Sub 70 TAIII Golf Wedges – Key Takeaways
- New forged wedges designed by Tommy Armour III
- Milled sole with modest bounce for versatility
- Tour Satin, Tour Raw and Black Diamond-Like Carbon finishes
- $135 per stick. Shaft, grip and ferrule upgrades available
- Available now at GolfSub70.com
The new Sub 70 TAIII wedges are a modern answer to that age-old question that you probably never asked: What would happen if an innovative club designer/direct-to-consumer pioneer gives a gearhead PGA TOUR veteran/grandson of a golf legend free rein to make a set of wedges?
C’mon, you mean you’ve never asked that question?
Well, you’ll want to ask it now. Sub 70 founder Jason Hiland and Tommy Armour III have teamed up again. The duo nailed it last year with their TAIII forged blades. And if the early returns are any indication, the TAIII forged wedges will definitely be worthy of your attention.
A Hiland/Armour Production, Part II
You know Hiland as the maverick golf entrepreneur who turned Sub 70 from an online curiosity into a direct-to-consumer paradigm buster. And Tommy Armour III is a longtime Tour veteran who held the PGA TOUR four-round scoring record for 14 years.
Oh, yeah, and his namesake grandfather—the Silver Scot himself—was a legendary golfer whose name is on two of the biggest-selling irons of all time.
“The natural thing for us was to take advantage of all those years of experience Tommy has and do a wedge with no preconceived notions,” says Hiland. “He had full autonomy.”
After the success of the TAIII blades, it was only natural to extend the family to include wedges. And Hiland decided to give Armour free rein to do what he wanted. And he didn’t need to ask Armour twice.
“I was looking to make a wedge that I liked, more than anything else,” Armour tells MyGolfSpy. “I like the old Wilson Fluid Feel wedges and that’s where my eye has always gone. Lee Trevino started me on those back in my late teens and early 20s when I’d practice with him a lot.”
Armour says he’s always liked a little offset in his wedges with a little bit of a thinner bounce. “I think really good wedge players don’t need a lot of bounce They do need some so that’s why the bounce is kind of narrowed on these.”
“If you play golf with Tommy, he hits all kinds of shots,” adds Hiland. “He’ll hit the bump and run, he’ll hit flops and he’ll hit those Steve Stricker-type no-manipulation shots. And there are times he will want to manipulate the face, so he wants a wedge he can do all that with.”
Sub 70 TAIII Wedges – Middle of the Road?
If you’re thinking the new Sub 70 TAIII wedges sound like they’d slot right in the middle between the company’s straightforward 286 wedges and the more versatile Seve/Phil-like JB wedges, you’re thinking correctly.
Not that Hiland or Armour planned it that way.
“It wasn’t by design. I told him to make whatever he wanted to make,” says Hiland. “But they fell right between the two. It has some forgiveness and enough shot-making ability so you can play it from all over the course.”
“It’s a wedge that can travel,” adds Armour. “You can go from the northeast to the south to the west and play all different surfaces and you’ll have a very effective wedge.”
Compared to the JB golf wedges, the new TAIII wedges have a slightly more rounded sole grind—that slight bounce Armour mentioned. Hiland says that makes the TAIII wedges noticeably more user-friendly.
“Tom doesn’t want to make it more difficult than it needs to be,” he explains. “If you need a straightforward chip-skip-stop, then that’s what he’ll do. Not everything needs to be flopped all the time. This wedge allows you to get the best of both worlds out of it.”
The TAIII wedges are forged from DT-4 steel. If you’re a fan of the Rockwell Scale, you’ll find DT-4 to be slightly softer than traditional 1020 carbon steel. Additionally, Armour included laser-etched micro-grooves in the design, similar to Cleveland’s signature groove pattern.
“We wanted to do everything we could to get the spin rate where he wanted it,” says Hiland. “It’s the first time we’ve done microgrooves and it worked out well.”
Archer or Arrow?
Armour was always known as a great ball striker and long hitter on Tour. His short game, however, wasn’t as solid.
“I’ve gotten better as I’ve gotten older,” says Armour. “When my brother caddied for me, he said, ‘We gotta fix this.’ We looked at all the best wedge players on Tour, and the ones who weren’t, We compared what made that guy good and that guy bad. We put the findings in my game and I got better.”
“Tommy will tell you if he had his short game now back when he was on the PGA TOUR, he’d have won a hell of a lot more,” adds Hiland.
So does that put Armour in the it’s the archer, not the arrow camp? The Silver Scot’s grandson says while there is some truth to the old saying, it’s not absolute.
“The better the player gets, the arrow becomes more important,” he says. “And clubs that don’t fit can create bad habits. And you can work yourself into a rabbit hole that’s hard to get out of.”
It’s clear Sub 70 is making TAIII a franchise. The new wedges join the TAIII forged blades in the lineup. Armour says a line of TAIII forged cavity-back irons is in the works as is a clothing line. Metalwoods would be the obvious next step, although Sub 70 isn’t giving clues.
And Armour is clearly following in his famous grandfather’s footsteps.
“You know, it’s some something I never thought about,” he says. “I’ve been known on Tour as a guy who knows a lot about clubs. Even as a kid, I’d always tinker with clubs and I love going down to the golf shop and messing around with clubs. So it’s always been a passion of mine.”
TAIII Wedge: Specs, Price and Availability
Armour’s new Sub 70 TAIII wedges are available in two-degree loft increments from 50 to 60 degrees. The entire line has what could best be described as a subdued bounce: a listed nine degrees on the 50 and 52, 11 degrees on the 54 and 58, 12 degrees on the 56 and 10 degrees on the 60. The 54- through 60-degree models are also available in a low-bounce option. The 54 and 56 LB wedges have eight degrees of bounce while the 58 and 60 LBs have seven.
As with anything from Sub 70, there’s no such thing as stock. The standard, no-upcharge offering is $135 per stick with the Dynamic Gold or the Elevate 95 MPH golf shafts. The Lamkin Crossline and Crossline 360 are the standard grips.
Other golf shafts are available for upcharges ranging from $5 to $20 for steel or graphite. The Mitsubishi MMT and Aerotech Steel Fiber are a $40 upcharge. The Paderson Ballistic 95 is a $90 upcharge. Just about any other grip you can think of is also available with upcharges ranging from $3 for a Golf Pride Tour Velvet to $10 for the NO1 50 in black or white.
A variety of colored ferrules is also available for $3 per stick.
The Sub 70 TAIII wedges will be available in three finishes: Tour Satin, Tour Raw and a highly durable Tour Black QPQ.
They’re available now on the Sub 70 website.
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