping WRX program. It’s an “if you know it, you know it” kind of program, but it’s one of the best ways that Ping sets itself apart.

Deals like that are part of the reason Ping doesn’t sell directly to the customer. They want to make sure the gears are properly tested or, if possible, assembled. By working with authorized dealers for things like the Ping WRX, this allows customers and their fitters to get specifics on what they’re looking for from Ping and bring this kind of experience to the regular consumer.

For more information on that program, visit your local authorized PING dealer. I would probably stay away from the big box stores with this one though, and find a local fitter or a local golf shop near you to help get the order right.

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