Yesterday afternoon Titleist, on their brand new Vokey Design site, announced the availability of their first custom wedge for the average golfer. The newly released wedge is the first of what the company promises will be many, to feature a “custom” sole grind previously only available to Titleist’s touring professionals.

The TVD (Tour Van Design) 60 features the popular Vokey Spin Milled grooves.  If you watch the video of Bob Vokey discussing the wedge, he hints that the grind of the TVD incorporates elements of the various grinds he done for Titleist tour pros.  Given that the wedge is stamped with a “M”, there is a suggestion that the M-grind had the single biggest influence on the design.  The TVD grind (whatever the inspirations) has heal, toe, and leading edge relief, all of which can have significant benefit for golfers who like to open up the face on the occasional shot. All told, Titleist and Vokey designs are offering a wealth of custom options not usually available anywhere this side of Scratch Golf.

For a relatively steep $250 you get the 60° TVD wedge with 14° of measured bounced (8° effective).  You’ll also get the shaft and grip of your choosing.  Like any custom order you can opt for a longer or shorter shaft, as well as have adjustments made to the lie and loft of the clubhead.  Finally, to truly customize your wedge the team at the Vokey Design Studio will imprint up to 8 alpha-numeric characters of your choosing in to the finish of your wedge.  That stamping can then be filled with one of 21 colors.

Shaft options include:

• TrueTemper Dyanamic Gold (S200, S300, S400, X100)
• TrueTemper Sensicore (S200, S300, S400, X100)
• Rifle Project X (5.5, 6.0, 6.5)

Grips options include Golf Pride Tour Velvet wraps, cord, and rib designs.

The TVD 60 is limited to a run of 600 wedges, so if you want one you’ll need to act fast.  Judging by the less than stellar performance of the Vokey website last night, interest is high, and I don’t expect they’ll last long.

UPDATE: Just a little more than 24 hours after the TVD Wedge was made available, all 600 have sold out.

Normally I’d be applauding Titleist for releasing the TVD 60, but truth be told, I’m a little hot under the collar about the $250 price tag.  Hey, capitalism is what it is and a wedge is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.  I have no doubt these wedges will sell out each and every time Bob Vokey puts a new grind up for sale, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

To me it’s all a bit much.  I can custom order a Vokey Spin Milled with any of the options listed above (sans the custom imprinting, and of course the M grind) for well less than $150.  I personally couldn’t care less about having my name stamped in a wedge (it’s not like they last forever), and given that competitors such as Callaway, Mizuno, and Cleveland, are all offering C-Grind type soles as part of their stock offerings, an extra $100 for a not-so-custom sole grind is a bit ridiculous.  I mean it’s not like Bob Vokey himself is actually going to fit you for this club.

To watch a company, who generally has among the best upgrade prices in the industry, create an artificial shortage of product at a premium price is a tremendous disappointment.  I’ll keep watching the Vokey Design site, admittedly with a bit of envy (I am in the market for a new 60), but won’t be jumping in at $250 “Custom” anytime soon.

Here’s the thing, if Titleist eliminated the custom imprinting option, and sold the M Grind like they do every other wedge in the Vokey lineup, they’d sell thousands (probably tens of thousands).  Limiting the run to 600 and trying to create a collectior’s edition wedge, doesn’t make a whole lot of business sense, and speaking as a golfer who would otherwise be first in line to buy the new wedge, it really chafes me under the knickers.