I’ve always been pretty darn good friends with my wedges. Several years watching the likes of Phil Mickelson and a few other Tour pros perform slight-of-hand magic around the greens have instilled in me the joy of short-game practice.

But I’ve got some buddies who are scared of their wedges. Like, literally afraid of them. They grip them as if they were hypnotized serpents, about any minute to awake and strike.

Targeting golfers like my buddies, many equipment companies over the years have marketed wedges that do not conform with USGA rules. Now one of those equipment companies Indi Golf has introduced a fully conforming version of its popular StingRay wedges: the StingRay TT wedges ($160-$170).

The StingRay TT comes in lofts from 46-60 degrees and smoothens some of those non-conforming features to deliver quite a greenside magic show of its own. Traction Grooves run from toe to heel to provide spin no matter where on the face contact occurs. The insert face is also textured to create extra friction. And the ScoopBack design distributes the weight of the club head across the face, again to compensate for off-center contact.

So I gave a 60-degree StingRay TT to a couple of my buddies – the ones who compare their own lob wedges to poisonous snakes.

We plopped some balls into the primary rough around the practice green at <a href=”http://www.golfthelake.com/” rel=”nofollow” target=”_blank”>Lake of the Woods Golf Course</a>. As the Spirit of Old Tom Morris as my witness, the first swing that one of them took popped the ball straight into the air like a startled meerkat. It landed softly and trickled to the hole before disappearing.

“How much do you want for it?” he asked, not joking even a little bit.

Both guys proceeded to hit shot after shot that landed softer and surer than any they had ever hit with their own 60-degree wedges. By the end of the session, I had a bidding war on my hands. The consensus was that the TT slip through heavy grass like it wasn’t even there.

As for my own testing, the only fault I found with the StingRay TT was the leading edge, which is a bit sharper than the beveled “two-bounce” leading edge of my own wedges. Hence the good play from the heavy grass around the putting green. When contact was perfect, the performance of the TT was as good as any I’ve ever played. When contact was just a bit fat, however, shots came off heavy due to a slight “digging in” effect.

Nevertheless, if your current wedges are biting you, you might want to test out the StingRay TT to return the magic to your short game.

The StingRay TT could be the short-game magic wand you’ve been looking for.