Editing Sand wedge (section)

==History==
Clubs with the loft of the sand wedge can be traced as far back as [[Young Tom Morris]], who used a "rut iron" for play from troublesome lies.<ref>{{cite book |title=Tommy's Honor |url=https://archive.org/details/tommyshonorstory00cook |url-access=registration |first=Kevin |last=Cook |year=2007 |publisher=Gotham Books |location=New York |isbn=978-1-59240-342-4}}</ref> Such irons were, however, traditional in construction, without the wider, heavier sole featured on the modern sand wedge.

[[Gene Sarazen]] began to win tournaments in 1932 with a new club he had invented that was specialized for sand play. He is hailed as the inventor of the sand wedge, though its history goes about 4 years further back than that. [[Spoon (golf)|Spoon]] clubs offered varying degrees of [[Loft (golf)|loft]] and allowed players to scoop their ball out of [[Bunker (golf)|sand traps]] and deep [[Rough (golf)|rough]]. As manufacturers became more and more innovative with club design, new types of wedges appeared. Some had [[wikt:concave|concave]] [[Glossary of golf#C|faces]], others featured deeply [[wikt:grooved|grooved]] faces, but not all of these designs conformed to [[USGA]] and [[The R&A|R&A]] regulations, and many were banned. With the concave-faced wedge having been outlawed in 1931, Sarazen designed his sand wedge with a straight face. Another modification that he made was to add extra lead to the front edge of the club face, allowing it to cut through the sand more smoothly. After he won the 1932 British and U.S. Opens with the help of his new club, its popularity vastly grew.