Gear Up Your Wedge Game

Seven of the game’s biggest brands have launched new wedges in recent months. To help you find the right fit, we tested them out

You may have heard or noticed that there’s a very real snare up with component availability (shafts and grips) within the golf industry right now. Some shortages are Covid related, but it’s also important to remember there are a couple of million new and returning golfers flooding into the game as well. And the influx is making some products almost impossible to keep in stock.

Consequently, many new equipment launches that were scheduled for 2021 have been put on hold or pushed back well into 2022. Right now, the game’s biggest brands simply can’t get hold of the components needed to bring new products to market. But if there’s one product line brands have been able to get out of their factory door more than any other this year, it has to be wedges.

TaylorMade, Callaway, Ping, Cleveland, Mizuno, Honma and Ben Hogan have all revealed new wedge models within the last few months.

So now is the perfect time to test the new models head-to-head so we can come up with a verdict on each, while also highlighting which models will best suit your game when you next find yourself buying a new model. Here’s what we found...

HOW WE DID IT

Not all the new wedges are available in our usual 52º test loft, so we asked each brand to send us the most popular loft of their new wedge. We asked our test pro to hit shots with each wedge while a Foresight GCQuad launch monitor watched on, gathering data. To give a benchmark for each wedge’s performance and provide a comparison against a top performing wedge, we also hit the same loft in a Titleist Vokey Design SM8 model. All shots were hit inside, from a consistent lie and using a premium, tour-level golf ball.

HONMA T//WORLD