Check out Golfweek’s list of the best golf wedges available to purchase in 2024.
Wedges are the most confusing and intimidating golf club category because there are so many options to choose from and many players don’t really understand how to properly use wedges to hit chip shots, bunker shots, flop shops and pitch shots. They hear terms like bounce, sole grind, heel and toe relief and camber and nod, but in the back of their minds they are thinking, “What the hell does that mean?”
To make matters worse, iron lofts have become stronger over the last decade, with many game-improvement sets coming with a 9-iron that has a loft of around 38 degrees and a pitching wedge at 42 degrees. If a recreational golfer has a 56-degree sand wedge, which is typical, that’s a 14-degree gap between wedges, which can put you in between clubs on lots of short game shots.
To reduce the intimidation factor and help golfers find the right wedges more easily, many manufacturers have developed online fitting tools. With just a few clicks to tell these systems about your game and the conditions you encounter on the course, they can provide you with club, loft and sole grind recommendations.
Of course, the best way to discover your ideal wedges is to work in-person with a custom fitter who can evaluate your performance with several different wedges.
The list below is intended to act as an educational starting point and help you get familiar with the most popular wedges and the clubs you will likely see in pro shops and golf specialty stores right now.
TaylorMade MG4 wedges excel in wet conditions and generate loads of spin.
Gear: TaylorMade MG4 wedges Price:$179.99 each with True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue 115 Wedge shaft and Lamkin Crossline 360 grip. Specs: Cast 8620 carbon steel with a raw-steel hitting area and seven different milled sole grinds. Even lofts from 46 degrees to 60 degrees. Available:NOW
Who It’s For: Golfers who want more shortgame spin, especially in wet conditions, along with several sole grind options.
The Skinny: TaylorMade designed a new surface-roughening pattern to the raw steel face of the MG4 wedges to help golfers create more spin, especially in wet conditions. That spin, combined with more sole grind options, should create more shortgame versatility for golfers.
The Deep Dive: While TaylorMade’s driver designers work hard to create low-spinning options to help golfers hit straighter, longer tee shots, wedge makers constantly seek ways to increase spin. Around the greens, the more spin players can generate on chips, pitch shots and approach shots, the more control they have over the golf ball. With the release of the new MG4 wedges (Milled Grind 4), TaylorMade feels that it has the highest-spinning, most versatile family of wedges yet, which should lead to more short-game options for golfers.
Each MG4 wedge ships with a sticker that covers the hitting area. It is designed to be peeled off after you buy the club because, while the chromed back and hosel are exposed, the raw steel hitting area will start to rust with exposure to air and moisture.
The MG3 wedges that TaylorMade released two years ago featured Raised Micro-Ribs between each of the main grooves. Those are gone, replaced in the MG4 with a new surface-roughening pattern that TaylorMade calls Spin Tread. TaylorMade uses a laser to etch the design at a 45-degree angle to the central grooves, and if you rub your thumb back and forth over the hitting area, you can feel how scratchy the hitting area is compared to the smooth chrome areas of the head.
The Spin Tread is designed to get water off the face more effectively, to protect spin in wet conditions. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
However, the Spin Trend design’s most significant advantage is revealed in wet conditions. The laser-etched pattern allows water to get off the face more effectively, so on shots you play from fairways that are damp with morning dew and from wet rough, the MG4 is designed to help you generate more spin. Compared to the MG3 wedge it replaces, TaylorMade’s research showed the MG4 creates a nearly-identical spin rate on 56-degree pitch shots but almost 1,000 rpm more spin in wet conditions with a slightly lower launch angle. That means the ball slides up the face less in wet conditions and retains more spin, which should translate to more control and consistency.
TaylorMade’s research also showed engineers that the Spin Trend helped increase spin durability compared to the Raised Micro-Ribs in the MG3.
To enhance feel, TaylorMade thickened the back flange, the lower portion of the head directly behind the hitting area and removed mass from high in the toe. The tweaks are subtle, but staff players like Collin Morikawa and Rory McIlroy said the impact feels softer, deeper and more solid when compared with MG3.
Finally, TaylorMade is still milling the sole of each MG4 wedge to increase the manufacturing consistency from club to club, but now the brand is offering several more sole-grind options.
TaylorMade is still offering its standard four sole grind options, along with three new sole grinds:
Low Bounce: 56-60 degrees of loft with 8 degrees of bounce
Standard Bounce: 46-60 degrees of loft and 9-11 degrees of bounce
High Bounce: 54-60 degrees of loft with 12-14 degrees of bounce
Tiger Woods Grind: 56 and 60 degrees of loft with 11-12 degrees of bounce
(NEW) Standard Bounce C-Grind: The new SBC comes as a 58- and 60-degree lob wedge with 9 degrees of bounce. It is designed with extra bounce and curvature (camber) in the middle, with heel, toe and trailing-edge relief.
(NEW) Low-Bounce V Grind: Available as a 58- and 60-degree lob wedge, the LBV has 7 degrees of bounce and is ideally suited to players with a shallow attack angle and who play in firm conditions. Scottie Scheffler and Tommy Fleetwood have tested this model, and it requires precision.
(NEW) High-Bounce W Grind: The HBW comes as a 58- and 60-degree lob wedge with 13 degrees of bounce. It has the widest sole of any MG4 wedge, making it the most forgiving choice in soft conditions, greenside bunkers and deep rough.
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Here are several close-up looks at the new TaylorMade MG4 wedges.
CROMWELL, Conn. — It has been almost two years since TaylorMade released the Milled Grind 3 (MG3) wedges, so it should not be a surprise that the Carlsbad, California-based equipment maker is ready to come out with new short-game tools for staff players like Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Nelly Korda and Tommy Fleetwood.
Tuesday in the practice area at TPC River Highlands, site of this week’s Travelers Championship, Golfweek spotted Morikawa hard at work with several TaylorMade PGA Tour reps. When the two-time major winner wasn’t testing with Stealth 2 driver heads, he was trying new Milled Grind 4 (MG4) wedges that TaylorMade has brought to the PGA Tour for the first time.
TaylorMade representatives are not sharing details about the wedges yet, but in-hand photos and observations reveal a few things.
At least three sole grinds.Golfweek saw wedges marked S, LB and HB, which typically stands for standard, low bounce and high bounce.
New surface roughening. The MG3 wedges were designed with a series of raised micro-ribs in the raw steel hitting area, but the MG4 wedges do not have them. Instead, there are microgrooves running at a 45-degree angle to the main grooves. If a golfer opens the face of the MG4 wedges, the microgrooves square to the target line and likely provide extra friction for added spin.
Lots of milling. As the name implies, the MG4 wedges have a milled sole from the toe to the heel. Milling requires a computer to direct a fast-spinning bit to pass back and forth across the club, shaving off tiny pieces of material to create the exact shape that designers request. It is the most-precise method of manufacturing and helps TaylorMade ensure that the sole configurations are the same on every club.
Below are in-hand images of TaylorMade’s yet-to-be-released Milled Grind 4 wedges:
The updated Hi-Toe has a raw-steel hitting area, micro-ribs between the grooves and a milled sole.
Gear: TaylorMade Hi-Toe 3 wedges Price:$179 each with KBS Hi-Rev 2.0 shaft and Lamkin Crossline 360 Round grip. Specs: Cast 8620 stainless steel with raw-steel hitting area and milled sole. Even lofts from 50 to 60 degrees.
Who it’s For: Golfers looking for increased spin and a larger hitting area on open-faced shots around the greens.
The Skinny: With a high-toe design and raw hitting area that has raised microgrooves, TaylorMade’s newest wedges were made to allow golfers more short-game versatility and increased spin.
The Deep Dive: Last summer, TaylorMade released the Milled Grind 3 (MG3) wedges designed to appeal to golfers who prefer a traditional-looking short-game tool, and the company has offered other styles of wedges for years. The most popular of those clubs has been 2018’s Milled Grind Hi-Toe, a copper-finished wedge with (as the name implies) a higher toe section to go along with a CNC-milled sole design. Over the years, several notable TaylorMade staff players have used the Hi-Toe wedges, including Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy. With the release of the new Hi-Toe 3 wedges, TaylorMade brings some of the features of the MG3 to the high-toed world.
TaylorMade has had success with its two main wedge options, the Milled Grind 2 (MG2) and Hi-Toe, both on professional tours and with recreational players. So before designers set about trying to make the next generation of TaylorMade wedges, they talked with elite golfers and staff players and asked what they liked and what they wanted to see adjusted. The result is the new Milled Grind 3 (MG3) family of wedges, and their focus is on helping golfers at every level generate more spin and control on wedge shots hit from the fairway and around the green.
Tiger Woods uses a unique grind on his sand wedge and TaylorMade is now making the club available to the public.
Gear: TaylorMade MG2 TW Grind wedges Price: $200 each Specs: Carbon steel body with a raw steel face, milled sole, vibration-dampening insert and laser-etched, surface-roughening pattern. 56 and 60 degrees. Available: Sept. 4 via custom order
Many professional golfers travel to tournaments with several extra wedges in their bag so they can modify their setup to match the course conditions. If the sand is fluffy and the turf is soft, they go with higher-bounces wedges, but when conditions are firm, lower-bounce wedges can perform better.
Tiger Woods is not one of those players. The 15-time major winner brings the same wedges to every event. The Big Cat has a secret, however, and now with the release of the TaylorMade MG2 TW Grind wedges, you can too.
Tiger’s wedges have a unique grind configuration on the sole. It allows the clubs to have lots of bounce in the square position but play with less bounce when he opens the face and adds loft.
The soles of the MG2 TW wedges have three distinct sections. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
This is accomplished by creating three distinct areas on the sole. The portion directly behind the leading edge is narrow and has 25 degrees of bounce. But even with that much bounce, the leading edge remains only 5.3 millimeters off the ground, which is lower than most high-bounce wedges.
Behind that area, the center of the sole has a narrow section with 12 degrees of bounce and significant relief in the heel and toe areas. When the face opens and a player adds more loft, the leading edge can stay down, making tight lies more manageable.
Finally, the trailing edge has significant camber, allowing the club to exit the turf smoothly.
The raw steel face will rust in time with exposure to air and water. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
While the back of the club has a chrome finish, the hitting area lacks chrome plating. Instead, the raw steel is exposed, and with exposure to air and moisture, it will rust in time. According to TaylorMade’s research, a raw steel hitting area allows golfers to spin the ball more in wet conditions, making shots more consistent and predictable.
The polymer insert in the back of the head absorbs excess vibrations to enhance sound and feel. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Finally, to enhance the sound and feel created at impact, the MG2 TW Grind wedge has a thermoplastic polyurethane insert in the back of each head to absorb excessive vibrations.
Pros love adding initials, funny sayings and icons to wedges. TaylorMade is letting recreational golfers get in on the personalized fun.
Elite golfers are finicky about the way their clubs look and perform. Club makers don’t even bother taking new gear to pros if they think the pros will not like how it looks in the address position.
However, many pros are open to tricking out their gear and showing some style if it stays hidden when they stand over the ball, making the back of wedges a prime canvas for initials, stamps, logos and splashes of color.
With the launch of the new MyMG2 program, TaylorMade offers recreational golfers a chance to personalize their Milled Grind 2 wedges, too.
The MyMG2 program allows golfers to add text, icons and colors to their clubs. (TaylorMade)
Golfers who visit TaylorMade’s website can build a wedge by going through a series of pulldown menus and making selections. After picking the club’s loft (48-60 degrees) and finish (chrome, black, raw or cobalt nickel), the personalization ramps up.
Players can add initials, text or logos, then choose how those characters and icons appear in the open area on the back of the clubhead. Then they get to pick the paint fill colors for the Milled Grind logo, the TaylorMade logo, the loft and bounce numbers, their personalized text and even the three rings on the hosel. Finally, players select their desired shaft, grip and club length.
TaylorMade MyMG2 wedges (TaylorMade)
Each personalized club costs $225 and features the same technologies and design elements found in the standard Milled Grind 2 wedges. After the 8620 carbon steel heads are cast, a CNC milling machine passes a tiny, high-speed spinning tool over the sole and leading edge. This process helps TaylorMade control the shaping of the wedge more precisely. At the same time, a thermoplastic polyurethane insert in the back of each head absorbs excessive vibrations to enhance feel.
While the standard MG2 wedge has chrome plating over most of the body, the grooved hitting area is left raw and will rust after being exposed to air and moisture. The MyMG2 wedges will do the same thing. The Raw finished wedges will rust everywhere because they have no chrome plating on the heads.
