Roger Cleveland on His Return to Cleveland Golf and the Future of Wedge Technology

*In partnership with Srixon and Cleveland Golf*

In the world of golf, the most recognizable names usually belong to the people swinging the clubs and not the ones making them, but there are exceptions who have transcended their craft. Club makers like Scotty Cameron, Karsten Solheim, Bob Vokey, and of course, Roger Cleveland have all become names that golfers associate with creating some of the best tools for professional and amateur golfers alike.

In the case of Roger Cleveland, he helped to define a category of clubs and has brought innovation to the short game for nearly 30 years with wedges that bear his name—but it didn’t start with wedges. When Roger founded Cleveland Golf in 1979, it was originally the Cleveland Classics Golf Company, and the focus was on persimmon woods - if you’re lucky enough to hold one in your hands, its easy to see the attention to detail that made them a must-have piece of gear and a highly sought-after collectable to this day.

Although the days of persimmon woods have come and gone, Cleveland wedges continue to find their way into the bags of the best players in the world because thats what the company was founded on - working with the best to make the best. In the earliest days of Cleveland Golf, Roger used the PGA Tour as his testing ground, bringing players prototypes, getting feedback, refining designs and then bringing those designs to golfers.

The most historically famous version being the Cleveland 588 which as the story goes, got its name for being the 5th wedge design from the company, released in 1988.

Then in 1990, after building a highly successful company, Roger did what many entrepreneurs do and sold Cleveland Golf. He remained with the company until 1995 as a senior executive responsible for club design.

After 1995 Roger spent time at other companies, working in senior design roles, most notably Callaway, while Cleveland Golf continued with the legacy built by Roger to innovate and drive performance. This included the introduction of the CMM (Carbon Metal Matrix) material for added feel and performance (2006), The introduction of the Launcher series of drivers, Zip Grooves to added spin (2007), and ZipCore to enhance mass properties and spin retention (2022).

2025 has once again been a big one for Cleveland Golf along with the company’s namesake, Roger. The company launched their newest RTZ wedge line which included the introduction of Z-Alloy - a softer and less dense variation of 8620 that is both rust resistant and more durable. Srixon and Cleveland Golf athlete JJ Spaun won the U.S. Open at Oakmont, and after nearly 30 years Roger Cleveland rejoined the company in a founder and advisor role.

“Coming back to Cleveland Golf is a special moment for me. This company has always been close to my heart, and I’m excited to contribute once again to its legacy of innovation and performance," Roger Cleveland said. "The brand has built a trusted reputation among golfers worldwide and I look forward to collaborating with the talented team here to continue to push boundaries of design even further.”

We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Roger to discuss his return to the company he founded as well and talk about wedge design and how technology continues to push performance.