No Fear Golf

A friend of mine who I’ve golfed with for years inspired me to develop a new type of golf club.  Of course, he didn’t know that at the time, and neither did I.

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My friend never could hit a wedge very well and eventually all but stopped using them.  He would simply use his putter once he got close to the green.

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Eventually, he stopped hitting wedges from the fairway and started putting from further and further out.  He would putt from twenty, thirty, fifty yards out on the fairway and more. 

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He became surprisingly proficient with his ultra long putts - often rolling the ball right up close to the pin from fifty yards away or more. 

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My Friend’s name is Jim Fear.  Jim is the inspiration for the Fear Wedge.​

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I’ve seen Jim putting from even further away – seventy, eighty yards out.  Jim would sometimes putt from the rough or even a shallow bunker, often with surprising success. 

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Over time, some members of the Men’s Club at our local golf course started referring to their putter as a “Fear wedge” guys would jokingly say “I’m going to hit my fear wedge” if they ever used their putter from even a few feet off the green. 

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More and more often, I would find myself putting from several yards off the green.  It wasn’t lost on me that sometimes it was safer to rely on the more controlled swing of a putter than to try a lob or a pitch shot if the green was surrounded by bunkers or hazards. 

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Often, if I was nervous about chunking or thin-hitting a chip shot into the hazard I’d find myself reaching for my putter.  I learned that the term ‘Fear Wedge' had more than one meaning.

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However, putting from off the green can also be extremely challenging.  Since putters have virtually no loft, the ball is in contact with the ground the whole way.  To be successful a golfer has to judge how much the grass will slow the ball down.  The distance the ball will roll may very significantly based on simple factors like if the sun is at your back or in front of you.  How does Jim pull it off? In his case I think a lot of practice and God given skill.​

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When I retired from the high tech industry in late 2019 I found myself with plenty of time on my hands to play golf.

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​Jim’s example inspired the design of a club that harnessed the simplicity of a putting stroke.

 

• A club head that had enough weight to send a ball long distances with the control of a putting stroke. 

• A club with a larger club-face and just enough loft to get the ball off the turf and in the air but with a low penetrating flight. 

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The concept of a dedicated bump-and-run Fear Wedge was born.

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We started buying up old 1 irons and 2 irons off of ebay and cutting down the shafts, bending the heads to different lie and loft angles, adding led weights, and taking them out onto the golf course for testing. 

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By the seventh prototype we were getting surprisingly good results.  Much to my surprise, other golfers who saw our prototype in action started asking where they could get one.  Almost everyone who tried loved it - and wanted one. 

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Soon we partnered with a local machining company who had the 3-D modeling software and experience and state-of-the-art CNC milling machines we need to develop a real club-head. 

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After two more years of Prototyping, 3-D Computer modeling, rigorous field testing, trial and error, and manufacturing refinements, The Revolutionary new FearWedge had  come to life.