Equipment Review: SCOR Golf 4161 Scoring Clubs

Equipment Review: SCOR 4161 Scoring Clubs
by Jeffrey Reed, Editor, LondonOntarioGolf.com

Over the years, many standout scoring clubs have crossed our desk, but none finer than the SCOR Golf 4161 line of short irons and wedges. We’re not the only ones to have noticed, either. SCOR Golf has won many accolades over the past year for its short-game stars – all part of a SCOR Fit short game fitting system that allows CPGA Professionals, golf shops and custom club fitters to fit any golfer with matched wedges and short irons.

 SCOR4161 is the flagship product of SCOR Golf, a division of Eidolon Brands. President Terry Koehler’s roots in the golf industry go back almost 30 years, including posts ranging from marketing consulting to product design (he has been awarded several golf club patents). After 15 years of consulting with niche brands, he was Director of Marketing for Ben Hogan Company and then Founder/President of Reid Lockhart/Ray Cook. He’s designed almost 100 wedges, irons and putters, and has a passion for the short game.

In our books, Koehler’s latest offerings represent some of the most intelligent short irons and wedges ever made. After providing SCOR Golf with my specs, I was presented with a 9-iron through sand wedge fivesome – 43°, 47°, 51°, 55° and 59°, with stiff Genius shaft. Pardon the pun, but these clubs proved to be nothing short than ingenious. Even the SCORGrips from UST Mamiya are winners, thanks to a top light cord and bottom soft dual compound for feel and control.

“Very few golfers have the right combination of lofts in their scoring clubs. They also are not playing the proper shafts to optimize feel, or specifications to improve their shotmaking in the ‘money range,’” says Koehler, who spent a half hour chatting with us about his newest clubs. Here’s why they’re winners.

SCOR Golf’s patented V-SOLE is a versatile wedge sole unlike other specialized bounce angles offered by other brands. It adapts to any lie, providing a unique measure of forgiveness. The V-SOLE combines a high and low bounce into the sole of each SCOR4161 wedge and short iron. An innovative SGC3 Progressive Weighting (Short Game Control x 3 – distance, spin and accuracy) weight management concept creates seven different back-weighting designs across the entire range of scoring club lofts – from 41° to 61°. Each 3° range of lofts has a slightly different weighting scheme. Lob wedges are optimized for spin, trajectory control and distance accuracy with 58-61° of loft. So are the sand wedges at 54-57°, gap wedges of 50-53°, pitching wedges of 45-49° and short irons from 41-44°.

The Genius 12 120-gram shafts proved to be comparable to the Dynamic Gold shafts I am accustomed to, and there are two graphite offerings: GENIUS 9 – a heavier graphite shaft (mid-90 grams) that is a great choice for golfers playing the 90-gram steel shafts or conventional weight graphite in their irons; and GENIUS 7 – a lightweight graphite shaft (mid-70 grams) that allows golfers playing irons with graphite or super-light steel shafts to extend that balance and weight into their SCOR4161 wedges and short irons.

In addition to all-important putting, pitching and chipping are areas that make or break a solid round. With so many new clubs presented multiple times each year, choosing the right clubs for your game can be as difficult as making an up and down with a tournament victory on the line.

Two thumbs up for SCOR Golf. The CNC milled face and competition conforming grooves, along with the aforementioned attributes, make these clubs some of the best wedges we’ve tested. It’s obvious Koehler and team have put a lot of thought – as well as blood, sweat and tears – into their 4161 line of scoring clubs, so golfers of any level don’t have to work so hard to card a good round.

The SCOR website lists its clubs at $149/each, with discounts on complete sets. For more information, visit www.scorgolf.com.