What you need to know: For more than a decade, Callaway’s Jaws line of wedges has made significant strides in terms of technology and serious inroads into the retail wedge market. Which makes the official debut of its latest wedge line all the more intriguing. That’s because the Jaws name no longer adorns the clubs, but rather has been replaced by Opus in two models: Standard and Platinum. Key to the new wedges, designed with extensive input from the tour, is a totally revamped groove package designed to lower launch while enhancing spin.
The grinds have evolved over time but there are four offerings including a lower bounce option for firmer turf conditions on tour. Among the options are a C, S and W grinds, which have been seen on the previous Jaws Raw line along with a T grind.
Pricing/Availability: $179 Opus Standard; $230 Opus Platinum. Available for pre-order July 19, in stores July 26 (Standard) and Aug. 16 (Platinum).
1. Spin City
Dubbed “Spin Gen Face Technology” by the company, the revised face/groove design combines three key elements. An all-new tighter pitch puts more grooves on the face, an offset groove-in-groove design creates spin when opening the face, and a new aggressive face blast provides added bite on partial shots.
“What we’ve done is essentially put more [grooves] on the face,” said Brian Herr, R&D manager for wedges for Callaway. “To do this, we had to narrow the pitch or lessen the distance between each groove. And what this does is put more groove edges on the golf ball. And what we’ve seen in testing is that it’s lowering the launch and creating more spin.”
Callaway also added a new quartz blast to the face. “The quartz is really doing a good job in the wet condition when you need surface roughness and friction,” said Herr. “And it’s helped in keeping launch low and, again, with the spin in the wet condition.”
2. Tour tested
“We leaned on players heavily on the design, “said Joe Toulon, PGA Tour rep for Callaway. “How it looked, how it performed, the different grinds, bounces, etc. [manager of tour operations] Dean Teykyll and Roger Cleveland have been great sounding boards for the players.”
Some of the input included a desire for a more rounded shape. “It can be tricky to find a shape that is pleasing to everyone’s eyes on how it sits at address,” said Toulon. “However, we got consensus from the players on a more rounded shape and a slightly rounder leading edge that players prefer when they open it up around the green. We tried different toplines and toe shapes and leading edges, too.”
The new wedges have been used by two major winners in 2024: PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele and U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso.
Which is part of the reason for the name. Opus is a nod to a composer’s created work. “This is a journey we’ve been on for 18 months to two years and it’s a homage to that journey,” said Toulon. “A wedge for the players designed by the players and we think everything that we’ve learned along the way has led to the best wedge design Callaway has ever produced.”
3. Going Platinum
The new Opus Platinum Wedges are a true leap forward, fusing advancements from metal injection molding (MIM), and tungsten to lower launch. “When we were asked to create a product where we didn’t worry about money, or costs, or all those things, we came up with the idea with how we could make ourselves better with our own wedge games?” said Herr. “My personal wedge game, I tend to hit the ball a little bit higher on the face because I’m steep; in turn, that has my misses launching a little bit higher. So, we wanted to pull the CG up and the best way to do that is to put heavy material in the topline to pull it directly up from where it is. As you can see Opus Platinum is just that; we put a large tungsten weight [17 grams] in the topline to pull the CG up higher to create lower launch.
“The other thing to touch on is the finishes. The Platinum Blue is really striking, it’s got a ton of curb appeal. … The grind options, this is tighter, it’s niche, this will be supplemental to the core line of Opus. We’re keeping this in the sand and lob wedges. It’s really where that tungsten and trajectory story benefits most. Looking at the grinds we wanted to have something that was friendlier but a low bounce option. Something that the quote/unquote better player, the player that’s a lower handicap but might need a little more help. The Z Grind is the only one that has that leading edge chamfer in there.”
