Performance Golf One Wedge Review: Ummmm, Seriously??

Over the years I’ve been sent countless golf training aids – but most of them never make the cut to actually publish a review on.

Either they’re too gimmicky, too confusing, or too poorly built to spend the time talking about them.

For the last few months I’ve had a few products from Performance Golf sitting in my office, just waiting to be tested.

But because I’ve had questionable experiences with other training aids out there, I kept putting it off.

This week, I finally took their “One Wedge” out to the course to give it a shot.

Technically, the One Wedge isn’t a training aid. It’s a totally legal club that’s been built just for amateurs to help maximize consistency in their wedge game.

I was skeptical, to put it mildly. 

So after a few hours of testing out the Performance Golf One Wedge, is it just another gimmick? Is it actually worth it? I’ll go over all of it in this review.

Who is Performance Golf?

Before we look at the wedge itself, you should understand who and what Performance Golf is all about.

Performance Golf is a full suite of golf training products. 

They have clubs, training aids, and digital courses from some of the most well-known instructors in the business. Martin Chuck, Nick Faldo, and Eric Cogorno are just a few of the instructors they work with.

Now, I’m going to be totally honest with you here – this is part of the reason I’ve been hesitant to review Performance Golf’s products.

While being a golf training company, they’re also a marketing company.

These guys pump tons and tons of money into promotions, and are very good at what they do.

In the past, I’ve actually done marketing for some large training companies like this, and I’ve also signed up for memberships or programs through others – and had a less-than-positive experience.

So I’ve been treading very lightly.

That said, after starting to go down the rabbit hole, I’m far more impressed than I expected to be. 

I’ll talk about some of the reasons why throughout this review.

But keeping that in mind, let’s first talk about the One Wedge.

What is the Performance Golf One Wedge?

Now that you understand a little bit about Performance Golf, let’s talk about the wedge itself.

What is the One Wedge?

Essentially, the One Wedge is a golf club designed specifically for amateur golfers. The idea is to make hitting consistent wedge shots out of any lie as easy as humanly possible.

As you might have guessed, the name “One Wedge,” stems from the fact you should be able to make this the only wedge you need on the course.

It comes in 50, 56, and 60 degree variants. I have the 56, and this is the one I’d recommend for most people who are looking for the most versatility.

The One Wedge uses what they call “Pitch Control” technology which is supposed to help you auto-accelerate on every shot – significantly reducing chunks, blades, and mis-hits.

Basically, the giant promise this club makes is that no matter what your lie you don’t need to adjust your swing. All you have to do is hit the ground, and you’ll get a well-executed wedge shot.

It’s a very bold claim, but for an amateur golfer who’s inconsistent at best with their short game – it’s enough to get excited about.

I mean, could this club really live up to the marketing hype?

As I mentioned, I’ve always been very skeptical of “magical do-it-all” clubs from newer brands you may not have heard of.

The One Wedge is no different.

But before we talk about whether or not it works, let’s jump into first impressions.

First Impressions of the One Wedge

Out of the box, the Performance Golf One Wedge was well packaged, with plenty of padding around the club itself.

After pulling off the bubble wrap to see the club itself, it immediately felt well built – but different than most of the clubs I’ve used.

Let’s just say this isn’t a Miura wedge.

Nor is it meant to be.

There’s a unique groove pattern that’s designed to help maximize spin. At address, the wedge looks a bit larger and chunkier than your typical player’s wedge. But not bad as far as super game-improvement clubs go.

There’s a massive unique cavity back with a huge sole.

Emblazoned across the back you’ll see the words “Pitch Control,” as well as the Performance Golf logo and the word “One”

The grip feels high quality, just like the rest of the club as a whole.

While I wouldn’t call the club “sexy,” as you might of a tour-level wedge – it’s overall a good-looking club as far as game improvement wedges go.

Getting Started with the One Wedge

One of the unique things Performance Golf does, is they have training courses that go along with many of the products they sell.

In this case, Martin Chuck has a training course detailing exactly what the One Wedge is all about, and exactly how to use it and get started with it.

Despite the inevitable upsells that go along with this type of approach, I’ve gotta admit, the course was instantly useful.

This wedge is unique in that it instructs you to use one stroke for all of your shots. No more opening up the face, or adjusting your stance or ball position.

In the course, Martin basically tells you to put the ball in the middle of your stance, address the ball in a totally normal way and make a swing focused on hitting the ground – the club will do everything else.

Along with the 11-video One Wedge course, you also get “The Up and Down Masterclass” taught by short game specialist James Sieckmann, and Martin Chuck’s Precision Putting Course.

Each of the videos in these courses are broken up into very digestible segments, which are mostly 5 minutes or less.

But we’ll talk about the App and courses a bit more at the end of this review.

For now, just know that if you decide to buy the One Wedge, it’s well worth taking a few minutes to go through the first few videos to get a feel for what the club is all about.

But now, the question you’ve been waiting for: does it actually work?

Does the Performance Golf One Wedge Actually Work?

To do my testing I hit a few dozen shots each out of the rough, fairway, and bunker.

I’m a 10 handicap, but one of my biggest issues is making good, consistent contact with the ball.

This is especially true on tight lies, and I also have very little bunker game to speak of. My best rounds have all been because I stayed out of the bunkers.

I started my testing in the rough, as that’s personally where I’m most comfortable chipping. Hitting out of a nice fluffy lie is often much easier for amateurs than a perfectly manicured fairway or green collar.

I made a specific point to forget my typical stance and swing and followed exactly what was instructed for the “one swing” within the course.

Hitting Shots from the Rough

5 shots in a row out of the rough, all perfect contact launching the ball effortlessly up into the air.

I immediately noticed that these shots also had more spin than I was expecting – even with the range balls I was using.

One after another, balls were lofting up perfectly and landing on the green.

The biggest challenge I had when starting out with the One Wedge, was dialing in distance. 

I was no longer trying to control loft. I wasn’t trying to hit low runners or high flops. I was sticking with the “one swing” – so figuring out how hard to swing continued to be a point of practice throughout the duration of my testing.

On that note, most shots tended to be too long rather than too short. The One Wedge doesn’t necessarily give you a whole lot of touch or feel – nor is it meant to.

In later testing with Pro V1s, I will say the increased spin of the better balls did help my shots to hop and stop a bit more – which minimized the impact of some of the shots that were trending long.

I then upped the difficulty by patting down the balls in the rough to give a more challenging lie.

To my surprise, the wedge continued to perform – popping the balls up effortlessly.

You could tell that even if you hit a shot that would normally be thin or fat, the club is compensating for that and still giving you a decent result.

While during my testing I still had the occasional mishit, this was by far the exception rather than the rule. 

Testing the One Wedge from Tight Lies

Ok, moving up in difficulty for amateur golfers (including myself), it was time to test the One Wedge from a tight fairway lie.

Once again, 5 straight balls, up and onto the green. 

Nothing fat, nothing bladed – just consistent trajectory up and onto the green.

Similar to hitting from the rough, I continued to struggle a little bit with overshooting my target – but I really think this issue just comes down to getting more familiar with the club and a few practice sessions.

After 20 minutes of hitting shots from various distances in the fairway, I had very few totally bad shots.

One of my big problems is frequently burying my leading edge straight into the turf, and the One Wedge all but eliminated this issue.

To be honest, by this point, I was pretty legitimately surprised.

The One Wedge was performing far better than I’d expected it to – and was GASP(!) – actually living up to Performance Golf’s marketing claims.

But the true test would be how it’d perform out of the bunker.

Using the One Wedge in the Bunkers

I’m a terrible bunker player. 

I know what to do in theory, and occasionally I’ll get lucky and hit a great shot out of the sand.

But by and large, I have little to no confidence hitting out of it.

And if I find myself in 3 bunkers during a round, it’s highly likely that in at least one of them I’ll be taking an “X” for the hole.

So I was excited to see what this club could do.

I dropped some balls in a fairly deep 4 foot bunker, and stepped up to the first one.

Rather than my typical routine of spreading my legs wide and opening up the club face, I did the same thing I did with all of the other shots I’d been hitting:

Feet shoulder width apart, ball in the middle of the stance, make a normal swing, and just make sure you hit the ground.

Pop.

Out.

On the green.

Over and over again.

It was almost like magic, and I found myself chuckling to myself – because I’d never hit that many shots out of a bunker in a row before.

But, before you get too excited, it isn’t all perfect.

With this club, it’s still not easy to control where the ball ends up when coming out of the bunker.

The forgiveness is insane, as shots that felt fat, thin, or just plain bad, were 9 times out of 10 still popping up and out.

The trajectory was very consistent, and it wasn’t a high-flop shot. 

Most often the balls would come out about 2 feet over the bunker lip and then run out a bit.

This club isn’t necessarily about precision. You’re not in most cases going to flop this to 2 feet of the pin and get the ball to spin and stop. Although with more practice, perhaps this could be a more realistic possibility! 

But as I often say “out is out”.

And if you’ve struggled to get out of bunkers in the past, then having this wedge may be exactly what gets you out more consistently – even if you’re not sticking it to gimme range every time.

Biggest Downsides of the One Wedge

I’m not sure I’ve ever played a more consistently forgiving wedge – or any golf club that’s more forgiving, for that matter.

This thing does exactly what it says it will do, for who it says it will do it for: amateur golfers.

This is not for the single digits (in most cases).

While spin is surprisingly good with these wedges, due to the nature of the “one swing,” controlling distance, and especially trajectory is difficult.

Dialing in your consistency with distances I think is just a matter of a little practice, and isn’t actually a major concern for me with this club – despite mentioning it a few times in this review.

However, this isn’t the club for you if you want full control over towering flop shots or low runners. 

But for most 20 handicappers? You’re not thinking about this anyway.

If you can make solid contact, get the ball in the air, and just get on the green from any lie? That’s a massive selling point – and somewhat surprisingly (to me), this club delivers.

The other downside(?) or at least one thing to be aware of, is that to get the most out of this club you do need to adopt the “one swing” that they outline in the included digital course.

If you’re really working on significantly improving your wedge game, there’s a chance that changing your swing this way could be a bit of a band-aid fix.

I think using this club will absolutely improve your consistency and likely lower your scores.

But if your game is currently on an upward trajectory and you’re pushing toward a single-digit handicap? This club and making the necessary swing change may hinder your long-term improvement with your wedges and short game.

Or not.

But it’s something to note.

Should You Buy the One Wedge?

Despite my (significant) skepticism about the One Wedge, I’ve come away extremely impressed with its performance.

It lives up to the marketing claims in a way I simply wasn’t expecting.

If you’re a mid-to-high handicapper and you struggle with making clean contact consistently with your wedges, this may be exactly what you’ve been looking for.

I’m not going to lie, I’m personally putting this in my bag for a while. If it can help me avoid the dreaded X on shots out of the bunker – it’s worth it just for that.

But the fact that I do think this can function as the only wedge in a bag for higher handicappers, means you can also save some money if you’re in the market for new clubs.

At $139 it’s certainly not the cheapest club out there, but for what I think it may be able to do for your game? There’s a very good chance it’ll be money well spent.

Additional Thoughts on the Performance Golf Course Platform

As I mentioned above, one of the unique aspects of any Performance Golf product is the course platform that comes with it.

And I wanted to touch a little bit more on that.

When you buy this club, you get the One Wedge course and the aforementioned bonuses included for free.

The videos are high quality and well produced.

The app is a similar story. It’s user-friendly and easy to navigate. You can tell significant thought and resources have gone into the entire Performance Golf business – it’s dialed.

As you might guess, the marketing funnel is dialed too.

You don’t have to buy anything else once you purchase your One Wedge. But once you login to access your courses, you can expect cross promotions and upsells. 

I haven’t found the marketing to be nearly as egregious as some other sites I’ve seen, but you should just be cognizant that it’s happening and make sure you’re only signing up for stuff you really need.

At some point, I’ll do a full review on the Performance Golf courses themselves after I get a chance to spend more time with them and apply some of the training to my own game.

But the short version of what you should know is:

• The free courses you get with the One Wedge are genuinely useful
• The production and user experience both on the app and website is very good
• There will be no shortage of ways to spend additional money should you choose to do so

But as long as you keep all of that in mind, I’ve been more impressed by the entire package that Performance Golf is promoting than I expected to be.

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Coming Up: Video and More Photos

I think in order to truly understand this club, you kind of need to see it in action.

Soon, I’ll do a video review where I’ll show the One Wedge in action across different lies, and also include some more photos showing how and where I was doing my testing to add a little more visual flavor.

I’ll update this post as soon as it’s ready.