MEMBER REVIEWS: Bettinardi HLX 3.0 Wedges! See What Members Are Saying!

A couple weeks ago, I found out I was chosen for the Bettinardi wedge reviews. I was thrilled – I knew Bettinardi had recently released wedges, but I’d never been able to see them in person, much less hit them. I’ve had the pleasure of using their putters on several occasions, so I knew to expect the best. So first and foremost, I would like to give a big THANK YOU to GolfWRX and Bettinardi for this opportunity. Like the rest of us, I love golf, but I also enjoy writing, so combining the two to bring a review to GolfWRX is a dream scenario and I am extremely grateful. Apologies if this gets wordy, but I will try and use proper headers so you can skip to areas of interest for you if you wish.Introduction

First, a little bit of background. I hit a decently long ball, and based on the yardages at the country club I most often see, I carry 5 wedges – Pitching wedge, and then a 50, 54, 58, and a Callaway PM Grind 64. Depending on the setup of a course when I travel, I’ll often drop the 64. Right now, aside from the 64, I am using the Callaway MD5 Jaws wedges with a KBS Hi-Rev 2.0 shaft. Previously, I had a set of Titleist Vokey SM7s, and before that, SM6s, so I have hit a decent amount of wedges recently. In addition to this, I used to work at a PGA Tour Superstore a couple years ago, and in that time, basically hit everything on the market. My handicap is currently in the 9-10 range, but my game from 120 yards in prevents that from being any higher – so wedges are a big part of my game and I expect a lot from them.

I rushed home from work last Thursday knowing that the wedges would be waiting for me. The first thing you immediately notice is just how amazing these clubs look. It feels like a cliché at this point, but it’s true. I am partial to black clubs in general, but these are easily the best-looking that I’ve ever seen in person. I actually chose the 50 and 58 to demo because I knew if I got the 54, it would be painful to me to see a club so pretty get scratched up in the sand. I am very curious to see how the finish holds up over time. I haven’t had the MD5s long enough to compare them very fairly finish-wise, but I was left disappointed at both the SM6s and SM7s for how quickly the black finish fades.

When I took them out of the box, they felt very good. The weighting feels perfect, and they’re very pleasing to look down at. I’ve taken some pictures comparing them to the corresponding club in my MD5s (If anyone wants any other pictures or wants me to do one over, please do not hesitate to ask). 

I couldn’t wait for the weekend to get them out to the course to try. I decided, in order to do these justice, I would give these a full test and try them on the range, in the short game practice area, and of course, actually on-course. I planned on hitting them and my MD5s on the trackman my club has in the basement of the clubhouse, but I used it with driver a couple weekends ago and I was HIGHLY suspicious of the numbers – I let the pro know, but I don’t think it has been fixed yet. I still intend to do this, but this portion of the review will come a little later. Apologies for this, but check back.

Practice Range and Short Game Area

My club does have mats to hit off of, but there’s a grass area in front of them. Perhaps due to a lot of people not knowing how you should make your divot pattern, the grass area can be a bit uneven and difficult to hit off of. So, I got started with these bad boys off the mat. I always start my range sessions with a 50 anyway, but just to get loose, I used the Callaway MD5. Once I had my swing down, I switched to the Bettinardi. 

Immediately, I was shocked at how good these felt. I’m sure this is at least in part due to the forged metal these are made with, but the weighting contributes as well. To be honest, I would’ve said the same previously about my MD5s, but now that I can compare the Bettinardis, I am blown away. The feel and feedback with the Bettinardi wedges allowed me to dial in my distance better, and it felt like with every strike of the ball I knew where it was going to go.

Perhaps fortunately for the purposes of this review, we have been having a lot of rain here recently and I had not been able to get out much. There were definitely more bad swings than I usually have for the first half hour or so, but this allowed me to see a wider range of performance from the Bettinardi wedges. You see a lot of marketing from major OEMs about the weighting in their wedges and what it does to the ball flight – but here, the Bettinardis really had the chance to shine. When I make a bad swing, it usually results in a thin shot rather than fat. There were quite a few where I feel like I caught it a little thin, but the Bettinardis still got the ball up decently enough that the ball would’ve had the chance to stop on a green rather than run right off.

After getting in a bunch of swings on the range, I headed to the short game practice area. There are two setups here – a bunker (and surrounding rough) with a green to hit to right next to the range, as well as a large practice green with multiple pins and both rough and fairway areas to chip from near the first tee.

I started near the bunker. The green to hit to is quite small and makes for a good target. I wouldn’t really use a 50 here, so the 58 got a lot more work in this area. I dropped a few balls down in the grass before the bunker and tried some chips and flops over the bunker onto the green. The chips with the 58 were good, but the flops I was pulling off REALLY stood out to me. I couldn’t have pictured these working better – they went very high, and were spinning perfectly to stop on a dime. This, perhaps more so than any other feature of the Bettinardis, is going to instantly help me score better. I then ventured into the bunker and hit the 58 more, and was again extremely pleased. The bunker shots were coming out perfectly and landing soft right next to the hole. 

One bonus of the setup of this short game area and its location right next to the range is that you can hit out of the rough and the bunker onto the range area, so full swings are an option. I did hit some full swings out of the bunker onto the range, and these felt awesome. However, without a target green to hit to, it’s a little more difficult to judge these on the range. I was also able to hit full shots out of the rough, though, and that was yet another area the Bettinardis shone. The weighting and leading edge of the wedges seemed to cut through the thick rough perfectly and got the balls up in the air as if they weren’t from the rough at all. With a driver as wild as mine, these will be key on shorter holes – let it rip with the driver, and if it’s in the rough, who cares, I can still go pin hunting.

Lastly, I went to the putting green to do some chipping. These wedges are VERY versatile. I was trying everything, including shots I don’t normally hit. Around the green, I generally prefer to use the ground as much as possible, so I play the ball back in my stance and let it roll more. However, for the sake of the interview, I was trying some high chips too, and these wedges did it all perfectly. Again, the amazing feel these things have allowed for even better distance control and accuracy. If you practice your short game enough, it’ll almost be harder to not improve your chipping with these – you’ll know off the face exactly what each shot is doing. The most impressive part of these wedges (especially in the context of my game) is their performance in tight lies. You can see right away that these wedges have a fairly prominent front edge, and the performance on these really shines through on tight lies around the green. I’m not sure that under normal circumstances, I’d turn to my 58 or even my 50 from the fairway just short of the green, but that’s basically what I got to try out around our practice green, and the performance was still spot on. Once I picked out a spot to land my shots, I was easily able to dial in the distance and get shots in tight. The Bettinardis being so consistent on these types of shots from tight lies was an unexpected bonus, and this is another type of shot I will have to add to my arsenal on the course.

Below, see some pictures of how they compare to the MD5 looking down at them - first the 50, then the 58. Additionally, I've included a pic comparing the soles.

On Course

I played my first round with these later in the afternoon, so I’d be able to not only play a round, but also take a few extra shots around greens and not worry about any groups behind me. The very first hole at my course usually goes 4h or 5w off the tee and then my gap wedge into the green, and sure enough, the 50 got a chance to shine right away. Accurate distance here is extremely important, because the green is kind of two-tiered, and if you’re on the wrong tier, a two putt can be a tall order. I took a full swing with the Bettinardi first. It felt great and trajectory-wise flew just like I wanted to, but I couldn’t see the green to see the result. For good measure, I dropped another ball (same model ball) and hit my MD5 50. On full shots like this, you get an even more pronounced difference with the forged metal. The Bettinardi feels unbelievably smooth. By the time I got up to the green, I noticed the Bettinardi shot was in fairly tight, right up there on the correct tier of the green, whereas the MD5 shot was a bit further away and would’ve required a much more difficult putt. To be honest, my initial thought when I hit the two shots from the fairway was that neither looked like they’d be in there close, so the fact that the Bettinardi wedge put it where it needed to be anyway was impressive.

Over the course of the round, I found myself reaching for my 58 out of the sand more often than my 54 sand wedge. Traditionally, some of these would’ve been where I’d go with the 64 PM Grind wedge, but for the sake of the review, I stuck with the 58. Honestly, the 58 might play the 64 out of my bag in favor of another hybrid or wood. The Bettinardi 58 performed well enough to not only replace the role of my previous 58, but it did a lot of the things I expect of the 64 as well. I put the ball in a lot of difficult positions this round, often requiring chips and bunker shots to a short side pin that where I really needed to spin the ball and not let the ball roll out much at all. The Bettinardi did it all. Chips, flops, bunker shots – I was able to make the ball do exactly what I wanted, and it resulted in a lot more manageable putts. This was easily the biggest positive influence on my score out of the whole round, and it’s definitely the most noticeable thing about the Bettinardis. I was not able to chip any in today, but I came close a few times.

Technically I'm not supposed to use a phone on the course, so this time I was unable to get any pictures out there, but I'm going to try and sneak a few in next time, since I am planning on going with a friend next who could be my lookout.Verdict - For Now

Obviously, I have zero complaints about these wedges performance-wise. If I had to change one thing, I suppose it would be nice to see more customization options on Bettinardi’s site. I am not personally a fan of the 360 Crossline grip they come with, but obviously some people might be. Additionally, while I do generally prefer the KBS Hi-Rev 2.0 shaft which I was able to get on these, I would’ve liked to see the black finish option, which would look especially sleek with the black finish on the heads. I was fortunate enough to have my preferred wedge shaft available, but perhaps not everyone would be so lucky. A bit nitpicky for sure, but I did not want to have a review without mentioning this and have it sound like it came from the Bettinardi PR department.

All in all, I am blown away at these wedges. I plan on completing my wedge set with other matching ones, and I think these will stay in my bag for a long time. I understand some may balk at the price (especially when buying a full set of them), but whether you’re a scratch golfer or mid handicap in the teens, you will love these. I am, of course, happy to answer any specific questions, but I cannot recommend these enough. I am very curious to see how well the black finish holds up, especially since I have seen so many other dark finishes on clubs fade/wear very quickly. However, I’ve included pictures of what the wedges look like right now after a week of heavy use. Obviously, this is just one week, but I did put them through the ringer – lots of full and partial swings off short grass, rough, range mats, as well as sand. I’ve seen many clubs with a similar dark finish show wear a lot quicker, I’ll put it that way. See below for a closeup of the faces after spending quite a bit of time at the course this weekend. For the amount of balls I hit, I'd say this would be similar to a month or so of use in a regular scenario where you're not specifically testing wedges - Seriously.

Unfortunately, I've got a couple busy days at work coming up, but towards the end of this week and this upcoming weekend I will be spending a lot more time at the club trying these out and putting them in every imaginable scenario. I will continue to update my thoughts, but for now, if anyone has any questions, feel free to reach out.

Thank you once again to WRX, Bettinardi, and everyone reading.

There is no better place to start than with, "wow". I have always believed that members should only enter giveaways in which they are truly interested, and I have done my best to follow that guideline. I have also been lucky to have been selected a few times, so I take the responsibility of a thorough and honest review seriously. When I saw the opportunity to test Bettinardi's new wedges there was no hesitation. A few weeks later when I received an email stating that I had been selected, then asking "are you still interested?" I almost fell out of my chair. YES PLEASE!

Before I start a little info about me. At one time I was a high single digit handicap, but 3 kids in 3.5 years and that faded up toward 13-14. I had been getting back in to form with a goal of single digits by the summer of 2020, but Covid sidelined that idea. I have been practicing my short game and putting in my basement, so lets hope for good results.

I returned home on Saturday (06/20) from a business trip to a beautiful black box. PXG may get all the credit for their packaging, but the box from Bettinardi was no slouch. Talk about a great start to Father's Day weekend. I opened them a took a look before even unpacking my bag (queue wife eye-roll). Upon inspection I verified they were built exactly to the requested spec. I want to give a HUGE thanks to Bettinardi for being willing to build our wedges with any spec and custom request. I wanted to take them down to my basement and start chipping, but somehow it felt like they deserved better. I did take them down and compare them to the other wedges in my stable (Ping Glide 2.0 and Taylormade Milled Grind 2). It would be impossible not to notice the sex appeal of the Bettinardi. They are definitely a little smaller, without being intimidating. The milling is both obvious and subtle, which sounds crazy, but they are gorgeous.

Off to the course!

Is there anything better than squeezing in a trip to the course to try out new clubs? Maybe, but I can't think of it right now. After going through my normal warm-up routine I was struck by 2 things; the weight and the feeling. Something about the overall head weight and balance just sung to me. I didn't request a specific swing weight, but whatever they did in building my +1/2" length was perfect. I'll need to get it checked and compare to my other wedges. As for feel, here comes my 2nd WOW. I've never totally bought it to high end forging and/or millings, but well, maybe I was wrong. I have to say that I love my Ping Glide 2.0's and the Taylormade's feel better, but these Bettinardi's are in a different league. I don't know if it will actually make me a better player, but the feeling is crazy soft. It feels like the ball holds on the face for half a second longer, just long enough to let me know exactly where and how well I struck it. Needless to say I was impressed.

After several full-half-quarter swing shots I transitioned to our short game area. To me, this is where the clubs excelled. These wedges excel in their versatility. The shape seemed welcome to any lie, any shot and technique I could find. While I'll never get paid to play golf, I started to really feel like I could control the ball how I needed based on the situation. And that is a really special feeling. I know the wedges are new, but WOW (#3) do they put a lot of spin on the ball. I have always been a high spin player, but that normally neutralizes around the green. Not so much with these. You can feel the ball bite off the face and see it stick on the green. It was so dramatic that I left several shots short before adapting. It takes a lot of confidence to hit the ball farther than your memory says is correct.

Lastly, I went out to play the executive course. Bringing all 3 sets of wedges with me (still only 9 clubs) I wanted to play a round with each set. After playing 9 holes I am going to be putting the Betti's in the bag. They are clearly the best around the green, and the 54 hung with the others at a distance without any setbacks. The only thing keeping them from being undefeated is the seemingly unicorn-like performance of the Glide ES grind in the sand. I didn't see or feel anything wrong with the Bettinardi, but I've never felt as controlled as I do with the ES grind. Having said that, the Betti still won out easily and I'm looking forward to dialing it in.

I don't have any competitive rounds in my near future (the ultimate test, under pressure), but I do have a few men's league rounds along with some friendlies so I am looking forward to seeing them perform. I plan to circle back with several updates over the next few days / weeks.

Oh yah, THANK YOU to GOLFWRX and BETTINARDI for such an amazing opportunity!

Before I begin my review let me just say, I have been playing golf for 23 years or so and rarely has equipment given me a jaw dropping, shocking, WOW moment. I honestly wasn't expecting it, but these wedges SHOCKED me in one particular area...

On to the review:

First, a huge thank you to Bettinardi golf and Golfwrx for allowing me to test and review these beautiful wedges.

The specs I ordered for my two wedges are the following:60 Degree Chrome C grind +1/2 inch, bent 1 degree flat56 Degree chrome RJ grind +1/2 inch, 1 Degree flat, bent to 55 degreesI also chose to equip both with KBS Hi-rev shafts.

I received them Friday, and my reaction to their looks are predictable. Beautiful. Almost pieces of art. The milling is second to none. They also did a good job in my opinion of not getting too “busy” with tons of text.

I wasn't able to make it out to the course this weekend, but i managed to chip a few shots in my backyard. The feel was nice, but nothing outside my expectations.

Made it to the course today. I have always been a Cleveland wedge guy, with the exception of a callaway or two (Roger Cleveland) and upon comparison to my current wedges, a Cleveland Rtx-4 54 degree and yes, a dinosaur, 588 forged 60 from 2011 (Bought it new and sat in garage for 8 years during my hiatus from golf), the HLX 3.0 are very similar in overall profile, although I would say they have an ever so slightly rounded toe. Comparison pics:

The overall shape is very pleasing and compact, and definitely something I could game. One other thing I noticed and seemed significant was both the “C” and “RJ” grinds seem to have quite a bit of heel and toe relief.

Before I get into the on course testing, here are a few more closeup shots:

Now on to the course. Didn't hit range balls, just letting it fly. Quickly, about my game. When i get to the course 2-3 times a week I can play around scratch. However there are times i cant get out but 2 times a month and it can fall as low as a 5.

Today, I was in rare form. I was hitting pinpoint bombs with driver (12/14 fairways) and made quite a few putts.

1st hole-Missed green short, and immediately put these wedges to the test. Had about 10 feet of green to work with, uphill, in pretty thick rough, with a bunker just of to the right. Shot pretty much called for a flop shot. Ball came out cleanly, maybe more than expected and hit the flag, not the stick, but flag! Fell to about 8 feet, made it for par!Fast forward to hole 4, And the WOW moment. Yanked my drive left, only bad drive of the day. Had some trees between me and the pin, couldn't get a yardage on my rangefinder. Just estimated about 100 yards. I typically hit my 54 about 115. Hit a nice smooth sw, and immediately was completely WOWED. The feel off these wedges on a full shot, when you hit it flush is straight BUTTER! I honestly dont think I have ever had a wedge feel THAT good. Its not marshmallow soft, as you get feedback, its perfect in every way. This is with a TP5X by the way, a very firm ball as most of you know. The only thing that i can say might compare feel wise is the old school mizuno irons. I suddenly wanted to hit nothing but full wedge shots! ?

That approach ended up about 12 feet away, missed my birdie.

On to hole 5- 85 yards downwind (5-10mph) smooth little knockdown lob wedge. Same thing, just sooooo smooth and money. Hit to 6 feet and made birdie. Spin was perfect. I will say my flight seemed a touch lower as well, not sure if its the shafts, fresh grooves, or just head design, but i was enjoying every full shot.

Hole 7- missed a par 3 left and had another delicate pitch/flop to execute. This time it didnt work out. Little clunky and ended up short. Bogey.

Hole 9- opportunity for birdie on par 5, next to green with again another similar pitch shot. And again, didn't come out clean. 18 feet for my birdie. I seemed to not be getting along with the lob wedge greenside. More on that later.

Hole 10- missed par 3 green just short. Another pitch shot. More green to work with this time. Contact was better just misjudged runout, bogey. But not the wedges fault.

Hole 11- 60 yards out on par 5 in 2. This is usually my “half swing” SW. Hit it a little low and toe, and spun quite well. Mis judged a bit and ended up at about 18 feet. Not the best shot, but made the putt.

Hole 12- THICK rough, but had aid of into wind and slope from back to front. Nice pitch to about 4 feet. Par

Hole 13- 97 yards into 10mph wind. Smooth Sw, stuck to 8 feet. Birdie

Hole 14- 110 out, cross wind, full sw, pulled it slightly, on fringe, easy up and down.

Hole 16- 100 yards, smooth sw again, money- again! 10 feet. Missed ?

Ended up shooting 2 under 70. Pretty good score for me.To summarize: You wont find a better feeling wedge, much less ANY club on full sweet spot hits. I seemed to get along with the RJ grind more than the C grind, but to be fair the conditions were pretty soft and thick. Its summer in Oklahoma, it wont take a but a few days to dry up, and id like to retest the C grind. Im guessing it will excel on firmer conditions.

One other thing that really bugged me today, is the grips that I use are Tour velvets Plus 4 with 3 wraps of normal masking tape. The lower part of the grip plays like a midsize, maybe a touch bigger. These crossline 360 standards felt like pencils in my big hands, and Im also guessing that contributed to the greenside contact issues. The customization from bettinardi is nice, length, lie, loft, shafts- but not grip options, might be my one criticism. I will regrip the LW this weekend and retest.

Last, being such a soft smooth feeling forged club, i had some worries about durability, and while i haven't hit a ton of shots with it, i don't see any issues with playing 1-2 seasons with them unless you play/practice a TON. Im a firm believer in replacing wedges every 2 years anyways-(unless you take 8 years off ?).

here is wear pic after today:

I also just realized I didnt even test them out of a bunker. So next time I'm out i will update Everyone with that as well. These are a winner in my book, and am thoroughly enjoying them.

*Update 6-27-20

I’ve put on my preferred grips, Tour velvet plus 4 with 3 wraps. Much more comfortable and familiar. The conditions here have dried up and firmed up quite a bit since my review, and I’m really starting to find my groove with the 60 degree around the greens. This thing is so good through plush fairway type lies. Predictable and performs. Very good on firm ground as well. I feel like I can drop it in a bucket right now. Like every grind it will have some downfalls, and the c grind in the lob wedge may just be really soft, muddy turf...at least for me. Good thing is here we don't see that a bunch and when we do i can usually pull out the 55* RJ grind.

In case you missed it, TXG did a review on these too, and I was happy to see they agreed with my assessment of how soft and how great they feel. Its intoxicating! These will be staying in the bag for sure. I probably wont play until later in the week but Im excited to get out there. I sure hope the durability on these hold up. The price tag on them are a little hefty compared to some others, but if durability holds up well, it will be totally worth it. So far so good.

First official review w/ Golfwrx, so here goes. For starters, thanks to both Golfwrx and Bettinardi for this opportunity. We're all here because we love golf gear and love reading unbiased and in-depth reviews and opinions. A bit about me - I grew up playing a ton in middle school and high school and was a low single digit index. Now in my late 30's, I go thru spurts where I'll play/practice a few times a month, then go 9 months without even touching a club. So I'm a bit erratic. If I break 80 I'm happy. I'm trying to avoid those months long lay-offs and make an effort to play more. Driver/long iron play is more a strength than short iron/wedge play. I think that has to do w/ the fact that I'm fairly shallow coming thru, bordering on flipping a bit. I've also been an equipment junkie for as long as I've been playing. In high school I started working at a Nevada Bob's, then demo days for Cobra in college, followed by working for Callaway for about a decade in a few different sales roles. Now that I'm out of the golf industry, I'm having fun playing all sorts of brands and overall am very happy with every club in my bag. I do like forged wedges (even though I know most wedges are cast - whatever, it's my equipment, what I do doesn't have to make sense). I've been playing MD Forged a few years and added the Fourteen RM-22 wedge 2 years ago. You can see how much I play by the wear on my 2 year old lob wedge...I really only use the lob right around the green as a last resort club, I don't think I've ever even taken a full swing with it. I've tried to find some other forged wedges that suite my eye (glide forged had too rounded of a leading edge in the 50*, Mizuno T-5 had too much offset) so I am very excited to have been chosen to receive and review these wedges.

I'm taking them on the course this weekend, but have made it to the range twice and hope to do a short-game session with them later this week. Here are some of my initial thoughts, plus some pics.

First off, they're beautiful wedges. I went chrome in the 56* and black smoke in the 60*. I've been playing a raw/black/copper in my 60* since my copper 588 60* 20 years ago. I've put up a few pics, including side-by-side w/ the MD Forged 56* and Fourteen 60*.

I like the classic head shape and the relatively straight leading edge. On the range, the feel was great. Turf interaction on full swings was very clean...no hints of the leading edge wanting to dig. The biggest difference between these wedges and the wedges I'm currently playing is the high effective bounce these have. You can see the trailing edge pushing the leading edge up higher than the wedges I'm currently playing. The trailing edge is also very pronounced and round. My gut feeling is these will be great in softer/lush conditions.

Bettinardi 56* C Grind

MD Forged 56*

Bettinardi 60* RJ Grind

Fourteen RM-22 60*

I'll update this review once I get them on-course but wanted to go ahead and give some initial thoughts, plus provide a few pics. Stay tuned...

Luckily I was one chosen to review the Bettinardi HLX 3.0 wedges. Once notified, I was pretty darn excited and couldn’t wait to get them. The packaging is top notch along with the Bettinardi catalog that is always tempting. The wedges finally were ripped out of the box and man do they look ???. The milling for the hive on the back looks very nice and to my surprise they have the a milled grind sole that I didn’t notice in the initial application.

What I really like about these is, everything! They have a great shape, look nice, and the face where the grooves are is more of a brushed look vs shiney so it frames the ball very well cause the brushed look goes all the way through the top line. Pics below are comparison pics of Vokey SM7s, Betti, TM Hi Toe.

Off to the range now.

After hitting 100 balls total with the 54 & 58, I definitely love these wedges. The flight is similar to a comparable bounce Vokey but, these Betti wedges feel like butter! I did also notice that I was getting more green side spin compared to the vokeys but the same amount as the Hi-Toe which is great. On some shots though the Betti did seem to grab the green a little better on a few shots than the Hi-Toe but not many, probably down to strike. I know I said it earlier but these wedges are some of the best felling wedges I have ever hit but still give you feedback on where it’s coming off the face. Pics after 50-75 balls each

I wish I could have taken some pictures while on the course today but my normal group and I always play pretty fast unless it’s crazy busy. On course with these wedges and I’m more in love with them. I play on all Bermuda courses with Bermuda rough being thick and pretty tough to get through if you don’t accelerate through your green side shots. These cut through the rough as good as any wedge I have played and I’ve played them all. The RJ bounce on the 58 is very nice out of the rough and is great on a softer type course I think. It definitely has some bounce on trailing edge that is pronounced and helps with diggers and getting steep. If you have played the D grind Vokey then you know how easy bunker play is with that, the Betti is just as good if not easier out of the bunkers than the D grind Vokey. The course I usually play at 90% of the time is starting to let fairways get harder and bake a little more so more testing will be done and I will update at a later date with feedback. The C grind is great and can be played in any situation that the shot needs. Laying the C grind open is great also as it really has some nice toe and heel relief. Both grinds definitely have a lot of heel and toe relief to make them very versatile in most situations. I am going to get many more rounds in with these and keep updating this thread. These wedges along with my Hi-Toe wedges are gonna be in the bag for comparison but I definitely love them better that the Vokeys by a long shot.

Updated on 6/27/20!

So, for an update after yesterday's round - I just purchased the matching 50* off of Bettinardi.com. That should tell everyone how I'm feeling about them thus far (or at least the 56).

For some more detail - I'm really loving the 56* for shots in the 75-90 yard range. The feel is fantastic. One thing I immediately noticed about the wedges is the top half of the face seems a bit thicker than my current wedges. There's plenty of mass up there, so the wedges have a very solid yet soft feel, not clickey at all, plus they seem to fly a bit lower than my current wedges but with plenty of spin. I didn't have any full SW shots yesterday (100 yards), but did have 5 in the 75-90 yard range. All five shots I was pretty close to pin high and was pleased with the ball flight, spin and outcome of the shot. Turf interaction was pleasant as well. I was taking divots, but didn't have any leading edge dig, which can happen on the 3/4 shots.

The lob wedge for me is still ok, I need a little more work with it. Full disclaimer - I absolutely love my current lob, and this one is a bit different in grind, so I'll keep playing it and see how it goes. I hit it 5 times yesterday - one was a poor greenside shot where I simply decelerated, two were shots that I was pleased with of roughly 20 yard greenside chips, and two were tough shots from lies where I'm still not comfortable with the grind. They were tight lies off a slight downslope. One of them I maybe should've taken a lower loft and run the ball along the ground, so not sure I can blame the grind and the other shot was about 60 yards to a front pin and off the slight downslope I really couldn't get the shot up as high as I would've liked. I still feel the trailing edge is going to catch the ground before I get to the ball, and on the downswing I feel I'm pushing my hands more ahead of the ball than I normally do. But thus far, I haven't actually had the trailing edge hitting, so I'm going to spend a bit more time with it to see if I can learn to trust it. It is possible I should've gotten the C grind as opposed to the RJ grind, but I do like the heel and toe relief the RJ grind offers.

A few more notes - these aren't inexpensive, so a few more shaft/grip options would be nice. Also a few more custom options (lengths to 1/8" increments instead of 1/2" increments, grips w/ logo under, or even loose in the box). I regripped mine with TV to match everything else in the bag. I cut the grips off anyway b/c even though I ordered S400, the shaft bands that came said S200 so I wanted to verify what shaft was actually used (the correct S400 shaft was used, so just the wrong shaft band, no big deal). One last minor negative comment - the HLX3.0 Forged stamping on the hosel is pretty big. That could be a little subdued IMO and of course no bearing on performance.

I'm looking forward to adding the 50* to the mix and will review that once it comes in as well. All in all, if you're in the market for new wedges, these should definitely be on your radar. Feel, performance, look, finish is all there. And obviously these appeal to those that like premium products and also something just a bit different than what everyone else is playing.

I played another round yesterday with my Bettinardi wedges, so I will provide a bit of an update.

As far as my positive thoughts in my initial post, nothing much has changed. I still love these and still think I am going to end up completing the set. Unfortunately, I still have not been able to use a trackman or simulator, as my club has been annoyingly slow about this. I guess I am the only one really on them about this in the middle of the summer, but still - it rains often enough here that whether it's the winter or the middle of the season, we should have a working indoor simulator. But I digress.

As a result of this, I still cannot verify my exact spin numbers. However, when I played yesterday, the course was playing pretty firm and our greens were rolling very fast, so I figured this would be an ideal time to really see how these babies spin. As any number of reviews will attest to, the Callaway MD5 wedges do spin a pretty good amount with the JAWS grooves. Since I had 3 new JAWS wedges in my bag, the Bettinardis faced stiff competition. Better yet, they had the same shafts, so all things were otherwise equal.

For what it's worth, while both sets of wedges held the green pretty well, the Bettinardis seemed to do even better. They flew perfectly, and perhaps more importantly, spinned enough that they could stop on a dime and hold on the green. Honestly, of all the impressive things I've found with these wedges, this might be number one. The greens where I was playing are notoriously hard to hold, and these wedges were doing it on full shots from the fairway and rough, as well as partial shots and flops.

Once you get dialed in with your distances with these, you should find that you're going to have a lot more makeable putts. This, again, was probably the biggest positive factor in my score yesterday.

OH MY GOD.

I finally got to play a real round of golf with these and OH MY GOD. The control and feel around the green is special. After a so-so front nine (on all accounts), I got after it in the second half. Which deserves some reasoning. I played fine on the front, nothing great, nothing horrible. I had lots of easy, short green side opportunities where I didn’t hit BAD shots, but nothing exciting either. Similar to my original post, a lot of shots were left short.

On the back nine my gut told me, “you should be scoring better than this, stop playing timid.” GAME CHANGER. These wedges want to be played. My tee shots were fine (not the point), my irons were not as good as they should have been, which left me too many pitching / chipping “opportunities”. With a little more aggressiveness I started to really thrive. The feel is so soft I lost any hesitation or fear quickly. The spin is unreal. Honestly, it reminded me of wedges pre-groove rules. I was able to land and stop the ball better than ever in my life (I’m not good enough to say career).

At this point, I’m all in. I’ve never felt the same standing over the ball. I’m looking forward to a competitive round because my short game feels like one thing I can be confident in, which is not the norm.

Obviously things could change, but right now I think I’ve got a real keeper in my bag.

Put some more time in around the greens, and these are staying in the bag for sure. Really impressed with the zip and stopping power. These wedges are second to none in terms of performance, and in my opinion the best looking “bag” wedge I've ever seen. I pulled out my old rtx4 yesterday and hit some shots and my first impressions are i still prefer its overall shape and profile, might just because im so used to playing cleveland, but the feel was night and day different, did not like it one bit.

Seriously, if you are in the market for new wedges this year, take my word, you will love the HLX 3.0

I definitely feel that if these were at more retailers across the board, these wedges would be a top contender for most bags. Very un-noticed wedges!

when are these out in the UK?

Was about to pre order 3 wedges but cant see a date for when they will ship

First off, thank you to everyone for the in depth reviews. It’s been challenging to find a variety of reviews on these wedges and all of your reviews were very helpful. My only real question for you guys has to do with the grind options. For those of you who got to demo these, did you particularly prefer one grind over the other? If so

why or why not. I’ve not been able to demo these anywhere so your opinions will be very much appreciated. Thanks again guys!

Added a 50* to the bag recently and after much searching on here, apart from this thread not too much discussion. So far so good for me with the 50* perfect on full and partial shots, plenty of spin, amazing feel and just total control. Can’t recommend this wedge high enough for anyone who wants to move on from the usual vokey, Cleveland, someone looking for a great feeling wedge, this is it ! 

Glad to see this topic pop back up.  Now that spring is here I’m getting a little more play in.  I’m loving these now, and have gotten used to the soft feel.  They’re probably my favorite wedges around the green, but still not as forgiving on full shots as my Ping Glides.

Im still gaming mine as well and love them. I may add a 50 this year as well. It took me some time to get used to how much the spin and stop. A few rounds were i just seemed to come up a bit short on pitch shots because there was little to no runout, not used to that! Durability has been awesome too. They have plenty of life left. 

On 4/4/2021 at 6:32 AM, craz-e said:

Added a 50* to the bag recently and after much searching on here, apart from this thread not too much discussion. So far so good for me with the 50* perfect on full and partial shots, plenty of spin, amazing feel and just total control. Can’t recommend this wedge high enough for anyone who wants to move on from the usual vokey, Cleveland, someone looking for a great feeling wedge, this is it ! 

Held one of these in my hands today and I am surprised these are not more popular. It must be because players don’t see them because it’s a really good-looking wedge. The shape is just what I like. 

Can anyone compare how the RJ grind compares to the Vokey V grind which you can no longer get? I think my V is high bounce with heel relief 

I've never played the V grind, but it does sound similar, high bounce with heel (and toe) relief in the RJ grind. In my original review with pics you can see some of that bounce/grind in the straight on shot. Hope this helps!

On 4/4/2021 at 8:32 PM, craz-e said:

Added a 50* to the bag recently and after much searching on here, apart from this thread not too much discussion. So far so good for me with the 50* perfect on full and partial shots, plenty of spin, amazing feel and just total control. Can’t recommend this wedge high enough for anyone who wants to move on from the usual vokey, Cleveland, someone looking for a great feeling wedge, this is it ! 

have had the gap wedge in the bag for over a couple of months now and find I am gravitating to using it at every opportunity I can from 125 yards to roughly 75 yards. I recently had it in the bag at a demo day and all of the reps asked to hit it. Not a single one wasn’t impressed with the feel and performance. 

Anyone else using these wedges? I'm interested to hear some other reviews. 

5 hours ago, MMB1500 said:

Anyone else using these wedges? I'm interested to hear some other reviews. 

I still have mine, what are you wanting to know?

6 hours ago, MMB1500 said:

Anyone else using these wedges? I'm interested to hear some other reviews. 

50 minutes ago, Red4282 said:

I still have mine, what are you wanting to know?

Still have mine and looking to pick up in 56* and 60* in the near future 

On 7/23/2021 at 8:51 PM, Red4282 said:

I still have mine, what are you wanting to know?

Thanks. Your review was very comprehensive. Just wondering how you're still liking it and whether your opinion has changed, for better or worse, after some time to bed in with it? 

43 minutes ago, MMB1500 said:

 

Thanks. Your review was very comprehensive. Just wondering how you're still liking it and whether your opinion has changed, for better or worse, after some time to bed in with it? 

The fact i still have it in the bag i think says alot. They are wonderful but no club is perfect. 
 

pros: 

one of the best feeling (soft) wedges you will ever hit 

bag appeal- really knocked it out with the look and milling

spin-im sure it alot of it was just having new and fresh grooves but these really spin extremely well around the greens

durability- for a forged club i have been very satisfied with the durability. The micro milling on the face still has that rough feel even to this day where other brands wear smooth.

cons:

price: this is a big one in my opinion. At $180 bucks, its the main reason why they dont do as well as they should. You can buy 3 wedges from other popular comapnies for the the same price as 2 hlx’s. As much as it pains me to say, if it was my money, i dont think id pay that. 
 

grinds- this one isnt that big of a deal to me but could be to some people. 2 grind options. I can make it work, but obviously this is a big deal to some.

Hope thats helps.

I'll chime in again as well.  The 56* is safely in my bag, and when it comes time to replace, I'll buy the same, or the most similar Betti wedge available at that time. 

For me, it's been fantastic out of the fairway, rough and bunker. The feel is incredible, the looks are awesome...it's the full package. 

As previously alluded to, the limited grinds might be an issue for some. I did make a mistake I think when I got the RJ grind for my 60. It had too much effective bounce for me off firm, tight lies. But it was also going up against one of my favorite clubs, my Fourteen RM-22.  In hindsight, I should've gone with the C grind for 60* as well.

The 50* and 56* HLX 3 are my favorite wedges I've ever used...by far.  For some reason I havent gotten along with the 60*, but the 50/56 will be in my bag until the grooves are gone. 

The best wedge I've ever used. And I've had plenty. So easy to clip it off the turf. 

So soft off the face. And the spin is amazing. It is so encouraging to know I can attack the pin side of the green and know it will check. You can go after chips with this wedge. Looks fantastic too. 

Ive had these in the bag for a full year now and they finally are showing a little signs of wear. I can tell zip has declined slightly as well. Even so it exceeded my expectations for durability. I wasnt crazy about $190 a wedge but honestly most wedges are north of 160 now (titleist 160, callaway 170, TM 180), so it really isnt too bad.