Something Old, Something New: RTX ZipCore

When the wedge-obsessed brain trust at Cleveland Golf sat down to plan their newest design, they were faced with a challenge: create something entirely new yet wholly familiar. This time around, they took an inside-to-out approach to develop the new RTX ZipCore.

“This is an exciting product for us,” says Brian Schielke, Marketing Director for the California-based company. “RTX ZipCore offers a revolutionary suite of technology with great performance, but also delivers everything you’d expect from a Cleveland Golf wedge.”

This new wedge utilizes signature ZipCore technology — a lightweight material placed in the heel of the wedge, just below the hosel, that replaces heavy steel. So much steel, in fact, that Cleveland’s designers had unprecedented levels of discretionary mass to play with, mass they placed high on the toe in order to center the wedge’s CG and boost its MOI.

“Our goals, in terms of CG placement and high-low MOI, were lofty for this project. But any revolutionary tech had to happen on the interior of the wedge so as not to spoil the shape or the feel that people have loved about our wedges for decades. So the team started by engineering the ZipCore. Then we built the rest of the wedge from the core up,” said Schielke.

Externally, the wedges have UltiZip Grooves, which are sharper, deeper, and closer set than grooves past. There are two additional grooves per wedge face, which means more groove contact on each shot and more spin. And while dry ball performance shows a modest improvement, these newly aggressive grooves shine in rough conditions. According to Cleveland, when you have sharper edges and more of them, you’ll slice right through grass blades and channel more water away from the ball to improve stopping power even in the worst conditions.

Couple all that with a new heat treatment process that rearranges the wedge’s metal molecules for resiliency, and you’ll have the performance of a new wedge for more rounds than ever before.

The new RTX ZipCore is available for pre-order on July 27th, 2020 and will be available to demo during Club Champion fittings in August.