Taylormade MG5 Wedge | 4 Things to Do About New Forging

During the MG3 Wedge test at Taylormade four years ago, Collin Morikawa approached Matt Bovee, the director of iron and wedge product creation at Taylormade and gave him some feedback.

“You can’t let the wedge feel soft enough,” Morikava said.

Taylormade’s Greg Cesario took the challenge.

“Oh, I can make you feel too soft,” Taylormade’s main wedge artisan told Golf.

The most obvious way to make the wedge feel softer is to forge it with carbon steel.

While forged wedges are common in the Japanese market, in the United States, they are more like a commodity, with only a limited number of OEMs offering them in retail. Most of the options are actors.

Morikawa’s comments kicked off the designer’s pursuit to make the forged wedges high to create upscale, and the journey eventually reached Taylormade’s new MG5 wedge, the fifth iteration of their popular milling Grind Line.

Here are four things about the new Taylormade MG5 wedge and what I think.

1. From prototype to finished product

While Taylormade is not a stranger to forging hardcores, adding wedges to their forged product list means making sure they only have enough manufacturing capabilities to complete.

Cesario said the first time the Tylermead employee players saw the forged prototype was the forged prototype of the MG4 that was about four years ago in that testing phase.

They send it to travel professionals and employee professionals, and the majority of subjective feedback is that the wedges are softer.

By this summer, Taylormade had just buckled everything with almost all buttons and they started sowing the MG Proto, which is basically the same as the new MG5, just with a different cosmetic packaging.

“And MG Proto is the first choice to bring them together,” Bovee said, “this hints at the look of the cosmetics. It’s all the work we do. It’s a celebration, it’s an early celebration of MG Proto, and it’s the ultimate sign. It’s also our cross and click.”

2. Products that rebound in expansion

With MG4, Taylormade offers two different grinding options for each bounce, low, standard and high bounce.

But Taylormade’s designers realize that 85% of players fall into the mid-shooting category. So, with the MG5, they redesigned the grinded product to have three different options in the standard category, and one in the high and low bounces. Cesario calls it “the closest thing to a perfect set of grinding, shape and feeling”.

In addition to the SB Grind, the standard full pendulum grinding has a new four-way inclination added versatility, and Taylormade has also introduced new SC and SX Grinds, which are ridiculed with the MG Proto release.

The SC grinding is both C-sand-shaped, effectively bounces forward to the sole.

“It has a cool C shape, almost like a rectangular C shape, and the front edge is still relatively high when you can manipulate the face angle,” Cesario said.

3. New SX Grind

Cesario said with the SX Grind, they have seen a trend for more and better players, including Tour professionals, using wider wedge wedges to provide more forgiveness. The SX’s unique reverse C-tail edge relief allows the wedge to have that wide sole, but still sits the front edge on the ground when opened.

He added: “I looked at some of our high toe products. It’s naturally a wider soul design and I said: ‘I can create a broad soul with amazing versatility that plays a relatively more effect in mid-to-post elasticity.”

Compared to other MG5 LOB wedges, the SX has a completely different shape. It has a more rounded front edge, followed by a slight “gooseneck” design that can be pinched in and digged in more offsets to help blend new shapes with the rest of the family.

“Some old school wedges have been a little backward since the 60s and 70s,” Cesario said. “And I added a little bit of a objection, too, because you have to blend different parts of the wedge together. You can’t just touch one thing and not touch another to make the symmetry look like.”

4. More rotations under more conditions

Taylormade’s original facial technology is restored, but with new, steeper jagged, jagged grooves and new spin tread technology.

The new spin tread design produces deeper etched faces than the MG4, just like the tread on the tire, guiding water from the golf ball when impacted.

Creating more spins is always an OEM goal, but ultimately they are limited by USGA rules because of how many spins they can create from the perfect fairway lie. With the new rotating tread and grooves on the MG5, the goal is to create more rotating from wet lie and rough situations.

My thoughts!

Two things to stand out here are the new forged structure and the new SX Grind.

The forging feel that matches the wedge and irons seems like a effortless decision, and it has been popular in the Japanese market. The only question is whether the U.S. market is willing to pay for it.

With Taylormade solving manufacturing challenges, it will be interesting given that they are the first of the first three or four wedge sellers in the U.S. market to launch a forged wedge.

The wide-bottom SX Grind adds an option that many players might fit into a forgiving unique design that doesn’t have too much bounce.

Price, specifications and availability

The Taylormade MG5 wedge is now available for pre-order and will arrive at retail on September 4.

Except for the TW Grind, each wedge is priced at $199.99 and is priced at $219.99.

There are six grinders:

LB – Minimum bounce option designed for the shallow swinger boy.
SC – Medium reverse profile with C-GRIND profile designed for versatility
SB – Standard full cable full swing grinding with new four-way bends to enhance turf interactions.
SX – A new mid-fist, wide-difference option, with a relief with a reverse C-tail edge to keep the bounce through different facial positions.
HB – High Bounce option has enhanced toe relief and increased toe bounce.
TW – Updated to Tiger Woods’ new preferences and has a new front edge and is more effective on the heel.

All grinding will work in both brushes, the chrome sheet has been updated to give the wedge a higher look, and the charcoal and standard come with real temper dynamic gold travel issues 115 wedge elastic shaft and golf pride shaft Z-Grip plus 2 grips.

The stock graphite option is UST RECOIL DART 80G wedge elastic.

Want to find the best wedge for your game? Find a club location near your True Spec Golf.

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