If you are shopping around for a new wedge, you may have come across the brand known as Spin Doctor. These Spin Doctor clubs make some serious claims about increasing the backspin on your ball. These claims that they make almost seem like they make the clubs illegal…so are they? In this post, I’ve gathered evidence to determine whether Spin Doctor wedges are legal or not, read on to find out more!
Are Spin Doctor Wedges Legal? According to the USGA, Spin Doctor Wedges are illegal because the face of the club produces too much spin on the ball. Essentially, the Spin Doctor Wedge provides an excessive amount of assistance (with ball spin), giving players an unfair advantage when using the club (which makes it a non-conforming club).
What this means is that any Spin Doctor club is officially illegal in any high-level amateur or professional tournament play. So while most casual players can get away with using this brand, any above-average player will have to use a different brand in order to conform with USGA rules.
The Spin Doctor Wedge!!! 400x more spin!! #golf #golfclub #golfwedge #golfreview #backspin pic.twitter.com/qN22u5gNXL
— Marco Polo † (@93mitchyblades) August 14, 2020
What Really Makes Spin Doctor Reverse Groove Wedges Illegal?
If you check on Spin Doctor’s website, they make it clear that their RI wedges are guaranteed to increase the spin on your ball. More specifically, they state, “Spin Doctor RI Wedge produces 250-400% more back spin, Guaranteed!”. To an unsuspecting customer, this claim makes it seem like the club is going to solve all of their chipping woes.
However, while this sounds great (and is a solid selling point), it is not legal according to the USGA.
“If claims of excessive spin are made by the manufacturer, or if there is strong
supporting evidence of excessive spin, then the club would be deemed to be
Non-conforming” – USGA
In the ‘Club Face’ section of the USGA’s Equipment Rules (on page 55 or rule 5a.1), they state that if a golf club manufacturer “makes claims of excessive spin”, then the club can be deemed as non-conforming. This rule is essentially in place so that manufacturers can not make clubs that give golfers an extreme advantage.
Just to double check, I reached out to customer service at Spin Doctor to see if they could confirm if their clubs conformed to USGA standards or not. According to their representative, their clubs are made for amateurs, and not for professional or PGA play. A person named ‘Marc’ responded to my email. Here is what he said,
“The Reverse Groove inserts do not conform to USGA rules…
When the USGA / PGA established the dual standard for wedges, we decided to not create a PGA version and as TaylorMade’s XFT model proved there is not a market for them, the Tour Players only play the new grooves because they have to. Amateurs do not want to play them. Our products are geared towards Amateurs.”
The email was a bit confusing, but the main message that I got from it is that once the USGA started making stricter rules for wedges, Spin Doctor decided not to make a new design that conformed to the new rules.
The most interesting part of the email to me was when he mentions that the clubs are not made for pros, they are made for amateurs. Most golf club manufacturers that I’ve seen try to target all types of players when selling their clubs, whereas Spin Doctor doesn’t. It makes sense though, as their clubs are not allowed for any type of high-level play, they can only really sell to those that play casually.
