A GolfWRX reader wrote me the other day to ask how I got into the design and specialization in wedges, so I thought I would share this story with you all. I hope you find it interesting.

As most of you know, I’ve been in the golf equipment industry for almost 40 years. I actually started out on the marketing side but evolved into a club designer as well, as my tinkerer personality and habits began to manifest. My marketing background actually serves my club design work, because all impactful product development springs from an awareness of a genuine consumer problem or opportunity, whether it’s a golf club or an iPod.

As for that tinkerer personality, I was the kid who always took my toys apart to see how they worked and then put them back together—hopefully, so that they would work again. That mechanical curiosity was nurtured by my patient father, who entertained all my questions as we took apart our fishing reels, shotguns, etc. to clean and maintain them.

When I became involved in the golf industry, I spent an inordinate amount of time in the back end of Ray Cook and Otey Crisman putters, Joe Powell Golf, and others, as I was completely fascinated with how and why golf clubs worked. You see, I don’t remember life before golf–another gift from my father. He and our local golf pro nurtured my commitment and curiosity about the golf swing and the game while mentoring me to become a scratch golfer.

Anyway, that curiosity and imagination led me to my first original putter design in the mid-1980s and then over a hundred more putter designs in the years following.

But it was a golf trip to Scotland in 1990 that triggered my interest in wedges. My brother and I had played the New Course at St. Andrews our first day there and the tight lies and firm turf proved challenging with my then-new “brand X” sand wedge.

As we were touring Auchterlonie’s Golf Shop the next morning, I saw a grinding wheel and an idea just came to me. I asked if I could come back with a wedge to grind on it some, to which they said OK.

So, I went back to the hotel and got my conventional sand wedge – this was long before all these diverse grind options were available. I don’t think wedges even had a bounce designation on them at the time.

Anyway, I proceeded to grind away on the trailing part of the sole until I had reduced the bounce by probably half. I wasn’t really measuring as much as eyeballing. Then–and why this idea hit me, I’m not sure–I proceeded to grind the leading 1/4 or so of the sole to create a very aggressive bounce in the range of 20-25 degrees. In fact, I ground almost all the way up to the first groove, making the wedge look very odd.

By this time, the wedge was butchered pretty good, as I was not a trained grinder by any stretch of the imagination. So, I then ground more off the bottom of the hosel and in the heel to make it as visually palatable as I could. By the time it got to looking reasonable, of course, I had compromised the head weight dramatically.

So, I bought or borrowed some lead tape from the shop and proceeded to pack the back of the wedge to bring it back up to D4-5, as I remember.

And the results were very gratifying. Hardpan to bunkers, soft lie to rough—this thing was odd-looking, but amazing. My brother and I took turns with my wedge the rest of the trip – from Carnoustie to The Old Course, Turnberry, and Troon. He even nicknamed it “Quasimodo,” after the character in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. We were both extremely excited about what I had created in the back of the shop in “The Old Grey Toon,” as St. Andrews is often called.

So, when I returned to the states, I bought several conventional sand wedges out of the bargain barrels and began to experiment–this time in a bit more sophisticated manner. I found a welder who would add material onto the soles and purchased a grinder so that I could try different grinds. Each time, I would take them out for testing by myself and by some very good players I knew. But I also had mid- to high-handicap players testing, and they were even more enthused than the scratch players and pros in my test group.

[NOTE: That’s when also began to realize there was a big difference in the wants and needs from wedges between the better players and those not so advanced]

And that was how “the Koehler Sole” was invented.

After three years of legal work, in 1994 I was awarded U.S. Patent #5,301,944 for incorporating two positive bounce angles into the sole of a club. And I have incorporated that feature into every wedge I’ve ever designed, from Merit Golf to EIDOLON to SCOR to Ben Hogan, and now for Edison Golf. It’s been called the “Dual Bounce Sole™” and the “V-Sole®”, but each iteration has been an improvement on the one before, and it has earned a pretty loyal following through those brands.

I should add that along this journey, I also began to dramatically increase the mass in the top half of the wedge as well.

But that’s another story I am happy to tell if you are interested.