Why no love for Mizuno wedges?

[evoviiiyou]

Love my T20 50/56/61 wedges.  I did them in all three finishes as well one satin, one raw, one blue ion and coming from S18's they are simply better.  A touch smaller profile, great for me here in AZ where I like a nice sharp leading edge along with the 6-7 bounce option off the hard surfaces.  The 56 has a nice rear bounce grind where when I open it up for bunker play it serves well.  I guess I just always played them to match my MP and JPX forged sets and they just have worked well in my case

[518TitleistX]

Im gaming T20 48* and 53* raw wedges for my GW & SW. They do feel firm on touch shots, but I notice very little difference on full swings to my mp20's.

Ive played Vokeys from the old 200 series to sm2,4,5,6,7. Ive played S18's, MD5 jaws Callaway's, Nike Engage's and VR Forged, a TaylorMade MG2 and the SOFTEST wedges I ever felt were The S18's

[outnumbered]

Played 588’s for 15 years. Just kept getting new ones. Tried S18’s at my fitter and haven’t looked back. I have tried Vokeys but never had a large selection of grinds to try so never felt comfortable with them. All we had to do was bend for gaps and they feel outstanding. 

[cbrwn425]

Only have one round on my T20 but so far I love it. Feel to me was great and the control is exactly what I’m looking for. 

[Asics10]

I'm a mizuno iron guy till the end. The problem with their wedges is the bending  they do to get to "between lofts" which then changes the offset. 

I don't remember exactly which are their standard loft, maybe 50*,56*,60*...... But to get to a loft in between those they bend the club (which changes offset. instead of having a separate forge for each loft. That's also why they have to use that sticker loft badge instead of stamping the loft on the club. 

[golfinrig24]

I loved my T7 problem I ran into was the availability of ordering them from the one golf shop in my town. If said shop wouldn't have paid for exclusive rights to Mizuno than some of the Club shops would be able to have it. 

 

[Ben Berube]

On 5/17/2021 at 4:24 PM, lefty1978 said:

I love Mizuno, but I mostly play vokey for more options and grinds. Mizuno wedges are nice, feel is great, would have zero problem playing them. I really like the S18's, felt better than the T7 or T20s to me. I still throw the S18 52 in from time to time. Best Mizuno wedges ever were the MP Series from the mid 2000's, they felt exactly like the irons.

Spot on here. The MP series I played for a decade. Soft and looked great. Even played the raw version. But I was turned off with the “blue” wedges they released and never went back. Although I have been eyeing raw t20’s for a while. Mizzy is the Shizzy

[AUTIGER07]

I’ve played Mizuno irons for 20+ years and had never put one of the wedges in the bag before the T20 raw. The raw version feels great and the head design has really grown on me. Spin is very good and the COG movement on the higher lofted clubs has definitely helped with not ballooning and distance control.

 

Now, they don’t “feel” as good as my previous Nike Forged’s that had been in the bag for 6-7 years but that’s why they were in the bag for that long. No one offering from any OEM over the last decade could match the feel of those wedges.

[delacruz.c5d]

I've had a set of Mizuno S-5s (50,54,58), S-18s (46,50,54,58), and T-20s (45, 50, 55, 60), and I've liked them.  I used to play an OLD couple of Vokeys (like from 2001), and honestly, the feel between my Mizuno wedges and the Vokey (which I believe is cast), is pretty much the same.  There are some differences, but as they say, the "feel" is really the sound...so the differences between all 4 of these wedges are close.

 

That being said I sold my old S5s to a buddy of mine, and I get to hit them every once and a while, and it's MARGINALLY softer feeling/sounding.  It makes me a bit nostalgic...

 

Also...and this is my own theory...but I don't think that the T-20s I have are as soft as the MP-20 irons I play, but I don't think it's just because of the boron in the metal.  My suspicion is that it's because the T-20s don't have the copper plating layer that the MP-20 line does.  I imagine that if they did put a copper layer on those clubs, the cost would probably be $175+ per wedge.

 

(That being said, I wonder if a copper underlay will be on the T-22 line.  Hmmmmmmm...)

 

And even if the wedges are firmer/harder/whatever-er with the boron, I would rather take the apparent hardness in the edges of the grooves to keep them intact longer to keep the spin up.  That's the reason Mizuno went to the 1025 Boron mix in the T7...for durability.

 

As to why Mizuno doesn't as well in the wedge space, it's due to a bunch of factors in my head:

1) Tour players usage: I can name about 5x the number of tour pros that play Vokeys vs. Mizunos.  While that shouldn't make any difference to the weekend warrior...we all know it does.

2) Availability: I can go into any of the big box golf shops in my area and see at least two racks filled to the brim with Vokeys, TM MG2s, Cleveland ZipCores, Callaway MD5s...even a Ping Glide 3.0 Eye 2.  However, the Mizuno wedges are demo/special order only.  That doesn't help.

3) Lack of Marketing:  I can't remember the last time I saw a magazine or online add for a Mizuno wedge (or even a club for that matter).  I've seen Bob Vokey's face plenty.  That's not a cut on Mr. Vokey...he's awesome...but exposure usually gets results.

 

All in all, it matches what Mizuno seems to do as a company.  It's kind of a "Field of Dreams" strategy: If you build it (a good product), they will come.  They have a three functional grinds, three different finishes, and offer every loft from 45 - 62 degrees in the T-20 range.  The product works, and the wet tech to keep spin works.  It just takes a customer that wants to look for it, and take the time to demo it.

 

They just don't have Mizuno Mondays like Titleist has Thursdays at a local golf course.  Hmmm...Mizuno Monday.  That sounds like a Monday I take off of work to go play golf.  I like that.

[wakit300]

Have had a Mizuno wedge in my bag for the past 4 seasons and way back in olden thymes I played a set of Mizuno Faldo wedges that were the sh*t.

Love my T-20 56° - it is easily the best bunker wedge I've played in the past decade.  But as is stated in this thread, my other wedges are different as Mizuno just didn't have the specs/grinds I was looking for in a 50° & 60°.

I would be excited if they did expand their wedge lines but don't see them concentrating on that area of the market.

[indianagolf2]

On 5/21/2021 at 12:57 PM, 518TitleistX said:

Im gaming T20 48* and 53* raw wedges for my GW & SW. They do feel firm on touch shots, but I notice very little difference on full swings to my mp20's.

Ive played Vokeys from the old 200 series to sm2,4,5,6,7. Ive played S18's, MD5 jaws Callaway's, Nike Engage's and VR Forged, a TaylorMade MG2 and the SOFTEST wedges I ever felt were The S18's

I love soft...ill have to get sc 18 then

[uglande]

On 5/19/2021 at 9:13 AM, uglande said:

I have the T20s and I like them. They feel nice but not pure like my MP20 irons. I actually liked the solid feeling of the Vokey SM8s better, but I liked the shaping of the T20s and they felt more nimble around the greens. The SM8s felt a little too heavy and clunky on touch shots.

 

I agree that a more pure forging would be great, and Mizuno also needs to do a better job of describing its different grind/loft configurations, and stamping this on the clubs themselves (subtly, of course). 

Since posting this I have actually moved back into the Vokeys. I still like the T20s and find them really like them around the greens, I was far more consistent on approach shots with the Vokeys and they are close enough to the T20s around the greens that I decided to switch back. I like both, and can happily play both, but I'm missing the Vokey distance consistency right now so I'm switching back. 

[Asics10]

The answer to this is... Fourteen wedges.  What mizuno wedges should be.