Sand wedge is not invented by Gene Sarazen, but modernized by him

Mary Ann Sarazen, daughter of Gene Sarazen, said that, " Dad didn't invent the sand wedge, but he modernized it".

It was 75 years ago that Gene Sarazen won the 1935 Masters with his Shot Heard 'Round the World, a double eagle on 15. It amazes me to think how that phrase and shot are still part of golf lore. Three years before that, in 1932, he won the U.S. and British Opens with a nifty new club in his golf bags: a Wilson sand wedge that he designed. To this day people see my last name and say, "Tell me the story of how your father invented the sand wedge." Or, "Wow! Can you imagine how much money your father would have made had he applied for a patent on the sand wedge?"

There's only one problem: My father didn't really invent the sand wedge. Scottish golfers in the 19th century had special discount golf clubs for getting out of the sand. Walter Hagen was using a battle ax of a sand wedge in the late 1920s, with a hickory shaft and a smooth concave face — later deemed illegal — with a lot of loft and about a half pound of weight in the flange. A man named Edwin K. MacLain had a patent on that club and assigned the rights to Hagen's manufacturing company. I know this because I sit on the USGA's museum and library committee with a man named Pete Georgiady, who is an expert on old clubs. Pete and I are both members of the Golf Collectors' Society. Oh, the things we talk about. You'd be amazed.

What my dad did was design the first modern sand wedge, with a steel shaft, markings on the clubface and the amount of flange on it that is still widely used today. The story he told me, was that some time in the late 1920s, he went flying with Howard Hughes, the aviation tycoon, movie producer and scratch golfer. When Hughes's plane took off, the flaps on the wings came down and my father made a connection between the flaps and the flange you could add to a club that would allow it to slide through the sand and help golf balls pop up.

In those days my parents rented a bungalow in New Port Richey, Fla., and my father experimented by soldering flanges to his niblicks, which were similar to a modern pitching wedge. He sent the wedges to Wilson, and the company used those prototypes to come up with its first sand wedge in the early 1930s. Almost 80 years later the club has hardly changed.

wedges recommend: Cleveland CG12 Black Pearl Wedge, Titleist Vokey Tour Chrome Wedge etc.

| see more |             | return to istockgolf.com |