Lake Worth Course Owner Quietly Building Club Reputation

Winston Trails Golf Club owner Bryan Symonds is, first of all, a teacher. He is also a collector of great golf clubs that have a story to tell. That unique combination of passions has led Symonds to design a set of wedges that he says blends the tradition of the first great wedges with the technology of today, resulting in a “new-old” style wedge that’s slowly gaining a reputation on the PGA TOUR and with regular players like us.

In Symonds collection of wedges are classic clubs like the ones the legendary Tommy Armour, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and 1944 PGA Champion Bob Hamilton played on Tour. These wedges were almost round, specifically with rounded heels, where they were ground out, while keeping the leading edge very sharp.

These rounded wedges were particularly adept at hitting off hard, tight lies. However, they had very little bounce for use in bunkers and atop fluffy Bermuda roughs. So Symonds married the rounding technique of the old-style wedges and added 8 or 9 degrees of bounce to create an all-purpose wedge that will allow a player to open the clubface and hit the flop shot off harder surfaces, while still “bouncing” the ball off the clubface in bunkers and fluffy lies.

Symonds, whom you might guess is somewhat of a short-game guru, has found success on the Tours with this wedge, carrying the ProPenn name, in the bags of Craig Bowden and David Cunningham as a multi-use wedge that Bowden admits he can hit shots with he can’t hit with other wedges. The clubs also featured a win for Diane Lang at the Women’s U.S. Senior Amateur Championship. For more information on Symonds’-designed wedges available in 50, 52, 56 and 60-degree lofts, contact him at Winston Trails (561) 439-3700.