During testing for TaylorMade’s MG3 wedge more than four years ago, Collin Morikawa approached TaylorMade’s director of product creation for irons and wedges, Matt Bovee and gave him some feedback.
“You can’t make a wedge feel soft enough,” Morikawa said.
TaylorMade’s Greg Cesario accepted the challenge.
“Oh, I can make it feel too soft for you,” TaylorMade’s Master Wedge craftsman told GOLF.
The most obvious way to make a wedge feel softer is to forge it from carbon steel.
While forged wedges are commonplace in the Japanese market, here in the U.S., they’re more of a commodity, with only a limited number of OEMs offering them at retail. Most options are cast.
Morikawa’s comment kicked the designers’ quest to create a forged wedge into high gear, and that journey culminated in TaylorMade’s new MG5 wedges, the fifth iteration of their popular Milled Grind line.
Here are four things to know about the new TaylorMade MG5 Wedges as well as my thoughts.
1. From prototype to finished product
While TaylorMade is no stranger forging irons, adding wedges to the list of products they forge meant making sure they simply had enough manufacturing capacity to do it.
Cesario said the first time the TaylorMade staff players saw a forged prototype was a forged prototype of MG4 almost four years ago during that testing phase.
They sent it to both Tour pros and staff professionals and much of the subjective feedback was that the wedges were softer.
TaylorMade MG Proto wedge spotted at Memorial
By this summer, TaylorMade had just about everything buttoned up and they started seeding MG Proto, which was essentially the same as the new MG5, just with a different cosmetic package.
“And MG Proto was kind of the first take at bringing this together,” Bovee said, “Here’s a hint at what the cosmetics are going to look like. Here’s kind of all the work we’ve done. Here’s kind of that celebration and this is early take at MG proto, and it’s also the final sign off. We’re crossing Ts and dotting Is.”
2. Expanding mid-bounce offerings
With MG4, TaylorMade offered two different grind options for each level of bounce, low, standard and high.
But TaylorMade designers realized 85 percent of players were falling into the mid-bounce category. So with MG5, they’ve reworked the grind offerings to have three different options in the standard category and one each in both high and low bounce. It’s an offering that Cesario calls the “closest thing to a perfect array of grinds, shapes and feel in one package.”
In addition to the SB grind, the standard full swing grind, which has a new four-way camber for added versatility, TaylorMade is introducing the new SC and SX grind, which it teased with the MG Proto release.
The SC grind features a C grind shape with the effective bounce pushed forward in the sole.
“It has quite a cool C shape, almost like an oblong C shape that created a lot of versatility, to where when you can manipulate the face angle, that leading edge still stays relatively at the same height,” Cesario said.
3. The new SX grind
With the SX grind, Cesario said they’ve seen more trends of better players, including Tour pros, using wider-soled wedges for more forgiveness. The SX’s unique reverse C trailing edge relief allows the wedge to have that wide sole, but still have the leading edge sit lower to the ground when opened.
“I looked at some of our high toe offerings. That is naturally a wider soul design and I said, ‘I can create a wide soul that has an amazing amount of versatility that plays relatively more in the mid-bounce category,'” he added.
SX also has a completely different shape compared to other MG5 lob wedges. It has a more rounded leading edge and then a slight “goose neck” design that pinches in to diguise a bit more offset to help blend the new shape with the rest of the family.
“Kind of a little bit of a throwback to some old school wedges back from the ’60s and the ’70s,” Cesario said. “And I also increased a little bit of offset in that, because you have to you have to blend different parts of the wedge. You can’t just touch one thing without touching the other to bring symmetry to a look.”
4. More spin in more conditions
TaylorMade’s RAW Face technology returns but with a new, steeper-walled, saw-milled groove and a new spin tread technology.
The new spin tread design results in a deeper etched face than MG4 and works like the tread on a tire to channel water away from the golf ball at impact.
Creating more spin is always a goal for OEMs, but they end up being limited by USGA rules on how much spin they can create from perfect fairway lies. With the new spin tread and grooves on MG5, the goal is creating more spin from wet lies and the rough.
My thoughts!
Two huge things to highlight here are the new forged construction and the new SX grind.
Matching forged feel in the wedges and irons seems like a no-brainer decision, and it’s been popular in the Japanese market forever; the only question is whether the American market would be willing to pay for it.
With TaylorMade having solved the manufacturing challenges, it will be interesting to see how their wedge market share changes, given that they are the the first of the top three or four wedge sellers in the U.S. market to launch a forged wedge.
The wide-sole SX grind adds an option that a lot of players will probably fit into in a forgiving sole design that doesn’t have an overly aggressive amount of bounce.
Price, specs and availability
TaylorMade Milled Grind 5 Custom Wedge
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TaylorMade MG5 wedges are available for pre-order now and will arrive at retail on September 4.
Each wedge will cost $199.99 except for the TW grind, which will cost $219.99.
There are six grinds available:
LB – The lowest bounce option designed for shallow swingers.
SC – A mid-bounce profile with a C-grind profile designed for versatility
SB – The standard full soled full swing grind, with a new four-way camber to enhance turf interaction.
SX – A new mid-bounce, wide-soled option with a Reverse-C trailing edge relief to keep bounce consistent through different face positions.
HB – The high bounce option with enhanced toe relief and increased bounce on the toe.
TW – Updated to Tiger Woods’ new preferences with a new leading edge and more effective bounce in the heel.
All grinds will be available in both brushed chrome, which has been updated to give the wedges a more premium look, and charcoal and will come standard with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue 115 Wedge flex shaft and Golf Pride Z-Grip Plus 2 grips.
The stock graphite option is UST Recoil DART 80g wedge flex.
Want to find the best wedges for your game? Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.
